Those Who Lie: the gripping new thriller you won’t be able to stop talking about. Diane Jeffrey

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СКАЧАТЬ they laid the ewe on her side, and then rolled her onto her back. Will talked Emily softly through each step. Then his hands disappeared inside the ewe again and finally emerged holding the lamb’s two little legs. Its nose and head followed. Will tied another piece of rope around the legs.

      ‘Nearly done,’ he said, smiling now. ‘This is the easy bit.’ He gently pulled as the ewe pushed, and the lamb slipped out in one go. ‘Come here, Em,’ he said, his smile even wider as he removed the ties. ‘Grab some straw and rub the lamb to get her blood circulating properly.’

      Emily did as she was instructed. She saw the lamb’s belly rising and falling. It was breathing.

      ‘It’s going to be fine now,’ Will said. His hands felt the second lamb inside the ewe. ‘This one’s in a good position,’ he said. ‘We can leave the ewe to get on with it when she’s ready.’

      Will’s high spirits were contagious and Emily found herself mirroring his smile. He started to sing and dance around the pen. ‘Stuck in the middle of a ewe.’ Then he laughed.

      ‘Is that even a real song?’ Emily asked, which only served to make Will laugh more.

      ‘Not quite,’ he replied. ‘The title is Stuck in the middle with you.’ Emily laughed too as she got the pun.

      ‘I hope you don’t want to be a singer when you grow up, Will,’ she joked. ‘I don’t know the song, but it sounds terribly out of tune.’

      ‘No,’ Will chuckled, ‘I want to be a vet. How about you, Em? What do you want to be when you grow up?’

      ‘Happy,’ Emily replied.

      ‘That’s a good goal,’ Will said, his smile slipping slightly.

      ‘Who sings that song anyway?’

      ‘I have no idea. It was part of the soundtrack to the film Reservoir Dogs.’

      ‘Have you seen that film?’ Emily was incredulous. She knew it had an 18 age certificate. The only film she’d watched that her parents had deemed unsuitable was Wayne’s World, but she hadn’t really understood much of it anyway.

      ‘Yeah. With a friend at the cinema in Barnstaple last summer.’

      ‘Was it any good? Is it really as violent as everyone says?’

      ‘Yeah, it has some pretty horrific scenes,’ Will said. ‘For example, that song is playing when a character called Mr Blonde tortures a policeman he’s holding hostage. He dances along to the radio while he cuts the man’s ear off with a razor.’

      ‘That sounds horrible!’ Emily exclaimed and Will laughed again. Then he grabbed Emily round the waist and continued to sing Stuck in the middle of a ewe.

      Their laughter and Will’s singing stopped at once when his father erupted into the barn. The reason for Mr Huxtable’s foul mood was unclear, but Will was immediately ordered to check on another ewe and Emily was sent home.

      ~

      Will finished reminiscing. ‘Do you think there’s any chance of you coming home soon?’ he asked now.

      ‘I don’t know,’ Emily said. ‘I think at some point I can come home and be monitored there for a few months – follow-up, they call it. In the meantime, I’m getting treatment here, so I don’t know whether they’ll let me out early or not. I’m here for two years at most, so I may be allowed out after twelve months. You’ll have gone to university by the time I get home anyway.’

      ‘I think you might be going away, too,’ Will said.

      ‘What do you mean?’

      Will hesitated a little before answering. ‘Your house is on the market. Didn’t your mum tell you?’

      ‘No. She said the stables had burnt down one night. Is that why she’s selling? I expect the house and grounds are way too big for her to manage alone anyway.’

      ‘I knew about the fire. My mum was the one who called the fire brigade. But your mum told me today that she’s selling because she needs the money to pay for Amanda’s studies.’

      Amanda wanted to read psychiatry and hoped to get in to Oxford.

      ‘Oh.’ All this was news to Emily. ‘It’s probably just as well she’s leaving the Old Manor House. Too many bad memories in that place. It will be good to go somewhere else.’

      ‘I can’t wait to get away from home,’ Will said. ‘It’s…stifling. We’ll keep in touch though, OK?’

      ‘Definitely,’ Emily said.

      Will had turned towards her and his knee was touching hers. She saw him glance down again and wondered if he was looking at her bandaged wrist or at her stomach. She used both hands to try and flatten down her tummy. Both the GP at the Centre and her psychiatrist had told her that it was barely showing, though, even after six months. No one had noticed – not even Emily herself. Not really. She’d had stomach pains and nausea and had been feeling very tired, but she’d put that down to stress and her medication.

      The doctor had prescribed blood tests, but the results had come as a complete shock to everyone. Dr Irvine, who had continued to treat Emily after the trial, said that Emily was understandably in a state of denial about her condition.

      Will didn’t know, did he? Her mother certainly wouldn’t have told him. According to Amanda, she’d scarcely spoken a word at all since she’d found out the previous week. Amanda didn’t talk to Will, and she wouldn’t have told a soul, anyway. He couldn’t know.

      ‘Are you left-handed?’ Will asked.

      ‘Yes,’ Emily said.

      So it was her arm he’d been scrutinising.

      ‘Did you do that to yourself?’ Will gently folded back the cuff of Emily’s jumper to reveal the bandage.

      ‘No, of course not.’ Emily’s voice didn’t sound at all convincing, even to her own ears. ‘It can get a bit rough in here at times, you know.’

      ‘Can I ask you something else?’

      ‘Yes, all right.’ Will could be quite frank and Emily wondered what he was going to say.

      ‘That night, you were lying in bed holding a razor blade. Why?’

      ‘How did you know that?’ Emily was taken aback by the question.

      ‘It was in the North Devon Journal.’

      ‘Oh, I see.’ Emily was silent for a while. ‘Well, you know why, Will. You may even be the only one who knows.’

      ‘You were going to cut off his ear?’

      ‘Uh-huh,’ Emily replied noncommittally. ‘Did they print that in the article, too?’

      ‘No. No, of course not. It was only a short news story. In fact, the reporter didn’t even print your name.’

      Emily СКАЧАТЬ