Promise by Sarah Armstrong Read Free Book Online Page A

her chest suddenly tight. She didn’t want to open the door. At the front window, she turned back a tiny corner of the curtain. It was Charlie and her mother. No sign of the man.
    She opened the door slowly. ‘Hello.’
    She scanned Charlie for bruises. The girl’s face was unblemished but she was wearing a too-big t-shirt and tights under a stained pink tutu. The toy rabbit was squashed under one thin arm.
    Gabby chewed at her top lip. ‘Hi.’
    ‘Hello. Do you want to come in?’ Anna said. She wished she were dressed in proper clothes.
    Gabby sat on the couch, her knees together. She had the stale-smoke reek of a heavy smoker. Charlie propped beside her mother and fiddled with the tassel on one of Anna’s cushions, her fingernails crudely painted with purple nail polish.
    ‘Would you like another one of those biscuits, Charlie?’
    Charlie gave a small nod.
    ‘Say
please
,’ Gabby said. She was moving her mouth in a strange, loose way and Anna figured she was out of it.
    ‘Do you want a cuppa and a biscuit, Gabby?’ Anna wondered which of them would mention the police first.
    ‘No.’ Gabby smoothed her hands down the thighs of her jeans a couple of times.
    Charlie followed Anna to the kitchen. The toast popped up as Anna knelt to give Charlie the biscuit and get a good look at her. There was a small hole in the pink bodice of the tutu. Perfectly round, with a dark melted outer edge. It had to be a cigarette burn.
    Charlie gave Anna a small smile. The girl had the same sour, unwashed smell as the evening she turned up at the back door.
    ‘My dad likes these biscuits too,’ said Anna as she put the packet on the kitchen bench. ‘That’s why I’ve got them here.’
    Charlie had lost a green stone from one of her earrings, leaving an empty metal claw in one earlobe.
    Gabby appeared behind Charlie and rested her hands on her daughter’s shoulders as Charlie shoved the biscuit in, crumbs falling to the floor.
    Gabby said, ‘You think something really bad happened last night.’
    Anna stood up. ‘What did happen?’ Her voice shook.
    ‘You don’t need to worry.’ Gabby squeezed Charlie’s shoulders and flashed Anna a vacant smile. ‘Harlan has a short temper, that’s all. He just yells and slams doors. That’s all . . .’ Her voice trailed off.
    ‘It was very scary.’ Anna thought they probably shouldn’t be having this conversation in front of Charlie, but maybe it was good for the girl to know that someone else found it frightening.
    The woman shrugged.
    Charlie reached for another biscuit with those terrible purple nails.
    ‘Do you want a banana, Charlie?’ said Anna.
    Charlie nodded and took the small banana Anna offered her.
    Gabby frowned. ‘We don’t need your food.’
    ‘Oh, well . . . I’ve got too many bananas. She’s doing me a favour,’ Anna said. ‘Honest.’
    Charlie handed the peel to Anna.
    ‘Gabby, you and Charlie shouldn’t have to put up with that kind of violent temper and yelling and . . .’
    Gabby narrowed her eyes. ‘Don’t tell me you were never yelled at.’
    ‘Not like that.’ Vehemence leaked into Anna’s voice and she tried to soften it by smiling.
    The woman shrugged again. ‘I was yelled at all the time when I was a kid. It’s no big deal.’
    Anna wondered if Gabby would be capable of biting her daughter.
    Gabby nudged her daughter with her hip. ‘You’re fine, aren’t you, Charlie? Harlan’s just a grump.’
    Charlie looked up at her mother, eyes wide, and kept chewing. The girl had a sheen of sweat on her forehead; she had too many clothes on for the warm morning.
    Gabby said, ‘Don’t come around like that again. And
don’t
call the cops. Everything is fine. Alright?’ She did that strange thing with her lips again. ‘I’m telling you for your own good. And anyway, it makes things worse.’
    Makes things worse.
What did that mean? Worse for Charlie or for Gabby?
    ‘Is everything really okay?’ Anna spoke quietly. ‘There are people