Lucas’s eyes seemed to sparkle as he turned to the food, spread out on the chest. He was very tall, but she didn’t feel frightened by him. Instead, she felt safe and…hungry.
Blinking, she continued to gaze at him as he smeared butter onto a soft roll and then carefully placed a wedge of cheese on top. His hair was a tangled mop of blond, so golden it was almost like the butter he’d been slathering. Kind, grey eyes twinkled as he handed her the bread, and Rosie felt safe and happy.
She didn’t want to explain to this golden, smiling boy about what she’d seen…or dreamed. If she did, he’d look at her like her father – angry and cross. He’d call her mad and those lovely, grey eyes like rainy clouds would turn stormy and dark.
“I had a small problem with a slow-worm,” he said and went on to tell her all about it. The stinging cheek and split lip were forgotten as she ate with greed and listened in rapture to that and all his other tales. Rosie thought he may have made some of them up, but she didn’t care – he was the most exciting person she had ever met in all of her seven years and five months.
“Sleep now, Rosie,” the soft voice said in her ear and she realised that she was drifting away to the tale of the tadpole.
Lucas was pulling a blanket up over her shoulders and tucking it securely around her.
“Don’t leave me…will you, Lucas? I don’t like the dark…”
“No, I won’t. I’ll be in the bed over there. Go to sleep now and we will speak to my father in the morning.”
Rosie nodded into her pillow, closed her eyes and let sleep claim her.
A piercing scream tore through Lucas’s head. It was shrill, long and frightened, and his heart thumped behind his ribs as though it might burst through.
As his eyes adjusted, a wooden rocking horse gazed back at him in the faint moonlight and he realised he was still in Helmdon Court nursery.
The screaming had quietened to a harsh whimper, and it was then that he remembered Rosie.
Tumbling from the small bed with stiff legs, Lucas staggered to the other side of the room. All he could see was Rosie’s ghost-white face – her eyes closed, her mouth open in a silent cry.
“Rosie. What’s the matter?” Her eyes didn’t open, and he realised she was in the grip of a nightmare. Gosh, he had no idea what to do. He sat on the side of the bed and touched her shoulder. “Rosie, wake up…” She jumped, scaring him, her eyes now open wide.
“Lucas!” she cried, her hands clenching at his shirt front. “You have to go left…”
“Go left…” He looked around, puzzled. “Where left?”
“The fire…it’s all around you. But you have to go left, please…”
“Rosie, wake up. It’s just a dr–”
“Promise me, Lucas. It’s burning…so hot…you’re at the wall…left… Please, promise me, left. It seems so wrong, but you must…it’s all fire, please…”
“I do, Rosie, I promise. Can you hear me? I promise…left. Now wake up.” His tone demanded she obey.
Crikey, he’d had night scares before but nothing like this, and she was frightening him. He watched her eyes slowly become lucid, and then she fell against him, her soft body trembling and shuddering.
Lucas rocked her gently as his own mother had once done, when he’d dreamed a giant goblin lived under the bed – Rosie’s nightmare had seemed a lot more real and terrifying. He tucked her small head under his chin and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes.
He had no idea what she had been talking about, but he was glad to promise it…to keep Rosie happy.
“Lucas… Lucas, my boy. Time to wake up. Your mother’s forgiven you and has a plate of eggs, sausages and toast downstairs for you.”
“Rosie…” His voice was groggy with sleep.
“Dreaming about girls already? Lud, you’re starting to make me feel old. Come on, breakfast.”
“No, papa…wait.” Lucas pushed himself up. The last thing he remembered was leaning against the wall with Rosie. He must have fallen asleep here.
“There was a girl…”
“Son, you’re twelve. Wait a couple of years–”
“No, no…” Lucas shook away the cobwebs. What was his father wittering on about? “There was a young girl thrown in here last night. About seven years, red-haired, called Rosie. Her father hit her. Papa, we must do something.”
