Page 96 of The Twins

Amy glanced at me, and I saw a flash of uncertainty.

“It’s up to you,” I said, knowing she didn’t share her past easily.

“From Yorkshire.”

“Fair distance then.” He reached for his water and took a sip.

“Agooddistance.”

He raised his left eyebrow. “Oh?”

“I had to put miles between myself and where I grew up.”

“Which was Yorkshire?”

“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “It wasn’t exactly a conventional childhood.”

“In what way?” His focus on her was intense.

I wasn’t sure if it was because he was wildly attracted to her or it was professional curiosity.

“It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” Her jaw tensed. “I grew up in a cult.” She stared straight at him, her chin tipped in determination. “Not that they called it that, it’s known as The Way Forward, a group who believed it was their calling to repopulate a dwindling human race without the interference of outsiders. A new tribe that was self-sufficient and self-ruled.”

“Must have been difficult,” he said, “to grow up in that.”

“Yes, it was. My parents…they weren’t married.”

“Lots of people have children out of wedlock.” His voice was gentle, coaxing.

“They believed in gene sharing, in other words my father had multiple children with multiple women, and my mother, she gave birth to ten children. Only my twin is my full sibling.”

“You’re a twin.” Mitch set his drink down and stayed leaning in with his elbows on his knees, hands dangling between. “Did he, she, come to Oxford with you?”

“No, he didn’t, he believed in the cause.”

A frown had formed on Mitch’s brow. “So you must have had a big house, all those kids.”

“No, us kids lived in dorms, long sheds, and ate communally and had to grab whatever clothes we could of a morning.” She went quiet and closed her eyes. “It was…”

I rested a hand on her leg. “It wasn’t a conventional childhood. There was no real closeness with your parents, isn’t that right, Amy?”

“That’s right, we were just a number.” She opened her eyes and set her attention on Mitch. “We had to conform or we were locked up on our own for days. I didn’t…don’t know parental love like most people do.”

“I’m really sorry you went through that,” Mitch said, his dark eyes flashing. “It shouldn’t be allowed.”

“No it shouldn’t,” I said. “So when I met Amy, I wanted to help.”

“How did you meet?” he asked.

“I hit eighteen and left with just the clothes on my back,” Amy said. “I went to the roadside and hitched a lift.”

“Risky!” He downturned his mouth.

“I was lucky, a professor of botany picked me up. She’d been lecturing up north and was heading back to Oxford. I told her my entire story, and instead of just dropping me off on a street corner, she helped me get on my feet, and that included getting me a lawyer.” She smiled at me. “Which is how I met my best friend in the whole world.”

“I was newly qualified and doing pro-bono work. We met, hit it off straight away, and have been close ever since.”