Read 2006 - Wildcat Moon for Free Online Page B

her. As long as she had breath in her body Nan would fight tooth and nail to keep her safe, make sure no one did her harm but after that…
    Nan walked across to the tallboy, picked up the elephant bookend and sat down on the window seat She ran her fingers deftly over the smooth wood of the carved elephant remembering her fascination years ago when she had first been shown the elephant’s secret. It was originally one of a pair but the other had gone missing years before. The elephant was joined to a wooden book and looked like a simple bookend. But if you knew how, you slid down the spine of the book revealing a tight-fitting wooden panel that slid open. Inside was a space to hide valuables.
    One day she’d show Cissie how it worked, when the time was right.
    She slid down the wooden spine of the book and at her touch the panel slid out easily. She pulled out the photograph and a sea shell and stared down at them. The photograph had been taken during the war. The camera had captured two small girls standing at the edge of the sea. Two dark-haired little girls giggling and holding hands. One of them saved and one of them lost.
    Nan closed her eyes and put the shell to her ear…She remembered the lapping of the waves and the laughter of children playing. A baby crying and gulls screeching overhead. Together they had hunted for shells and picked up the most beautiful and put them in their pockets…
    Then Papa calling to them both to smile for the camera…
    She opened her eyes and wiped her tears.
    This tiny photograph and shell kept safe inside the elephant were the only mementoes of Nan’s past life, the only thing that she had been able to bring with her from a dark, tormented past.
    She replaced the photograph and shell, put the bookend back together and put it back on the tallboy.
    Nan looked out into the stormy night. Far in the distance around the coast she could see the lights glittering in the isolated school that stood alone on the headland.
    In the Boathouse on Skilly Beach a candle flickered in the arched window. Mad Gwennie, like a hermit all alone in there with the music she played over and over. Nan had rarely seen her, just caught the occasional glimpse of her every now and then down on the beach at dawn or at nightfall when no one else was around. As she watched now the door of the Boathouse opened and a small hunched figure was silhouetted against the light.
    Nan stared intently as the figure climbed carefully down the steps on to the beach and then hurried towards the dunes, head bent against the fierce wind. Then she was lost to sight as she headed through the dunes towards the high wall that bordered Killivray House.
    Only a lunatic would venture out on a night like this.
    Nan looked down into Bloater Row and from where she stood she could see into the living room of the Grockles. She wondered if the house had been empty ever since mad Gwennie had run away? Most of the windows were cracked and the gap under the front door was wide enough for a fat rat to run under.
    The large room was sparsely furnished with ancient furniture and dimly lit by a hurricane lamp. It looked cold and uninviting with no fire lit in the hearth. The newcomer Fleep must be freezing his cobs off in there.
    He was an interesting fellow, this Fleep. A handsome man, she’d wager, if he had a shave, put a bit more meat on his bones and an occasional smile on his chops. Rumour had it that he was on the run from gangsters in London but rumours always abounded in the Skallies where newcomers were concerned.
    Catching sight of Fleep sitting at the back window looking out into the night, she snuffed out the candle so that if he turned and looked up he would not see her spying on him.
    She watched him for a long time, watched as he raised a bottle to his lips, drank thirstily and carried on staring out into the night like a man in a trance. He was sitting so still that for a while Nan was not sure if he had fallen asleep.
    Then suddenly