The Long Weekend by Savita Kalhan Read Free Book Online

'Will you, Lloyd?'
    Lloyd looked at him and shrugged. 'Doesn't make a difference to me.'
    It does to me, Sam screamed inside his head, it does to me.
    'Um, I'm not that good in big, old, dark houses,' Sam said with a nervous laugh. No one could ever accuse him of not trying his best. If this was a film, he'd have got an Oscar by now.
    'Bit of a baby, are you, then? Never mind, diddums, I'll leave a night light on for you, and I'll even tuck you in if you like,' the man said, and he laughed with Lloyd.
    'Yeah, grow up, Sam!' Lloyd said.
    Sam could tell that Lloyd was annoyed with him for showing him up like that. Lloyd annoyed with him – Sam couldn't believe it. He wanted to take Lloyd by the shoulders and shake him until he saw what was in front of him.
    'Please, Lloyd?' Sam's voice had shrunk to a whimper. He could tell it had worked though because Lloyd was looking sorry for him.
    'Yeah, all right. If you must,' Lloyd said.
    He'd said it reluctantly, but Sam knew that was for the man's benefit. Lloyd had seen sense at last. Well, not entirely, but once they were on their own, Sam would make sure that Lloyd knew what was going on, and then they could devise some kind of plan to get out.
    'We can't have that now, Lloyd, can we? Don't worry about your friend. He'll be just fine. It'll do him good to grow up a bit just like you said. Anyway, I'm here to look out for both of you and that's what I'll do. You make yourself at home, Lloyd, and I'll be back to check you've got everything you need,' the man said pleasantly. 'Sam, you're just a bit further up here.' He walked on.
    Sam looked back at Lloyd, hoping he could get a quick word with him while the man's back was turned, but Lloyd was gone. Sam couldn't believe it. Hadn't Lloyd been the one who'd said, 'Don't leave me on my own'?
    And now he'd left Sam alone.
    What had got into him?
    At the end of the corridor the man stopped and opened the bedroom door. He reached in and switched the light on.
    'In you go then, lad,' he said.
    Sam stepped inside. It was a small, plain room with a neatly made bed, a bedside table with a little lamp, two chests of drawers and a big heavy wardrobe. There was no other furniture.
    'There's a bathroom just through there.' The man indicated at a door half-hidden on the other side of the wardrobe. 'You'll find everything you need in there. Sleep tight now,' he said, and left the room.
    Sam didn't really know what to do next. He surveyed the room again, and wondered whether it had ever been used before. It looked like the kind of room that the butler would have. Lloyd had been given the best room in the house, which probably meant it had a four-poster bed, or even a water bed, and other cool stuff.
    Then Sam got annoyed with himself for thinking in that way because that was how Lloyd had been duped, made a complete idiot of, and Sam had almost fallen into the same way of thinking without even realising that was happening. He should think like Tab, his sister.
    She always kept her cool; well, most of the time anyway, and didn't have to say, 'Use your brain, Sam, that's why it's in your head,' quite so much any more because Sam had learnt to use his brain a bit more. He'd had to, living with an older smart-arse sister, who knew everything about everything, and who had more common sense than practically everyone he knew, apart from his mum.
    His dad didn't stand a chance in the common sense stakes, and as Tab was always saying, most men didn't, which wasn't entirely fair, but Sam had proved her wrong – until earlier that afternoon anyway.
    He'd go to the loo and then decide what to do. Sam crossed the room to the bathroom, and then stopped suddenly in mid-stride. Jingle jangle, jingle jangle, and then the click of a key turning in the lock.
    Sam swivelled round.

6
    He was locked in. Again! Why? Well, it didn't take an A Level in Science to know the answer to that. Science was his worst subject, and it wasn't as though he didn't try – he did, and