Little Darlings Read online

  ‘What’s your name?’ I ask.

  She hesitates, catching her teeth on her lower lip. ‘Don’t laugh,’ she says.

  ‘As if I would! You don’t laugh at me, and Sunset’s a very silly name.’

  ‘It’s Destiny. Destiny Williams.’

  ‘That’s – that’s a pretty name,’ I say. I don’t get it for a moment. Then, ‘You mean, Destiny like my dad’s song?’

  ‘You are my Dest-in-eee,’ she sings, raising her eyebrows. She’s got a strange, lovely voice, very deep and grown up.

  Then we both giggle.

  ‘Imagine what it’s like for me at school. I don’t half get teased.’

  ‘Oh, I do too,’ I say, which is true, though there are lots of kids with odd names at Ridgemount House – Kester, Bambi, Starling, Plum, Primavera . . . ‘I hate school.’

  ‘Me too. But you don’t need to go to school, do you? Couldn’t you have, like, a private tutor, seeing as you’re so rich?’

  ‘I wish! Yes, a tutor that just teaches stuff like art and English.’

  ‘They’re my favourites too!’

  ‘It’s weird, we’ve got so much in common,’ I say.

  ‘We have, haven’t we!’ She sounds thrilled too. ‘We even look a bit alike, don’t we? Do you think?’

  I’m not so sure. We’re both dark, I suppose, but she’s thinner than me and looks older and much prettier. I wish I did look like her.

  ‘Maybe we look a bit alike,’ I say.

  ‘Yes, we really do,’ she says, and she’s smiling all over her face now.

  Then we hear someone calling, in a high, frightened voice.

  ‘Destiny! Destiny, where are you?’

  ‘Oh God, that’s my mum,’ says Destiny. She runs back through the trees towards the wall. ‘It’s OK, Mum, I’m here. I’m in the garden,’ she calls.

  ‘What? Whereabouts?’ She sounds frantic.

  Destiny runs right up to the wall and tries to climb up it, but she can’t get a grip. She tries harder, but falls down, scraping her hands.

  ‘Don’t! You’re hurting yourself. Come to the gate,’ I say quickly. ‘Oh, your poor hands!’

  ‘It’s OK, only a graze. I’m tough as old boots, me,’ says Destiny. ‘Mum, can you hear? Sunset says to go to the gate.’

  ‘Sunset! You’ve met up with her at last!’ she calls from the other side.

  ‘You wanted to meet me?’ I say to Destiny.

  She shrugs. ‘Perhaps my mum had better explain. She’ll tell it all to Danny.’

  I swallow. How will she talk to my dad? He doesn’t talk to anyone he doesn’t know. You have to set up a special meeting with him via Rose-May, his manager – and then he mostly doesn’t turn up, not unless it’s for the media. And he doesn’t even talk to us in the morning. We’re not allowed to go near his bedroom before twelve, not even Sweetie.

  I follow Destiny anxiously as she walks along beside the wall. She spots the swimming pool and raises her eyebrows. ‘You’ve got your own huge swimming pool!’ she says. ‘Oh my God, it’s guitar shaped. How cool is that!’

  ‘It’s a bit odd swimming in it with all those curvy edges,’ I say. ‘You can’t do proper laps.’

  ‘So you can swim OK then? I’m rubbish at it. I only went to our swimming baths once and someone pushed me under and the water went right up my nose, and I bawled my head off and wouldn’t ever go back. So, you can lie out in your loungers after a swim and get suntanned and drink piña coladas?’

  ‘Well, I don’t have proper cocktails. I have this thing called Over the Rainbow – it’s all different juices and lots of fruity bits.’

  ‘You really do have cocktails? You’re not joking me?’ Destiny shakes her head. Then she squints towards the house. ‘Sunset, your house is massive! It’s bigger than our entire block of flats. So which is your bedroom?’

  ‘That window up in the turret bit.’

  ‘Oh, that’s exactly the room I’d choose. It’s just like a fairy tale. Do you have to share it with Sweetie?’

  ‘No, but she comes into my bed sometimes. And Ace does too – not a good idea, because he sometimes wets it,’ I say.

  She laughs. ‘I love all these things they leave out of Hi! Magazine,’ she says.

  Then we get to the gate – and there’s Destiny’s mother, pressing against the iron railings. She’s smaller than I remembered, not much bigger than us. Her ponytail makes her look like a little girl, yet her face is lined and eerily pale, and her eyes are staring so. It’s hard not to feel a little frightened of her – but Destiny rushes up to her and squeezes her hands through the narrow bars and pats her mum’s thin shoulders.

  ‘I’m so sorry I worried you, Mum. It’s just you were so sound asleep and I thought I’d have a go at hitching myself up the wall to have a quick look and I spotted Sunset here, dancing in the garden—’

  ‘Making a fool of myself,’ I say. ‘How do you do, Mrs Williams.’

  ‘Hello, dear,’ she says softly. She looks from me to Destiny and back again, shaking her head. Tears start spilling down her cheeks.

  ‘Don’t cry, Mum!’ says Destiny.

  ‘It’s just I’m scared I’m still dreaming,’ she says, wiping her eyes quickly with her black-mittened fingers.

  ‘You come in and be part of the dream,’ says Destiny. She looks at me. ‘She can come in, can’t she?’

  ‘Yes, yes, of course,’ I say uncertainly.

  Destiny tugs at the gate but it just rattles, not budging an inch. ‘Tell us the security code then, Sunset.’

  ‘I – I don’t really know it,’ I say.

  ‘You must know it, else how can you get into your own house?’ says Destiny, staring at me.

  ‘Well, the only time I’m out is when John or Claudia or Mum takes me in the car, and they just press this little zappy thing. But you can press another one indoors. I can go and press it now and the gate will open then,’ I gabble. ‘Stay there. I won’t be a minute, I promise.’

  ‘You will come back, won’t you?’ says Destiny sharply.

  ‘Destiny!’ says Mrs Williams, sounding shocked. ‘Don’t talk to Sunset like that!’

  ‘No, it’s all right. I promise I’ll come back,’ I say. I’ll be less than a minute, you’ll see.’

  I turn and rush through the garden, round the swimming pool, past the flowerbeds and the play lawn with Sweetie’s Wendy House and the jungle gym and the trampoline, across the patio, then round the back to the kitchen door. I’m scared Margaret might be there, or Claudia having an early cup of coffee, but the kitchen’s completely empty, thank goodness. Maybe I can make Destiny and her mum a coffee, fix them some toast.

  I won’t actually take them into the house. I could bring their breakfast out into the garden – we could all sit by the pool. Then I can try to explain that Dad won’t actually come and talk to them, but I could find them a Danny Kilman signed photo instead. I know where there’s a whole stack, and I could maybe find them a special-edition boxed set of CDs – they’d love that.

  But first I’ve got to get the gate open. The control panel is in the hall and I’m not allowed to go near it, so my hand goes a bit trembly as I reach out and press the switch twice. I hope that’s it, that there isn’t another code. Then I rush back to the kitchen, fill the kettle, put it on to boil, go back out of the door, and charge into the garden.

  It’s worked! The gate is wide open, and Destiny and her mum are standing just inside, holding hands.

  ‘There!’ I say. ‘Come right in. If you’d like to sit down by the swimming pool, I’ll fix you—’

  ‘Cocktails?’ Destiny interrupts, laughing.

  ‘I’ll fix you breakfast!’ I say.

  ‘It’s so kind of you. You’re such a nice girl, though we knew you would be, didn’t we, Destiny?’ says Mrs Williams.

  ‘Come this way then,’ I say, and lead them towards the pool.

  But before they can sit down there’s shouting coming from the house, and then Mum comes speeding across