“Yes,” said Jake shortly. He helped Bella to her feet. “I’m knackered, and so is Bel.”

“Right you are,” said Carl. He kept the same little smile on his face. Bella could feel Jake stiffen beside her.

“What?” he said.

“Nothing,” said Carl, smirking.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Carl, for fuck’s sake – “

“Jesus, bro, calm down would you? What the hell’s the matter with you?”

Jake took a deep, furious breath.

“What’s the matter with me, bro, is that you seem to find something amusing in the idea of Bella and me going to bed? Now, why might that be?”

Carl’s smirk grew to a grin.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I said was ‘right you are’.”

Jake trembled with rage – Bella could feel him beside her, thrumming like a piece of machinery. He opened his mouth.

“That’s enough,” said Veronica quietly. She looked at Jake and then at Carl. “Both of you.”

Carl stopped smiling. He reached out for the newspaper on the chair beside him and began leafing through it in a bored manner.

“Jesus Christ,” he said, but a low tone.

There was a moment’s silence. Then Bella pulled at Jake’s arm.

“Let’s go upstairs Jake,” she said, all thoughts of sex gone, just wanting to be out of there. All of a sudden, she felt incredibly tired.

They got undressed in silence. Bella wrapped herself in her dressing gown and went to brush her teeth. Perhaps it was the remnants of the bottle of wine she’d drunk, perhaps it was just exhaustion but she felt very much as if she’d like a good cry. She wouldn’t mention it to Jake but  - but sometimes the three of them made her feel as if they were all playing a game together and no one had bothered to explain the rules to Bella. She was left to fumble around on the outskirts, watching for some kind of clue, waiting to see if she’d got it right or wrong. Sometimes she felt twenty years younger than them all. She splashed cold water on her face and dabbed it dry.

Jake was in bed, the room in darkness, when she got back to the bedroom. She dropped her robe on the chair by the window and crawled under the covers, unsure of whether she should say anything. Tentatively, she reached out for him in the darkness.

He said nothing but turned to her. He was already naked and she could tell he was more than ready. His hand held her face firmly while he kissed her, moving himself against her.

“Sshhh…” he said, and she could see the flat gleam of his eyes close to hers in the dimness. “Don’t say anything. Don’t make a sound.”

Chapter Ten

Another Saturday without Jake loomed. He’d told her on Thursday that he and Carl had to go and see their father again. Bella had waited for the invitation to come and when it hadn’t, had been too diffident and embarrassed to question it. She began to wonder slightly about their father. Was she so awful that Jake just wanted to keep her hidden – or was it that his father was too embarrassing to be introduced to her? She wondered, but she didn’t ask.

She sulked about the room, just as she had done a fortnight ago, anger and loneliness beginning to well up inside her. I’m bored, bored, bored, she said to herself in the privacy of her own skull as she marched about the room, and then she said it to herself out loud, stamping her feet in time with the words.

“Bella?”

There was a knock on the door and Bella froze in mid-stamp.

“Yes?”

“Can I come in?”

“Er - of course.”

Veronica put her head around the door, her hair swinging forward in a smooth blonde curtain.

“What are you doing?”

Bella bit her lip. “Sorry, was I making too much noise? I’m sorry –“

“No.” Veronica pushed the door open further and walked in. She was wearing a white, broderie-anglais sundress and wore sandals that laced up her slender calves. “I meant, what are you doing today? Are you going out? Where’s Jake?”

“Oh.” Bella felt foolish. “Well, Jake’s gone out; he’s gone to visit his dad. With Carl. Didn’t Carl say he was going?” – faltering because Veronica looked grim.

“No he didn’t.”

“Oh,” said Bella lamely. She was suddenly conscious of her nightwear; faded tracksuit bottoms and a tatty pink vest. She crossed her arms and then, worried she looked defensive, let them drop to her sides.

Veronica wasn’t looking at her, anyway. She had a habit of going blank, Bella had noticed, her face momentarily becoming a beautiful but vacant mask. It only lasted a second, just an eyeblink and then normally, as now, she was smiling again.

“I thought – well, if you’re not doing anything today, I wondered if you fancied going out somewhere. Lunch, maybe? A few drinks?”

Bella stared, wondering if she’d heard properly. Veronica wanted to spend the day with her?

“Sorry?”

“Well, are you free or not? If you’re not, then don’t worry about it.”

“No,” Bella said hastily. “I’m free – hadn’t made any plans, actually. That would be great. Great!”

“When will you be ready?”

“Now.” Bella thought for a moment. “Well, give me twenty minutes.”

She hopped into the shower, sluiced herself down and towelled off. Her hair had to be scraped back into a high ponytail, washing and drying it would take too long. Doing her makeup, her hands shook with impatience and she had to scrub at the smear of black eyeliner that smudged itself into her eye socket like a bruise. Body lotion, underwear, floral skirt and vest top. Bella hoisted her bag over her shoulder and thundered down the stairs to where Veronica waited in the hallway, one sandal-shod foot tapping the tiled floor. In her haste, Bella almost missed a step and clutched at the banisters with a shriek, her foot flying out from under her. She hauled herself back onto her footing, inwardly cursing her clumsiness and hoping she hadn’t looked like too much of an idiot.

She reached the hall floor and began to apologise for her lateness until she saw the look on Veronica’s face.

“God, are you alright?”

Veronica had gone white. Bella could see beads of sweat lying like tiny pearls on her curved upper lip.

“I’m fine.” She appeared to shake herself. “I’m fine. It’s the heat - it makes me feel faint sometimes.”

“Okay.” Bella looked at her doubtfully. “I’m ready, anyway. Shall we go?”

They didn’t talk much on the way to the bus stop. Bella stretched her face up to the sun, loving the warmth on her skin. She wondered what Jake was doing, right at this moment.

“Have you and Carl been seeing each other long?”

Veronica shot her a quick, amused glance.

“I see Jake hasn’t been very forthcoming.”

“Sorry?”

“Oh, nothing. Has he told you anything about – about the set up?”

“Set up?” Bella realised she was parroting again and brought herself up short. “I meant – sorry, I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Oh it’s nothing like that,” said Veronica, leaving Bella to wonder what she meant by ‘that’. “It’s just that it’s not often you find two twenty-something brothers who own a huge Victorian pile like Fever Street, is it?”

“No.”

“It doesn’t actually belong to them. Not as such. Their father’s a big property developer, a real property magnate. He’s got fingers in pies all over London. Housing pies.” She giggled. “He bought Fever Street ages ago, probably when it was going for a song. He lets them have it rent free – lucky, hey? Lucky for us, I mean.”

“Mmm.” Bella considered something. “How long have they lived there, then?”

Veronica didn’t answer for a moment. She looked down at the ground and Bella watched as her hair swung forward, the sunlight catching the tips and making them blaze with a clear, golden light. Once again, she found herself struggling with envy; envy and something else, indefinable but uncomfortable, the feeling rubbing up against the liking she was beginning to feel for her female flatmate.