First Term at Fernside by Sheena Wilkinson

Author:Sheena Wilkinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: O’Brien Press
Published: 2024-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Caught!

The hen gave a great squawk and scurried back to her pals, and Linnet swallowed down her terror. Her legs wobbled but she made herself stand up, and turn to face the speaker.

‘Sadie!’

Sadie looked no more pleased to see Linnet than Linnet was to see her. ‘What are you doing here?’ she repeated.

‘Trying to get some peace.’

‘Same,’ Sadie said, and they shared a tentative grin, realising that, as trespassers, neither was in a position to resent the other. The hens had scurried off about their business, and Linnet realised that she must have been in Rowanbank longer than she had intended.

‘We should get back to school,’ she said reluctantly. ‘Do you go through the fence behind the shrubbery?’

Sadie nodded. ‘I needed to escape one day and I remembered this place, and how easy it was to get in.’

‘Me too. Are you not scared of being caught?’

Sadie shrugged. ‘The game’s worth the candle,’ she said lightly.

Linnet wasn’t sure what she meant – what game? what candle? – but before she could ask, her ears, always alert in Rowanbank, were hit with a new and horrifying sound – a blood-curdling howl – as if someone, human or animal, was in agony.

Sadie’s eyes widened with terror. ‘What do we do?’ she said.

Before Linnet could answer, the howl stopped. So quickly that Linnet would have thought she had imagined it were it not for the look on Sadie’s face.

‘I don’t think we can do anything,’ she said.

‘But if something – or someone’s – hurt?’

‘And what if we’re next? Surely we’d better get out while we can?’

As if to encourage them, the tea bell sounded from school, and they slipped back through the fence. It was awkward for Sadie, but Linnet could see from how she pushed her crutches through the gap and then wriggled after them that she had done this before.

‘So why did you want to get away from Fernside so much?’ Linnet asked as they made their way up through the school garden. ‘I thought you loved school.’

‘I do,’ Sadie said. ‘Except …’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Well …’

‘What?’

Sadie sighed. ‘It’s not what I expected. Come on, we’ll be late for tea.’

‘You won’t get into trouble for being late,’ Linnet pointed out. ‘They always—’

‘Make allowances?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘That’s what I mean,’ Sadie said. ‘I don’t want allowances. I don’t want kindness—’

‘That’s silly, Sadie. Everyone needs kindness.’

‘Not when it’s because people feel sorry for you.’

Sadie stomped along on her crutches, so fast that Linnet had to scamper to keep up. And she understood what Sadie meant: Linnet knew Robin was only being kind because of Daddy paying her school fees – she still smarted to remember that overheard She’s my cousin, not my friend.

They reached the dining hall and joined the queue. Sunday tea was always relaxed; you could sit where you liked.

The others in the queue were fifth formers, who never took any notice of lower fourths, so they could speak without being overheard.

‘Linnet! Sadie!’ Robin waved at them from a table which held most of the lower-fourth boarders.

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