Chapter 4: The Blue Room

Euan leaned on the door frame and let the dressing gown fall open at the chest.

"Can't sleep either?" he said.

"Get out of my room."

"It's not really your room, is it? It's where they keep the spare lamps."

He looked at the bed, then at me in my T-shirt with the duvet at my waist.

"Your mother's done well for herself," he said. "Married the laird after eight months. That's talent."

"Get out."

"I'm only saying. You've got her face. If you ever wanted to do as well, you'd not have to look far."

He took one step into the room.

I picked up the bedside lamp by its neck and pulled the plug out of the wall.

"Take one more and I'll put this through your teeth," I said, very loudly. "Get out of my room, Euan!"

My voice went down the servants' stair.

A door banged somewhere below.

Feet came up the stairs two at a time.

Finlay came round the turn in a T-shirt and track bottoms, barefoot, and saw Euan in my doorway and me with the lamp.

His face went completely still.

"Move," he said to Euan.

"Calm down, cousin. I got lost."

"You grew up in this house. Move."

Euan moved, about a foot.

Then someone else came up the stairs behind Finlay.

My mother.

She wasn't in a dressing gown.

She was in her trousers and a jumper, and her hair was brushed.

"What on earth is this noise?" she said. "You'll wake Alasdair."

"He walked into my room at two in the morning," I said.

Mum looked at Euan.

Something passed between them, too fast to read.

"He got lost, Ailsa," she said. "It's a big house. Don't be hysterical."

"I'm holding a lamp, Mum. I'm not hysterical. I'm armed."

"Put it down. You're making a show of yourself in front of Finlay."

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