His Silence - Chapter 52

I don’t want to turn around. I know the voice. I know it all too well.

‘I won’t ask again, Grace. What are you doing here?’

I step away from Noah’s door, it's like my chest is on fire. Mary’s standing in the middle of the hallway, her eyes wide, wearing a purple dressing gown. The lines in her forehead are deep.

‘I . . . I,’ I say, unable to string the words together. Shit, what the hell am I going to say? ‘I was worried about Noah, Oliver told he me wasn’t well at dinner.’

Mary continues to stare at me. The silence between us seems to stretch on forever.

‘So you didn’t think to come and find him in the morning when everyone will be awake?’ Mary asks. She’s still keeping the tone of her voice soft, but anger's simmering away.

Tears are threatening behind my eyes, I force them back. My knees are shaking like mad.

‘I couldn’t sleep, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I was sure he was OK,’ I say.

Mary sighs and draws a key from out of a pocket in her dressing gown. I move out of the way as she approaches Noah’s door; she slides the key into the lock. My breath catches in my throat. She eases it open. Noah’s asleep in his bed.

‘There. Are you satisfied?’ Mary asks. I nod. This can’t be right. Mary pulls the door shut, softly and locks it again. ‘I should punish you for this, Grace. Even Callum hasn’t been up like this. I thought, out of the two of you, that he would’ve been the more troublesome one, I thought you were sensible.’ That’s because you’ve locked his door, unlike mine, I think to myself. He wouldn’t be able to. Is he listening to our conversation now? Did my voice wake him up? Mary’s stare hardens. ‘Oliver’s given you a lot of freedoms since you joined here, that many people, including myself, don’t have, and this is how you repay him?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I say, keeping my gaze fixed on the floor.

She knows I think Noah knows something about my past. I bite my lower lip. If I hadn’t put him in danger before now, I certainly have now. I’ve been such an idiot. I’ve risked everything.

‘I know you got out of bed the first night you were here, but Oliver asked me not to do anything about that.’ She shakes her head. ‘Get back to annexe, go to bed and don’t get up until the morning, Grace.’

I nod, fighting the urge not to cry. I brush past her and head back to the stairs, not caring about the sound I make now when I head down the stairs.