Broken City

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

I don’t know how much later it is that we finally finish our plans, strangely enough we didn’t even discuss the possibility of escape, we both knew we wouldn’t make it past the great hall and besides we couldn’t desert Dec. In any case all the avenues of this mystery seem to lead here—so maybe here we’ll find the answers that have proved so elusive.

It’s strange to leave Jan and go to my own room; I’ve always shared a bed room with at least one of my sisters. I remember to go down stairs and lock the door but find I needn’t have bothered; Ryder Andak has already locked us in.

As I step into the now dark bedroom, the curtains around the bed billow out towards me so there must be a window open; I close it and the curtains before turning on the light and then walk through into the bathroom.

The only word I can think of that in anyway comes near to describing it is opulent. In one corner there is a huge tiled shower in the other extending out into the bay window is a walk in bath, every surface is highly polished marble.

“Deeta!” Jan’s voice calls excitedly and we almost collide in the door way. “Did you ever see anything like it?”

“It’s pretty impressive,” I admit.

“Impressive? I could spend my entire life in that bath!”

“Well I’m not sure about that but I fully intend to spend an hour or so in there.”

“Talking of which I’d better get back, I left the taps going,” her hands clasp mine tightly and she rolls her eyes rapturously. “Deeta—hot water comes out of the tap! G‘night Dolly.”

She is laughing as she closes the door behind her and smiling I shake my head.

I feel a moment’s hesitation when I begin to fill the bath, all my life I have lived with water restrictions; three inches was the absolute maximum for a bath, and as you have to heat every drop in a kettle over the fire you are secretly relieved that you have an excuse to stop. But with the realization that it is the Andaks resources that I’d be wasting comes a flagrant disregard for economy and I fill the huge bath to within three inches of the top.

In the end I don’t think that I spend much more than fifteen minutes immersed in the hot water, after washing my hair and lying back I find the battered feeling of stiffness ease away leaving me tired and limp, I begin to long for the cool sheets and comfort of bed.

There is a toothbrush in the stand by the sink, blue with a white stripe. I hesitate knowing it must be Tom’s but after carefully searching the cupboard above the sink and not finding another I decide that he won’t mind the imposition of me borrowing it.

Wrapped in a towel as big as a double sheet, which somewhat impedes my progress, I find myself standing in front of the wardrobe. Taking a deep breath I reach out and open the door. As I expected it is filled with Toms neatly folded clothes and I hastily grab a shirt and close the door with a bang.

I feel as though I have somehow invaded Tom’s privacy, silly because I have washed, ironed and put Tom’s clothes away for years at home. But this is different; this is something that he has shut me out of, he has never spoken of this place and I feel as though against my will and out of necessity I am being pushed into his life here and am seeing things I have no right to be viewing—you do understand, don’t you? I’m worried that I’m not explaining myself properly.

“Sorry Tom, but my need is greater than yours at the minute.”

The sheets of the bed are smooth and cool as I slide between them and I pull the covers around me feeling somehow the safety I always feel in Tom’s presence. It’s as though here in this room Tom has left something of himself, something familiar, strong and reassuring, something that I badly need in this place filled with strange people who I’m too scared to trust.