Chapter 9: The Spare Room

Nobody on Ocean Avenue moved.

Seven neighbours stood holding bags, and every one of them was watching Cora.

She stood by her open car door in the thin rain, looking at her husband.

"Say something," she said.

"Get back in the car," Eli said.

"Is she the plan? Is that what you've been doing, in your office, all those nights?"

"Cora." He did not raise his voice. "You have until the Caldecott anniversary gala. After that you're out of my house."

"The twenty-fourth?"

"The twenty-fourth. I'll have your things boxed."

The old woman from number twelve made a small noise in her throat.

Cora looked around at the porches, and her face crumpled.

She pulled her cardigan tight, walked past Matilda without a glance and went up the Caldecott lawn.

Zach opened his arms on the front step, and she walked straight into them.

He held her there, in front of the whole street, with his chin on her hair.

"Good," Eli said, very quietly.

"Good?" Matilda asked.

"Everyone just saw it. Nobody can say it was a dare now."

Judith lowered her umbrella and looked at the van, and for the first time since Matilda had known her she had nothing to say.

They drove away in the bakery van with the last of the bags piled in the back, and Dot's elbow in Matilda's ribs.

"That man kissed you like he'd been saving it up," Dot said.

"Dot."

"I'm only saying what the neighbourhood saw."

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