Midnight Blue by Fisk Pauline

Author:Fisk, Pauline [Fisk, Pauline]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-11-01T04:30:00+00:00

19

Bonnie recognized the voice straight away. She could see the black-and-bead-coat in her mind's eye seconds before the kitchen door opened properly and Grandmother Marvell appeared, wearing, as it turned out, not Grandbag's famous coat, but a searing green, gaudy summer dress.

'Didn't mean to startle you,' she said, twitching at the neckline of the dress. 'Found him this morning underneath my trailer. Someone said he was yours. He is yours, isn't he? People get so attached to their animals, don't they?'

The old woman stood hesitantly on the threshold. Her voice, Bonnie realized, was struggling to be soft and nice. She smiled round at them, even at Bonnie, whom yesterday she'd more or less ignored. If it hadn't been for the bandaged hand where Jake had bitten it, Bonnie might have wondered if her distrust was misplaced. That, and the sudden stinging pain around her neck, and a quick dart of the old woman’s eyes that took in everything, so that Bonnie could imagine her - just as Grandbag might have done - adding Dad's silver cup and Mum's flower arrangement and the hanging lamp and the old copper pans to some nasty, greedy jackdaw's hoard somewhere.

Jake sniffed his way round the room. He stopped at Mum's feet. Mum ruffled his hair. Her tired face smiled over his head at the visitor.

'Yes, he's our dog. How kind of you to bring him home. Come in and sit down. Come on. Don't just stand there. We were getting a bit worried because he never usually runs away.'

'You're busy,’ Grandmother Marvell said. 'There's all that going on outside and you haven't even finished breakfast. It's not a time to call, I know. I'm sure you've got lots to do, and I don't want to hold you up. What a lovely baby you have. How old is she? What a lovely house this is.'

'We're not busy,' Mum said. 'Of course you're not holding us up. I'll put the kettle on. It's the least I can do after you've come up here all this way. It is a nice house, isn't it?'

Grandmother Marvell allowed herself to be persuaded in. She sat down at the table and looked around. Her cold eyes throbbed with good will but there was something behind that good will, wasn't there?

'We don't often get visitors,' Mum said. 'The track, you know. Did you come up with the grain man?'

'I brought my car,' Grandmother Marvell said. 'It wasn't too difficult.'

Bonnie stared out of the window at an ancient car. It was just Grandbag's sort of vehicle. She remembered a succession of rusty Cortinas and a creaking Hillman that smoked on every hill. She stared beyond the car, at the twisty track and the distant valley. How had Grandmother Marvell got it up here, especially with that huge wrapped bundle tied onto the roof-rack? It must have been terrible trying to get up the bumpy track, over the little bridge and between the deep ruts of the twisty canyon.

And what was that bundle

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