‘I’m going to take this one,’ she shouted through to the others, and then headed back to the sitting room to collect some of her boxes.
Her mother spoke before she had even seen the space. ‘Oh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Margaret. You’ll be terribly vulnerable living on the ground floor. All those strangers wandering about at night with nothing more than a pane of glass to protect you.’
This thought hadn’t occurred to Maggie, and as the possible ramifications revealed themselves to her, she felt her nerves tighten a little, flight-or-fight hormones making her scalp tingle. Her mother was, as ever, right. It would make much more sense to give Leon this room and then the three girls could all live in the relative safety of upstairs.
And yet she didn’t want to do the sensible thing. The room had other advantages, and when did you ever hear of someone breaking a huge plate glass window to get into a house? Intruders sneaked in and out through small spaces, surely.
Mainly, though, and with all thoughts of personal safety pushed far from her mind, if Maggie took this room it would be one in the eye for her mother, who quite clearly had other ideas. Also, it would show the world that Maggie Summers was a force to be reckoned with, fearless and brave enough to sleep downstairs. And it had the added bonus of sending a message to Angie Osborne. Maggie wasn’t entirely clear on what that message might be, but she felt sure that it needed to be sent.
‘Well, I think it’s perfect,’ she said to her mother. ‘Now, could you help me shift this stuff?’
11
‘Do you remember my mate Tiger?’ Angie asked them one night near the end of the autumn term.
Maggie felt a jolt in her stomach. Did she remember Tiger? Oh yes. She had never quite been able to dispel the image of him in the corridor dressed in nothing but a towel. And she had tried, she really had. After he had abandoned her that night at the corridor party, she had wanted nothing more than to dismiss him as being unworthy of her thoughts, but her imagination had had other ideas and so there he still was, clearly preserved in her memory.
Before she had time to speak, though, Leon did. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Nice bloke.’
Angie nodded in agreement at this judgement of her friend. ‘He’s been in the south of France since the summer, picking grapes or some such,’ she said. ‘But the season’s come to an end, so he’ll be back in the UK for a bit while he decides what to do next.’
‘What does he actually do?’ asked Maggie. The idea of someone just floating about from one place to another was so far from her own world view that she found it almost impossible to comprehend. ‘I mean, where does he live? And what’s his plan for when he’s finished travelling? He won’t have any qualifications.’
Angie threw her a pitying look that made Maggie feel small. ‘Why does he have to DO anything?’ she asked. ‘He’s a nomad. That’s what he does. He’s travelling the world, taking it all in, earning enough to keep himself going and not being a bother to anyone. Not everyone needs a plan for every minute of their lives.’ She threw Maggie a look that invited challenge, but Maggie remained tight-lipped. There was no point getting into spats with Angie. They were never going to agree, their approaches to life being as different as chalk and cheese. Maggie liked to plan. Angie and Tiger, or so it appeared, didn’t. That was fine.
‘Anyway,’ Angie continued, ‘I was wondering if he could stay here for a bit. He could have Fiona’s room.’
House-sharing with Fiona hadn’t worked out well. She had turned up in September but only lasted a few weeks before she decided that sociology wasn’t for her after all, and had dropped out of university altogether. Maggie had come home from her lectures one day to find a brief but explanatory note on the kitchen table and Fiona’s things all gone. The rent was paid until Christmas, so they had just left the room empty and continued as they were, the three of them.
‘Won’t he be sleeping in your room?’ Maggie asked, the question slipping out of her mouth before she had time to think. The effect on her cheeks was instantaneous and she feared the blush might be flooding down her neck as well. The question had been whether Tiger was welcome to stay in their house, not whether he and Angie would be sleeping together. That really was none of her business. And yet, she really, really wanted to know.
Angie eyed her curiously. Maggie saw her take in her flaming cheeks and then the merest hint of a smile shivered across her lips. Maggie braced herself for the teasing that was about to land, but then Angie turned her attention to packing her bag ready for her lectures.