Chapter Fifty-Nine

Havermouth, Five Years Before

Cameron’s Ute was an experience to drive, Aislen thought ruefully as she worked her way into the traffic of the town center. The handbrake was in the wrong place, and it was much bigger than any of the driving instructor’s cars or Tiffany’s little hatch.

Traffic was heavier than normal, with cars diverting out of side streets. Flashing blue and red lights drew their eyes towards the police cars and an ambulance parked outside a small house, and people gathered on the paving, but Aislen could not look too closely as she had to watch for a gap to move forward in, the traffic banking up behind her.

She moved forward, shifting through the gears with a grimace. “I prefer automatics,” she told him.

“It’s good to be able to drive both,” he replied. Cameron was relaxed, but uncompromising as a supervising driver, giving her no opportunity to take the easy way out of things. “There’s a park,” he pointed.

“That’s a reverse parallel park,” she replied. “Between two other cars.”

“And?” He raised his eyebrows. “You can do it. You’re going to need to do it to get your license.”

She blew out a breath and aligned the Ute. “I’m not going to make it,” she shook her head.

“Keep going,” Cameron replied. “You’re good. It’s fine. I’d let you know if it wasn’t.”

She edged into the space and shuffled forward, pulling on the handbrake, and putting the car into park with a glad cry. “I did it!”

“I told you.” He was laughing at her. “Are all girls as skittish driving as you are?” He wondered, as he got out of the cab.

She opened the driver’s door and dropped down to the tarmac, closing, and locking the car before handing him the keys. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me.”

“Well, we’ll cure you of that,” he took her hand in his, his palm dry and calloused, and his hand so much bigger than hers.

She blushed, holding his hand back and not pulling away. His thoughts were warm and comfortable, enjoying the lazy day, his pretty town, and the sunshine overhead, wondering if his mother was thinking of him and when she’d return from the retreat...

As the rest of the Triquetra wasn’t there, it was just her and Cameron walking down the main street together, nothing remarkable about that to most of the townspeople, surely, she told herself…

She saw many of the other pedestrians and shoppers glance their way. Cameron smiled and returned greetings as they strolled along. He was used to being known and acknowledged as he went around town, his family being one of the oldest in the area. He didn’t think anything of it, so she relaxed.

On his own, in a pleasant frame of mind, Cameron was indulgent and fondly teasing, giving her an insight to how he would be as a boyfriend… But she couldn’t call him her boyfriend, not even in her own thoughts, she admitted, with a twinge of pain. Things between her and Triquetra were much more complicated than that, and no matter how happy Cameron was to spend the time with her, he and Heath had made it clear that they saw her as nothing more than a sex toy.

She was a human girl, after all, and human girls didn’t matter.

They were the only people in the butcher’s shop as Cameron placed his order.

“Shocking news, eh?” The butcher commented, over the counter as he wrapped the meat.

“What news?” Cameron wondered. “We’ve been camping out at the river house.”

“Ah. Young girl died this morning. Trying to give herself a home-abortion, with a knitting needle of all things,” the butcher tsked and shook his head. “Real gory scene, apparently. Bled out. I thought that we were done with these sorts of things back in my mother’s generation.”

Aislen gripped Cameron’s arm tightly enough that he looked down at her in concern and put his arm around her shoulder. “Why would she do such a thing?” He wondered, looking back at the butcher. “When there’s the Trayrock Medical Center that takes care of that for girls?”

“God knows,” the butcher shrugged.

“The cost,” Aislen said numbly.

“Possibly,” the butcher conceded, as he handed over the order. “A tragedy for the families involved either way.”

“Are you alright?” Cameron asked, concerned, as they stepped out onto the pavement again. “You went very pale.”

“I know them,” she said. “Or I think I know who they are…” What could she say, she wondered, without giving away her gift?

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “Do I know them?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “And, in case I am wrong, I can’t say who I think they are…” It would be too much of a coincidence, surely, she thought. But her gift was unreliable at the best of times… If she was right, it meant that she had seen the future.

She had often seen glimpses of future events but had never entirely been sure if it were due to a person speculating on the outcome of an action that they were going to take, or whether it was actually a true event.

Her grandmother’s gift hadn’t worked that way, and she’d been skeptical of the ability to foretell the future, preferring to say that perhaps it was possible to see potential futures. The future shifted and changed as people changed their minds and took different paths, her grandmother had told her. The idea that someone could see the future was a fallacy, implying that the future was set in stone and was unchangeable.

If she had seen the future, did that mean she was responsible? Aislen wondered. If she had told someone, said something, done something differently, could she have saved Lucy’s life?

She pushed the thought away, but the heavy weight of that thought stayed like a lump in her ribcage.

Cameron led the way to the greengrocer, and she brightened up as they picked out fruit and vegetables to take back to the river house with them, Cameron joking and teasing playfully, his grin bright and a charming on his handsome face as he picked up an aubergine and raised an eyebrow. "Heath?"

“Aislen.” The woman’s voice stopped Aislen in her tracks. She froze and grimaced, turning slowly.

“Mum.”

“If I might have a word,” Tiffany said to Cameron.

“Hi, Mrs. Carter,” he was unflappable, setting the aubergine neatly back on the display. “I have to pay anyway. Meet you back in a moment, Aislen.”

They both watched him make his way to the cash register, tall and broad shouldered, his bright hair catching the store lights in its strands, and his easy-going charm causing the teenaged clerk to blush and stammer.

“Where have you been?” Tiffany demanded, in an angry, hushed voice. “Off with those boys?”

“We’re having a camp out and doing our assignments together,” Aislen replied guiltily.

“A girl died this morning, and I didn’t know if it was you,” Tiffany wrapped her fingers around Aislen’s upper arm. “It crossed my mind. Do you know why it crossed my mind? Because,” she continued, not waiting for Aislen to reply. “There are rumours around town that my daughter is sleeping with not one, not two, but three boys, and then she doesn’t come home on Friday night… What am I meant to think, Aislen?”

Aislen swallowed hard and darted looks around her at the other customers around them who were eavesdropping and pretending not to. “Mum,” she shrugged, trying to loosen Tiffany’s grip. “You’re embarrassing me.”

“If your father hears about these rumours,” Tiffany replied, “there will be hell to pay, Aislen.”

“I can’t help rumours,” Aislen replied angrily. “People just talk… They do. There’s nothing that I can do about it.”

“Are you behaving in a way that encourages that sort of talk, Aislen?” Tiffany demanded, but in her thoughts, she was certain that she knew the answer, and she didn’t want to hear it, even though she asked the question. “Because I don’t know. First the dark-haired boy, then Heath Gale, and now Cameron Edison…”

“Rhett,” Aislen provided.

“Rhett,” Tiffany repeated. “Well?”

“Mum, they’re friends,” Aislen tried to stick to the truth. “They hang out together. It’s only natural that you see me with them all…”

“I hope that’s all it is,” Tiffany didn’t want to go into it further in the middle of the grocery story. “I truly hope that’s all it is, Aislen.” She did not ask if Aislen would be home that night, because she did not want to deal with the situation if Aislen said no. Tiffany released her. “Of the three,” she said, very quietly. “The Edison boy is the most promising. Good family, and money. The Gales are a little…” She pulled a face. “And that other boy’s family are almost as new to Havermouth as we are.”

“Mum,” Aislen was embarrassed. “This isn’t the eighteen hundreds. You don’t pick your boyfriends by their family, wealth, and history.”

Tiffany rolled her eyes. “Well, people should,” she retorted. “Because those are the things that matter, Aislen, no matter how people like to pretend that they don’t.”

“I have to go,” Aislen wanted to crawl under a rock and never crawl out again. “Cameron’s waiting.”

“Aislen,” Tiffany caught her wrist. “Be smart. Don’t get yourself into a situation like the girl today. It’s different for girls than for boys. We get reputations that follow us throughout our lives, and we have to live with the consequences of our mistakes.” (Like you…)

Aislen dragged in a breath. “Like me? I was a mistake, wasn’t I?”

“Now, I’ve never said that.” Tiffany released Aislen’s wrist.

“No, you didn’t have to.” Aislen replied, and strode away after Cameron.