“Why not?”
“The Whistleblowers were looking for you in there. I’ve no doubt about that. They wanted to catch you speaking, stirring up anti-Guild feelings. They didn’t. But they know you were there. Some traitors would have made up anything just to save their skin. It’s true the Flawed cause is gaining more support, but like we’ve seen tonight, it can just as quickly scare people away. People like to support the underdog, but not when it gets dangerous. Dangerous times, Celestine.”
“But where will I go if I don’t go home?”
“Stay with me. I told you I’ll keep you safe on the farm, away from Crevan. You think Marcus and his wife are the only Whistleblowers on your side? There are plenty more where they came from.”
“But, Granddad, if I don’t get home for the curfew, everyone will be punished. Mom, Dad, Juniper, Ewan. I can’t do that to them! I have to go home and face whatever it is.”
Granddad nods solemnly.
“Anyway, I didn’t do anything wrong,” I say, my anger rising again. “I was invited, by my teacher, to go to a counseling session. What happened was her fault. Not mine. They’ll listen to Marcus. He saw the whole thing.”
“That’s the spirit.” He smiles sadly, because we both know nobody will listen to my version of events.
“They’ll have seen your truck there,” I say, finally. No point hiding it. The Whistleblowers would have taken note of everybody’s vehicle in the parking lot.
“The truck isn’t registered to me,” he says.
I look at him in surprise. “Who’s it registered to?”
He chuckles. “Never you mind. I’ll have to dump it, though.”
I shake my head in disbelief at him.
“Well, that took me back, all that ducking and diving.”
I twist my body around to face him. “What is it exactly that it took you back to?”
“Ducking and diving.” He winks.
“Granddad,” I say suddenly, fearfully, seeing a drop of blood appear at the line of his cap. It slowly trickles down his face and cheek. “Stop the car! You’re bleeding!”
“I’m fine.” He wipes it away quickly and concentrates on the road. “I just banged it dodging one of those Whistleblowers before Marcus found me and took me to the hiding place. My own fault.”
I lift his cap and see he’s received a blow to the head.
He flinches as I go near it. “I think you need stitches.”
“I’m not getting stitches.”
“Granddad!”
“I’ll have someone look at it at home, someone who won’t ask questions, thank you very much.”
“But it will take you hours to get home. We have to put something on it.”
He doesn’t disagree.
“Stop at the supermarket. It’s two minutes away. Let me just clean you up a bit, stop it from getting infected.”
“I’ll do it after I drop you home safely.”
But neither of us knows that we don’t know what will await me when I get home. We need to give him medical attention now.
“Okay.” He pulls over gruffly, at the back of the supermarket, near the loading area, so that the truck isn’t on the main road. “I’ll be right back.”
“No way. You stay here, I’m going in. You’ve lost a lot of blood already.” I look at his saturated cap.
“They might be looking for you,” he says.
“Where? Here? At a random supermarket? And anyway, we’re just jumping to conclusions. What happened at Alpha’s might have nothing to do with me at all. Alpha is stirring up something dangerous, an opposition to the Guild. Maybe they know. Maybe they’re pretending to play along, but really they’re waiting to catch her out.”
He nods in agreement. “When did you get so sensible?”
I laugh and kiss him on his forehead.
“Go in and straight back out again,” he says. “Don’t get into any trouble.”
I get out of the car and lean in through the open door. “I’ve been trouble since the day I was born,” I echo his phrase from earlier, and he laughs.