Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound Chapter 34

'So, Matthew, fancy explaining why you've been bought here?' Sam demanded to get nothing back.

'Let me have a go,' Isaac stated eagerly.

'No,' Theo injected, looking mildly cross. 'I think we should.'

'We?' Gideon quizzed.

'Why not,' Theo retorted.

'Well, only because we need to check on the animals again,' Gideon explained.

'He's got a point, love,' Lizzy sided with Gideon.

'What and miss the bloody fun,' Theo grumbled.

'We'll recorded it for you,' Isaac offered, while Matthew just sat there looking at me and only me.

'We need to anyway,' Sam suggested, indicating to David to bring out his phone, which he did and this seemed to make Matthew tense.

Theo muttered something before he stormed out of there. Gideon patted my shoulder in a sweet way before he muttered, 'Don't go anywhere.'

As if I would, I thought, rolling my eyes then went back to gazing at Matthew and trying to work out how he fitted into this. David, Isaac and Sam decided to have goes at breaking Matthew, but he remained stubborn to the point that I thought that Isaac might shoot him.

'Why don't we clean his cuts,' I suddenly said, as Helen removed the now partly defrosted peas from my foot.

'Why should we,' Liz snorted out.

'Well we want him to survive, don't we,' I pointed out.

'Why wouldn't he survive?' mum asked me, while Helen got up and went to the sink.

'Well, scratches can get infected,' I explained, while mum now peered with care at the scratches on his cheek.

'They do look nasty, but surely they are not that deadly,' mum disagreed with me.

'Unless they are cat scratches,' I offered, which had mum going very still and glaring at Matthew, who looked away from me, which was a giveaway to where he'd been. 'So, Matthew, I can't say that Tibbles might have some deadly virus she might pass on to you.'

'I don't know what you mean,' he blurted out, with a slight tremor to his voice.

'You were there,' mum accused him, getting ready to go in like the bad cop might do.

'Mum, hold fire,' I ordered, as those around me began to mutter about handing him over to the real cops, which had Matthew paling in colour.

'What did you do to my cat?' mum demanded, now leaning forwards and looking like she might put her mills and boon book to better use as a weapon to his head.

'Gwen,' David warned her, which had her backing off and looking like she might burst into tears over what Matthew might have done.

'Talk, Matthew, otherwise those scratches might be the death of you,' I suggested.

'Yes, like where is my sister,' mum demanded, getting fired up again.

'The more you leave those scratches the more likely you'll get a nasty infection,' I stated.

He looked down at his legs, like he was ashamed at what he'd done or witnessed and wished he'd never done. The phone rang somewhere within the house. No one moved for some considerable time but the ringing went on. In the end Lizzy got up and left. She didn't come back so Liz got up and followed her, she was followed by Helen, like she was worried about the call that had come in.

Then a mobile went off in the kitchen were we were sat. It rang out until Sam got up and answered it with a sharp yes and left he room quickly to take the call somewhere else. The number of bodies were thinning out. Somewhere within the house crying started, which seemed to suggest Robin was up and about after napping or he'd got bored with what he was supposed to do.