Red Queen Read Online Free

steady. The bumps of her spine tapered away in perfect graduations down her back. Her skin was olive, darker than either of ours – even Rohan’s, who had an all-year leathery tan. I had the better view of her face, and it pleased me. I could see her sad mouth, the simple, straight line of her eyebrows, the puffiness of her eyelids.
    ‘She looks like she’d eat as much as a bloke,’ Rohan said. ‘I reckon she’s near six foot. Be too much to ask that she’d be cheap to feed.’
    ‘Those Christian values of yours are really admirable,’ I said.
    ‘Shut up, Pup. Go and get us something to eat. Get her something, too – not much, maybe a boiled egg and some fruit. I’ll have a couple of eggs. Who knows, the smell of food might get her up for the day.’
    It wasn’t until we’d both finished eating that she woke; she drew her shoulderblades together and wiped the back of her hand over her mouth. My heartbeat increased with each new movement she made. I thought of how much she was, so many gestures and ticks, so much to look at, hard to take in all at once. She rested with her elbows on the table and her fingertips against her forehead. There was a part-healed cut from behind her ear and down her neck.
    The food on the plate in front of her must have caught her eye, because she moved her hand to look at it properly.
    ‘Is that for me?’ she asked.
    ‘Ah, she speaks.’
    ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I put it there for you.’
    She reached for the plate, but stopped as Rohan spoke.
    ‘You only eat when we’re together,’ he said. ‘No exceptions.’
    ‘Can I eat now?’
    ‘We’re together, aren’t we?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then you can eat.’
    She leant back in the chair and tugged the stolen chop from the front pocket of her jeans. Her eyes flicked up to check our response, but the way she held the chop close to her body gave the impression she wouldn’t give it up even if we asked.
    She ate haltingly and alternated between the meat and the pear, like she might need the fruit’s soft flesh to help her swallow.
    I watched her and thought back to her voice, turned each inflection over in my mind. Smoky and husky is how I’d describe it, an unused voice. I knew it would take time for her to open up; it went without saying, but I worried Rohan wouldn’t understand.
    She finished the pear and picked the last of the meat off the chop with her fingers, and then started on the egg I had peeled for her. I wouldn’t be able to eat something someone else had so obviously touched, and I knew Rohan was equally surprised by her apparent acceptance of our contact.
    We might have not been sitting there, staring at her; the blankness in her I equated with being alone. It was quiet and we could hear her chewing. She occasionally sniffed. Sometimes she held my gaze, but only as though I were an inanimate object for her to study. She ate the last of the egg and a flicker of pain showed in her eyes. There was a glass of water on the table and she looked at Rohan for confirmation that she was allowed to drink. He nodded and she took a sip.
    Her skin grew clammy and a light sweat shone on her brow.
    ‘If you’re gunna be sick,’ Rohan said, ‘do it outside.’
    We followed her out the back door. It was a still day, kind and soft; it brought some charm to the cabin – which was testament to good lighting, because the surrounds were barren and scratched down to dirt by the chooks. The sheds, orchard and vegie patch were all up the other end of the cabin, leaving this end with an unobstructed view across the paddocks and into the backdrop of bush. The cabin had always been alternatively powered, so there were no power lines leading in, or a driveway. It was four-wheel drive access only, up a steep plantation track and then across a seasonal creek and into a blackberry-infested maze that served as a perfect deterrent. The cabin had been built as a hideaway, with just this type of holed-up scenario in mind; it’s just that no-one