Libby in the Middle

by Gwyneth Rees

  ‘She didn’t want to keep Sam a secret, Dad. She felt like she didn’t have a choice, because you wanted to split them up. And it’s not like she wanted to move here or go to St Clara’s. She’s really nervous about it. She thinks she’ll never catch up with the work and that everyone will think she’s thick. And she must be really worried about what you’re going to do now. She won’t guess that you’re going to let Sam stay with us. I bet she thinks he’s going to get sent back to his mum’s.’

  ‘I probably would send him back if she’d have him,’ Dad grunted.

  I paused, sensing a shred of common ground now.

  ‘His mum doesn’t sound very nice,’ I said slowly.

  ‘Not a maternal bone in her body, I’d say,’ he muttered, shaking his head as if he found her lack of parental concern totally bewildering. ‘OK, so she was a kid herself when she had him but she’s not a kid any longer. And there are plenty of young mums out there who care a hell of a lot more than that!’

  I didn’t say anything else. Dad was on Sam’s side now, which was all that mattered.

  We got home to find Mum in the kitchen making dinner and Grace in the living room doing a jigsaw. I presumed Bella was up in our room, sulking.

  ‘Libby, why don’t you help Grace do her jigsaw?’ Dad said. ‘I need to speak to Mum.’

  ‘Can I go and see Bella first?’

  ‘No. Stay with Grace. I’ll talk to Bella after I’ve spoken to your mother.’

  ‘Libby!’ My little sister immediately pulled me over to the table where she’d started to set out a jigsaw that Aunt Thecla had bought for her. It had way too many pieces because our aunt thought she needed ‘a bit of a challenge’.

  I half expected Bella to come downstairs now we were back. Unless she was lying on her bed with her earphones in and hadn’t heard us come in.

  After a while Dad went up to speak to her and Mum came through to the living room to tell us dinner was almost ready. We heard Dad calling out Bella’s name. Then he shouted down from the landing, ‘She’s not up here.’

  ‘Well, she’s not down here,’ Mum said, heading up the stairs to join him.

  I started to feel my heart thumping in my chest even before I heard Dad exclaim, ‘Wait! There’s a note!’

  I raced upstairs with Grace close behind wanting to know what was wrong.

  I glanced around our bedroom, trying to spot if anything was missing. Bella’s rucksack usually hung on a peg on the back of the door along with her summer jacket. Both were gone. And I knew what had happened even before Dad started to read out her note …

  Two hours later, Grace had gone to bed and my parents were sitting at the kitchen table looking shattered. Since we’d found out Bella had run away we’d tried everything we could think of to locate her.

  Aunt Thecla hadn’t seen her or heard from her. I’d phoned Sam at the hospital to see if she’d contacted him, but she hadn’t. Dad had even phoned the ward and spoken to a nurse, who confirmed Sam hadn’t had any visitors since we’d left. Her bike was still in the shed, so she hadn’t cycled anywhere. I just couldn’t understand where she’d gone when she was totally without money. That’s when I remembered the brooch.

  I rushed to check her jewellery box, where I knew she kept it.

  ‘It’s not here,’ I said.

  We started trying to work out how long Bella had been gone. Apparently when Dad had phoned Mum to let her know we were at the hospital with Sam, Bella had begged to be allowed to catch the next bus to Castle Westbury to go and see him. But Mum said no and that she should wait for Dad and me to get back. After that Bella had stayed in her room – or so Mum thought.

  ‘Do you think she’s going to try and sell the brooch?’ Mum asked me.

  ‘No way!’ I said at once. ‘She loves that brooch!’

  ‘But she doesn’t have any money. Where will she sleep tonight? If only we hadn’t confiscated her phone …’

  ‘She wouldn’t have answered it, Nina,’ Dad said sombrely. ‘She’s not daft. She must have a plan. And I bet it involves Sam – even if he doesn’t know it yet.’

  ‘She might have called him at the hospital already and he’s just not telling us,’ Mum said.

  ‘How can she call him when she hasn’t got her phone?’ I pointed out.

  ‘There’s such a thing as an old-fashioned telephone box, Libby,’ Dad said drily. ‘Though come to think of it, would she even know how to use one?’

  Mum rubbed her eyes. ‘Libby, are you sure you can’t think of anywhere else she might have gone? What about that girl you’ve been hanging out with recently?’

  ‘Tansy? Bella hardly knows her.’

  ‘Phone her anyway, just to check.’

  I did, and Mum spoke to Tansy’s dad, but they hadn’t seen Bella either. Aunt Thecla phoned some of her friends to ask if anyone had seen her in the village that evening, but none of them had. Mum started phoning B & Bs and guest houses in Castle Westbury to see if any girl who sounded like Bella had checked in.

  Finally she told me to go to bed. As I lay there I tried to think what I would do if I was Bella. Where would I go? I tried to imagine how she must be feeling and why she’d decided to run away.

  I slept fitfully that night, worrying about Bella every time I woke up.

  In the morning the first thing I did was run downstairs to see if there was any news. Aunt Thecla was in the kitchen. Mum and Dad had already left the house to look for Bella in Castle Westbury.

  ‘I told them she’ll probably come back under her own steam,’ Aunt Thecla said. ‘After all, she can’t very well run off with that boy now he’s got a broken leg. It’s not like he can whisk her away on the back of his motorbike, is it?’

  ‘Do they think Sam knows where she is?’ I asked.

  ‘The boy’s not answering his phone apparently. But for sure she’ll be at that hospital to see him at some point today. I told them they should just go there and wait.’

  I went upstairs and tried Sam’s phone myself, but it went straight to voicemail. I started to worry that Bella had already contacted him and that they were planning to run away together. After all, neither of them knew that Dad was willing to let Sam stay at our place. She probably thought she would have to take matters into her own hands if she didn’t want to be separated from him.

  I tried to think what Bella and Sam might do next. They couldn’t ride off into the sunset together on his motorbike, that was for sure. But if Sam was planning to run away with her he would first need to make some sort of arrangement for his bike. I knew he wouldn’t just abandon it. In fact, if he couldn’t use it himself any more maybe he would even try and sell it.

  I threw on some clothes and raced out of the house before Aunt Thecla could ask any questions. I arrived at the garage just as Bill was opening up.

  ‘Bill, have you heard from Sam?’ I asked him breathlessly. ‘He’s broken his leg. I think he’ll need some help with his motorbike. Maybe he’ll even need to sell it. I thought he might have contacted you about it?’

  ‘No.’ He looked puzzled and I immediately felt deflated until he added, ‘It would make more sense if he was phoning me about that, right enough.’

  ‘What? Wait – so he has phoned you?’

  ‘He called last night. One of my customers owns a jewellery shop in Castle Westbury. Sam did a bit of work on her car while he was here. He wanted to know the name of her shop.’

  I instantly felt excited. ‘Did he say if he wanted to sell some jewellery?’

  ‘Sell? Oh wait …’ He was looking worried now. ‘She buys antique jewellery, but she won’t touch anything dodgy. He’s not fencing stuff, is he?’

  ‘Oh no, it’s nothing like that!’ I said at once. ‘It’s just my sister’s got something she might be trying to sell and she might have asked him to help.’

  He told me the name and address of the shop and I rushed back home, knowing I couldn’t do the next part on my own. I was going to have to ask Aunt Thecla for help.

&n
bsp; Chapter Thirty

  Aunt Thecla gave me a lift to the jewellery shop Bill had told me about. First she went inside herself while I waited in the car with Grace. I just hoped we weren’t too late. We’d managed to get here half an hour after the shop had opened, but it was still possible Bella had already been and gone.

  My aunt came back to the car five minutes later. ‘They do buy and sell antique jewellery but nobody has been in there yet this morning. I think I should move the car in case Bella recognises it. I’ll leave you here, Libby. She’s more likely to listen to you. Grace and I can go to the park.’

  ‘What about Mum and Dad?’ I asked, knowing they wouldn’t like the fact that we hadn’t filled them in on our plan.

  ‘We don’t want them interfering and scaring her off,’ Aunt Thecla said firmly. ‘We’ll tell them later.’

  ‘She might not even come,’ I said. ‘Maybe she’s gone to see Sam first.’

  ‘Then your parents will be there waiting for her.’ Mum had already phoned to say they were heading for the hospital after failing to find any sign of Bella in town.

  ‘But what if –’

  ‘Do stop procrastinating, Elisabeth! It’s a perfectly good plan, so let’s get on with it!’

  I watched Aunt Thecla drive away with Grace, then I picked a spot to wait for Bella. I wondered which direction she would come from – if she came at all. I was certain she’d have to be feeling really desperate to sell her brooch. It was quite possible she’d already changed her mind.

  I found a place behind a parked van a short distance along the road from the shop. Ten minutes later I saw her. I almost shouted out to her in my excitement but I stopped myself. I wanted to get close enough to talk to her without scaring her off, so I waited until she was inside the shop before I followed her.

  ‘Bella!’ I called out from the doorway. As she whirled round I said, ‘Don’t worry. It’s just me. I need to talk to you.’

  She looked a bit shaken. ‘I’ll just be a minute,’ she told the lady behind the counter. Then she stalked over to grab my arm and march me outside. ‘How did you know I was here? Did Sam tell you?’

  ‘No,’ I reassured her at once. ‘I spoke to Bill at the garage. He said Sam asked him about this place. Mum and Dad don’t know. But, Bella, you can’t sell your brooch. You love it!’

  ‘Not as much as I love Sam! I have to sell it to pay for a place for us to stay until his leg heals.’

  ‘Bella, listen … Dad’s changed his mind about Sam. He says he can come and stay with us when he gets out of hospital. He says he underestimated how much you two love each other.’

  Bella was scowling suspiciously. ‘That doesn’t sound like Dad. Anyway, Sam never mentioned it when I spoke to him. Are you sure Mum and Dad haven’t put you up to this?’

  For some reason her distrust really got to me. I felt anger rise up in my chest, and instead of being my usual submissive self I snapped, ‘So what are you saying? That you think I’m lying? Because … NEWSFLASH! … I’m actually not that mean!’

  ‘I never said you were mean!’ she snapped back.

  ‘Good, because you’re the one who’s mean – especially to me!’

  ‘It’s not my fault if you’re way too sensitive!’ she said dismissively.

  ‘Sensitive? Bella, you told me everyone thinks I’m a dork, and that Sam thinks I’m a fat lump!’

  ‘Yeah, well … I already told you I was sorry about that. It’s just … sometimes you just need putting down a bit!’

  ‘WHAT?’

  ‘You can be such a goody-goody sometimes, Libby! You never get into trouble! Everyone thinks you’re so smart! Mum and Dad are so proud of you because you’re so clever! At school all the teachers love you! Even Sam says you’re really wise for a twelve-year-old! Sometimes it just makes me want to hit you!’

  I was totally astounded. Where had all this come from?

  ‘Remember when I told you I felt sorry for you being a middle child?’ she continued. ‘Well, honestly, Libby, you make being a middle child look like the place to be! You’re in the middle of everything all the time and everyone in the family tells you stuff – even Aunt Thecla! I bet you never feel like an outsider!’

  I stared at her. I had no idea she felt this way. It was true that recently I’d come to see that my family did value my opinions and seemed to find me easy to talk to. But I’d never realised Bella felt left out. ‘But you’ve always been so cool and confident compared to me!’ I grasped at the one fact I knew she couldn’t deny. ‘And you’re so slim and pretty! I’ve always longed to be more like you!’

  She scowled. ‘Maybe I am prettier than you,’ she said matter-of-factly, ‘but you even managed to trump that by looking exactly like Dad and Aunt Thecla’s ugly-but-saintly dead mother!’

  At that I snorted. I didn’t mean to, but it seemed to make Bella see the funny side too. Just as we were both struggling to keep our faces straight my phone started ringing.

  When I saw who it was I handed it to Bella. ‘It’s Dad.’

  ‘I don’t want to speak to him,’ she grunted.

  ‘Go on, Bella. He’ll tell you himself that Sam can stay with us. Besides, they’re really worried about you.’

  Reluctantly she took the call. I tried not to deliberately listen in but it was pretty obvious that Mum and Dad were both very emotional at the other end, which made Bella get all emotional too. In the end, she put me on the phone to speak to them. I told them that Aunt Thecla was with Grace down the road at the park and that I’d ask her to drive us all to the hospital to meet them.

  After I’d phoned our aunt to fill her in I went over to join Bella, who was sitting on a nearby wall. To my horror she was crying.

  ‘Oh, Bella,’ I exclaimed as I sat down beside her. I flung my arms around her fiercely, because at the end of the day she was still my sister and I would always love her. I briefly wondered if I needed to remind her of that fact, but then she returned my hug just as fiercely and I knew we were OK.

  Sam was discharged from hospital the following day. Dad drove back alone to fetch him. He said he wanted to have a serious man-to-man talk with him on the way home, and that he didn’t need any girls interrupting them.

  When they finally arrived, Bella held back from flinging herself at Sam while Dad helped him inside the house on his crutches. Sam’s leg was encased in thick white plaster up to his thigh.

  Dad helped him into the living room, where Bella had made up the sofa bed with loads of extra pillows. In fact, judging by how many she’d used, I doubted the rest of us would have anything to rest our heads on when we went to bed that night.

  ‘Where’s Grace?’ Dad asked.

  ‘Gone to look at puppies with Aunt Thecla,’ I told him. Grace had been trying to persuade her to get another dog ever since we’d got here.

  Dad rolled his eyes as he said, ‘So what do you think the chances are of her coming back without one?’

  As soon as Sam was settled on the sofa with his leg up, Bella flopped down beside him and reached out to tap his plaster cast. ‘Does it hurt?’

  ‘Only when you do that,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘You need to take your next dose of painkillers,’ Dad suddenly remembered. ‘I’ll get them for you.’

  As soon as he’d gone Sam said quietly, ‘I’ve missed you, Bella.’

  ‘I’ve missed you too. I’ve been so worried!’ She leant over so her face was level with his and for an awful moment I thought they were going to start kissing right there in front of me. But then Bella whispered, ‘Where’s your bike?’

  ‘I’m going to get Bill to collect it.’

  Aha – just as I thought.

  ‘I can’t ride with you any more,’ Bella told him. ‘I promised Dad.’

  ‘I know. He told me.’

  Dad came back into the room with a glass of water and a couple of tablets, which he handed to Sam. ‘We’ll have dinner when Mum gets here. Bella, why don’t you get Sam a snack? He probably shouldn’t t
ake these painkillers on an empty stomach.’

  Bella gave Sam a grin as she said, ‘Peanut butter on toast?’ which I was guessing must be his favourite.

  And as my sister walked past Dad she did something she hasn’t done in a really long time. She threw her arms around him in a massive hug and said, ‘Thanks for this, Dad. You’re the best!’

  After he’d eaten, Sam phoned and spoke to Bill, who agreed to fetch his bike.

  ‘I could go with him and show him where it is,’ I offered.

  But Dad vetoed that instantly. ‘You’ll do no such thing.’

  ‘I can go myself,’ Sam said.

  Dad just snorted. ‘You’ll do no such thing either. You need to rest and keep that leg elevated as much as possible.’

  ‘I’ll be OK,’ Sam said, and began to shuffle across the sofa bed as if to prove his point by standing up on his own.

  ‘Hey, are you trying to get on my wrong side?’ Dad snapped crossly.

  Sam instantly stopped shuffling.

  ‘You can draw a map for Bill,’ Dad told him.

  ‘It’s in the middle of the woods,’ Bella pointed out. ‘There’s nothing to draw, apart from trees.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Sam agreed. ‘I’m not sure how easy it will be to find.’

  ‘Then you’ll just have to hope he doesn’t charge you by the hour, won’t you?’ Dad said unsympathetically. ‘Or you might end up having to give the bike to him – the part that doesn’t belong to your uncle, that is.’

  Sam flushed. ‘You’ve spoken to Uncle John?’

  ‘He phoned me again this morning. He’s coming here next weekend to see you and collect the bike. Bill says he’ll keep it at the garage until then.’

  ‘So that’s it? I don’t even get a say?’ Sam was scowling now for all he was worth.

  Dad shrugged. ‘I’d say I’m sorry, Sam, but we both know that’s not true. Anyway, I think losing the bike is the least of your problems, judging by how angry your uncle sounded on the phone.’

  When Aunt Thecla brought Grace home, my little sister was bouncing up and down with excitement. ‘Aunt Thecla’s bought two puppies!’ she announced. ‘We’re going to get them as soon as they’re old enough to leave their mother. And she says I can help name them!’