Chapter Thirty-Two Freya’s House
Chapter Thirty-Two
Freya’s House
The next morning, Freya was congratulating herself on helping Finn and Sophia get back on track and happily talking to Amelia about her plans for another date with Ross, weighing up whether it was better to go out for a meal again, or should she cook him something.
“I can always make myself scarce,” suggested Freya. “If you want the place to yourself. Evie or Kate would have me for a sleepover, or I could stay with Maureen.”
“No way,” said Amelia hastily. “I don’t want to turn you out of your own home. Anyway, he might get the wrong idea and think I’m trying to seduce him by inviting him here, especially if I’m on my own.”
“Aren’t you, though? Trying to seduce him, I mean?” said Freya with a wicked smile.
Amelia laughed, “You are terrible. He’s gorgeous and I really fancy him, but I think we might have something special together and I don’t want to rush things. It’s only the second date after all.”
She frowned and looked at Freya. “Do you think I am being utterly ridiculous?”
Freya smiled reassuringly. “Not at all. But to be honest I’m not sure that boy will ever make the first move. You might have to jump on him like a ninja.”
“I can do that,” said Amelia with a giggle, “but maybe not quite yet.”
“Let me make us some coffee,” said Amelia, “and we can have some of your chocolate shortbread that I’ve become addicted to.”
Amelia got up to go to the kitchen and saw Evie’s car pull up into the drive. Florence screeched to a halt, and Evie raced out of the car and burst into the room, out of breath and looking distraught.
“Freya, are you alright?” said Evie.
“I’m fine. Whatever is the matter? What’s happened?” said Freya, bewildered.
“You haven’t seen it then?”
“Seen what? Evie, you aren’t making any sense.”
“I hate to be the one to tell you but there’s been some disgusting posts about you on Twitter, or X or whatever the hell it’s called these days.
I wouldn’t have given it a second thought but it’s getting a lot of attention and has already been retweeted hundreds of times.
It must be some kind of bot, not just a vile troll. ”
“I have absolutely no idea what you are going on about,” said a baffled Freya. “I didn’t understand a word of that last bit, but it’s obviously got you all upset. Sit down and take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on.”
Evie was becoming tearful. “Oh Freya, it’s horrible lies about you on social media and it’s being seen by loads of people.”
Freya replied, “You know I don’t take any notice of all that nonsense.
I’ve just about got my head round Instagram but I’m not going anywhere near the other mad stuff.
” Freya had once been on Facebook but had hastily given it up after Rory had dismissively told her it was for ‘old people’. She’d never bothered with Twitter.
Seeing Evie so het up, Amelia asked worriedly: “Exactly what sort of lies are they telling about my Freya?”
Evie was too distraught to take umbrage at Amelia claiming Freya as her own.
“About her past,” she said tersely.
Freya said quietly, “What about my past?”
“About Magnus.”
“Ah, I see,” said Freya with a heavy sigh. “But that’s never been a secret, Evie. You all know that. I’ve never hidden anything in my life. I admit I rarely think of it these days. It all seems so very long ago. It was another life.”
“Who is Magnus?” asked Amelia. “Was he an old boyfriend?”
Freya signed. “I was Magnus, my love. But Magnus has been effectively ‘dead’ for almost sixty-five years. Why would anyone bring it up now?”
The penny dropped. “So you were actually born a boy,” said Amelia, adding hastily, “not that it matters one bit.”
Freya rubbed her hand over her face, the weariness settling.
“I truly thought that part of my life was over forever.” She turned to Evie.
“I know you mean well by warning me, but there’s no need to be so dramatic.
Surely no one cares. I suppose there will be people here in Orkney who didn’t know, but why ever would they bother? ”
Evie said in despair, “That’s the trouble. It’s blowing up already, Freya.”
She took out her phone and brought up the tweet, handing it over to Freya, who put on her glasses and read aloud:
There’s a vile predator on Orkney who has been hiding in plain sight for years, living a lie, posing as a female and with access to our youngsters.
Freya looked at Evie sharply, “Why on earth do you assume they are talking about me?” Silently, Evie scrolled up to another post from the same source. Freya started to read it out but gave a strangled sob and couldn’t continue.
You know her as Freya but she’s living a lie. We need to take action and get the police involved to protect our vulnerable young girls and boys.
Freya couldn’t take it in. “What on earth do they mean? I don’t understand.” She looked completely bewildered. “They want to protect youngsters from me? But that’s crazy?”
Freya looked at Evie in horror and gasped, “Where is this coming from? Who is doing this?”
Evie said, “I’m so sorry, Freya. I think they mean you have access to kids at your free art classes and they are trying to make people think the children are in danger. It’s utterly vile.”
Freya whispered, “I wish you hadn’t shown me that. I really would rather not have known.” A single tear rolled down her cheek. Evie was crushed and felt terrible. Maybe she had been too hasty in coming straight to Freya, but she had wanted to prepare her for the worst.
Amelia was looking at her own phone. She said, “These messages were posted early this morning and already they’ve had hundreds of likes and just look at these replies.”
Amelia continued scrolling and shook her head, “Jesus Christ, some people are vile.”
Freya said, “Please don’t look and don’t tell me what they are saying. I can’t bear it. And is this really someone I might know? You really think it might be someone with a child who comes to the art class? I mean I just can’t think who would do such a cruel horrible thing …”
“We don’t know who it is,” said Evie, “It could be anyone. These people hide behind screens. They are ants with megaphones.”
Amelia turned to Evie, “I can’t believe this is happening. Surely we can sue? Or at least get the posts taken down and whoever is in charge can issue a retraction and apology.”
“It’s not that simple,” said Evie grimly, “I can look into it but these big tech companies don’t give a shit about tracking down these trolls.”
“Still,” said Amelia “it’s worth a try. We don’t want this getting out of hand. Or getting into the papers – you know how they like to pick up stories like this. Just look how upset you have made her.”
Freya was ashen. “What do you mean? The papers wouldn’t be interested in me would they?”
Both Amelia and Evie were silent. They knew all too well how stories like this could get out of hand. More and more newspapers and online sites relied on clickbait stories to get readers’ attention.
“I need to lie down,” Freya whispered. “I have a splitting headache and I don’t feel well.” Evie was distraught, her dearest friend looked so defeated.
“Let me call Edwyn or I can get you some tea.”
“No, thank you. I just want to be left alone. Just leave me be.” She went into her room and shut the door. They could hear her sobbing.
“This is terrible,” said Evie. “Who on earth would be so disgusting as to do this to Freya, and why would they post such cruel lies?”
“Beats me,” said Amelia, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “But it seems like there’s nothing we can do.”
Evie frowned, “I should sit with her and make sure she’s alright.”
Amelia said quickly, “But you heard her, Evie. She wants to be left on her own.” She added, “Don’t you worry, I will look after her. You gave her a horrible shock. I think you could have been a bit less blunt, if I’m honest.”
Evie looked stricken, and Amelia added, “I think Freya was also disappointed you said you couldn’t do anything to help.”
She then half-heartedly tried to reassure Evie. “I guess it’s not really your fault. Here’s hoping no one will take it seriously and it will be forgotten about in a couple of days.”
Evie said grimly: “I hope you are right.”