Claire Seeber - Fragile Minds

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.

AVON

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

FRAGILE MINDS Copyright © Claire Seeber 2011. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 ebooks.

Claire Seeber asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9781847562074

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2011 ISBN: 9780007334704

Version 2018-06-18

For Fenn and Raffi, again.

All my love, always.

And in memory of my beloved grandpa,

Roy Livingstone Holmes.

Lemonade lollies forever.

‘Whoever takes one life, takes the world entire,

Whoever saves a single life, saves the world entire.’

The Talmud

‘No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even

The natural fool of fortune. Use me well.’

King Lear, Act IV, Scene VI

Title Page Claire Seeber Fragile Minds

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Prologue

Thursday 13th July Claudie

Thursday 13th July Silver

Thursday 13th July Claudie

Friday 14th July Claudie

Friday 14th July Kenton

Friday 14th July Claudie

Friday 14th July Kenton

Friday 14th July Claudie

Friday 14th July Silver

Friday 14th July Claudie

Friday 14th July Kenton

Monday 17th July Claudie

Tuesday 18th July Silver

Tuesday 18th July Claudie

Tuesday 18th July Kenton

Tuesday 18th July Claudie

Tuesday 18th July Silver

Tuesday 18th July Claudie

Wednesday 19th July Silver

Wednesday 19th July Claudie

Wednesday 19th July Silver

Wednesday 19th July Claudie

Wednesday 19th July Silver

Wednesday 19th July Lana

Thursday 20th July Claudie

Thursday 20th July Silver

Thursday 20th July Claudie

Thursday 20th July Silver

Thursday 20th July Claudie

Friday 21st July Silver

Friday 21st July Claudie

Friday 21st July Silver

Friday 21st July Claudie

Friday 21st July Silver

Friday 21st July Claudie

Friday 21st July Kenton

Friday 21st July Silver

Friday 21st July Claudie

Friday 21st July Silver

Friday 21st July Claudie

Friday 21st July Kenton

Friday 21st July Claudie

Saturday 22nd July Silver

Saturday 22nd July Kenton

Saturday 22nd July Claudie

Saturday 22nd July Silver

Saturday 22nd July Claudie

Saturday 22nd July Silver

Saturday 22nd July Claudie

Saturday 22nd July Silver

Sunday 23rd July Kenton

Sunday 23rd July Silver

Saturday 22nd July Claudie

Sunday 23rd July Silver

Sunday 23rd July Claudie

Sunday 23rd July Silver

Monday 24th July Claudie

Monday 24th July Silver

Monday 24th July Claudie

Monday 24th July Silver

Monday 24th July Claudie

Monday 24th July Silver

Monday 24th July Claudie

Monday 24th July Silver

Monday 24th July Claudie

Monday 24th July Kenton

Tuesday 25th July Claudie

Tuesday 25th July Silver

Tuesday 25th July Silver

Tuesday 25th July Kenton

Tuesday 25th July Claudie

Tuesday 25th July Silver

Thursday 24th July Kenton

Tuesday 25th July Claudie

Thursday Night, 13th July Claudie

Friday 14th July: The Berkeley Square Bomb Claudie

Tuesday 25th July Kenton

Tuesday 25th July Silver

Tuesday 25th July Claudie

Tuesday 25th July Silver

Tuesday 25th July Kenton

Tuesday 25th July Silver

Tuesday 25th July Kenton

Tuesday 25th July Silver

Claudie

Read on for an exclusive short story by Claire Seeber

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Praise

Other Books by Claire Seeber

About the Publisher Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

There are plenty of beginnings, but only one end to my story.

At the police station in the small country town, they brought me tea and toast, but I didn’t touch it; I pushed it away. I didn’t trust them. Any of them, any more.

My feet were cut and bleeding; I didn’t care. They matched my sore hands. In my head I was still running, and the road was cold and rough beneath my naked feet and I didn’t care. The pain pushed me on. I was a streak of white light in a black surround, and then you were beside me, only you couldn’t keep up, so I leant down and carried you, light as thistledown, in my arms. No one could stop us; I would run and run and run—

Someone was behind me. I could feel my heart beating, I could hear the blood thumping in my ears, I could feel the breath squeezing through my ribs and out of me; I couldn’t outrun them.

My feet were hurting badly now and I no longer felt invincible, I could hear the sobs pushing out of me as the car slowed and a blue light flickered across the road between the sand dunes, and the sea hissed to the left of me: ‘Don’t stop, Claudie, or they will get you.’ But I was weak now, too weak—

The man held my arm gently. He was wearing a uniform and he said, ‘Are you all right, love, you’re freezing.’ And he led me to the car with the blue light on top, and made me sit in the back.

And then they brought me to the building in the town, and said another man, a man they called Silver, wanted to talk to me.

I didn’t give him time to sit when he came in. I had waited too long already.

‘Something’s not right,’ I said, too fast, almost before he came through the door.

He leant on the wall in his shirtsleeves, hands in his pockets, and looked down at me. His expression was quizzical but I was relieved that he didn’t look amused. He looked tired, perhaps, but not amused.

‘I see. Are you all right though, Claudie?’

I kept my hands in my lap beneath the table, where he couldn’t see me tearing at my own skin.