Survivor by Lesley Pearse Page A

she’d shamed her
     family.
    They didn’t say as much. They
     talked of there being more opportunities for her, and of giving her the chance to
     see the world. Yet even though that was what they truly wanted for her, Mariette
     also knew they felt her past mistakes were affecting her brothers.
    She didn’t know Uncle Noah and
     Auntie Lisette. They were just names on a Christmas card, the people who sent
     presents to her and her brothers on their birthdays. Granted, they were always
     lovely presents – for her eighteenth they’d sent her a beautiful silver
     bracelet. She knew they lived in a splendid house, that Uncle Noah was an acclaimed
     journalist and author, and a good friend to both her parents. And yet, to Mariette
     they were strangers on whom she was being fobbed off.
    She had learned her lesson. Sam was a
     horrible and worthless man, and she regretted ever having clapped eyes on him. She
     certainly didn’t intend to make a mistake like that again. But however badly
     she had behaved, she didn’t understand why the neighbours felt they had a
     right to judge her. She hadn’t hurt any of them, and she could bet every
     single one of them had done something shameful in their life too.
    In the past, when she had daydreamed of
     leaving Russell,Mariette had always
     imagined her friends and family shedding tears as they waved goodbye to her on the
     jetty. She’d also thought that if ever she came back, it would be a joyous and
     triumphal return. But now she felt everyone would be whispering ‘good
     riddance’ as she left, and hoping that was the last they’d see of
     her.
    Miss Quigley had always said she was
     defiant, and that’s what she decided she would be now. She would act like she
     couldn’t wait to leave because Russell was too small for her. Maybe, if she
     could put on a good enough act, she’d start to believe it too and stop being
     scared.
    Alone in her room at night, though, she
     found herself crying. She was going to miss Noel and Alexis; however much they got
     on her nerves sometimes, she loved them. As for Mum, Papa and Mog, she
     couldn’t imagine what life would be like without seeing them every day. Who
     would she turn to, if she was frightened or lonely? Her confidence had always been
     remarked on, but what if it left her when she got to England?
    ‘I think you’re being very
     brave,’ her father said one morning, almost as if he’d read her
     thoughts. ‘I’m sure you are a bit worried about going to the other side
     of the world without us, but you are going to love it, Mari. Along with seeing
     London, I’m sure Noah will take you over to France. He has a place near
     Marseille which used to be mine. Imagine seeing all the places your mother and I
     have told you about?’
    Mariette had always wanted her father to
     be proud of her, and if the only way she could make that happen was to appear brave,
     then that was what she must do. So she didn’t throw herself into his arms and
     tell him she couldn’t bear the thought of not going sailing and fishing with
     him, which was the truth. Instead, she just forced a grin and said how much she
     wanted to see Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the RiverSeine and the Eiffel Tower, and that she was grateful for
     the opportunity she’d been given.
    Mog dug out a thick, brown wool coat
     with a red fox collar, which she’d brought here from England, and began taking
     it apart with the plan of remodelling it for Mariette. Her mother found some brown
     felt to make a hat to go with it, and she showed Mariette some beautiful feathers
     with which she intended to trim it.
    They booked a passage for her on a ship
     leaving for England from Auckland on 18th December, at the height of summer, but
     she’d arrive in England in the dead of winter.
    She had always been a bit confused as to
     why English immigrants moaned that New Zealand was upside down, how they missed big
     fires and the snow and ice that came at