AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What did Ryan think he was playing at? It wasn’t as if there were a lot of places to run away to in Lengroth, and he’d run in the opposite direction to the sweet shop so it couldn’t even be that. It didn’t make any sense.
Maybe he was just one of those boys who needed to run. She’d had one of those in the last school she worked at—he’d needed to escape over the fence at least once a day. The caretaker would chase him down and he’d come back, docilely enough, and go to class. But the next day it would be exactly the same.
But Ryan hadn’t run yesterday. And Cal hadn’t mentioned his escaping act as one of the many problems he’d experienced with the children. Was this something new? Was he running away from her?
The alleyway took another turn, and Heather sighed as she rounded it—then stopped as she realised it led to a dead end.
A dead end with Ryan at the end of it, sitting calmly upon an upturned wooden crate.
He grinned impishly at her, then the smile faded. ‘Where’s Uncle Cal?’
‘With Daisy, I hope.’ Heather moved to sit on another crate opposite him, trying to make sense of exactly what was going on.
Ryan shook his head, his dark hair waving from side to side as he did so. ‘No. No, no, no. Daisy is going to be so cross. I was supposed to lead both of you away. Why didn’t he follow?’ he asked plaintively. Then his face darkened and he answered his own question. ‘It’s because he can’t be bothered with me and Daisy, isn’t it?’
‘That’s not it, Ryan,’ Heather said soothingly. ‘One of us needed to stay with Daisy, and I was quicker than Uncle Cal, that’s all.’ At least she hoped that was what had happened. She hadn’t dared look back to check for fear of losing Ryan’s trail.
‘He can’t, though,’ Ryan said, looking up at her with big eyes. ‘He didn’t want to come back to Lengroth in the first place—I heard him tell Mrs Peterson. And when you two were rowing outside our rooms last night—’
Heather winced. She’d thought he was asleep, but maybe they’d woken him up again. Sound carried surprisingly well in Lengroth Castle for a building of its size and with the thickness of its walls. ‘We weren’t rowing. And you weren’t meant to hear that.’
‘Well, I did. And I know he doesn’t love us or want us. He just wants you to get us ready so he can send us away, doesn’t he?’
The boy had a point, but Heather knew she couldn’t concede it. ‘Your uncle wants the best for your education and for your future. He’s very busy with the estate right now—’
‘Dad never spent so much time in his study when he ran the estate.’
Apparently not very well, Heather thought, but didn’t say.
‘Your uncle loves you,’ she said firmly instead. After all, however much trouble they caused him, they were his own flesh and blood. How could he not love them? ‘He’s just not very good at showing it.’ At all. Ever.
Ryan shook his head mulishly. ‘He doesn’t want us. That’s okay. We don’t want him, either. That’s what Daisy says.’
Daisy. There was something else he’d said about Daisy, and in her relief at finding him safe she’d almost missed it. What was it...?
Heather blinked as it came to her. ‘Ryan, what did you mean when you said Daisy would be cross because you were supposed to lead both of us away? Is this a plan you and Daisy made?’
‘Daisy’s plan,’ Ryan corrected. ‘They’re always Daisy’s plans. She just tells me what to do.’
‘And today it was to run away so Cal and I would follow. But why?’
That was the part that didn’t make any sense. Unless Daisy wanted to be left alone... Heather’s eyes widened. Had Daisy wanted the distraction so she could escape, too?
‘Ryan, what did Daisy need to be alone to do?’
He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Heather took several deep breaths and tried again. ‘Ryan, I promise I won’t be cross. And neither will Daisy.’
‘Yes, she will,’ he muttered, and Heather didn’t try to deny it again. The boy knew his sister better than she did.
