My Name Is Rose (16 page)

The front door clattered open.

‘Anna! Where are you, Anna? Mummy wants a cup of tea.'

Rose fled from the room again. She steadied herself as she reached the top of the stairs. It felt as if the bracelet was burning a hole in her pocket. She wondered if its shape could be spotted through her clothes, or if it could be heard clinking.

Victoria was standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up. ‘I suppose you've been getting up to mischief,' she said, as Rose made her way down.

Rose shook her head.
Please don't let her see where I've come from
.

Mrs Luca was pushing through the front door, laden with shopping.

‘Help me put these things away, please, Anna,' she said, ‘and put the kettle on.'

Rose hurried to help her.

‘I hope you've been practising hard while we've been out,' said Mrs Luca, walking ahead of Rose into the kitchen. Then she stopped in the doorway, turned round and looked at her searchingly. ‘Are you all right? You look as if you've seen a ghost.'

Chapter 27

Mr Luca came home in a foul temper that evening. From the moment he entered the house, slamming the door behind him, Rose feared something bad had happened and that it would affect her in some way. She understood very quickly that another fish had died, but there was more than that. From the snatches of loud conversation she was able to hear, it seemed Mr Luca's business ventures were collapsing around him, and that the worst of it could be traced back to the time when ‘Anna' had appeared in their lives. She went about her duties in the kitchen, doing everything she was told as efficiently as she could and trying to keep as low a profile as possible.

Rose could not, however, escape the lash of Mr Luca's tongue when she served the family with dinner.

‘So how's our little Gypsy girl today?' he asked. ‘Still enjoying life at my expense, are we?'

Victoria sniggered.

There was no attempt by Mrs Luca to protect Rose this time.

‘How have you managed it, eh? How have you managed to put a curse on this family? I never believed in that sort of rubbish until you came along, but I can't find any other explanation. The fish? That's an easy one. They innocently open their mouths and – hey presto! – you pop in something a little bit poisonous. Result? The fish go belly up. The missing bits and pieces? I'm sure we'll find your hiding places somewhere in the house if we search hard enough. My business interests? That's more difficult to put a finger on, but don't think I didn't see you staring out of the window at me no sooner than you'd arrived here.' He paused and took a large gulp of wine.

‘Don't you think you've had enough, darling?' Mrs Luca said quietly.

‘Yes, I have had enough!' Mr Luca slammed his fist down on the table. ‘I've had enough of your projects, and I've had enough of this particular project. Just because her family saw fit to stick their wagon in front of my car and kill themselves, does it mean I have to pay with everything I've got?' Then he said, more quietly, ‘Don't you think I've already suffered for it every minute of every day since?'

Victoria turned pale. Mrs Luca lowered her head. Silence followed, a silence during which Rose took in the meaning of his words – words that made no sense at first, but then made all too much sense. If ever she had wanted to howl with pain, it was now. She dropped the plate she was carrying and ran from the room, from the house.

He killed them! He killed them!
A voice screamed in Rose's head, over and over.
Esme, Nicu, Rani – he killed them all. It was his fault. How could he blame them?
Without warning, she heard once more the hideous screech of metal against wood, relived the moment when the whole of her world was smashed apart.

Rose had no idea where she would go, but she had to get away. She headed for the stables. Her first thought was to take one of the ponies, but then she saw Victoria's horse, Griffin, gazing out at her over his stable door. She ran over to him, stroked him gently and opened the latch. She grabbed a crate from close by, stood on it and clambered on to his back. He whinnied loudly, excited perhaps at the possibility of a gallop after dark. All she had to do was nudge him with her knees and he responded. He trotted out of the stable. She leant over his neck to show him which direction to take, urging him to go fast, using every movement of her body to convey her intentions.

‘Hey! Where d'you think you're going? Stop!'

It was Goran. Nothing on earth would make her stop for him. He had worked against her since her arrival. The heel print in the playroom was his, she was sure of it. While she had been practising the violin, he had entered the house and created mischief. It was he who had poisoned Mr Luca's precious koi carp. It all fitted into place now. He didn't like her because of who she was, not because of anything she had done. He didn't like her because she had stolen Mrs Luca's attention from him. He would do everything in his power to get rid of her.

And Goran hadn't finished with her yet. He was saddling up one of the other horses and coming after her.
Why can't he just let me go? What more does he want from me?
Rose dug her heels into Griffin's sides, willing him to gallop faster. They left the road and set off across the fields. She was exhilarated and terrified at the same time. In her heart, she was riding to freedom, while her head told her it was impossible – she knew she would be caught and taken back. But at least she could stay defiant until the end.

Moonlight caught the top of a hedge that loomed up ahead and stretched the length of the field. Rose could see no other way through. She had jumped hedges in the past, but not on a horse she didn't know, not at night. It was difficult in the darkness to tell how high the hedge was. She looked around. Goran was gaining on her, shouting at her not to be an idiot and to give herself up. Rose faced forward again.
I'm not just going to wait for him. He'll have to catch me. I'm going to attempt the hedge – after all, what's the worst that can happen?

She wrapped her arms round Griffin's neck as tightly as she could, then willed him onward, her legs clamped to his sides. The hedge was getting closer and closer. Too late, Rose realised that it was too high. She felt Griffin's fear as his head lurched back, his legs buckled and his body lunged to the left. She tried to hold on, but she wasn't strong enough. As Griffin juddered to a halt, Rose lost her grip completely and was catapulted through the air like a rag doll.

She hit the earth and lay there, her breath punched out of her. Moments later, a grey shadow appeared and hovered above her, before it spun away into nothingness.

Chapter 28

Soft white sheets. Dim lights. Rose tried to keep her eyes open, but they seemed so determined to close. She could sense movement to her right, but couldn't turn her head. It felt as if someone had attached a heavy weight to it. Something stirred in her memory, something to do with waking up in a strange place and finding blood on the sheets. Something to do with an accident. She struggled to sit up. Someone restrained her. She tried to say something. No sound came.

‘You need to rest, Anna.'

The voice was familiar. The name wasn't.

‘You took a nasty bang on the head. Nothing serious that a few days in bed won't cure, the doctor says. I don't know what you were thinking of, taking a horse out without a saddle.'

Rose started to recall what had happened.

‘You could have killed yourself, and the horse.'

Killed yourself and the horse. Killed Nicu and Esme and Rani and the horse
.
Poor Philippos . . .

Rose just managed to turn her head. Mrs Luca was sitting next to her. When she realised that this woman who had destroyed her family was holding her hand, Rose yanked it away and pulled the bedclothes around herself.

‘About what my husband said,' Mrs Luca said quietly. ‘He had had some very bad news, and rather a lot to drink. We wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression. The accident wasn't our fault, do you understand? It was just that – an accident – but ever since both of us have struggled to come to terms with it, believe me. And because such a terrible thing had happened to you, we wanted to make sure you had all the very best in life from that point onward. We didn't want you to suffer.'

She paused to let Rose take in the import of her words.

‘You've made it very difficult for us to make amends. Your behaviour has led us to deal with you harshly, yet we began with such good intentions. So many things have gone wrong since you arrived, and what you did to the doll's house was unforgivable. I spent so much effort and money on it, only for you to repay me by wrecking it.'

She paused again, watching for Rose's reaction. Rose closed her eyes. There was no reaction she could give that would change anything. She heard Mrs Luca stand up and sigh.

‘I'll leave you to rest now. I'll leave you to think about how you can help us all move on.' Mrs Luca walked to the door and said stiffly, ‘You know, you're a very lucky girl, Anna. If it hadn't been for Goran, you might still be lying outside in the cold and wet. He may have saved your life. You should be eternally grateful to him.'

She closed the door behind her, leaving Rose to continue recalling the events that had led up to her taking the horse and what had occurred afterwards. Her mind flashed back to the shadowy figure hovering over her in the darkness like an angel of death. Goran was triumphant, untouchable. He could make her life hell and nobody would notice, just as they wouldn't notice the muddy heel print on the playroom floor.

A shockwave went through her when she suddenly remembered the bracelet hidden in the pocket of her trousers.
Has it been discovered? Mrs Luca didn't mention it
. Rose struggled to get out of bed to check, but her head was thumping too hard, and she was fearful someone might catch her. She closed her eyes again.

 

 

Sometime later, Mrs Luca came back into the bedroom, accompanied by the doctor. He examined Rose and pronounced that she was doing well and would be as right as rain in a couple of days. She had sustained a mild concussion, but there was nothing to be concerned about.

‘Better stay away from horses until you're a bit bigger,' he said. ‘They can be dangerous animals.'

Rose didn't understand all the words, but enough to know what he meant, especially when Mrs Luca said, ‘Don't worry, doctor. We shan't be letting Anna near a horse again. She's far too precious to us.'

A visit from Victoria followed. She slipped through the door and closed it silently behind her.

‘What the hell do you think you were doing taking Griffin?' she hissed. ‘Don't you think you've done enough damage without stealing my horse as well? You could have broken his legs trying to go over that hedge, and then we'd have had to have him put down. Do you think that's all right? Do you?'

Victoria tore the bedcovers out of Rose's hands.

‘Don't just lie there like some poor injured animal,' she fumed. ‘What's Daphne said about it? I suppose she's told you that you're a naughty little girl and not to do it again. Well, I think you're an evil little girl and I wish you'd go away and stay away. I wish you'd just leave our house and never come back. But no. Daddy seems to think he can make some money out of you, so instead we've all got to tread softly, softly with you and not upset you too much. Ha! Nobody cares if
I'm
upset. Nobody cares that it was my horse you stole and my bracelet. And I don't believe it was Daddy's fault about your family's accident. I bet it was all their fault.'

Rose couldn't take any more. She bolted out of bed and threw herself at Victoria, pushing her and pummelling her with her fists. Victoria was too strong. She caught hold of Rose's arms and shoved her backwards.

‘Don't you dare touch me,' she hissed. ‘Don't you ever touch me again. You're not my sister and I hate you more than anything I've ever hated in my life!'

Chapter 29

As soon as Rose was well enough, she resumed her duties in the kitchen. She wasn't allowed to go near the horses. That was considered too much of a risk, and she wasn't trusted not to ‘do something silly' again. She was made to practise the violin ever more frequently, sometimes up to six hours a day, until she began to loathe it.

Rose gradually understood what Victoria had meant when she said that her father thought he could make money out of her. It seemed he was planning some sort of comeback tour for his wife, and that Rose was to be part of the tour.

‘Why anyone would pay good money to come and hear you, I don't know,' Victoria said more than once. ‘I wouldn't go and watch some kid scratching away on a violin.'

If Mrs Luca overheard, she scolded her. ‘The one thing we can say about Anna is that she has a very great talent.'

‘Which you're going to exploit,' Victoria retorted, changing her tune.

‘Which we're going to show to the world,' replied Mrs Luca. ‘And people will be paying their money to listen to me, not Anna.'