Read When the Bough Breaks for Free Online

only temporary, we will carry on as before. However,” he pauses, “I have a business to run. You do understand that?”
    I nod, incapable for a moment of saying another word. I understand alright: I am on trial all over again. I find my voice and say, “Thank you, sir, I am grateful. I won't let you down.”
    “Good-bye, Millie, we shall expect you next week as usual.”
    I have been gone more than half an hour – I hope Hamish doesn't think I'm late on purpose. I take off my dust-caked shoes and leave them outside, then wash my face in the scullery to cool off. I can hear Hamish talking to our brother.
    “If you cry, I'll give you to the Gypsies, but if you're good, maybe I'll let you stay.”
    I run into the kitchen and snatch up the baby. He starts to whimper.
Gypsies? My mouth is suddenly dry.
    “Now look what you've done, Millie. I'd just got him to go to sleep. Whatever did you wake him up for? It serves you right if he yells for hours,” Hamish says, looking at me as if I've lost my mind.
    “I don't ever want to hear you scare Eddie with talk like that again!” I say. My heart is hammering and I can hardly catch my breath.
Oh, please, let me be wrong.
I'm almost afraid to ask, “Did anyone call at the house while I was out?”
    I put Eddie back in his basket and smooth the little tuft of hair that's just beginning to grow. He waves his fists in the air.
    “Some woman came to the door,” says Hamish.
    “What did she look like? What did she want?” I need to know, but dread what Hamish is going to say.
    “She was thin, thin as a scarecrow, and she was selling shoelaces. She asked after the baby, in a kind of whisper, and I said no to the shoelaces, told her the baby is fine, and I'm reading to him. Then I shut the door. I'm late for my swim, Millie; you promised you wouldn't be long.”
    So she didn't leave town after all, but why is she staying around?
I grab Hamish's arm before he runs out the door. “I'm not finished – wait a minute, Hamish, are you sure that's all she said?”
    “Yes, I'm sure. I wish you'd stop fussing, Millie. I'm leaving right now.” He runs off to join his friends, his towel rolled under his arm.
    I call after him, “Supper's at seven – don't be late!”
    He's gone, pretending not to hear me. If Mother were here, she'd shake her head and say, “I'm going tohave to speak to your father about that young man; he's getting to be a real handful.”
    A minute ago I was so hot, I was ready to jump in the river myself. Now I'm as cold as a block of ice. I know very well who was at the door. I lift the key down from the hook on the wall by the sink and put Eddie's basket by the window, so I can see and hear him. I go into the garden and lock the door behind me. I'm afraid someone will try to get in. Not someone – Her. The traveling woman, Elsie Bates.
    The sun is bright, so bright that I close my eyes for a moment against the glare. Something, or someone, brushes my shoulder. I open my eyes and see a shadowy shape behind the branches of the apple tree.
Is it her, hiding, waiting to see my baby?
    I run to fetch the broom that we keep by the rain barrel and shout, “Get away from here,” hitting the boughs of the tree so hard that half a dozen apples fall to the ground. Two blackbirds, their wings tipped with red, fly from the middle of the tree, scattering leaves.
    I lean against the broom handle, half-panting, half-sobbing. Blackbirds, their wings spread in flight, must have brushed past me on their way to rest in the cool of the leaves. It wasn't Elsie Bates at all.
Is this me, Down-to-earth Millie, seeing evil in every harmless shadow?
Nevertheless, I search every inch of the garden before picking up thefallen apples and, gathering them in my skirt, return to the house and the sleeping baby.
    Later, rolling out dough to make pastry, I go over and over in my mind what I would have done if the woman had been hiding in the garden. I can't find an answer why she's hanging around