The Girl in the Storm by Ceri A. Lowe

Author:Ceri A. Lowe [Lowe, Ceri A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786815262
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2018-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

As she climbed the stairs, legs heavy, Alice could hear a gentle sobbing coming through the door to Marcus’s room, even though it was tightly closed. She stopped for a second before crossing the hallway to Izzy’s room where the little girl sat reciting her homework, working out range and directions aloud, and setting up the targets in her room.

‘Time for sleeping,’ said Alice in a half-breaking voice as she came through the doorway. ‘You’ve got another big day ahead of you tomorrow.’

‘Can I have another ten minutes?’ said Izzy. ‘Please?’

‘Not tonight,’ said Alice, sad and irritated. ‘If you want to be ahead of all the others, the most important principle is sleep.’

‘Marcus isn’t asleep,’ said Izzy. ‘He’s still crying in his room.’ She set up another target and pretended to aim. Alice felt her heart ache.

‘Marcus is hurting,’ said Alice, sitting next to her. ‘He saw something that made him feel a lot of pain.’

‘Marcus is weak,’ said Izzy, bluntly, in a voice much older than her years. ‘And he’s worried you won’t like him any more when you have the baby. Because it’ll be yours and we aren’t really your family.’

Guilt spread through Alice. ‘What makes you say that?’ she said. ‘Did you hear us talking before?’

The girl fiddled with the sharp tip of an arrow, the thin blade piecing her finger until a sliver of blood dripped onto her bed. Quickly, Alice reached for a piece of cloth that had held the arrows and wrapped it tight around Izzy’s finger.

‘There you go,’ she said and the girl smiled sweetly, the traces of the hard, indifferent child seeming to melt away.

Alice sat down on the bed and held the little girl close to her and felt the skinniness of her bones dig into her sides. ‘I know how it feels to be alone,’ she said. ‘But even though I’m not your mother, I’m your family now – do you know what that means?’

‘It means you’re in charge of me,’ said Izzy. ‘Doesn’t it?’

‘It means I’m never going to leave you,’ said Alice, trying to connect with Izzy’s emotional side. ‘We’re going to take care of each other, whatever happens, okay?’

‘I guess.’

Alice paused. At times, the girl reminded her so much of the frightened, insular soul she had been as she wandered from room to room in Prospect House, a lifetime ago. She watched as Izzy jumped up and lined the targets squarely in front of her. And, at other times, they were so desperately different.

‘You’re very good at that,’ she said. ‘You fit right in here, don’t you?’

Izzy smiled. ‘Yes, I am,’ she said. ‘I can lift a crate of books all on my own and I don’t even look at all the old toys we find. Marcus does. Sometimes he picks them up. I saw him put a metal car in his pocket once.’

Alice smiled weakly, her heart splintering into tiny pieces.

‘Maybe Marcus should go back to the Ship where he belongs.’

Alice, surprised at the pragmatism of the girl, baulked a little.

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