Paradise Lost (Private 9)

replied, her arms crossed tightly around her black-and-white sundress.

"You moved in?" Noelle asked.

Sienna nodded. Her face was pinched with worry and exhaustion as she approached us. "It's morbid, staying in Poppy's hotel suite without her. It's way too still."

"Of course it is," Noelle said sympathetically. She patted the girl on the back as if she understood. Then she made an exaggerated eye roll as she turned around to face us again and grabbed a sandwich. Kiran, Taylor, Tiffany, and I pressed our lips together and hid our faces to keep from laughing.

"So no one's heard from Poppy yet?" Daniel asked.

Silence. The hush felt cold and foreboding.

"Stop this now," Mrs. Ryan said, putting her arm around Daniel from the side. "The island police are looking into the matter, and I'm sure that Poppy will be fine. In the meantime, would anyone like a tour of the garden?"

I caught Noelle's eye. Why would anyone want a tour of her garden?

"Say yes," Upton said under his breath, reaching past me for a plate. "She lives to give tours of her garden."

Why would I humor this woman? She had been nothing but rude to me since we'd arrived.

"Sure. I' d love a tour!" Amberly said, putting her water bottle down and straightening the skirt of her fifties-style blue dress.

"What about you, Reed? You've never seen it before," Paige said loudly, smirking. "My mother's plants are to die for."

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I glanced at Noelle for help.

"Don't look at me. I've been on the tour," she said as she gathered some fruit onto her plate.

"Go ahead! It'll be fun!" Kiran cheered drolly.

"Upton?" I asked hopefully.

He laughed and grabbed a soda from a separate bucket. "You're on your own, I'm afraid. No one needs to take that tour more than once."

Tiffany rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'll go with you," she offered, wiping her hands with a linen napkin and placing her empty plate down on the table.

"We'll come, too," Graham offered, knocking Sawyer on the shoulder.

"Thank you," I mouthed to Tiff and the Hathaway guys. The more the merrier, when it came to a task like this. Who knew what kind of accusations and insults Mrs. Ryan would toss at me if I were alone with her and Amberly?

And so we were off. Paige, Daniel, and their father all, for no apparent reason, decided to come along. There was definitely a weird vibe in this family. Like the four of them couldn't stay out of one another's sight for very long. Sometimes I wanted to get away from my family so badly I locked myself in our basement. Or went away to boarding school.

The garden was on the west side of the mansion, surrounded by a copse of trees that provided shade for the plants that needed it. It was really rather beautiful, with huge beds of artfully arranged flowers

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and not a weed in sight. As we strolled along, I made sure to stick next to Tiffany. Amberly and Paige walked a bit ahead while Graham and Sawyer slid in behind us. Daniel brought up the rear, walking with his hands behind his back, watching his mother at the front, as if riveted by her every word.

Like I said--weird.

"Every plant in the garden is indigenous to the Caribbean," Mrs. Ryan recited, clasping her hands together and wringing them. Wow, this woman was tightly wound. "It's the most extensive garden of its kind on the island and has been photographed for several botanical and lifestyle publications."

"Oooh. I'm impressed," Graham joked in a whisper, earning a punch in the arm from his brother. I smiled. The gesture made me miss my older brother, Scott. I wondered what he was doing back in Groton right then. Probably convincing my parents to return my Christmas gifts and give the cash to him, since I hadn't bothered to come home.

"Listen, Reed, I never got a chance to apologize," Tiffany said under her breath as we slowly picked our way along the broken-slate path. "I'm sorry about what happened at Billings after Thanksgiving."

My heart felt warm for a moment, then sickly as I remembered that awful night when I'd walked back into my dorm and found every one of its residents gathered in the parlor without me. The night Noelle had announced that I'd been voted out.