Free Shadows 02 Girl in the Shadows by V. C. Andrews Page A

too," I added, and marched down to the dock.
Now he was the one hesitating. "Well, are you coming
to see what I know or are you going to run back into
the house and tell Mrs. Westington a bunch of lies?" After a moment, he unfolded his arms and
walked down to the dock. I got into the rowboat first.
He looked back at the house and then he got into it. "I'll row," I said. "I don't want you to strain
yourself."
He squeezed his forehead and narrowed his
eves as I set out, my eyes fixed firmly on him. "For your information, not that I care. I didn't
realize Echo understood half of what I told her about
boys and making babies. I was planning on writing
out most of it tonight. She's nearly fifteen years old
and she should know a great deal more about her own
body and sex and everything, only who is going to
teach it to her. Mrs. Westington? I doubt it. You? I
don't see any books on health education."
"That's not what I'm here for."
"Yeah," I said. smirking. "That's not what
you're here for. Oh. no."
"It isn't and I already told you. I thought she should be in an environment with other g-irls her own age. Not that you couldn't teach her about sex from
firsthand experiences. I'm sure."
"Oh, you're so damn smug. You think you
know everything about everybody."
He didn't respond. He turned away and looked
out over the pond.
"What are you trying to do, think of some
clever Chinese proverb?"
He started to swell with anger and then he just
shook his head.
I rowed hard and quickly, bringing us up beside
the rock. Then I reached out, stopped the rowboat, and
looked at him. "Here it is. Like you didn't know." He rose, wobbling a bit, and crossed to where I
had indicated on the rock. He studied it a moment and
then surprised me by laughing,
"What's so funny?" How could he laugh? "It's pretty easy to figure out that I didn't do
this."
"Oh, really? And why is it so easy. Mr. Big
Shot?"
'It's easy because it says 'Ty and me.' I don't
think I would have written 'Ty and me,' even though
you believe I'm too much in love with myself. Also, look at how crudely this heart is drawn. It's not carved so much as scratched. Anyway, why would I put something indelibly into this rock for anyone to see if
I was trying to be surreptitious?"
"Sur what?"
"Sneaky, hidden. Pass a high school
equivalency exam," he muttered.
I squeezed my eyebrows together and studied
the heart in the rock. Of course he was right about it
saying "Ty and me." Why hadn't I realized it? He sat and folded his hands over his lap. I
returned to my seat and for a moment neither of us
spoke. The boat rocked gently in the breeze and my
pounding heart slowed down,
"Look," he said in a much calmer tone of voice.
"what we have here is an adolescent fantasy. It's not
uncommon or even unexpected, especially with a girl
so isolated. Don't you think I'm aware of all that? I do
the best I can. That's why I want to bring her up to a
level where she could enter a structured school
environment quickly and have more normal
experiences."
"That's all I want for her as well," I said. "It's hardly normal to bring her to that motor
home and show her a nude sex doll.'
"It's not a sex doll and I didn't show it to her.
She wanted to go into the motor home to see it and I
forgot about my uncle's doll."
"Naked on a bed? That's just so sick. You're
uncle must have been so perverted beside being a
drunk,"
"He was not! You're so arrogant. You don't
know what you're talking about."
"Maybe I don't. but I wonder if you do either. I
can only imagine what it was like for you to be living
under those circumstances and traveling about with
someone like that."
"Nothing ugly happened!" I cried, and then I
really did begin to cry. "He taught me magic tricks
and I helped him with his act. He was my only close
relative. He loved me and he was alone. too. I had
nowhere else to go!"
As inscrutable as Tyler tried to be with me, his
face couldn't help but soften with some compassion. "Look. I admit I don't know your whole story.
All I