Free The Madness by Alison Rattle Page B

boy turn up if he wanted to; she would stay right here. She turned on her side with her face pressed into Ma’s arm. Ma’s skin smelled of stale sweat, tobacco and old bacon. Marnie closed her eyes and willed sleep to come. Ma grunted and for a moment Marnie imagined herself in bed next to a fat, sweating pig. She shifted around on to her back, but it was no better there. Ma’s breath, warm and vinegary with beer, seeped into Marnie’s nostrils. Marnie tried breathing through her mouth, but that was no good either as she fancied she could taste Ma’s breath. It was thick enough to bite. Why couldn’t Ma have gone to Smoaker’s room tonight?
    It wouldn’t be many days before the lodger arrived, Marnie remembered. Then she would be blissfully alone at night next to the kitchen fire. Ma’s snores rattled through Marnie’s thoughts. Marnie sighed and turned on her other side with her back to Ma. She heard the bells of St Andrew’s on the Hill strike half past ten. She wondered if the boy Noah was on his way to the beach. Would he have torn himself away from the comfort of his bed, or had he waited patiently, watching from a window as the sky grew darker and darker? Don’t be foolish, Marnie thought. A proper young gent like him would never risk such an adventure. Especially not with the likes of her. He is certain not to come. With these words circling round her head like aimless gulls, Marnie grew more fidgety by the minute. It was no use; she was never going to sleep now. The sea heaved and breathed softly through the night air and Marnie could no longer resist its pull.
    The bedchamber door creaked as she slowly opened it. Ma murmured at the noise and turned over, the bed-frame protesting loudly. Marnie waited, still as can be, until the air settled around her again. Then she limped through the dark kitchen and out of the cottage, her heart beating faster with every step. He wouldn’t be there. It was the maddest notion to think that the son of Sir John de Clevedon would be down on the beach waiting for her.
    She didn’t see him at first. The heaps of ironworks had altered the appearance of the beach. Like scars running across a face, something once familiar had now become quite strange. Marnie had not yet grown used to the change and she stumbled on small rocks she hadn’t expected to be there. Even the large rocks that had sat in the same place all her life looked unfamiliar with the harsh shadows of the ironworks cutting across their shapes.
    ‘Marnie!’
    She jumped at the sound of her name as it hissed through the thin sea mist. A figure rose to standing from the nearest and largest rock. ‘Marnie!’
    She dug her stick into the shingle and steadied herself. ‘You came, then?’ she said, watching him as he ambled towards her with his hands in his pockets.
    ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘My nursemaid was kind to me and let me out of the nursery. But I must be back by midnight for my cup of warm milk.’ He smiled at her wryly, with one corner of his mouth. Marnie felt a small trickle of pleasure run down her back. She shivered slightly.
    ‘I told you it would be cold,’ said Noah.
    ‘I’m sure you don’t know what proper cold is,’ said Marnie tartly. ‘And I’m sure your nurse will have put a bed warmer between your sheets for when you get back.’
    ‘I am sure there will be one waiting for me,’ said Noah. ‘Only it is Hetty the parlour maid’s duty these days. My nursemaid, sadly, left me years ago, after I finally learned to dress myself.’
    Marnie tossed her head. Noah was looking at her expectantly and suddenly she couldn’t think of anything clever to say. What was she doing here? What was he doing here?
    ‘Why did you come?’ she asked quietly.
    ‘Because you dared me to,’ he said.
    ‘Have you nothing better to do?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I could be sleeping in a warm bed.’
    ‘Perhaps you should return to it then and leave me be?’
    ‘Indeed not! You challenged me to come and