Rory (Hengist-People of the Horse Book 2) Page 11

  Rory gave a great sob and ran out of the room. He went to run after her but Mandy stood in his way. ‘I think you’ve done enough. Kellie, go and find her and make sure she’s all right.’ Kellie left and Mandy shut the door behind her, looking at Archer thoughtfully.

  He appealed to her with an outstretched arm. ‘Come on Mandy, you must have seen when you came in, we were sitting on the edge of the bed doing homework.’

  ‘That’s not what I saw. Yes the two of you were on the bed, but when I came in you both jumped apart blushing. Even if she hadn’t blurted it out in front of witnesses, why else would you both blush?’ Despite her innocent air, something in her manner told him she knew exactly what they were doing, but had her own reasons for twisting it.

  ‘You … you …’ he was lost for words.

  ‘Try fat. Ugly. Old. Cow. Isn’t that what you called me? Behind my back of course, you haven’t got the guts to say it to my face.’

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  ‘So now I’m a liar as well? I heard it with my own ears. Out of the bathroom window.’

  ‘So you must have heard the rest, then.’

  ‘No, I ran out in tears. She was right, I did fancy you once, but not anymore. Not after that. How could I fancy a cradle-snatcher like you?’

  ‘I’m sorry you were hurt, it wasn’t the way it sounds. If you’ll let me explain …’

  ‘Oh I think you’ll be sorry. And you’ve got some proper explaining to do. That’s the end of it for you here. Penny won’t stand for anything like this under her roof and Todd will probably beat you black and blue. As for Lynette …’ Mandy was obviously enjoying her moment of power, but even from the depths of despair, he could sense there was something behind all this. She wanted something from him.

  His expression hardened. ‘What?’

  She stopped prowling and assumed a false innocence. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘What do you want from me?’

  ‘What I want … is for you to suffer. The way you’ve made me suffer. Parading your muscles around, watching me with those liquid brown eyes, giving me false hope …’

  ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘… while all the time you’ve been laughing behind my back with that little brat and calling me foul names.’

  ‘I haven’t. I told you we’ve been …’

  ‘Shut it.’ She came up and closed his mouth with her hand. From the bottom of the stairs, they heard Penny’s cheery shout. “It’s only me.”

  Mandy hissed in his ear. ‘You won’t know when I’m gonna tell, it could be any time. But you will do exactly as I say or it will be sooner rather than later.’

  ‘But …’

  ‘I said, shut it. I’ll tell the others not to say anything, that I might have been mistaken. But you must keep away from Rory. If I see you huddled up anywhere with her, I’ll tell straight away. You’re going to do my chores and if anyone finds out you’re helping me, you’re toast.’ She made a sharp movement with her hand, as though cutting her throat. The meaning was clear.

  ‘Is that it?’ Archer’s tone was as bleak as his expression.

  ‘Until I can decide exactly what to do with you, yes.’

  So began the worst time in Archer’s life so far. She was relentless in her mental torment of him, it was far worse than the physical punishment Edlyn or Peter had ever dished out. Somehow, she seemed to have power over the others. The incident was never mentioned again by Tom or Kellie and he was fairly sure Rory couldn’t have mentioned it or Penny would have said something at the very least. He couldn’t know for sure, because he dare not talk to her for fear of Mandy carrying out her threats.

  Two days later, she cornered him on the landing. ‘I need a written confession from you so you can’t wriggle out of it and pretend it never happened.’

  ‘I didn’t do anything wrong. I will not lie and I certainly will not commit a lie to paper.’

  ‘If you don’t do what I say, it will be the end for you. You’ll end up in a youth offenders’ centre and poor Rory will be dragged through all the courts and have to tell everyone she was in your bedroom.’ She paused as a door opened downstairs, but it closed again and she moved closer. ‘Even if you weren’t actually doing anything, that will be enough to make everyone think she’s a tart. Can you imagine what would happen to her at school if they found out?’

  Mandy was enjoying herself. With sparkling eyes and a sultry smile, Archer thought she could actually be quite attractive if she wasn’t so foul. He shivered. Was she some kind of enchantress, enticing him with her dark powers? Her voice took on a low, sexy tone as she circled round him, weaving her spells. ‘I’ll tell you what would happen. People would start to talk about her and call her names. Nasty people calling her nasty names.’

  ‘Nasty people like you.’

  She laughed wickedly. ‘Oh yes. I’d make sure the very nastiest people found out exactly what she did. Then she’d find out what it was like to have people calling you names and saying hurtful things about you.’

  She held out the pen and paper and he looked at it bleakly while he assessed the alternatives. He had always been brought up to believe that honesty was the best policy, but he couldn’t see how that would help in this case. Not for the first time in his life, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. But this time, the stakes were so much higher. He needed more time to think through the options, but the impatient tapping of her foot said his time was up. There was no choice but to go along with it for now. Taking the paper, he sat at the desk.

  She followed him, the triumph evident in her voice as she dictated. ‘I Archer, being of sound mind, do solemnly declare …’

  He ignored her and wrote his own simple statement. She bent over his shoulder and read aloud. ‘“Rory and I were in my room.” That wasn’t what I said.’

  ‘If you want a testimony from me it will be in my own words. I will not use something you have heard on the TV.’

  ‘You’re in no position to negotiate. You will do as I say or suffer the consequences.’

  ‘Right now I’m thinking it would be better to take my chances with Penny. I know she will be able to work out the truth.’

  ‘Be my guest.’ She stood back and gestured down the stairs.

  He stood and walked towards them, but she wasn’t finished.

  ‘Trouble is, it’s not just about you, is it? What will Rory say? You don’t know for certain, do you? She was quite happy to let me think you two had been kissing. The others heard her say it.’

  ‘I’m sure she would realise how serious it is and tell the truth.’

  ‘Are you? Absolutely sure? Anyway, it doesn’t matter what you were doing. Just the fact that the two of you were alone together in your bedroom is all it would take for some people. Remember what I said? People can be so-oo nasty.’

  He knew he was beaten and faced her. She resumed her reading aloud in an affected accent. ‘Now where was I? Oh yes, “Rory and I were in my room. She was helping me with my maths homework.” As if.’ Her lip sneered its scorn. ‘You have absolutely no pride do you? Admitting that an eleven-year-old girl was doing your homework. What a dummy.’

  He could have wasted more breath explaining that they were learning together, but it just wasn’t worth it, she wouldn’t have listened.

  ‘You haven’t said anything about the fact that you were alone together or for how long. You need to add that and sign it. Don’t put the date.’

  ‘Why not? So you can use it in a couple of months even after I’ve done everything you wanted me to? I will not sign it without a date.’

  ‘Whatever. Just do it. Getting bored now.’

  He added that they were in the room alone for about twenty minutes, then signed and dated the damning note. She grabbed it, read the words, then folded the paper and put it into her shoulder bag.

  Part of her plan was to hurt Rory as much as possible by forbidding Archer to have anything to do with the younger girl. Mandy made sure she was home
as early as possible on the days Rory came, so he would have no chance to speak to her alone and explain the situation. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Mandy started hanging around, asking questions about homework.

  Surprisingly, she could discuss a great deal of it with him, because she was actually quite bright and had covered most of the work already in previous years. A tiny part of him appreciated the support, even though he suspected it was doing her more good than him since it was fresh in his mind whereas she had forgotten most of it.

  He was acutely aware of Rory’s pain because he was suddenly ignoring her and Mandy had taken over as his study partner. Except she was trying to be so much more than that. Whereas Rory would sit on a different chair or on the opposite side of the table, Mandy’s style was to get as close to him as she possibly could. Squeezing next to him on the edge of his chair or wrapping herself around him at the table to read over his shoulder. She was always touching his arm or fiddling with his hair and at the start, he flinched away from her.

  After a week, he’d had enough, but she wasn’t so suffocating on the days Rory wasn’t there, generally giving him more space. One Wednesday, when he got in from school, Rory was sitting on the sofa, reading her book. She didn’t even look up as he dumped his bag as normal to hunt a snack. When he came back in the room, Mandy was there and she hugged him, kissing his cheek.

  ‘Did you want to have another look at that poetry? I’ve got the study guide so it might help you to understand the weird language.’

  He looked over at the sofa uncertainly and she followed his gaze. ‘I’m sure Rory won’t mind letting us have the sofa so we can sit together. This is important GCSE work.’

  Rory looked up, obviously not pleased.

  ‘Or we could go up to your room, it would be quieter there. Nobody would mind, we are going out after all.’

  Rory picked up her book and fled into the kitchen.

  21 The Wicked Witch

  ‘What’s up sweetheart? You’re not your usual sunny self.’ Penny looked up as Rory stomped over to the counter.

  ‘Nothing. I just need a bit of peace and quiet.’ She helped herself to a ginger biscuit from the plate.

  ‘Oh dear, those girls can be a bit noisy. You could always go up to your room.’

  ‘I can’t concentrate with Tom’s game next door.’

  ‘You’re welcome to stay in here. I’ll turn the radio off.’

  ‘No it’s all right, the music doesn’t disturb me.’

  ‘You curl up in the window seat, I’ll turn it down a bit.’

  Silence was the last thing she needed. If it wasn’t raining, she would have run down the garden or played on the trampoline to get rid of some of the anger building up inside her. It just wasn’t fair, none of it. Mandy was the most evil creature in the universe and now she had found a way to make Rory’s life a total misery. The words in front of her swam out of focus as she recalled the various clashes they’d had in the few months since Mandy and Kellie had arrived at Penny’s.

  The first time had been a complete misunderstanding. Penny forgot to tell her the girls had moved into the “granny flat.” The huge attic was partitioned into a lounge area, two bedrooms, bathroom and tiny kitchenette. It was always flooded with sunlight in the afternoon and was Rory’s favourite place for curling up with a book when it was unoccupied.

  ~*~

  ‘What the...? Who the hell are you and what do you think you’re doing in our room? Come to steal our stuff?’

  ‘Nah, it’s Goldilocks, she’s come to try all the beds to find the right one.’ Kelly cackled at her own joke.

  ‘Well she’s not having any of my porridge. Get out and take your stuff with you.’

  ~*~

  Rory shivered at the terrifying memory of waking to find two witches from the very worst fairy tale swearing and shouting at her. Mandy had pulled her up and shoved her down the stairs, then thrown the book, creasing several pages as it hit the wall.

  After that first encounter, it seemed Rory could do no right, no matter how hard she tried to make up for what was just a simple mistake. Mandy would take great delight in disturbing her attempts to do homework, turning on the TV at ridiculously high volume when she came in the room. Or she would “accidentally” knock a book or pen and wait for a complaint so she could make a sarcastic retort. Then there was her apparent clumsiness at mealtimes which she always managed to blame on Rory.

  But the worst was when things went missing from Tom’s room. He mentioned it at a meal and Mandy kept referring to Rory’s one trip to the attic room as though she did it all the time, calling her Goldilocks and asking whose armchair she had broken lately. Rory knew one of them had taken her favourite hair slide but didn’t dare to say anything when she saw Kellie wearing it. There was nobody she could talk to and when Lynette tried to find out why she was always quiet on the way back from Penny’s, she would just say she was tired.

  She felt so isolated. Tom had his own friends and the girls didn’t seem to pick on him because he was only a couple of years younger. When Archer arrived, it was like there was finally someone on her side. After rescuing her from Tom’s friends, he represented a layer of protection against everyone who might harm her. She began to see him as her own personal knight in shining armour.

  Mandy left her alone, for some reason she wasn’t willing to bully her in front of Archer. But Rory knew Mandy was jealous of the way he spent time with her. It was quite obvious she fancied him, as she continually attempted to disturb them to get his attention. Rory saw the way she watched him at meal times when she thought no-one was looking.

  Finally, Mandy had got what she wanted, they were going out together and they were welcome to each other. He wasn’t the hero Rory thought he was, letting that creature slobber all over him every chance she got. He hadn’t even bothered to speak to her since that dreadful day. She shuddered at the memory of the awful moment when Mandy had looked at her with victory gleaming in her eyes. Rory hadn’t meant to say what she did, it just slipped out, the need to hurt was too strong.

  A splash of water hit the pages of her reading book and she blinked to clear her eyes which had suddenly blurred completely.

  ‘Will you lay the table for me Rory? I’m a bit behind.’

  ‘Sure, Aunt Penny.’ She put her bookmark in the right page, hastily wiping away the tears from her eyes. Penny looked over and saw the gesture.

  ‘Is everything all right sweetheart?’

  ‘Yeah, it was just a sad bit.’

  ‘I don’t remember sad bits at the start of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but I’ll take your word for it.’

  As she set the knives and forks out, Rory wanted to ask Aunt Penny if Archer really was going out with Mandy, but she was too afraid the answer would be yes. She watched them as they ate the evening meal, he didn’t seem to pay her any more attention than anyone else in the room. Mandy was certainly going out of her way to be extra helpful, not just to him, but to everybody, passing round the food, pepper and salt, even getting up to get the tomato sauce and refill the water jug. When she finished eating, her hand disappeared and Rory noticed a slow blush creep up Archer’s neck. She felt sick and looked away.

  At the end of the meal it was Kellie’s turn to wash up and Archer’s turn to dry, but Mandy started filling the bowl, she had obviously swapped so they could be together. As Rory brought in some cups from the other room, she walked in on the pair of them kissing. Putting the cups down quietly, she went up to her room and flung herself on the bed. It was true, then.

  22 Sandra Dee

  As Rory ran out of the kitchen, Mandy let go and Archer closed his eyes in despair. He didn’t know why the opinion and friendship of an eleven-year-old girl should matter so much to him, but it did. He felt the same kindred spirit within Rory as he did with Penny, Julie and Dawn, but definitely strongest with Rory. It was as though she understood what was important in life, things like nature and helping people and learning things. She didn’t care
for all the electronic gadgetry like other kids.

  Thanks to Mandy’s devious tricks, Rory no longer looked at him as though he was worthy of her admiration. In fact, she could hardly bear to look at him at all. He was still cringing at the way Mandy had manipulated him into this position, forcing him deeper into her web of deception. He thought back to the earlier scene. Anyone else might have been satisfied with commandeering the sofa and forcing Rory out of the room, but it wasn’t enough for the monster Mandy had become.

  ~*~

  ‘Every time I touch you, you flinch away. Don’t you like being touched, or don’t you like me?’

  Archer refused to talk to her about such personal things, picking up the study guide to start work.

  Snatching it off him, she turned his face until he was looking directly into her eyes which flashed with anger. ‘You can’t bear to touch me, so that will be your ultimate punishment. When you have convinced that silly little girl that you are my boyfriend and you want nothing more to do with her, then I might consider ripping up your confession and letting the matter drop.’

  Archer clenched his jaw. This would be a living hell. He was so repulsed by her evil nature that the thought of touching her made his skin crawl as though covered in a thousand writhing maggots. If he could just find the courage, it might only be a couple of day’s suffering. He would only have to do it when Rory was there, normally just a couple of days a week. Gritting his teeth, he nodded his agreement and the change was instant.

  Her anger turned to triumph and her voice softened. ‘She will have to believe that you genuinely prefer me, so you’ll have to put on a good show. I’m a very touchy-feely girlfriend, so you …’ she stabbed her finger at him and he flinched. She laughed. ‘… must learn to stop flinching. I promise you will get plenty of practise.’

  True to her word, throughout the meal, every time she passed him something she managed to make their fingers meet. Getting up from her chair, she brushed against him and rested her hand on his shoulder when she reached over to get the water jug. She crossed a line, putting her hand on his thigh when she finished eating, but there was nothing he could do without causing a big fuss, so he tried to ignore it. She’d persuaded Kellie to swap her duty so they were clearing up together and she was full of her victory. ‘That little geek couldn’t keep her eyes off you. Every time I touched you, her face dropped a mile.’