Free The Wind Singer by William Nicholson Page B

all.’
    ‘Good grief, woman! Why ask a man if he likes something if you don’t mean to give it to him?’
    ‘This is very odd, Dr Batch. Am I to give you everything you say you like? No doubt you like long summer evenings, but I hope you don’t expect me to fetch you one.’
    Dr Minish stood up.
    ‘Call the marshals,’ he said. ‘Enough is enough.’
    Dr Batch stood up.
    ‘Your daughter will be found, and she will be dealt with. You can be sure of that.’
    Dr Minish called up the stairs.
    ‘Are you coming, sir? Or must you be fetched?’
    The bathroom door opened and Hanno came out. As he came down the stairs, Dr Batch opened the street door.
    ‘Mr Hath is leaving now,’ he said to the marshals.
    The crowd outside pressed closer.
    Hanno Hath came into the front room, and made his farewells. He kissed baby Pinpin, still sleeping in Mrs Hath’s arms. He kissed his wife, who for all her defiance couldn’t keep the tears from her eyes. Then he kissed Bowman, whispering to him as he did so,
    ‘Look after Kess for me.’
    He swung his suitcase into one hand and strode out of the door. The marshals fell into step, one on each side, and the two scarlet-gowned teachers waddled along behind. The crowd fell back to gaze in silence at the little procession as it passed. The Hath family stood together on their front step, watching him go. They held their heads high, and waved after him, as if he was going on a holiday. But the onlookers shook their heads and murmured, ‘Poor man’, at the shame of it all.
    As the procession reached the corner of the street, Hanno Hath stopped for a brief moment, and looked back. He gave a last wave, a wide sweep of his arm above his head, and smiled. Bowman never forgot that wave, or that smile, because as he watched from the steps he caught his father’s feelings in a sudden very clear moment. He felt the immensity of his father’s love for them all, warm and strong and inexhaustible, and he felt too a silent cry of desolation, which if it had words would be saying, Must I leave you for ever?
    At the same time Rufy Blesh’s father, who was standing close by, saw that smile and that defiant wave, and Bowman heard him say to his wife, ‘He can smile as much as he wants, they’ll never let him see his family again.’
    That was when Bowman decided, deep inside himself, that there was nothing he would not do to bring his father back, that he would destroy all Aramanth if he had to, for what did he care for a lifetime of this neat and orderly world compared to one moment of his father’s brave loving smile?

9
    Escape from Aramanth
    T hat night, wardens took up positions in front of the house and behind, so that they could catch Kestrel when she came home; which they believed she would do once it was dark. Kestrel, of course, was already inside the house, keeping out of sight of the windows. Once night fell, and they could draw the curtains without arousing suspicion, she moved about more freely.
    Ira Hath refused to panic or cry. She repeated so many times, so steadfastly, ‘Your father will come back to us’, that the twins began to believe it. She fed Pinpin, and bathed her, just as always. She made the wish huddle with her three children, just as always, though it felt wrong without their father. But they all wished for him to come home, which somehow made it feel as if he was there after all. Then she tucked Pinpin up in her cot, just as always. And only after Pinpin was asleep did she sit down with the twins and fold her hands in her lap and say,
    ‘Tell me everything.’
    Kestrel told all that had happened to her, and also what her father had said. Then she took out the map and, before she forgot them, wrote beside each set of squiggly letters the words her father had told her:
The Great Way
,
Crack-in-the-land
,
The Halls of Morah
,
Into the Fire
.
    On the back she copied out the translation of the writing, also from memory:
    The song of the wind singer will set you free.