Chapter 10

As tired as she was, Ebony didn't sleep much that night. As soon as dawn broke over the forest, she was up and out of the chalet. Ram might be the only member of the tribe willing to share a cabin with her, but that didn't mean she was eager to spend every night wondering what new barbed comments he would throw her way. She looked round the rest of the standard wooden buildings in the campsite. There were at least a dozen, some larger, some smaller. The largest were the hut that Slade, Ruby and the kids were in and the one opposite, which housed Jay and his harem. The former was the building she had shared with Jack on each of their nights here previously. It was the better kept of the two and consequentially, the more secure.

Ebony looked round the buildings again, wondering what the interior of the smaller cabins was like. The one she had shared with Jack had two double rooms, two single rooms, one with a bunk bed, a bathroom and a shower room, in addition to the standard central area of kitchen, dining room and lounge. The hut she had shared with Ram had only one bathroom, a double room, a twin room and a single room. The other two occupied huts looked about the same size as the three-bedroom version, so she moved on, out of the cluster of habitable dwellings and into the campsite at large.

The cabins seemed to decrease in size as she moved away from the main body of huts. On the outskirts of the campsite, Ebony found one cabin that suited her purpose. It was of the smallest type, which contained one double room, a bathroom and a single room. The windows were shuttered and intact. The door was hanging off its hinges, but that could be fixed. There was a hole in the roof above the dining table and it was obvious that some type of birds had got in and remained for a while. The single bedroom was closed and had therefore been spared much intrusion. The other rooms would need a good clean out though.

It was better than the other small cabins she'd been in, thought Ebony, pulling a brush out of the cupboard beside the bathroom. She could clean out most of the detritus in an hour or so. Once the rest of the tribe were awake, she could find someone to help her fix the door. Jay might be a safe bet, she thought, considering Ellie's attitude of the night before. There was no way she was asking Ram for help. Ruby and Slade simply wouldn't give her the time of day. Trudy was being, well, Trudy. May or Salene might help, but they seemed to be spending all their time with Ellie, so she wasn't going to hold her breath waiting for a positive response from them. Gel was useless. Sammy and Lottie weren't much better, although Lottie was at least still talking to her. That only left Jay and Amber.

Once the door was fixed, she would have to do something about the roof. Everything was wooden, so a few planks from one of the less reparable cabins might do the job. She could handle that one well enough. She could sleep in the single room until she'd scrubbed everywhere else. That would probably take the longest time. After that, it was all just cosmetic.

Ebony straightened up and looked at the central room. She had been working as her mind wandered and now, with the exception of the area right under the table, the room was clear of the worst of the dirt. The bathroom, small as it was, didn't take much sweeping, although the bath would need a good clean before she ever used it, so Ebony was busily sweeping out the main bedroom, and trying to keep her mind on the job, when she heard the knock at the door.

"Hey," said a voice. "Are you okay?"

Ebony looked up to see Amber at the bedroom door, a bucket of water in one hand and another sitting on the swept floor.

"Fine," Ebony shrugged. "Just trying to get this place cleaned up."

"Are you sure?" Amber persisted, frowning. "You look like you've been crying, Ebony."

Ebony raised a hand to her eyes: they were damp. She hadn't realised.

"Just the dust," she shrugged, turning away from Amber. "There's a lot of it. Well, there was."

"Oh-kay," said Amber slowly. "I'm just taking these up to the others," she indicated the buckets of water. "Jay's got a campfire going in the main fire pit. You've missed breakfast, you know."

"I'm not hungry."

"Okay, fine," Amber picked up her buckets and turned to go. Halfway across the living area, she paused and turned back. "I'll come down and give you a hand once I've delivered these," she said. "You'll need some water for scrubbing this floor. I'll ask Jack if he can fix that door for you, and the roof."

"I can manage."

"The door's a two person job."

"Fine: you can help me with it if you want."

"But not Jack?"

"Amber..." Ebony's tone grew tenser.

"What? Ellie has a tantrum so you won't let me ask our best handyman to help fix this place up? He's helping everyone else, why should you be left out?"

"You really need to ask that?" Ebony cried, throwing her hands up in defeat. "Ellie obviously has a problem with me: always has! Anything I do will be taken as an attempt to steal her man."

"That's never bothered you before! Even when you actually were trying to steal somebody's boyfriend!"

"She's already tried to kill me twice. You heard her last night!"

"I also heard you stand up to her! What's gotten into you? You know you'd beat Ellie hands down in a fight!"

"Maybe, but Ellie doesn't do fights, does she. Not physical ones anyway. She plants bombs, she creeps in when you're sleeping..."

"All the more reason to make sure the door's secure!" Amber put the water buckets down again and turned to face Ebony properly. "Besides, you know Ellie was half crazy when she tried to kill you before. She's not now. A little overprotective, maybe, but that's all."

"All the same: I don't need her attitude, I already have one. And if I have to keep away from Jack to get some peace here, then I guess that's just what I'll have to do. I get the feeling I'm not flavour of the month with anyone up there right now."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ebony! If it wasn't for you, we'd still be stuck in that cave, eating mushrooms!"

"I get the feeling that's less important to some people than finding yet another reason to hate me."

"Slade and Ruby will come round..."

"And Trudy? And Salene and May? I got nothing but evil looks from them last night!"

"They just saw you fighting with Ellie. Everyone could hear that you were fighting over Jack..."

"Yeah, because of his jacket! His stupid, bright, warm jacket! He put it on me because I was cold and I wanted to come back here, but he wanted to stay! Is it really so hard for everyone to believe that a guy would give a girl his jacket when she says she's cold! He was just being nice! Polite! That's the kind of guy he is! He is a nice guy! That's not my fault! I can't help it if his psycho girlfriend decides to go nuts because of it! But somehow, I still get the blame! I always get the blame!"

In the silence that followed Ebony's tirade, Amber folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Feeling better?"

Ebony shrugged and nodded.

"I'd better get going before Jay comes looking for me," said Amber. "I'll come back down, like I said. And I'll bring a few extra hands too, I think."

Before Ebony could get her breath back, Amber had picked up the buckets and left. Ebony fell back against the wall and stood there, cursing her temper and counting the planks of wood in the roof to stop herself turning round and punching the wall in frustration.

XXXX

"Where have you been?" Jay asked, hurrying over to relieve Amber of her buckets. "I was starting to get worried about you!"

"I'm fine, I just stopped to ask Ebony if she needed a hand with anything," Amber massaged her hands, thankful for the relief from the weight of the two buckets. She watched Jay carry the water over to one side and noticed Jack working on the stairs up to one of the larger cabins. His eyes flicked over to her momentarily, then back to what he was doing, and Amber knew he was listening. "She's in one of the smallest cabins," Amber continued, aiming her words at Jay, "I said I'd go down and give her a hand scrubbing the floors, but we could do with some help fixing the door: it's hanging off its hinges. One good storm will take it right off. Plus there's a hole in the roof that needs mending. An extra pair of hands would be good."

"I am way too busy here, Amber," Jay called over his shoulder. "Everybody's busy fixing up their own places. See if the kids want to help. You can handle the door right?"

"Yeah, right," muttered Amber under her breath. She glanced about the clearing and spotted Lottie. "Lottie," she called. "Go get Sammy and get over here."

The little girl looked up, hearing her name, and nodded at the command. Sammy wasn't far away: they'd been picking up feathers and stones and things to decorate the cabins with. By the time the two had run up to Amber's side, though, she was aware that the hammering on the stairs behind her had stopped.

"You need a hand?" Jack asked, joining the group quietly. "I've finished here for now."

"Doesn't Ellie need you for something?" Amber teased.

"Nah," Jack shrugged. He looked Amber straight in the eye when he continued: "and she can't complain if you're there too."

Amber frowned. So he was worried about Ellie too? Maybe she shouldn't be surprised about that: Jack had almost always done whatever Ellie asked him to, when it didn't get in the way of whatever he was doing for the tribe in general. This was something he didn't have to do and that he knew Ellie would object to. For a moment, Amber's mind flitted back to her conversation with Ram in the cave. Was there something for Ellie to complain about? She opened her mouth to ask Jack just that, then thought better of it.

"Sure, Jack, that would be great," she said instead.