‘Well, we can figure it out,’ Emily qualified. ‘You can learn anything from the internet.’
‘Sure,’ Kate agreed. ‘But are we really going to turn down the help?’
‘I suppose it would keep him out of trouble,’ Emily mused.
Kate bridled at her admonishing tone, but Noah only rolled his eyes.
‘You know, if you’re buying wood you’re going to need better transport than Jasper. I’ve got a mate in the town owes me a favour. I can get us a van if you want.’
‘That sounds great. Can you drive it too?’
‘I’ve got my licence. I learned to drive on the farm. Of course, Dan never lends me his truck and since Emily appeared on the scene Jasper is always spoken for. But I’m a good driver.’
‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ put in Emily. She may have been trying for humour, but her sarcasm fell woefully short of the mark. Kate sighed as Noah set his jaw.
‘You don’t have to come,’ he said to Emily in a tight voice. ‘If you have other plans, Kate and I can manage.’
Emily frowned; she knew she had gone too far, but was loath to apologise. ‘Of course I don’t have other plans. I guess it would be good to have the use of a van, and if you want to come along that would be helpful.’ She was less than magnanimous.
‘We could use the muscle,’ Kate said, to make up for Emily’s waspishness, and Noah flushed with pleasure.
‘I’ll give my mate a call and I’ll meet you guys back here with the van in a while. Okay?’
‘That sounds perfect. Doesn’t it, Emily?’
Emily gave a non-committal grunt. ‘You need to check with Dan, make sure it’s all right. You can’t just leave him in the lurch. He’ll sack you.’
‘Like that would be a hardship,’ Noah said, and he disappeared out of the room before Emily could retort.
When Noah exited the kitchen, he left behind a tense silence. Emily wore a buttoned-up look that did little to encourage Kate in overtures of conversation; she sipped her mug of tea, picked up a newspaper – which, Kate noticed, was several days old – and began to read with great deliberation. She might have preferred a novel but, none being to hand, a newspaper would suffice; to Emily, reading anything was always preferable to not reading at all. Kate felt awkward, having observed the perplexing exchanges and felt the earth shift beneath her feet again – her Emily of old was warm, funny, loquacious: sometimes impulsive, often abrupt, but never unkind.
She watched Emily until she could bear the silence no longer and had to speak. They had been reunited not twenty-four hours – yesterday everything had seemed so exciting and strange, every moment budding with possibility. Now it was different, strained.
‘So,’ Kate said cautiously. ‘I think it will be good to have Noah’s help. And, of course, it will be nice for me to get to know him properly.’
Emily barely looked up from the pages of her newspaper. ‘Mmm.’
‘I thought you were a little hard on him before, to be honest.’
Emily’s head snapped up and she set aside the newspaper. ‘You don’t know,’ she said, not harshly, but it still stung. ‘I mean, he was expelled from school, Kate. And everything … everything’s just been such a mess.’ She ran a hand through her hair, working at its knots and tangles.
Kate knew Emily was not only talking about her brother. She nodded slowly. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I suppose it must be tough for you all, Noah’s expulsion, and Lena … but everyone seems to be on Noah’s case. That’s just my opinion. As an outsider, observing.’ She held up her hands and surrendered with a small smile. She wasn’t here to upset the apple cart, unless it needed upsetting – perhaps that was her purpose after all.
Emily sighed with a long-suffering air. ‘You’re not an outsider,’ she said. She didn’t argue with the rest of Kate’s assessment ‘The thing is …’ She paused. ‘Look, it’s not my place to tell you about Noah. I hope he’ll tell you himself. Mum and Dad sent him to Dan to get him away from all the unpleasantness, but he won’t talk to any of us. He needs to talk to somebody, but it obviously isn’t going to be Dan or me. I think maybe it could be you.’
‘I hardly know him,’ Kate objected. ‘I haven’t seen him since he was a kid.’
‘Yes, but you and he had a bond.’ Emily looked bleak. ‘You know, sometimes I think you were a better sister to him than I was.’
Kate shook her head, exasperated. ‘No,’ she said. ‘You’re his sister. You just need to let up on him a bit.’
Emily didn’t say anything for a while. When she did, her voice was small. ‘Well, I was still hoping that you could speak to him.’
‘I will, if you think it will help. But only if Noah wants to talk to me.’
‘If you hear the full story, perhaps you’ll understand why Dan and I are so anxious about him.’ She stood quickly. ‘I’m going to see Lena,’ she said ‘To check on her before we leave.’
Kate was left alone in the kitchen with a mug of cooling tea she didn’t want, a pile of unwashed dishes surrounding her and the creeping knowledge that when she had clicked that link on the airline website to book her ticket, she really hadn’t had the first idea what she was getting herself into.
*
Half an hour later, Noah reappeared in a beat-up van. Kate was enjoying the pale gold of the morning sunshine and a moment of solitude, as she allowed the world to settle down a bit after her hasty hurtle across the Atlantic and the revelations of disquiet at Bluebell Bank; sitting on a bench outside Bluebell Bank in front of the gravel drive where Jasper was parked alongside her shiny rental car. The gravel gave way to grass – much too unruly to be called a lawn – which thickened and straggled as it merged into the edge of the wood, which in turn grew more dense as it sloped downwards towards the stream. To the other side lay the hill which, carpeted blue in spring, gave the house its name.
Noah lurched up the drive and crunched to a halt in front of her. He leaned out the open window, amid a blast of loud music, looking ridiculously pleased with himself. ‘Kate, are you ready? C’mon, let’s go. Where’s Em?’
Kate stood up with a languid stretch and a yawn ‘She’s still in the garden with Lena. Shall I go and get her?’
‘No need.’ Noah pressed his foot down and the engine revved throatily beneath the bonnet. ‘C’mon,’ he urged again, eager to begin what was something of an adventure to him.
Kate, not entirely devoid of adventuresome spirit this morning either, was looking forward to the trip too. She left her bench and went to open the passenger door, spotting Emily coming round the side of the house, latching the gate behind her. She scrunched across the gravel and got in the van without a word. Noah backed out of the drive and executed a rough turn with a spray of gravel.
Kate sat in the middle. On one side of her was Noah, eyes fixed on the road, on the other Emily stared out the window, her body angled away and a discouraging expression on her face. They drove for several minutes before anyone spoke, the thrumming bass of the music vibrating through Kate’s bones and the jerky lurching of the van’s suspension shoogling her.
Noah turned to Kate and yelled over the music, ‘So, where are we headed first?’
Kate glanced at Emily; this was her enterprise. When Emily didn’t reply, Kate leaned across to turn the music down. ‘I thought the nearest hardware store, wherever that is.’
‘I know a place. It’s not far. Do you think we could stop in town for a coffee before we get on the road?’ He slowed hopefully as they approached the turning for