Read Online Blood by K. J. Wignall - Free Book Online

moving between the two of them ever since, mainly with my aunt actually, even though she isn’t the blood relative. Tell me if this is boring.”
    â€œNot at all, please continue.” Will had the feeling she hadn’t had the opportunity to talk about this to anyone for some time and there was something soothing for him, too, in the sound of her voice, in the simple comfort of human company, of sharing space with another person.
    Eloise tried to sip at her tea, but found it too hot and put the mug back down before continuing. “Anyway, this summer, neither of them were around. Uncle Matt was on business in China with his new girlfriend. Aunt Lucy was on a round-the-world cruise—I mean, how tacky is that? So I was left at Lucy’s house, which is in the middle of nowhere, and I don’t know anyone, except the maid who doesn’t speak English. So I fell into a real slump, and then I found out that one of my supposedly best friends had invited another friend, and a boy, over to her family’s place in Italy and hadn’t even told me.”
    She paused and made a renewed attempt at the tea before she said, “Okay, that doesn’t sound much, but I was feeling really sorry for myself, feeling all alone in the world, like no one would miss me, and I was hating the thought of going back to school, so I just didn’t … go back, that is. I got the train up here and just didn’t go any further. It was easy really.”
    â€œSo you’ve been living on the streets ever since?”
    The man in the corner overheard him and glanced around in concern, craning his neck to try to see who else was in the alcove. Will shot a glance back at him, disconcerting enough for the man to turn away. He almost felt like going over and telling him— that sickliness you feel, it’s in your blood and your heart, and you don’t know it now, but you’re already as good as dead, so dead that I wouldn’t even feed on you.
    â€œTwo months. It wasn’t too bad at first, but I have to admit, now that it’s getting colder …” She sounded distracted and then said, “If I’m honest, I feel like a fraud.”
    â€œWhy?”
    As if it hardly needed stating, she said, “Because I’ve had a privileged life, and the people who are living on the streets here and everywhere else are doing it because they’ve got no choice. You know, kids who’ve been abused, people with addictions. I mean, even those kids who were hassling me tonight, and thank you, by the way. Did I thank you for what you did?”
    â€œYou did, and I didn’t do very much.”
    Eloise nodded, uncertain, and said, “Well, thanks again anyway. But those kids have probably had a lot less in their lives than I’ve had.”
    Will thought of them, wearing white in winter, wondering how they could dress in such a way and be as badly off as she imagined. He didn’t doubt that they were from the lower ranks of society, but at first sight, their lives were clearly removed from the poor of nearly every period he’d so far witnessed.
    â€œSo if you feel like a fraud and the weather is growing too cold, why do you stay?”
    Eloise looked even more embarrassed and stared at her tea for a few seconds before saying, “Partly, I suppose, because it’s just so difficult to admit that it was a mistake. My latest plan is to hold out till Christmas, then go back and say I was researching a book about being a teenager living on the streets. But it sounds pretty feeble, doesn’t it?”
    â€œYou’re a writer?”
    â€œI’d like to be.” She pointed at his drink and said, “You haven’t touched your tea.”
    â€œNo, I’m not thirsty.” He knew that didn’t sound like much of an explanation, so he added quickly, “Perhaps you did what you did for a reason. Perhaps you’ve stayed for a reason—you just