Chapter Five
Edmund
and Annabelle
This secluded section of Hampstead Heath
also led to a hidden laneway that attached Hareton Hall to The Grange. Kate and
Heath ran down the lane and it brought them out in the garden of the
neighbouring property. They laughed when they saw their neighbours, Edmund and
Annabelle, in the distance. Viewed through the low, floor-length windows of the
Grange, the Hunt siblings were taking private dancing lessons. Heath had never
seen a ballet class and thought the whole thing was hysterically funny. Kate
thought it was rather beautiful, but she would never admit that. The Grange was
a world beyond billowing cream curtains where all seemed tranquil and safe.
When the dance teacher tried to demonstrate with Edmund, how to partner, Heath
literally fell on the ground laughing.
‘Who’s out there?’ Edmund shouted, turning
towards the window. Heath and Kate crouched out of sight, beneath the sill.
‘Mind you keep your eyes up here while we
are dancing,’ the woman, wearing leg warmers and a tight hair bun, scolded him.
Edmund reluctantly looked away. Annabelle glanced up when the teacher wasn’t
looking and noticed two children. The boy looked vaguely familiar to her, about
the same age, running away from the house in the long grass. The girl tumbled
in the heather and before long they were laughing and running, fading into the
meadow.
If anyone had asked, Annabelle would have
described them as the opposite of her and her brother; free. The blonde girl
wished she could join them. Instead, her glacial, childish image, secured in
tight ballet slippers and pink ribbons, her unsmiling yet lovely face, mocked
her in the mirror.
That night, Heath lay awake under the
covers of his bed, his school trunk packed, his uniforms tagged with his
initials, perfectly starched and ironed.
The summer wind outside howled through the trees and rain fell softly on
the roof. He could see shadows of the branches outside. A breeze swept through the heath across the
pond and along the heather fields. Then all he could hear were the traces of
it, and in those traces, a whisper, and in that whisper, the sound of a tap at
his door.
Kate came wandering into his room with her
hair in curlers as she wanted to make a good “first day” impression at her new
school.
‘You look ridiculous,’ Heath said. ‘Go back
to bed. You know Greta has warned you about not distracting me now that we are
going to be in separate houses at our new school.’
Kate, hurt, turned and walked out of the
room. Heath was sorry to have been so mean but how could he explain his issues
to Kate? Lately, the desire to sink his teeth into her wrist was becoming
stronger. He’d been taking his medication twice a day and was just about to
take his evening dose when Kate arrived to tell him her hopes and dreams for
the future. She’d gone back to her room,
crawled upon her quilted bed and fallen asleep, listening to the storm rage
outside her window.
Late, very late that night, the young girl
woke to the sound of the screaming trees and the branches thrashing the window
pane. She would not be rejected this time and opened the connecting door to
find Heath fast asleep.
‘Heath,’ Kate whispered. ‘Wake up.’
‘What’s wrong?’ the boy said, crawling out
from the sleeping bag he slept in for security – the one Greta had tried, with
little success, to take away from him
these past six years.
‘I had a dream about us.’
‘Shh. Go back to sleep, Kate.’
‘I dreamt I was left outside in the rain,
freezing in winter. I cut my arm on your window and it bled and hurt and I had
to beg you to let me inside…’
Heath groaned. ‘Don’t say things like that
Kate. I would never hurt you.’ He moved uncomfortably, the venom sometimes
pulsed more strongly in his blood at night, but he’d never told anyone this.
‘Go back to sleep, Kate. It’s almost morning. You know Greta doesn’t like it
when you come in here anymore…’ He was due to take his morning vitamins, and
then he’d be sure to feel normal for at least eight hours…
Heath rolled over. Kate hovered again and
began to cry as she rocked his sleeping bag, forcing him to open his eyes.
‘Heath, Heath, wake up.’ He rolled over
unwillingly. ‘Promise me…promise me something.’
‘Alright, I promise, now go back to
sleep.’
‘Promise me, if that ever happens, you’ll
let me in.’
‘Heath smiled and shook his head sleepily,
‘I promise. Now go back to bed.’ Heath took his capsules from the bedside table
and gulped them down in the morning light.
Kate crawled beside him, dragging her
blanket around her, as he turned over. The girl gained comfort from her
nightmare only when she managed to rest her head in the crook of the reluctant
boy’s shoulder.
