The Runaway Children by Sandy Taylor

Author:Sandy Taylor [Taylor, Sandy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786812872
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

I watched her for a bit, rolling the snow into a big snowball, then lifting her face up to the sky and letting the flakes fall onto her tongue. Henri was racing round her like a mad thing and rolling over and over.

‘He still thinks he’s a puppy,’ said Yann, coming into the room carrying an armful of logs.

I turned around and faced him. ‘I think something’s happened to my mum,’ I said.

Yann bent down and put the logs in a basket beside the fireplace.

‘Maybe we should ask the authorities – they might know something,’ he said.

‘NO!’ I screamed. ‘You can’t do that, promise you won’t do that, you have to promise, Yann. You have to promise.’

Yann walked across to me. ‘Hush now,’ he said. ‘I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do, Nell, you have my word.’

My heart was beating so loud I felt sick. I put my head in my hands and sobbed, great heaving sobs. I hadn’t been able to feel anything for months but now it poured from me, filling my chest so that I could hardly breathe.

Yann knelt down at my feet until the crying eased, leaving me gulping for air.

‘Better?’ he asked softly.

I nodded.

‘Sometimes it helps to talk, you know. I think that you are holding onto an awful lot of pain in that little body of yours. This is a place of safety, Nell. These walls won’t talk and neither will I.’

I looked into his eyes and whispered, ‘I killed someone, Yann.’ The relief once I’d said it was overwhelming.

‘Do you want to tell me why?’

And so as Olive built her snowman and the fire crackled away in the grate I told my story. When I had finished, Yann took hold of my hands and said, ‘I also killed a man, Nell, and like you, it was to protect someone I loved.’ He gently wiped away my tears. ‘I couldn’t save my wife but with the help of strangers I came here, I found this place. It was a wreck when I moved in so I got it cheap and then I made it into a home. The physical work helped me to cope with my grief and my guilt. We are not bad people, you and I, but we have both encountered evil and we both did what we had to do. I understand, dear girl, and I will hold your secret in my heart as I know you will hold mine.’

Just at that moment Olive ran into the kitchen. ‘I need a carrot for his nose and coal for his buttons and a hat and a scarf, and I’m starving! What’s the matter with you two?’

‘Nothing at all,’ said Yann, smiling. ‘There is nothing wrong with us at all.’

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