The Thief of Time by John Boyne Read Free Book Online Page A

parents died, I was left to look after Amelia and I’ve spent the last few years doing exactly that. I knew a few people here and of course there was this place which was left to us, so it seemed like as good an idea as any to stay on. Then Amelia met Charlie and I seem to have been playing the role of chaperone ever since. Sometimes I fear that, at twenty-two, my best is already behind me. I feel like one of those maiden aunts in those novels that Amelia’s always reading. You know the ones, a young girl goes off to Italy and has her corsets loosened by some Roman god while her prim and proper chaperone stands a few feet behind and goes tut-tut-tut.’
    â€˜You’re no maiden aunt,’ I said deliberately. ‘You’re about the most -’
    â€˜Please, no gratuitous flattery,’ she said quickly, stubbing her half smoked cigarette out in the ashtray as she stood up and walked over to the window. ‘I don’t have any problems with my self-esteem, thank you.’
    â€˜Do you like California?’ I asked her after a long pause. A plan was starting to form in my mind, to take her away from the state and these drab people who were already beginning to bore me. Everywhere I looked, people were obsessed only with celebrity, with moving pictures, with a handful of big names and how you could get to stand close to one at a party.
    â€˜What’s not to like?’ she asked indifferently. ‘I have everything I need here. Friends, a place to live, you ...’ she conceded.
    â€˜How about we take a trip?’ I asked her. ‘We could go on a cruise. The Caribbean perhaps.’
    â€˜Sounds wonderful. Would I get to wear what I wanted and put on no make-up whatsoever?
Read,
rather than
watch?’
    â€˜If you wanted,’ I laughed. ‘How about it? We could go tomorrow, you know. Or ten minutes from now.’
    For a moment, she looked as if she was about to agree but then her face grew dark and her shoulders sagged and I knew it wouldn’t be on. In a moment, her whole body represented the word ‘disappointment’. ‘There’s Amelia,’ she said. ‘I can’t leave her.’
    â€˜She’s old enough to look after herself,’ I protested. ‘And she has Charlie, after all.’
    â€˜Two statements, Matthieu,’ she said coldly, ‘which you know to be patently untrue.’
    â€˜Look, Constance,’ I said, standing up and taking her by the shoulders, ‘you can’t live your life looking out for your sister. You said as much yourself a moment ago, that you were afraid your best years might be behind you. Don’t let that happen, Constance. Why, you were younger than Amelia when you were left to look after her yourself!’
    â€˜Yes, and look what a terrible job I did! Almost eighteen years old and the plaything of some rich movie star twice her age who’ll throw her over in a flash the moment it suits him.’
    â€˜You don’t know that.’
    â€˜T do.’
    â€˜Maybe he loves her.’
    â€˜
I
love her, Matthieu, can’t you realise that? I love her and I refuse to leave her to her own devices until I am sure that she can stand on her own two feet. It may not be that long. Once they break, it will be hard for her but she’ll come through it a stronger person. If she can survive that, she’ll survive anything. Believe me, I know.’
    A long silence followed as her words came slowly towards me and developed a life of their own within my mind. I turned to look at her and sat down slowly as she faced me, her body trying to hold its strength together as she fought to hold back her fear of my reaction.
    â€˜You and Charlie ...?’ I asked, shaking my head. Such a union hadn’t occurred to me for even a moment. ‘When ...? When was this? Was it recently? Since you’ve known me?’
    â€˜Oh, Lord no, it was years ago,’ she said, pouring herself another