House of Windows Read Online Free Page A

the bar, to the JCR.
    ‘Junior Combination Room,’ he reminded Nick, ‘ not Common Room.’
    Nick gave a hum of assent as he stepped up to the huge plate-glass windows that fronted the tattered room, turning his back on the stained carpet and filthy cushions upholstered in vomit-coloured fabrics.
    ‘Mumbling again?’ his father asked. ‘You’ll have to learn to speak up in supervisions, you know.’
    In the glass, his face tightened with irritation: his mother’s face, pale and pointed; her eyes, sullen and difficult and far too intent for anyone’s comfort. ‘I always speak up in class. You’re the one who said I shouldn’t talk so much if I don’t want people to think I’m showing off.’
    ‘Well, that’s what’s so great about Cambridge: it’s all about showing off whenever you can,’ someone said.
    Nick and Michael turned as one to find a tall, dark-haired young man standing behind them.
    ‘Ah, sorry for interrupting. I’m Tim. Professor Gosswin said I’d find you here around now-ish. She’s um …’
    ‘In one of her moods?’ Michael asked, with a grimace.
    ‘Yeah, something like that. We might want to take our time heading down there.’
    ‘Can’t be anything I haven’t seen before,’ Michael said. He stepped closer to the windows. ‘Is one of these a door?’
    ‘Here,’ Tim said, sliding a panel to the side. ‘She mentioned you did a summer as her research assistant too.’
    ‘Give or take quarter of a century ago, but I doubt much has changed,’ Michael replied as he stepped out on to the flagstone patio, while Tim saw Nick through the door then slid it to behind them. ‘She still wind up to a tantrum with the whole gnashing of teeth thing?’
    ‘Yup. Did she really throw a hedgehog at the Bursar once?’
    ‘Neither of them was very happy about it. To be fair, Gosswin meant to grab the budget, not the hedgehog – and don’t ask me why there was a hedgehog on her desk – but she didn’t actually throw it. Mostly because they became … rather attached at that point. I hear it’s still an Addenbrooke’s A & E record for Most Erudite Swearing.’
    Tim glanced over his shoulder to grin at Nick, quickly losing his smile when all he got in response was a look of bored disdain. ‘Sorry. Should have introduced myself properly,’ he said, stopping to hold out his hand.
    ‘You did. You’re Tim.’
    ‘And you’re Nick and your proud dad’s Michael Derran. Gosswin filled me in. Ready to dare the lion’s den?’
    Nick’s look darkened into a glare. ‘Yeah, tea with my Cambridge Tutor is going to be so much more intimidatingthan my first week in the Sixth Form Common Room aged thirteen.’
    Tim laughed. ‘I cannot wait to see you and the Prof face off in a glaring competition. Do you play chess?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Pity. Gosswin does her best glaring over chess.’
    ‘She didn’t say it was a requirement at my admissions interview.’
    Tim beckoned them to follow as he set off towards the stretch of Latham Lawn just visible past the buildings to either side of the steps down from the JCR. They turned to the right, following a curving building of deep red brick and grey stone tracery. Nick frowned up at it, trying to work out when it had been built. Some of the elements looked gothic, but surely the bricks weren’t quite the right colour and the doorways weren’t the right shape …
    His father’s hand, tugging at his elbow, startled him.
    ‘Try to be friendly, Nick,’ Michael whispered. ‘This Tim’s a nice kid. He’s not patronising you, so relax a little. Try a smile. You’re not going to make any friends frowning.’
    Nick dropped his gaze to his feet. Yeah, he’s so eager to make friends with me he spent most of the time buttering you up. And he looks like he’s good at sports.
    Michael heaved a sigh. ‘And stop mumbling , Nick. I know you don’t mean anything bad by it, but it’s really very off-putting.’
    Tim was holding open a thick, age-blackened oak