Snowed In With My Stepbrother novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Disgusting

Nobody said anything for a second.

The wood burner ticked.

"Isobel," Finlay said. "Sit down. We'll talk about this."

"I'm not talking to you." She didn't even look at him. "Ailsa. Upstairs. Now."

"Mum."

"Now, or I'll say it here, and I'll say it loud enough for the yard."

Finlay came round the desk.

I put my hand on his arm.

"Stay here," I said. "She's my mother. I'll do it."

He looked at my hand on his sleeve, and at her.

Then he stepped back.

I followed her across the yard and up the back stairs to the blue room without a word between us.

She shut the door and stood against it.

My suitcase was open on the four-poster bed.

It was packed.

My jumpers were folded inside. My sketchbook was on top. My washbag was zipped and tucked down the side.

She had been in my room and packed my bag before she ever came to find me.

"You're leaving," she said. "Today. The car's out. I checked."

"You packed my bag."

"Somebody had to do something sensible in this family."

"Who told you? Euan?"

"Euan was decent enough to come to me first, instead of Alasdair."

"Decent," I said. "He threatened to put that photo on a noticeboard."

"And whose fault is that?"

Her voice cracked up high on the last word.

She came away from the door.

"Do you know what you've done? Do you have any idea? He's your brother, Ailsa."

"He's not my brother. I met him when I was twenty-two. You married his dad two months later."

"He's your stepbrother, which in a place like this is the same thing. It's disgusting. It's disgusting, and people will say so, and they'll be right."

"People can say what they like."

"People will say it about me!"

There it was.

She pressed her hand flat against her chest, over the wedding diamond.

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