Read Online Absolute Hush by Sara Banerji - Free Book Online Page A

whistle.
    He pretended not to see her until almost the last moment, then he gave her a sideways glance and muttered, ‘Hello, Sis.’
    â€˜Why can’t you ruddy well leave me alone?’ hissed Sissy furiously. ‘Why do you have to spy on me the whole time?’
    â€˜I just happened to be passing,’ lied George hollowly. He did not know what to do now that he had found her.
    He sat down. ‘Like old times, isn’t it, Sis?’ he observed cautiously. ‘Sitting side by side and drinking fizz.’
    â€˜Huh,’ said Sissy, but she did not seem as furious as before.
    Encouraged by what he felt was a softening of her mood, George reached out and took her hand. It was warm and a little damp.
    They sat like this, silent, for some time, while passing people looked at the queer kiddies from the big house and smiled with sympathy and contempt.
    George said, after a while, ‘Could I have a sip, Sis?’
    Sissy passed her glass to him.
    â€˜They wouldn’t let me in,’ she told him suddenly, with sobbing anger.
    George shrugged. ‘You are too good for them, that’s why,’ he said firmly. Then, looking at her closely, asked, ‘What did you put that ghastly stuff on your mouth for?’
    Sissy bristled. ‘It’s to make men feel attracted to me,’ she snapped, recovering some of her old form.
    George gave her hand a squeeze and said, ‘I’m a man, and I don’t find it at all attractive. I find it absolutely hideous, in fact.’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Sissy, shuddering with some wild emotion that might have been fury. But she did not stir or pull her hand away from his.
    â€˜I love you, Sissy,’ said George. ‘No one loves you as much as me.’
    She turned and looked at him, her eyes wide with surprise. ‘But you’re only thirteen. And you are my brother.’ George nodded wisely.
    He pulled a filthy handkerchief from his pocket, and gently began to wipe raspberry fizz and lipstick from Sissy’s mouth.
    â€˜I am old enough,’ he said. ‘And who could possibly love you more than your brother?’
    They stood up, still holding hands.
    The men began to come out of the pub.
    Mr Lovage passed them. ‘That’s right,’ he said to George. ‘You take your sister home. You’re a big boy now and old enough to look after her,’ and told the others, ‘That’s a nice young boy, and I don’t believe a word of what the wife says about him.’
    â€˜I love you, Sissy. I love you better than anyone or anything in the whole world,’ said George to Sissy.
    â€˜I am a man now, so you don’t need to look for anybody else,’ he whispered as he closed the Plague House gates behind them.
    Then all Sissy’s disappointment floated away and she became filled with relief at not having to go around the village searching for a man, and with happiness because George had grown up just in time. She put her arms round his neck and kissed him on the mouth in exactly the same way as the Italian prisoner had kissed her, and George’s mouth felt and tasted nicer.
    An airman cycling past saw them kissing and, not knowing that this was a brother and sister, let out a wolf-whistle and shouted, ‘Could I have a turn too, darling?’
    â€˜Nobody but me is ever going to have a turn at kissing you again,’ whispered George to Sissy.

Chapter 7
    Elizabeth, standing by the Rose Room window, watched her children coming through the Plague House gates and thought there was something odd about them but, no matter how hard she looked, could not make out what it was.
    Sunlight trailed across her soft silk dress and quivered like water as Elizabeth shivered and thought that she no longer knew the children of her body. They were twins and had always been just the same height, but now Sissy was taller than George, and Elizabeth did not even know when it had happened. There was something