Summer of Secrets by Rosie Rushton Read Free Book Online

lying flat on her back in bed, staring at the fluorescent spider’s web she had painted in the corner of her ceiling during a particularly
bad dose of PMT. She was thinking about Ludo. She re-ran every detail of the evening, punching her pillow in fury each time she recalled her clumsiness with the drink, and then hugging it whenever
she let her mind flash back to those slate-grey eyes and lopsided smile.
    Tom had quizzed her like mad on the way home in the car, demanding to know who Ludo was, and saying that in his view he seemed a bit of a loser. And then he asked her to go to Izzy’s party
with him.
    And like an idiot, she’d said yes, just to shut him up. But that didn’t matter, did it? Once she was there, she could chat Ludo up and besides, going to a party with someone
didn’t mean anything, not really.
    It was what happened when she got there that mattered to her.
    It was no good; she couldn’t sleep. She threw back the sheet and padded over to her drawing desk, grabbing a stick of charcoal and instantly sketching sweeping lines, her tongue poking out
of the corner of her mouth the way it always did when she was engrossed in design. Within minutes, he was there: Ludo Tilney, smiling up at her from the sketchpad, his mouth slightly open as if he
was about to speak.
    Caitlin D Morland. Caitlin signed her name in the bottom right hand corner and then, in letters so tiny that no one, in the unlikely event of the picture being found, could possibly see
them she added, C 4 L and the tiniest pink heart.

 
  CHAPTER 3  
    ‘If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.’
    (Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey )
    ‘H EY , C AITLIN, WAIT !’ S UMMER RAN DOWN THE STONE steps from the music block at breaktime on
Monday morning and grabbed her friend’s arm. ‘I have to talk to you.’
    Caitlin eyed her warily. Summer had ignored her totally at registration, hadn’t spoken a word during music appreciation and she wasn’t sure what was coming next.
    ‘I was a cow on Saturday, OK?’ she gabbled. ‘You know, yelling at you and everything. Ludo told me he practically manhandled you to the door of the ladies’ and forced you
to find me.’
    I wish, thought Caitlin. A bit of manhandling from Ludo would make my day.
    ‘Everything had gone wrong and I was really stressed, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.’ Summer bit her lip and sighed. ‘Friends?’
    She opened her arms and looked pleadingly at Caitlin.
    ‘Of course,’ Caitlin replied, hugging her with relief. ‘And so . . . is everything OK now?’
    ‘On a scale of one to ten, it’s about minus four,’ she said wearily. ‘But listen – what are you doing for the holidays?’
    Caitlin wondered how to make a fortnight in the Isle of Wight sound stunning.
    ‘Well,’ she began, ‘there’s Izzy’s party – and then my parents have taken a house on the island . . .’
    That could mean anywhere, she reasoned. St Lucia, the Windward Isles . . .
    ‘And you really have to go?’ Summer looked crestfallen.
    ‘Well, I’m not likely to get a better offer . . .’
    ‘That’s where you are wrong!’ Summer cried triumphantly. ‘How does a couple of weeks with me at Casa Vernazza sound?’
    Caitlin stared at her in disbelief.
    ‘Me? You’re inviting me to go to Italy with you?’
    ‘Uh-huh,’ said Summer, grinning. ‘I just can’t hack it on my own. Well, Ludo’s coming, but he’s always . . .’
    What he was Caitlin didn’t hear. She was too busy dealing with the images swamping her mind. Ludo and her swimming in the sea, his hand gently brushing her thigh under cover of the water;
Ludo pouring a glass of cool wine and holding it to her lips; Ludo telling her how gorgeous she is . . .
    ‘You don’t want to come, right?’ Summer’s voice jolted her out of her reverie.
    ‘ Of course I want to come!’ Caitlin exclaimed. ‘I can’t believe it – when do we go?’
    ‘End of next