A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano

Author:Lauren DeStefano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

Pram slept and dreamed that she was adrift upon a dark sea. There were no stars, but she knew that she was moving away from home. There was something as heavy as a stone around her neck.

She awoke clutching her father’s compass.

The caravan jolted and creaked as it hit a dip in the road.

“Clarence?” Pram said. When he didn’t immediately reply, she thought he had been swallowed by the darkness like Felix had been, and she began to panic. “Clarence!”

Something rustled. “I’m here,” Clarence replied sleepily. And then, “I think we’ve stopped moving.”

Had they? Pram couldn’t tell. She still felt like she was drifting in the waters she had dreamed.

There was the sound of metal doors opening on their hinges, and Pram could see a bit of light stealing in around the blanket’s edges.

Someone threw back the blanket. All the whiteness blinded Pram, and after a moment Lady Savant began to appear, her hair wild like the shadow of an angry flame.

Pram could smell the chilly morning air. Her aunts were up before the sun, and they’d surely discovered she was missing by now. They would be looking for her, but they might not go to the police right away, Pram thought. They would think she’d done something silly, and they would hope to find her without attracting too much attention, so that another Ms. Appleworth wouldn’t come to take her away.

Pram wondered how long it would take her aunts to realize that something was really wrong. But even that realization wouldn’t help them find her. She didn’t know where she was herself. She stiffened her shoulders and did her best to look brave.

“Good morning, doll,” Lady Savant said. “So dreadfully sorry for the squalid accommodations. We were driving through a city famous for its thieves, and they love children. Do unspeakable things to them. It was much safer for you to blend in among the collection of a silly spirit show’s props.”

The man with the thick arms climbed into the caravan. It shuddered under his weight, and the vibrations were in tandem with Pram’s pounding heart. But she felt a little better when the blanket was lifted over Clarence’s crate and a strip of sunlight illuminated his blue eyes. Something about his eyes always calmed her.

She reached through the slats in her crate, and he did the same, and their hands touched for a moment before the man with the thick arms lifted Clarence’s crate and carried him away. Pram crawled after him, as though she could follow. “Where are you taking him?”

“Not to worry,” Lady Savant said. She was wielding a crowbar, and Pram flinched, but Lady Savant used it only to pry away the lid of Pram’s prison.

Even after the lid was gone, Pram hesitated.

Lady Savant laughed. “Come out, silly girl,” she said. “You can ride up front with me now. If anyone asks, we’ll say you’re my niece; won’t that be fun?”

The idea only made Pram lonely for her real aunts. Now that she was so

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