Louis pushed his chair out from the table, stretched his legs straight and with a rush of thoughtfulness said, ‘I’d delete it, Fergus. Much better it’s out of your computer if there’s the slightest hint of something suspicious going on.’
‘Quite right, that’s exactly what I did.’
‘But,’ said Rupert, ‘people like to reach out in the modern world. The internet makes it possible. I rather agree with Minty, I’m not sure you’ve been “done” as they say.’
‘Perhaps you’re right.’ Fergus’s eyebrows rose. ‘I never thought about it like that. I must put it past Zoe later, see what she says. I haven’t actually told her yet.’
‘What’s that, angel?’ said Zoe, attuned to her name.
‘Oh nothing, I’ll tell you later. Giles,’ he called, ‘keep the wine flowing, I don’t want to be left with half-drunk bottles.’
‘Will do.’ Giles smiled a Burgundy-stained grin.
‘Fergus,’ said Felicity, ‘what are you going to call your first child?’ At the mention of babies I turned to Louis.
He was staring down the table at Zoe who was twitching her head towards the door. Louis got up and left the room. Zoe was now looking down the table at me; she shrugged her shoulders and left the room too.
‘Shane,’ I said, turning to my right, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m just going to nip to the loo.’ I really, really, really wanted to follow on.
‘That’s all right, Miss, you don’t have to ask.’
Haggis stuck to my heel as I walked up the corridor, into the body of the house. Hovering behind the staircase, I could just see Louis and Zoe at the bottom of the banister. They were chitter-chattering under their breaths. Zoe had a hand to her forehead and Louis had his arm on her shoulder. Haggis yapped, they spun around and both bolted upright as soon as they saw me.
‘Susie?’ said Louis.
‘Are you okay?’ I played the I-was-worried-about-you card.
‘He’s fine,’ said Zoe, giving the game away. She was trying her hardest to cover up their intimate moment. ‘We were just having a chat.’
Are these two having an affair? It would be amusing if I wasn’t stuck in the middle of it.
‘Whatever,’ I said. ‘Didn’t mean to interrupt.’ Louis touched my shoulder as I went straight past them and on through to the downstairs loo.
There’s a stuffed deer’s head in here above the sink. Why do people put animals they’ve culled on display? Is it only the ones they’ve stalked or will the head of the road kill we’ve been eating tonight find its way onto a wall in this house?
I think there’s a strong chance Ewen ran into that deer. He had blood on his wheel arch, I’d seen it in the photograph, and he was late home (according to Louis) on Monday night. He could have been drunk, embarrassed about what he’d done and not wanted anyone to know. So, dragging it into the wood at the time probably seemed the most logical thing to do. But can one man drag a deer or does its dead weight require two? Maybe Ewen got Louis to help and this is how he pulled a muscle in his arm? It’s not as if we’ve been doing anything strenuous in class.
I went back to the dining room. Zoe was in her seat but Louis was nowhere to be seen. The plates had been cleared and I began to dream up my favourite thing for pudding.
Ting-ting went Zoe’s glass and the kitchen door swung open to reveal Louis carrying an enormous chocolate cake.
‘Bon anniversaire,’ he began singing, and everyone, slightly confused, joined in with ‘Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday…’
‘Dear Fergus,’ shouted Zoe.
‘Happy Birthday to You.’
Louis settled the lit cake in front of the birthday boy, who took in a deep breath and blew out the single candle.
‘How dare you, darling,’ he said. ‘I hate people knowing it’s my birthday.’
‘Had nothing to do with me,’ Zoe grinned. ‘Louis organised it behind your back.’
Fergus looked over his shoulder at Louis. ‘That’s the problem with being a twin.’
Mhàiri entered the dining room with a huge knife and Fergus grinned as he took it from her and began cutting up the delicious-looking cake.
Louis sat down beside me and slipped his hand under the table, onto my knee. I very nearly let out a yelp.
‘What are you doing?’ I whispered.
‘Touching you. I like you.’
I looked down the table at Zoe and back to Louis.
‘Non, non, non,’ he shook his head. ‘You don’t really think so, do you?’
I shrugged my shoulders.
‘You’re so cute when you’re jealous.’
‘Well?’
‘I’m not even going to answer that.’
The cake was delicious. Mhàiri had excelled. We all gobbled it up and as dinner drew to an end Shane ting-tinged his glass.
‘Miss,’ he said, when everyone was listening, ‘I’m doing this ’cause I like you…’
For a conceited moment I thought he was going to make a speech to thank me. But when he got his mobile out of his pocket I feared the worst – he was going to take Jane down again…
‘I want to know what you,’ he was looking at Jane, ‘took from Susie’s room. She says you were looking for her but when I zoomed in on my video I can see you’ve clear as effing daylight got something up your sleeve.’ Shane got up and thrust his mobile at Fergus.
‘I won’t have this bullying from someone less than half my age,’ Jane said and burst out of her chair. ‘Give me that telephone.’ She waddled down the table and for some perceptive reason Fergus handed the mobile, which he hadn’t looked at, back to Shane. (I bet if he hadn’t, it’d be smashed by now.)
‘Common little brat,’ said Jane and stormed out of the dining room.
There was a shock of silence. What a dreadful end to the evening.
‘Miss,’ said Shane, ‘I did it for you. She’s got something of yours.’
‘That’s so thoughtful, but I’ve spoken to her about it.’
‘She stole from you?’ screeched Felicity.
‘No, no, that’s not what happened.’
‘Damn well did,’ said Shane. ‘She wouldn’t be making my life
