Read The Room Beyond for Free Online Page A

and her eyes sloped downwards at the
edges in perfect parallel, like two rainbows, making it one of the saddest
expressions I’d ever seen.
    I felt myself staring at her, rudely perhaps, but her face was a
riddle, and as approachable as a shard of broken glass. And beneath all of this
her fingers ran repeatedly along a string of pink pearls she was wearing around
her neck. The action reminded me of Arabella, although these hands were much
bonier.
    ‘Bethany, come and give me some of your big fat kisses,’ she said in
a quiet and considered voice. But Beth ignored the request and tucked her legs
up in a leather-bound armchair close by instead. I was left alone in the middle
of the room, not even sure whether she had noticed my presence at all.
    ‘What should I do?’ Eva continued. ‘Daddy wants me to go to university,
but where on earth am I meant to go with two Es and an F?’
    ‘I don’t know. What about Cambridge?’ Beth replied.
    ‘No sweetie, you’ve got to be clever to go there.’
    ‘What if you pay them?’
    ‘Um, maybe, I’ll ask Daddy,’ she mused, toying with her pink pearls
with renewed vigour.
    So, Eva was young, barely out of her teens. In my naivety I’d never
made a connection before between underage sex, teenage pregnancies and the
privileged upper classes. And now it all fell into place: why Arabella had
taken the responsibility for interviewing me, Beth calling Eva by her name, the
reason for the whole family living under one roof. She threw a glance in my
direction.
    ‘You must be the new nanny.’
    ‘Yes... my name’s Serena; it’s nice to meet you.’
    I moved towards her a little but she didn’t move an inch.
    ‘We had a nanny when I was small,’ she continued, her attention back
on Beth. She stole one of my bracelets so Daddy sacked her.’
    ‘Was it an antique?’
    ‘I don’t know, probably.’
    Beth screwed up her nose. ‘Disgraceful.’
    It was hard to believe that Beth was really only four years old. In
contrast to her mother she appeared like a little wizened old soul. There was
some similarity between the two faces: Beth was far blonder, her eyes much
bluer, but they both had the same beautiful fair skin, faultless like spilt
wax.
    Eva lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply and began to smooth out the
ruffles in the silky slip of a garment she was wearing. It was just long enough
to pass for a dress and yet suitably short to reveal the infinite length of her
slender legs; just like the legs on my old Barbie doll, even down to the pointy
feet.
    Something suddenly moved in the corner of my eye. It came from the
other sofa. I’d completely forgotten that someone else had been present all
along and I now turned to find a male figure there, slouched as comfortably as
a cat.
    The deep cushions obscured his face from where I was standing, but
his body was long and lean and although he was dressed only in scruffy jeans
and a faded old T-shirt, his lolling posture suggested that he was totally at
ease in this place. He moved again, this time with a dramatic stretch and the
sigh of a long waking-up yawn.
    Who was he? What was the name Beth had murmured when we’d been up in
my room? Seb. He shifted forwards and his profile came into view. It was lithe
and high cheeked, in need of a shave and framed by unruly dark blonde hair.
    ‘Shouldn’t you be at nursery Beth?’
    His voice was still drowsy although tinged with playfulness.
    ‘I tried it a few times but I’ve decided not to go anymore,’ she
replied softly.
    ‘Oh, didn’t know you could do that.’
    ‘Neither did I,’ I added.
    The corner of his mouth curled up into a smile at the sound of my
voice and, slowly, he turned to face me.
    His eyes were glacial; so translucent that they barely passed for
blue. And in that first brief moment when they met mine, they seemed to sear
right through something deep inside me. It made me want to draw my stomach up
into my chest. I wavered a little, betrayed an anxious laugh and the