No. No, not unless anyone had heard her shouting last night, the altercation as it happened – but no one else had come upstairs to investigate, so she had to imagine still no.
Plan, he said, he kept saying plan – as if she had planned any of this! As if she had made any progress searching for some neat solution to the situation, and not just had a few hours to wallow. As if she weren’t operating entirely on emotion, on impulse, trying to survive one moment to the next while the world spun far, far out of her control. Ford was the one who wanted to talk about this – surely he was the one who had plans?
“Nothing,” Jemima mumbled, shrugging helplessly. (Once again – who would that help? That was only dragging more people into this misery.) “I won’t say anything. You can tell them we just had an argument, if you like. About – something else.” Anything else. Something stupid, something small. She couldn’t think of anything they would have argued about, particularly. “Or don’t say anything, and we’ll just...” she trailed off, undecided. Pretend to be okay. Lie. Carry on. Whatever he wanted.
Plan, he said, he kept saying plan – as if she had planned any of this! As if she had made any progress searching for some neat solution to the situation, and not just had a few hours to wallow. As if she weren’t operating entirely on emotion, on impulse, trying to survive one moment to the next while the world spun far, far out of her control. Ford was the one who wanted to talk about this – surely he was the one who had plans?
“Nothing,” Jemima mumbled, shrugging helplessly. (Once again – who would that help? That was only dragging more people into this misery.) “I won’t say anything. You can tell them we just had an argument, if you like. About – something else.” Anything else. Something stupid, something small. She couldn’t think of anything they would have argued about, particularly. “Or don’t say anything, and we’ll just...” she trailed off, undecided. Pretend to be okay. Lie. Carry on. Whatever he wanted.
