Hush by Sara Marshall-Ball Page A

outside. The hallways were wide, with black and white checked floors that stretched into infinity. There were a lot of doors, and all of them were closed.
    A man – who introduced himself as Dr Hadley, though he didn’t look much like a doctor – had answered the door, and was leading them through the house. There were other people around, and everyone nodded to Dr Hadley as they passed, and smiled at Lily. No one looked at her father. The further they got into the house, the more worried she became that her mother wouldn’t be able to find them once she’d parked the car, but no one mentioned it and she tried not to think about it.
    Dr Hadley showed them into a room that was full of books. There was a desk in the corner, with several chairs around it, and he and Lily’s father sat on opposite sides of the desk. Lily went to look at the books. She was good at reading,but she didn’t recognise many of the words in the titles. Some of the books were so old that the titles had faded, and she couldn’t make out the letters.
    ‘Eighteen months, you say?’ Dr Hadley’s voice, though quiet, carried across the room. Lily turned around, and saw that he was bent over his desk, writing. Her father had his back to her, but she could see him leaning forward, looking at what Dr Hadley was doing.
    ‘About that, yes. Maybe a bit more.’
    ‘Has she said anything at all since…?’ His voice lowered still further, and Lily couldn’t make out what he’d said. She turned back to the books. A lot of the titles had the word ‘child’ in them. So he was a doctor for children. For her. She wandered away from the desk, until their voices were just a murmur in the background.
    At the far end of the room there was a window, without bars on. It was too high for her to see through when she was standing on the floor, but there was a low pipe running round the skirting board that she could balance on. Clinging on to the windowsill with her fingertips, she could just about see out. She’d been expecting to see the front of the house, but instead she found herself looking out on to a courtyard. It was covered with grass, and flowers, and there were people outside. Two children, not much older than her, cartwheeled up and down the grass while a woman in a nurse’s uniform watched from a distance.
    Lily stayed there for a while, until she felt her feet getting hot through the thin rubber soles of her shoes. She realised the pipe must be like the radiators at home. She jumped down, and rejoined her father and Dr Hadley. The doctor was talking on a telephone now, while her father stared off into the distance.
    ‘We’ve been talking about you,’ Marcus said, lifting her on to his knee. ‘Dr Hadley thinks it might be a good idea foryou to stay here for a while. Just a week or two. So that he can keep an eye on you and help you get better. Would that be okay?’
    Lily thought about it for a minute. She didn’t like the house much, or Dr Hadley. But she wouldn’t mind more time to look at the books, and the courtyard looked nice. She nodded.
    ‘Good girl. He’s just speaking to someone on the phone, and they’re going to find you a bedroom to sleep in. It’ll be like a holiday. Or going to boarding school.’
    Lily had always been fascinated by the idea of going to boarding school.
    ‘I’m sure your mama will be here in a minute. Then we’ll say goodbye, and go away, because we can’t sleep here. But we’ll come back tomorrow.’
    Lily knew she should feel afraid, being left here by herself. That was why her father was explaining everything. She didn’t feel much of anything.
    Dr Hadley put down the phone, and looked up at them with a smile that didn’t quite look right. ‘We’ve found a room. Did your dad tell you, Lily? You’re going to be living with us for a little while.’
    She looked up at him. His hair was going grey, like her father’s, and his glasses were too big for his face. They poked out over the edges, making