Punished: A mother’s cruelty. A daughter’s survival. A secret that couldn’t be told. by Steel Vanessa

Author:Steel, Vanessa [Steel, Vanessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007287925
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2009-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The next day I woke up to find it had snowed in the night. The garden was a sparkling wonderland of low sunlight twinkling on heavily laden branches. The canal had frozen over and the lawn was a pristine carpet, except for one set of footprints leading through the snow – probably that hungry old fox, I guessed.

I didn’t see Mum at breakfast time. I got myself wrapped up warmly, ate some cereal and headed off down the lane. Lots of children didn’t come into school that day because roads were blocked and the buses weren’t running. It was a fun day because the teachers played games with us; we did quizzes and colouring in and listened to stories instead of normal lessons. At four o’clock I tramped home along the darkening lanes, my feet dragging. This would be the first time I’d been on my own with Mum since I’d dropped my bombshell at the weekend. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react but I was very apprehensive.

I slipped in the front door as quietly as I could but she was listening for me in the kitchen and already had her revenge prepared.

‘Come in here,’ she ordered. ‘Take off your boots and tights.’

I obeyed. The red aura around her was strong and pulsating. She opened the back door and I saw the blue bucket in the middle of the lawn. It was filled with water and there was a film of ice over the top.

‘Go and stand in the bucket,’ she ordered.

‘Mum, I can’t. I’ll freeze.’

‘If you don’t go I’ll make you. Is that what you want?’

Still I cowered, so she grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out the back door on to the snowy ground. ‘Get in the bucket!’ She hit me across the head. ‘Now!’ She hit me again.

I raised one foot and shuddered with shock as I lowered it through the crackling ice into the freezing water.

‘And the other!’ Mum hit me again, so I put the other foot in and immediately started shivering violently.

‘How dare you accuse my father of all those things? You little bitch. You’re not fit to kiss the ground he walks on.’

‘But, Mum, he did them. You saw him,’ I said, and she hit me so hard I fell out of the bucket into the snow.

‘Get back in there.’ She hauled me up and forced me back into the icy water. ‘I’m going to make your life a bloody misery. Up to now it’s been a picnic. You mark my words.’

It seemed like ages that she made me stand in that bucket but it was probably only ten minutes or so. My toes quickly went completely numb, and I began shivering compulsively. Although it was only four-thirty, the moon and stars were out and the owl was hooting as if it was midnight. I had visions of losing my toes to frostbite, like a mountaineer I had read about at school.

When at last Mum allowed me back into the kitchen, my feet were a purply-red colour.

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