New York Orphan (Tales of Flynn and Reilly Book 1) by Kind Rosemary J

Author:Kind, Rosemary J. [Kind, Rosemary J.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Alfie Dog Limited
Published: 2017-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

It was the chosen Saturday at last. Ben and Daniel were alone and the time was near.

“I want you to take this.” Ben thrust a small packet at Daniel. “It’s not much, but it will get you a little along the way.”

Daniel frowned and looked inside the packet. He let out a gasp. “I can’t. You need it.”

“You’ve helped me out and not been paid. By rights, that money’s as much yours as mine. It’s half of what I’ve got. I’ll be fine with what remains.”

Daniel looked deep into the old man’s eyes and wrestled with words that wouldn’t come. “Thank you. I wish I could take you with me.”

Ben smiled. “Then you’d be found before you’d gone half the distance. I’ll be all right here. I’ll have Duke for company.”

The dog snuffled his hand and moved to sit closer to Ben’s feet. It was as if he could sense that his relationship with the two men was changing once again and that his future rested with his former master.

“Take care of him,” said Daniel. They were needless words, he knew, but he had no idea how to convey the gratitude he was feeling and was lost for something meaningful to say.

“I will,” Ben replied. “Now away to sleep, and Daniel… good luck.” He clapped Daniel on the shoulder as he got up and moved to his bunk.

Tonight Daniel would sleep with his belongings close and his boots ready to put on.

The sun was far from rising when Daniel swung his legs down from the bunk and landed almost noiselessly on the extra straw he’d spread around that part of the barn floor. He stilled his breathing and listened to the sounds of the night. He’d heard the revellers come home and thought there was little real chance of waking them, but still it was a risk he didn’t want to take. He felt a nose snuffle the leg of his trousers and reached down to give Duke’s head one last pat. Then he lifted his boots and carried them out to the back of the barn, the side furthest from the house, before stooping to pull them on. He paused for one final check that everything was carefully stowed, then slung his small pack across his shoulder and made for the edge of the fields.

This side had yet to be harvested, which would make it easy to follow the line of the corn and know his direction in the almost complete dark of the moonless night. As his eyes adjusted, the starlight provided some outline to the shapes ahead, but when the clouds passed across the sky, all was black. Once he moved to other land that he didn’t know he would need at least a slither of moon, the pre-dawn light or the gloaming to guide him on his way.

He kept close to the corn as he went, waving his stick ahead of him lest he walk into an outgrowing branch and cause injury. His steps were steady and rhythmic as he heard them tread lightly on the packed earth.

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