Page 29 of Save You (Maxton Hall #2)

Ruby

I didn’t sleep a wink.

I spent the whole night thinking about what happened at the party.

About a setback like that happening right when James and I had been cautiously getting closer to each other again.

I’m most frustrated by the fact that I can’t tell James in my own words what happened between Wren and me that time.

Before the party finished, I messaged him to say I wanted to explain, but he hasn’t replied.

I get that he’s disappointed in me. But on the other hand, him going silent is really winding me up.

Lying in bed, I stare, lost in thought, at my acceptance from Oxford, which I printed out and pinned up on the board over my desk. As always, my stomach does a little leap for joy at the sight of it, but I’m thinking about what James told me two days ago.

The person you got to know in Oxford… that’s the real me. And I’d like to have more days with you where I can prove that.

The thought that it might already be too late makes my throat clench. I groan with annoyance and get up and dress. I absolutely have to leave this room and take my mind off things or I’ll go mad.

I creep over to Ember’s room and breathe a sigh of relief as I see light under her door.

“Ember?” I whisper.

“Come in,” she calls out, and I open the door.

My sister is lying on her front on her bed, smiling at her phone. As she sees me glance over curiously, she blushes and shoves it hastily under the duvet.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Reading the comments on my new post.” Her reply is instant. If her cheeks weren’t so pink, I’d believe every word of it.

“You look like I’ve caught you in the middle of something naughty,” I say, sitting on the edge of her bed.

“I’m in my PJs, so it can’t be that disreputable,” she retorts, waggling her eyebrows.

I grin back at her. Then I nod toward the landing.

“Are you coming down to breakfast? I don’t want to face Mum and Dad’s curiosity on my own. They’re going to be full of questions.”

Ember sighs but slides out of bed and into her slippers.

She doesn’t bother to get dressed, just heads downstairs in her pajamas, with their cute print of squirrels and nuts.

She’s holding tight to her phone, and I see the screen light up again and again.

I wonder if it’s Kieran texting her. The two of them seemed to be getting on last night.

“Good morning,” says Dad as he sees us come through the kitchen door and slides his reading glasses up his nose.

He’s reading something on the Kindle that we all share, which therefore has a really wide range of books on it.

Everything from contemporary romances to thrillers, fantasy, and the classics.

“Morning,” Ember and I reply, sitting down at the kitchen table with him.

“Hey,” Mum calls, coming into the kitchen too. “You’re up early.” Her eyes narrow as she looks at me. “Did you get any sleep at all, Ruby?”

Dad and Ember turn their eyes on me curiously.

I look away and help myself to toast. “Yeah, sure.”

“Well, I’m not surprised if you’re knackered,” Ember says suddenly. “I had no idea how much work goes into those parties, or all the stuff you have to think about. It’s crazy!”

I smile thankfully at her. “You’re welcome to keep on with the compliments.”

Mum pushes the butter over to me, followed by Dad’s apple jam. “Tell me about your evening, you two.”

“It all went to plan,” I say, starting to butter my toast. “Which is a relief.”

Mum’s used to my concise answers to anything to do with Maxton Hall, so she turns her attention to Ember. But my sister is busy texting someone, her phone under the table, so she doesn’t even notice Mum speaking to her.

“What are you grinning at, Ember?” Dad asks, about a second before I got to ask her the same thing.

Caught, she glances up. “I’m not grinning at anything.”

Dad raises an eyebrow and Mum repeats her request, more firmly this time. “Come on, tell me about yesterday evening.”

I shrug and take a bite of my toast, looking just as expectantly as Mum and Dad at Ember.

“It was lovely,” she says in the end, sounding genuinely enthusiastic. “The school is so pretty—it doesn’t come across properly online. And the dresses the women were wearing! They were all so beautiful.”

She sighs and pours herself a cup of tea.

“Is that it? All I’m getting?” asks Mum.

I can’t help wondering why she’s being so persistent.

Is it because she’s finally got a chance to get the details of a Maxton Hall party from someone?

Or is she worried about Ember? It took us a bit of work last week to get Mum to agree that she could come with me.

Or maybe there’s a completely different reason.

Ember doesn’t let it faze her. She leisurely butters her slice of toast, then looks up. “I met a boy. Is that what you want to hear, Mum?”

My head whirls around and I stare at her. “Was it Kieran? Please tell me that it was Kieran.”

“Who on earth is Kieran?” Dad asks, putting the Kindle down. He looks from Ember to me and back again.

“A nice boy on the events committee.”

Mum breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank God for that. There was me thinking I was about to have you curled up on the couch like a lovesick beetle too.”

“Hey! I wasn’t a lovesick beetle.”

Mum and Dad glance at each other, a long look that says more than a thousand words.

“If you say so, love,” Mum says after a while, but not with her usual smile. “Anyway, Ember, tell us about this boy.”

“Oi!” Ember exclaims, glaring furiously at Mum and then at me.

“One, it’s none of your business. Two, I don’t owe anyone here an explanation of anything.

And three, ‘met a boy’ doesn’t mean I’ve got a boyfriend now.

I turned him down, as it happens, and now I’m waiting to see how he reacts.

So don’t go making it into some massive deal. ”

I stare at my sister. “Who is it, Ember?”

Ember stares back at me, eyebrows raised. “I’m not telling you.”

“Ember, I…”

“Forget it, Ruby. Now, can we please have breakfast in peace?” She bites demonstratively into her toast.

The rest of breakfast drags by at a snail’s pace.

After a minute or two, Dad tries to lighten the mood, but without much success.

My thoughts are whirling. I’m running through yesterday evening in my mind, wondering when Ember had the chance to spend longer than five minutes chatting with a boy who wasn’t Kieran.

It must have been him. But then she wouldn’t be being this mysterious about it, would she?

After breakfast, Ember and I load the dishwasher in silence, and then go upstairs together.

Before she vanishes into her room, she gives me another thin smile, which I return wearily.

We never normally snap at each other like that, but I can’t shake the feeling that something happened last night, something I should have done better at protecting Ember from.

I sigh and push open my bedroom door, and at that very second, my phone pings. I snatch it up from my desk and tap on the message with shaking fingers.

Can we talk?

I type my reply so fast that my phone can’t keep up and all the words come out wrong, and I have to start again at the beginning.

Of course. When and where?

I count the seconds until James answers, holding my breath as my phone gives another quiet ping.

Right now, if I can come over? I can head over in a minute.

I hesitate a moment. I’ve never invited James into our house before. Introducing him to my parents would be a huge step.

But deep down, I can sense that I’m ready. I can be around him without crumbling now. And the fact that he wants to talk to me proves that, despite everything that happened yesterday, he feels the same way.

So I reply:

OK.

Then I go back downstairs, phone in hand. Mum and Dad are in the living room now. Dad’s engrossed in his Kindle book again and Mum’s going through the week’s post. Cautiously, I walk over to them and clear my throat.

“Is it OK if James comes round in a bit?” I ask.

Mum pauses with the letter opener still in her hand and glances at Dad in surprise. I can still hear her words about a “lovesick beetle” in my head, and it’s an effort not to look away from their concerned expressions.

“We only want the best for you, love,” Dad starts slowly. “And we couldn’t help noticing the bad way you were in for the whole of December.”

“That wasn’t my Ruby,” Mum says quietly. “I really don’t want you meeting up with that boy again.”

I open my mouth and shut it again.

My parents have never forbidden me to do anything. Probably because there’s never been much to forbid. My whole life has always revolved around my family and my academic ambitions. Something fires up inside me. I think it’s a mixture of confusion and irritation that they’d say that.

“James is…” I can’t find the words. I have no idea how to explain to my parents what happened between him and me.

Maybe there’s some way I can get through to them how much he means to me. And that my heart will always cling to him. But I need time. After all, I don’t know what’s about to happen.

“Please just trust me,” I say in the end, looking pleadingly at them.

The two of them exchange glances again.

Mum sighs. “Ruby, you’re eighteen. We can’t exactly ban you from seeing him. But if this boy is coming here, we’d like the chance to get to know him.”

I nod. Meanwhile, I’m wondering whether Mum’s done her research into James and the Beauforts online. That had never occurred to me before, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that is why she’s dubious—after all, I know what you can read about him on there.

“He’s not a vegetarian, is he?” Dad asks suddenly, looking inquiringly up at me.

I have to think about that. “I don’t think so.”

“Good. I was planning to do spaghetti Bolognese later. James is invited.” That’s all Dad says. Then he turns back to his book.