Page 58 of Queen of Nothing

From here, I have a view of the carpark.

The buggy.

Dray isn’t there anymore.

He must have sensed me. Followed that instinct to the crowd along the parade.

Which means he might be right behind me.

That’s the least of my worries.

Because right there—two market stalls down from the steps leading up to Town Hall, at the very stall I bought the music sheets from—is my brother.

Oliver.

My insides constrict.

I suddenly can’t breathe.

If I had a fright when I saw Dray, and I had dread when I passed by Mr Younge, then the sight of my brother’s profile spreads a dense ache through my chest.

Heartache.

The urge to run at my twin and throw my arms around him is as strong as the sudden need to punch him on the mouth.

I do neither.

I tear my gaze away from the rich brown hair he runs his fingers through, and the glint of emerald from his eyes catching the sunlight.

And I look around him—to the other side of the Town Hall building, where another lane opens up, and leads away from Main Street.

Oliver moves—

And my heart lurches.

But he only places his hands on the edge of the stall and leans closer to the furrowed-face man.

My breath loosens, but it’s chopped and grated.

I walk between the stalls, deeper into the markets, because I have no other choice really.

I can’t turn around to Main Street, not with Dray and his sense back there.

But as I hold my composure, and walk casually, inconspicuous, behind Oliver at the stall, I catch some words he shouts over the racket of the parade.

“Two women! They would have arrived in town recently! Likely to keep to themselves—”

“The gay ones?” The man shouts back. “The ones with the kid?”

I walk faster.

I walk until I’m turning around the steps of Town Hall, the last row of stalls, and closer to the lane that cuts around the back of the hardware store.

It’s my only way out of here.

But when I’m about to turn the corner, I ruin everything.

I fuck up.