The Secret Keeper


 
 
 
 
 THE SECRET KEEPER
 
 
 
 AMANDA JAMES
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 One More Chapter
 a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
 1 London Bridge Street
 London SE1 9GF
 www.harpercollins.co.uk
 
 
 
 First published by Urbane Publications as Summer in Tintagel in 2016
 First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2023
 
 
 
 Copyright © Amanda James 2023
 
 
 
 Cover design by Lucy Bennett © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2022
 Cover photographs © Ilina Simeonova / Trevillion Images (figure); Shutterstock.com (background)
 Amanda James asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
 
 
 
 A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
 
 
 
 This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
 
 
 
 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
 
 
 
 Source ISBN: 9780008522063
 Ebook Edition © January 2023 ISBN: 9780008522056
 Version: 2022-11-14
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 Chapter 2
 
 
 Chapter 3
 
 
 Chapter 4
 
 
 Chapter 5
 
 
 Chapter 6
 
 
 Chapter 7
 
 
 Chapter 8
 
 
 Chapter 9
 
 
 Chapter 10
 
 
 Chapter 11
 
 
 Chapter 12
 
 
 Chapter 13
 
 
 Chapter 14
 
 
 Chapter 15
 
 
 Chapter 16
 
 
 Chapter 17
 
 
 Chapter 18
 
 
 Chapter 19
 
 
 Chapter 20
 
 
 Chapter 21
 
 
 Chapter 22
 
 
 Chapter 23
 
 
 Chapter 24
 
 
 Chapter 25
 
 
 
 
 Acknowledgments
 
 
 Thank you for reading…
 
 
 A Secret Gift
 
 
 About the Author
 
 
 Also by Amanda James
 
 
 One More Chapter...
 
 
 About the Publisher
 
 
 
 
 
 
 For Tanya
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chapter One
 
 
 
 
 
 Rosa kneels on the lawn. It is summer, but the grass is damp under her bare legs and she wishes that she had taken the picnic rug that Mummy had tried to give her just now. Mummy said that she was wilful and she’d have to learn from her own mistakes. Rosa wonders what wilful means as she pours water from the blue plastic teapot into a tiny cup and places it in front of Barney, her oldest teddy bear. Wilful is perhaps the same as stubborn. Daddy often says she is stubborn.
 ‘Would you like tea too, Miss Jemima Puddleduck?’
 A stuffed green and brown duck looks at her from its one glassy eye, but says nothing. Rosa nods. ‘Yes, of course you would. You can have a biscuit too.’
 Rosa puts cups in front of all her toys and looks back across the long expanse of grass towards her house. The sun hides itself behind a cloud, but that isn’t the reason she has goosebumps forming along her arms. She feels her heartbeat quicken and she tightens her grip on a biscuit. It crumbles and leaves a sticky smear of chocolate on her fingers. Rosa licks the chocolate, but her stomach rolls and she tries to blot out a voice in her head. Daddy will be angry. Very angry.
 A scream pierces the silent afternoon. It comes from the house and it sounds like her mother. Rosa’s heart thuds in her chest and she leans her back against a tree, draws her knees up under her chin. She stares at a grass stain on her white sock and her whole body begins to shake. A siren wails up the valley and she knows that something bad has happened. Very bad.
 She has been under the tree for what feels like a long time, but then she sees Daddy burst from the house as if he has been fired like a bullet from a gun. His hair is messy and he runs his hands through it with wild jerky movements. Daddy’s tie is pulled to the side and he doesn’t look at all neat. Being neat is something he is very proud of. Rosa tries to make herself small, but he has seen her and runs towards her… fast.
 Daddy kneels beside her and puts his big hands on her shoulders. He shakes her roughly. ‘This is all your fault! Dabbling in evil always ends in disaster, do you hear me?’
 ‘I… I… haven’t done anything…’
 ‘Don’t lie! All this mumbo jumbo about ghostly old ladies appearing in my house and warning you about…’ Daddy’s face looks like a Halloween mask and his mouth twists down at the corners. ‘Never mind. You are going to your room and staying there for the rest of the day!’
 Rosa’s arm hurts where Daddy is squeezing it as he drags her back to the house. Her eyes brim with unshed tears, but she won’t let him see. She is glad she is going to her room, because she doesn’t want to know exactly what has happened, the bad thing that has made Daddy so angry. Rosa has a good idea already, and this makes her so sad that she can hardly breathe…
 
 Rosa’s eyes snapped open and terror gripped her heart. The walls were too close and