Free Blue by Danielle Steel Page A

firmly as Blue rolled his eyes and glared at her.
    “Do I have to?” She glared right back at him and said he did, and he harrumphed off to the bathroom to brush his teeth, like the thirteen-year-old boy he was.
    The next morning was slightly frantic as she made breakfast for him and he got ready for school. She handed him the supplies she’d bought, and she walked him to school. He didn’t say anything, and she wondered if he was nervous about it. And when they got to the corner, she wished him a good day, and stood and watched him disappear into the building. She knew there was the possibility that he could walk out again as soon as she left. But she had done all she could to get him headed in the right direction. After that it was up to him, just like the children she helped take care of in refugee camps. But this was different. For some reason that even she didn’t understand, she cared about this boy. Between the night she had first seen him dart into the shed and that morning, he had embedded himself into her heart. She had sworn to herself three years before that she would never love anyone again. And she sensed that Blue had made the same decision as a little boy when his mother died. And now here they were, two lost souls who had found each other and were swimming toward shore together side by side. It was a strange feeling, as she walked back to the apartment, and got to work on her laptop. She had let her work slide for the last few days, and she had to go into the office the next day. And soon she’d be leaving again. But at least Blue was on his way and back to school. Now all she had to do, before she left, was find him a place to live.

Chapter 5
    When Ginny went to the SOS/HR office, she found that they were considering two possible assignments for her. One in the north of India, where young girls were being sold into slavery by their fathers; a center there was offering them refuge if they were able to escape. Many of them had been severely abused, and all were in their very early teens. And the other location was in the mountains in Afghanistan, at a refugee camp where she had worked before. She was familiar with the area, and the work had been dangerous, exhausting, and rewarding. She was more inclined to go there, and it was more typical of the assignments she’d had before. The dangers there were obvious, and SOS/HR was extremely protective of their workers, ran their camps and programs with military precision, and worked in areas with a Red Cross and international presence. So Ginny knew that particularly in troubled areas, she wouldn’t be out in the field alone. And in most instances, even the countries they were assigned to respected the humanitarian work they did, and their effectiveness in helping the local populace. Ginny rarely felt unwelcome in the countries where she went. Conditions were rigorous, and sometimes risky, but it was a first-rate operation, which was why she had signed on with them.
    “You’re not ready to give up the rough stuff yet?” her supervisor, Ellen Warberg, asked her with a sharp look. “Most people burn out after a year. You’ve taken all the toughest assignments for almost three years.”
    “I like the challenge,” Ginny admitted quietly. Without exception, she had accepted hardship posts, and was known for it in the New York office. But thus far her work had been flawless and above reproach. And she showed no signs of slowing down. By the end of the conversation, they had agreed on the post in Afghanistan, and they wanted her to leave in two weeks. As she left the office, she thought about how little time it gave her to find a place for Blue.
    When she got home, she looked on the Internet again, and found three possibilities. Before he came home from school, she made appointments at all three that week. She wanted to tie up all the loose ends before she left. If she managed to, it would make her brief hiatus in New York a success. She hadn’t wasted her