You Are So Not a Fallen Angel

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I couldn’t be bothered to get angry about being deserted without so much as a goodbye, yet again. Obviously, I had to get used to this sort of treatment. However, I could get angry about my cousin blatantly making a play for my guy.

“He’s gone,” I said. “You can roll your tongue back in.”

Flora’s eyes fixed on me.

“What’s wrong, Eliza? Feeling insecure?” Her eyes swept me from top to bottom, her lips curling into a condescending smile, and she stretched her arms over her head again. The message was clear: look at me, she was saying, and weep.

“Embarrassed, actually. I always cringe when I see people making a fool of themselves.”  

Flora yanked her top down and stalked out of the room. I allowed myself a small smile. One – nil for Eliza.

I returned to my room, at a loss at what to do. I checked there was no blood on the carpet. I didn’t what want another lecture from my mother about taking proper care of the furniture. The feather Lorris had used to tickle me was still lying on the floor next to my bed. I picked it up. It was long, almost a foot in length, and pure white, with threads of gold running through it.

I sat on my bed and stared at it, wondering what sort of bird it had come from. Tentatively, I brushed it against my cheek. It didn’t feel like an ordinary bird feather. It was softer, and it was slightly warm. I shivered. The answer as to its nature was staring me in the face, but yet again that was a step I wasn’t ready to take.

I took it over to my desk, opened the top drawer and slid the feather up the pile of paper there. It was another thing that could be thought about on another day.

The rest of the morning was spent on the internet, searching for more information about angels. Most of it was rubbish, ridiculous nonsense clearly made up by people who had more time than sense, but I had not given up hope that I might stumble on some more serious material. What I had gathered so far was that far from being fluffy, harmful creatures with large, feathery wings and long white robes, angels were warriors, fearsome warriors sent to earth to do God’s bidding. This was hard to apply to Lorris, who had been repealed by a girl punching him on the nose, and had seemed about to pass out at the sight of his own blood, but it was possible he had hidden aspects. It did make me wonder, yet again, what exactly he was doing here.

I shut my laptop and stood up. I had the uncomfortable feeling I was in very deep in this affair. Whatever Lorris was doing here, it was hardly going to be mundane, and maybe I needed to ask myself if I really wanted to get involved. Heaven could cope without me, but who knew what might happen to me?

I went outside for a swim. I was aware I was becoming rather like Scarlett O’Hara, constantly putting things off to the next day, but there was nothing I could do at the moment. There was only person who could provide me with the answers I wanted, and he wasn’t around.

The long swim drove away many unwanted thoughts, and I emerged an hour later feeling calmer, just as Aunt Mandy was hollowing for me to come in for lunch. I arrived at the table with my hair still dripping wet, earning a bad-tempered sigh from Mandy and another sneer from Flora. She had not forgiven me for the quips of this morning. Elijah barely spared me a glance, but then why change the habits of sixteen years?

The conversation was sparse over lunch. Everyone had sunk into silent resentment, for one reason or another. Aunt Mandy announced she was taking Flora to London to do some shopping, and, rather ungraciously, asked if I wanted to come too. I declined politely, saying I was going to see a friend, not mentioning that spending the afternoon with Flora and Mandy was my idea of a nightmare.