Beauty and the Dark (5 page)

Sofia

“O
pen your presents then,” Lena orders.

She is still in her nightgown and fluffy dressing gown. Her hands are clasped in front of her chest and she is so excited she can barely sit still. I look at her and smile. My heart fills with love for her. She is like a big child. Full of light and enthusiasm. Outside, the rain is slicking down on the windows. Inside my tower suite, it is warm and faintly scented with the smell of coffee.

“Let’s open our presents together,” I say, looking at the pile of packages on the bed. There are three, one each from her and Guy for me, and one from me to her.

“No, no, you go first,” she urges. “I want to see your face when you see our presents.”

“Okay,” I say, and just to see her reaction, I slowly take a sip from the steaming mug of coffee she brought for me.

“Oh for God’s sake,’ she screeches.

I laugh at the expression on her face.

She snatches a flat package and thrusts it into my hand. “Open this one first. It’s from me.”

Putting my mug down on my bedside table and crossing my legs, I take it from her. With a smile I shake it. It rattles.

“Coupons or tickets?” I guess.

“Just open it,” she cries impatiently.

I tear open the wrapping and lift the lid of the cardboard box. I take out the folded letter inside and read it.

“Oh,” I exclaim. “You got me driving lessons.” Immediately my heart starts thudding with fear. I can’t get into a car alone with a man and be in such close proximity with him for an hour at a time. I look up at her trying to smile. Not wanting to burst her bubble of excitement.

She grins at me. “The instructor is a woman.”

I exhale through my mouth. “Oh, thank you. What a wonderful present, Lena. I’d love to be able to drive into the village myself and not trouble someone else all the time. Thank you my darling.” I lean forward and kiss her.

“The next one. The next one,” she squeals excitedly. “This one’s from Guy.” She pulls away from me and holds out the long oblong box, the kind you use to send posters. It is light, and feels hollow.  When I shake it there is no sound.

“Go on then,” she urges.

I tear it open and pull out a rolled up piece of paper. I look at her and raise my eyebrows as I unroll it. She just grins widely at me. I run my eyes down the thick paper. For a moment I can’t believe my eyes.

“Well?” Lena prompts.

I blink and look up at her in disbelief. “Guy bought me a house in London?”

She nods vigorously. “Yes. You’re now the proud owner of your own house.”

I stare at her aghast. I don’t want to move out of the castle. I love my tower suite. It is the first place I have felt safe. I stupidly thought I would be able to live here forever.

“What’s the matter?” Lena asks.

“You don’t want me to live here anymore?” I gasp.

Her face crumples. “What? No. No, of course not. This house is not for you to live in. It is for you to rent out and earn your own money. This way you will be financially independent.”

The backs of my eyes burn. “Oh. I don’t know the first thing about owning a house in England or renting it out.”

“Guy’s secretary will find a tenant and arrange everything for you. You don’t have to do a thing. You can learn at your own pace, okay?”

My eyes fill with tears. I try to blink them away, and Lena leans in and hugs me tightly.

“You are my heart, Sofia. My heart. One day you will find a wonderful man and you will leave this castle to go to him. It will sadden me greatly, but I will be happy for you. However,” she grins wickedly, “until that day you’re all mine. This is your home, silly.”

We clutch each other and cry.

I dash away my tears with the backs of my eyes. “I feel terrible. Your gifts are so wonderful, and I’ve only got you a little thing from the village shop.”

“Oh, Sofia. I will love whatever you give me with all my heart. If you’ve got it for me, it will be perfect.”

Suddenly there is an odd noise outside the door. It sounds like a muffled shriek.

“What the hell is that?” I ask.

She grins. “That’s your present from Irina.” She gets off the bed. “Don’t move,” she warns and goes out to open the door.

I hear whispering and then …

Oh my God!

A golden retriever puppy makes a mad dash into my room! I clasp my hands over my cheeks with shock. My very own dog! I stare at the little thing with unconcealed delight. Lena, carrying Irina, and the nurse come into my room, and all of them are looking at me. I can’t say a word.

“She’s already toilet trained, but she doesn’t have a name yet,” Lena says.

Irina struggles in her mother’s arms. She wants to get down and play with the puppy, but Lena says, “Wait until Aunty Sofia has met her first.” She looks at me. “Go on then. She was found abandoned in a sack by the roadside. Left to die because she has a little limp. One of her legs is shorter than the others.”

“What?” I whisper aghast.

“So she’s going to need a lot of love and attention.”

I turn away from my sister and look at the little mad thing. Indeed, the pup does have an odd gait, but it is actually quite adorable. How could anyone do that to such an innocent little thing?

“I’ll love her to my dying day,” I tell Lena staring at the dog.

My mind races ahead. I imagine teaching her all kinds of things. She can sleep on my bed. I’ll take her with me when I go for my dawn walks. Oh my God. The fun we’ll have together. I get off the bed and fall to my knees. The ball of fur comes up to me and cautiously sniffs my knee, and that is the moment I burst into sobs of pure happiness.

I swear I’ve never felt so happy in all my life.

Sofia

W
e arrive in London with time to spare. Guy comes down in the elevator with us, kisses Lena and helps us into the waiting car. He closes the door and stands on the sidewalk watching as Robert, his London chauffeur, drives us away. Both of us turn back to watch him and I can’t help the strange sadness that comes into my heart that I don’t have a man to wave me goodbye and love me the way Guy loves my sister.

Edgware Road, full of middle-eastern shops and restaurants, morphs higher up the road into Kilburn High Street. I have never been to these areas so I gaze out of the window curiously. By the time we turn off the busy high street and into the estate with the high rise apartments, I can immediately see the poverty of the area.

As it happens we arrive at the parking lot of Kids Rule at the same time as Lana. She gets out of a cute white Geely Panda and waves to us.

“Isn’t her husband a billionaire?” I ask my sister.

“Lana doesn’t like to display her wealth when she comes here. She says, ‘why rub it in their noses’.”

“Hey,” Lana calls coming over to us. She is dressed simply in a turtleneck red jumper, faded blue jeans, brown boots and a short leather coat. Her long hair is tied up in a ponytail and her face is scrubbed of make-up, but she is still very beautiful. “So glad you could make it.”

We kiss each other’s cheeks and head towards the wooden entrance of the one-story building. Inside, there are other people already there. They smile at us and call out greetings.

Lana walks down a corridor with us and explains the uses for the rooms on either side of us. Some with desks and chairs are for helping children with their studies, others, with musical instruments, mirrors, sports equipment, or rubber mats, are dance studios, gyms, and music rooms. 

At the end of the corridor we come to a set of doors and enter what Lana calls the main hall. It is hung with Christmas decorations and is already half-full of children. They are milling about in small groups talking loudly and laughing.

“Here is where everybody comes to have fun. We hold dances, competitions and concerts here,” she explains.

The kids immediately surround us. They are a bold lot. Throwing questions to Lana about Lena and me. Lana introduces us and I follow my sister’s example and give a small wave when my name is mentioned. 

From the corner of my eyes I see a thin girl with curly brown hair sitting alone on the bench. She is leaning her back against the wall behind her and has her knees pulled up. There is an open book resting on her thighs and she is coloring or drawing something into it. The reason she catches my eyes is because of the way she seems utterly oblivious to all the noise and activity around her.

For a while Lena and I answer the children’s curious questions.

“Where are you from?”

“Where’s Russia?”

“Have you seen a bear before?”

“Are you’re going to be our new teachers?”

My eyes keep flicking back to the girl on the bench. Not once has she raised her head or showed any interest in us.

Eventually, I excuse myself and walk towards her. She can’t be more than eight or nine years old. I don’t know why, but I feel almost connected to her. I sit down next to her on the bench. She doesn’t turn to look at me. Her eyes are hidden by the curls that hang over her cheeks. I glance at her book. She’s drawing a scene with a castle, a girl in a long dress and a man on a horse.

“That’s a nice drawing,” I say.

Silently she carries on drawing rows of neat little Vs to denote grass.

“My name is Sofia. What’s yours?”

Her little hand is a tight fist around the pen as she gives her drawing her total concentration.

I bite my lip. Somehow I have to get through to her. I can’t give up. There’s something so sad about her.

“I love horses,” I say quietly.

She ignores me.

“You should draw a tower for your castle.”

Her fist falters for a second, but she does not stop or look at me.

“It’s the best bit of a castle.”

I hear her take a deep breath.

“I know because I live in a castle.”

Her pen stops scratching on the paper.

I hold my breath.

She turns her face in my direction, her curls bouncing against her cheeks and her gray eyes huge with curiosity. Instantly, my heart goes out to her. She is a pitiful thing.

“You live in a castle?” she whispers.

I nod. “Uh … huh. I live at the top of the tower.”

Her eyes widen to impossible proportions. “You do?”

I nod again. “You have to go up a winding stone staircase to get to my rooms.”

Her eyes shine with awe.

“Here. Let me show you.” I take my mobile phone out and scroll through my photos. Luckily I took a lot of pictures of my new puppy. I show them to her and she leans in to look at the pictures.

“Is that your puppy?”

“Yes. Her name is Mika.”

“She’s cute.”

I grin. “She’s my Christmas present.”

A flash of pain crosses her small face. Perhaps she’s lost a pet.

I quickly scroll backwards and find a few photographs of the castle taken from the outside. She leans in even closer and gazes at my photos intently.

“Maybe you can come to visit me one day,” I say, and suddenly she seems to shrivel up. She jumps to her feet and, gathering her book, runs from the hall.

I stand up, but I can’t bring myself to call her back. What would I say? I don’t even know her name. Feeling crushed I stare at her small figure rushing away. Damn. I screwed up by being too eager. Who invites a child to their home after a few minutes of knowing them? She probably thought I was some pervert. How stupid I’ve been.

“How the hell did you do that?”

I swing towards the voice and my cheeks flare up with embarrassment. Oh God! Of all the people in the world why did it have to be Jack Irish who had to witness my failure to connect with even a small child?

Jack

“I
’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make her run away,” Sofia apologizes. Her eyes are filled with distress and she looks as if she is about to burst into tears. I stare at her in surprise. Could such innocence still exist?

“Lori hasn’t spoken a word to anyone since she has been coming here, which is about six months. You’ve just had a conversation with her so I don’t think you need to be sorry about anything. What you accomplished is close to miraculous.”

Her eyes open wide. “Oh!” she exclaims, a flash of pure joy flirting across her face, and I suddenly see she is even more beautiful than I first realized. Her beauty is not diamond-flashy, but mysterious and intriguing, like a string of pearls glowing in the moonlight.

She chews her bottom lip and my eyes rush to the pretty sight. She blushes furiously. Shit, I’m staring at her as if she’s the fucking fine print on my life insurance policy.

“Why doesn’t she talk?” she asks shyly.

“No one knows. She lives with her mother in one of the apartments around here. I believe her mother is foreign and doesn’t mix with the other women either.”

She looks troubled, as if Lori really matters to her. “And she has no friends?”

“She doesn’t want friends. The other kids have tried to talk to her but she won’t even make eye contact. How did you get her to talk to you?”

“She was drawing a castle and I told her I lived in one.”

My eyebrows fly upwards. “For real?”

She nods. “Yes, it’s in Cheshire. It belongs to my sister and her husband.”

I can’t help smiling. I’ve never met anyone who lived in a castle, but she looks like she should be living in a castle. The innocent princess in need of rescue.

“Do you think she’ll come back?” she asks worriedly.

“Probably. I think she likes to be around people, but she was not ready to interact. You did really well to make her take that first step.”

“But I ruined it. I rushed it and made her run away.”

“No, you haven’t ruined anything. She’s curious about you so she’ll be back.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah, I do. You’re a natural with a good touch. Why don’t you volunteer here, help out with the kids sometime?”

I feel her shrinking away from my suggestion. A frown mars her forehead. “Oh! I don’t think that would be possible. It’s much too far to come down on a regular basis.”

“What wouldn’t be possible?” her sister asks, popping up next to us. Her smile and question are casual, but her eyes are watchful and intense. She reminds me of mother tiger, protecting her cubs.

“Nothing really,” Sofia mumbles.

Her sister looks at me questioningly and I realize that she could be an ally.

“I was just telling Sofia that she should volunteer to work with the kids since she is such a natural at it, and she was explaining to me that she lives too far away to commute.”

Her sister glances from me to Sofia and back to me before breaking into a grin. “Actually, that is an absolutely brilliant idea. We could both come. Let’s say once a week. We have an apartment in London so when my husband has business in the city we could even stay overnight.”

I look at Sofia and raise my eyebrows encouragingly. “Well. Do you want to see Lori again?”

She clasps her hands and looks suddenly anxious. “But how would we help?”

“Well, you could either teach the children something useful or expand their horizons in some way. Kids Rule is all about empowering these children and turning them away from drugs, gangs and alcohol. You’ll have to check with Lana, or one of the girls in the office, but I’m sure you’ll be able to work out something between the two of you.”

Sofia frowns uncertainly, but her sister is very enthusiastic. “I could give piano lessons, or teach them all the fashion tips I learned while modelling, and Sofia could hold singing classes. She was always the best singer in our family.”

“Cool,” I say.

Sofia turns to me eagerly. There is a kind suppressed excitement in her face, as if she doesn’t want to get too excited in case she is disappointed. “You really think it’s a good idea?”

I grin. I don’t know why but the thought of Sofia coming here to teach makes my whole body tingle with anticipation. “Absolutely. As far as I know no one is giving them piano or singing lessons at the moment. And as for the idea of fashion tips from an ex world famous model, you’ll have the entire population of girls signing up for your class.”

“Thanks, Jack. We’ll talk to Lana about this,” Lena says.

“No problem,” I say.

“I had no idea until Lana told me today that you are
the
Jack Irish,” Lena says.

I shrug, vaguely embarrassed. She’s making it sound like I’m famous or something.

She smiles. “I must say your name used to come up a lot while I was in the modeling world.”

Sofia looks at her sister curiously. “Why?”

She gives Sofia a sidelong glance. “Jack is one of Britain’s top plastic surgeons. He runs a very famous clinic in Harley street.” She pauses, wrinkles her forehead. “I even know a couple of girls who got their noses done by him. You did an amazing job both times, by the way.”

“Thank you,” I say quietly.

Then the bell rings and it is time for everybody to get down to the canteen for the big lunch. Lana and the other women have decorated the place with a huge Christmas tree and plenty of tinsel, and there are a lot of gasps and comments of “wicked man” and “cool” from the kids.