Free Shadow of the Mountain by Anna Mackenzie

to restock this,’ he observed.
    She mumbled assent.
    ‘You should check that you can bend your knee without it pulling too much.’ With one hand resting gently on her freshly bandaged knee, he lifted her foot till the knee straightened, before slowly lowering it. As his hand slid from her knee to her calf, Geneva swallowed.
    ‘Feel okay? Not too tight?’
    ‘I don’t think they should trust you with a stethoscope,’ she said, her stomach jelly.
    Angus grinned, his fingers still laced around her ankle. ‘They’d probably be right.’ He paused. ‘One of the things Icame out to tell you was that I enjoyed Friday night. Despite Jax.’
    She nodded. ‘Me too.’
    The sudden silence felt charged — almost crackling. Angus’s fingers moved on her ankle. The scar at the corner of his mouth lifted. ‘Hey, I was wondering —’
    The shrill of the telephone made them both jump.
    ‘That’ll be Dad,’ Geneva said, shrugging herself back to reality and an image of her mother being carried out to the ambulance. Keeping her weight on her heel she limped into the kitchen and reached for the phone.

11.
    G eneva sighed and shook her head, Monday morning hanging in her head like fog. ‘I can still cook, Dad. You didn’t need to ask Mrs Macphee to do it.’
    ‘She wanted to help, and you’ve got enough on your plate. I’ve made you an appointment at the doctor’s straight after school.’
    ‘Dad! I told you it was fine.’
    ‘Your friend Angus advised me to ignore you if you said that,’ her father admitted, throwing her a quick sideways smile. ‘He seems a nice young man. It was good of him to stay — I couldn’t have left you on your own.’
    ‘I’d have been all right, you know,’ Geneva said, though she’d been just as grateful for Angus’s presence. ‘I’m not a kid.’
    ‘I know you’re not,’ her father agreed. There was a pause while she watched his hands tighten convulsively around the steering wheel. ‘I’ve been meaning to say, it was a good idea, beeping the horn like that. As soon as I heard it, I knew that something …’ His voice trailed off.
    ‘Oh, Dad! I’m really sorry. Not about beeping. I mean about … about everything.’
    ‘It hasn’t been much of a year, has it Genna?’ He cleared histhroat and turned brusque. ‘You get off to school, now, and I’ll go and see your mother. I’ll be here to pick you up at three.’
    Geneva nodded and climbed out of the truck. There was so much that needed saying that her throat felt full with it. He smiled thinly as she held the door. ‘You’re a good girl, Genna.’
    The metal felt smooth and cold beneath her fingers. ‘See you, Dad.’
     
    ‘Hey, Gen-eeev-er. I hear you’re a bit of a dark mare.’ Leonie smirked while the rest of her coven giggled. ‘Who’d have thought it, eh? Wakefield boys, two at a time.’
    ‘Do they know about each other?’ a sniggering voice asked.
    ‘They probably go in for threesomes,’ Leonie answered. ‘You know what that Wakefield lot are like.’
    Geneva shouldered past them.
    ‘How come you’re limping, Geneva? Worn yourself out?’
    More sniggers.
    ‘Did you have a good time, down at the beach last Saturday ?’ Leonie called before turning to her cronies in mock surprise. ‘And I always thought she was such a goody-good,’ she added loudly.
    ‘Good at all sorts of things, Leonie,’ Geneva snapped, unable to keep to her decision to ignore them. ‘Not two-dimensional like you.’
    Leonie narrowed her eyes. ‘You’d better watch yourself, Knowles. Days when we had to be extra careful with precious little Geneva are long gone.’
     
    The library was cool and quiet. Ms Tiedemann, the librarian, had often turned a blind eye to Geneva using the place as a refuge, but it had been months now since she’d been in for anything other than a book, and this was the third time this week.
    ‘Hello, Geneva. How are you today?’
    ‘I’m fine, Ms T. Do you mind if I sit in here for a while?