Free The Room Beyond by Stephanie Elmas Page B

smoked in silence, my
first cigarette in ages. I was supposed to have given up the habit.
    It seemed surreal sitting up there high above the rooftops with him,
as if we’d been picked up and placed into an alcove in the night sky. Seb’s
body was tantalisingly close and a pleasant shiver ran through me.
    ‘Who are you, really?’ I asked.
    ‘Well that’s a very good question. Some say that an itinerant group
of cockle gatherers found me on a beach one day...’
    ‘No, seriously, although I see that seriousness might not count as
one of your major pastimes.’ He flashed me a delicious smile. ‘You’re not one
of the family, I know. I thought you were Eva’s boyfriend, but you don’t seem
to be that either... are you? I mean I... I just don’t really understand where
you fit in.’
    The muscles around his jawbone tensed up and shifted about.
    ‘I went to school with Eva’s brother Raphael,’ he said slowly. ‘I
got to know the family and they sort of accepted me as one of their own.’
    ‘Where do you live?’
    ‘Just... somewhere.’
    ‘Right.’
    His face softened apologetically. ‘Sorry, you just don’t want to see
where I live. It’s not very nice, that’s all. I only use it for sleeping and a
lot of the time I stay over here anyway.’
    ‘I’ve lived in a few places like that. Pretty lonely eh?’
    ‘Yes, pretty lonely.’ He tossed the stub of his cigarette over the
balcony and turned to face me, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. ‘How
did you enjoy your meal with the family?’
    ‘Um... very pleasant: charming, interesting... eclectic... German.’
He frothed up with laughter. ‘Can you all really speak German?’
    ‘Yes of course. And French. Doesn’t everyone?’ he asked, laughing
even more.
    ‘OK then.’
    My legs had gone slightly numb and I shifted sideways, pressing my
spine flat against the door frame. He gazed back at me, his eyes suddenly more
sober and almost purple in the half-light.
    ‘You look very beautiful like that,’ he said.
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Sitting stretched up like that in the shadows. You look mythical,
like an elf or something.’
    ‘My father used to call me his little elf. It’s because I was all
scrawny like a boy, with wispy hair and pointy features.’
    ‘But did he tell you that you were beautiful as well?’
    ‘Oh God no!’
    ‘I thought so.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because you have absolutely no idea how to take a compliment.’
    His fingers knitted themselves together with mine; they felt so long
and elegant.
    Let me stay with you tonight.
    It was just like before, over dinner. I heard his voice and yet he
hadn’t said a thing.
    Not yet.
    He seemed to nod his head as if he’d actually heard my reply, but
his hand remained firmly in mine.
    ‘Can I ask you something?’
    ‘Go on,’ he replied.
    ‘What is the situation between you and Eva?’
    Maybe I was imagining it but his cool fingers seemed to tense up a
little in my hand.
    ‘There is no situation, why ask?’
    ‘It’s nothing really. I shouldn’t have asked. Sorry. It’s just that
this morning, when Beth brought me into the drawing room... I think that Eva
was watching you sleep.’
    ‘Oh don’t worry about her. She’s a great thinker, that’s all, she feels
things very deeply. They would have called her poetic a hundred years ago, or
something like that I suppose.’
    ‘It was a bit of an icy reception that she gave me.’
    Seb made as if to speak but then hesitated; he seemed to be choosing
his words carefully.
    ‘She does things her own way, she’s unconventional,’ he shrugged.
    ‘I can see that. To be honest I was a bit surprised when I found out
that Beth’s mother was so young. Who is Beth’s father?’
    My throat went dry as soon as I said it, as if bereft of the words
that should have stayed firmly tucked inside. Seb took his hand from mine to
light another cigarette.
    ‘No one knows, she’s always refused to let on,’ he answered in a
deep, hushed voice.