Read The Road to Winter for Free Online Page B

bales and I can see two large red containers.
    At least I know where Ramage is now and that he’s not back in town hunting for Rose. But he could be getting ready to try again too. I’ll have to come back up later in the afternoon and check on them.
    I drop quietly down out of the tree, gather up the rabbits, touch Rowdy on his collar and we back away into the scrub.
    I’ve been gone a couple of hours by the time I get back to the house. I whistle to Rose and her head bobs up at the kitchen window.
    ‘All good?’ I ask as I come through the door. When I see her I stop in my tracks.
    ‘I hope it’s all right,’ she says.
    She has washed. I can smell soap. Her hair is still wet and dripping a little on her shoulders. Her skin is scrubbed almost raw and a few of the smaller cuts are bleeding. A new white bandage covers the wound on the back of her hand. But that’s not what I’m looking at. She is wearing Mum’s clothes, a blue dress that comes down just below her knees, a big floppy jumper and a pair of sneakers. Her hands are by her sides, clutching the material tight in her fingers.
    ‘I can take them off.’
    ‘No, it’s okay. It’s just…’
    ‘They were your mum’s.’
    I nod. ‘She liked that dress. Dad always said it suited her. Matched her eyes, or something. I never noticed.’
    Different parts of my world are colliding, parts that have no right to meet. There’s some stuff that I’ve buried so deep that I never thought I’d face it again. Mum wearing that dress is one of them.
    ‘I’ll take it off, Finn. I’m sorry. I never should have put it on.’
    She starts to walk out of the kitchen. I don’t know why it happens or even how, but the next thing I know I’m standing behind her and I’ve got my hand on her shoulder.
    ‘Rose,’ I say, and she turns around to look at me because it’s the first time I’ve called her by her name. ‘Please, it’s okay. I like it.’
    Neither of us knows what to say next, so I pick up the rabbits and take them out the back to the wooden bench under the cypress tree. I slit the first one behind the neck and peel the skin all the way back to the hind legs. Then I gut it. I open up the cavity a bit more with the knife and make sure it’s cleaned out. It feels good to be doing something without having to think about it.
    When I’m done with the three of them, and I’ve hung the skins out for the maggots to clean, I take the carcasses back into the kitchen and put them in the fridge.
    Rose is sitting at the table drying her hair with a towel.
    ‘Good hunting?’ she asks.
    ‘Yep. I might make a stew with them.’
    ‘What else have you got that you’re not telling me about?’
    I can tell from her voice that she wants to make it up to mefor wearing Mum’s dress without asking.
    ‘Fresh veggies. I’ve got some growing in a garden up the street. Just tomatoes, zucchini, some onions and stuff.’
    ‘But how?’ she asks.
    ‘Seeds. Dad’s idea again. We stocked up and now I collect the seeds when the plants die off. And there’s Ray.’
    ‘Who’s Ray?’
    I tell her about meeting Ray back during the first winter.
    ‘I’ll take you out to meet him when things quieten down a bit. After the Wilders have moved on.’
    I didn’t mean to tell her about the hayshed. She’s on her feet with the news, pacing up and down.
    ‘How many?’ she cries.
    ‘Six that I could see, but there might be more. I saw the trailbike.’
    ‘Ramage!’ She spits his name out. ‘Did you see anyone else with them?’
    ‘Anyone else? Like who?’
    ‘Kas.’
    ‘I thought you’d been split up?’
    She stops pacing and slumps into a chair.
    ‘You need to tell me what’s happened, Rose. I need to know what’s going on. Whether we’re in more danger than I think.’
    ‘There’s danger in just being a girl these days, worse still if you’re a Siley.’
    She sounds more weary than angry. She sighs.
    ‘When Kas and I couldn’t defend the farm any longer we tried to