The Lying Game

Art class at Salten is very different from Isa’s other classes. The art teacher is Kate’s father, Ambrose, who insists his students call him by his first name—something just not done at Salten. Ambrose is 45 years old, with a lined, but young-looking face. Isa remembers he was always “working, laughing, loving” (74). When Ambrose introduces himself, he takes Isa’s hand and presses it between his. Tongue-tied Isa feels like she is the only person in his world. Isa and her friends did not mind Ambrose drawing them, “Though maybe we should have” (74). On her first day in class, Isa did not know about Ambrose’s past drug convictions, his lack of teaching qualifications, or the impact Ambrose would have on their lives.

Art class is liberating. Ambrose allows the girls to remove their ties and blazers. Many of the girls have a crush on Ambrose and unbutton their shirts until their bras show, but Ambrose remains professional and keeps his distance, “physically, as well as metaphorically” (76). When Isa has trouble with her self-portrait, Ambrose advises Isa that she is just drawing her features, not the person inside. He sees that Isa is a brave girl who is nervous but “stronger than she knows” (77). Ambrose wants Isa to draw what he sees in her. Isa completes the drawing, which shows an open-faced girl with “nothing to hide” (77). Isa still has the picture but thinks the version of herself in the drawing no longer exists, and maybe never existed. 

Isa feels like she should think about Owen, but instead thinks about Ambrose, Luc, and Kate. Isa feels haunted by the past, and understands why Kate stays at Tide Mill. Isa spots a piece of paper sticking out of a floorboard. Examining the paper, she finds it is a sketch, possibly one of Ambrose’s. The sketch shows a girl, possibly Kate, but the face has scribbles over it and someone poked the eyes out with a pencil. Isa wonders who would have done that. She knows Luc loved Kate and wonders if Kate might have done it. Wind snatches the paper from her hands, and it falls into the waters of the Reach. Isa thinks it is good that the paper is gone. 

The next morning, Isa finds Kate and Fatima outside next to a bloody, dead sheep. Isa wonders if Shadow killed the sheep. Kate is skeptical but knows that someone left the gate open. Kate pays the farmer not to report the dead ewe. As Kate returns to the house, Isa watches her shove something into her coat pocket. Kate removes her bloody coat and goes to clean up. Isa offers to wash the coat and checks the pockets, finding a bloody, wadded up note that reads, “Why don’t you throw this one in the Reach, too?” (87). Isa panics. This means someone else knows their secrets. She thinks about telling Fatima then changes her mind and washes the note down the drain.

Isa suddenly sees threats everywhere in Tide Mill and decides to take Freya for a walk to the village. Isa needs the baby’s sunscreen, which is in the bathroom where Kate is bathing. Kate lets Isa into the bathroom and, from the tub, tells Isa to take her bankcard and withdraw money to pay herself and Fatima back for the sheep. Isa asks what really happened with Shadow and the sheep. Kate gets “remote” (92), and says she simply should have checked the gate. Isa knows she is lying: Going still and quiet is Kate’s physical tell. Isa does not confront her about the lie, thinking Kate probably has reasons that Isa does not want to know. 

Isa ponders whether Shadow killed the sheep and who wrote the note. Isa remembers the first time the four girls snuck out of school and went to the Tide Mill. In the recall, Isa meets Luc Rochefort, whom Kate calls her stepbrother. Luc is five months younger than Isa, dark-haired and golden-eyed. Ambrose is out for the night, and the girls and Luc dance and drink. When Ambrose returns home, he gets a drink for himself and does his first sketch of the group, all piled together on the couch, “curled in one another’s arms” (97). As they earn open weekends, the girls spend them at Tide Mill. The housemistress, Miss Weatherby, is happy that Isa has friends, but urges her to foster more friendship. Kate rejects this advice.

Salten is more run-down than Isa remembers. Fishnets decorate houses and stores in Salten, both as a nod to the town’s heritage, and to attract tourists. The nets unsettle Isa, who thinks they make the town look sad and spooky. To Isa’s dismay, unpleasant Mary Wren, the “village matriarch” (104), still works at the post office. Mary is surprised to hear that Isa and her “clique” are attending the dinner (105). Mary remembers what “terrible little liars” they were (107). Isa admits they were not nice to other girls at school. As Isa tries to leave, Luc enters. Isa notes Luc’s drastic change. He speaks angrily to Isa, insisting that Kate, and Isa, knew the horrors Luc was returning to in France. Isa does not know why Luc is so angry.