She sat forward and pulled her boots back on before getting up and walking into the kitchen to fix herself a drink. His words circled in her mind. Was he confessing to her that he had hurt Mr Morrell? Did he do that for her? She tried to ignore the feeling of excitement that bubbled under her skin. It wasn’t the only thing she could feel but she chose to ignore that even more.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jasmine watched the guest house from the bedroom window as she lay on her bed. She kept her lights out and propped her head up on her pillows, her eyelids growing heavy as she concentrated on the dim light until it went out. Apart from those first few conversations when she thought Tim was flirting with her, his intentions seemed to have changed completely now. She wasn’t even sure if the conversation she had had with him in the garden about Mr Morrell had actually happened. Maybe it was all in her mind.

Her parents were going away this weekend and were trusting her to stay home alone for the most part. Except she wouldn’t be alone as Felicity was staying over. No doubt Felicity would turn on the charm and her visit would be completely dominated by trying to get Tim’s attention. What’s more, she would succeed. Jasmine had seen it a hundred times before. Felicity liked to stay at Jasmine’s house and play happy families whenever she could. Jasmine rarely went to stay at hers. Carol, Felicity’s mother, was not really a mother at all, more like a sibling who had been forced into babysitting and rebelled against that at every opportunity. At her house there were always drug paraphernalia on the table and no shortage of drinks. You wouldn’t know any of this to look at Felicity – she did a remarkable job of acting confident – but sometimes she was a little over-eager, a little too overbearing with it, trying too hard to be like everyone else.

After what had happened at the fair Jasmine’s parents had obviously decided that Tim was trustworthy enough to be left alone with her for two nights. Since Jasmine had turned fourteen, they had these little weekends away every few months. They had always said she needed the opportunity to show them she could be trusted. Usually she just set up a projector in their old back yard and she and Felicity would watch horror movies together. It wasn’t herself she was worried about this time though, it was Tim. Every time she decided he was on the level, he did or said something to make her think otherwise. Were her parents completely oblivious to his strange behaviour?