Free Secrets by Lesley Pearse

some new shoes, hers have got holes in them.’
    ‘Mrs Makepeace will see to that,’ Miss Sutch said cheerfully. ‘So let’s say our goodbyes to Mrs Patterson and then we’ll be off.’
    Mrs Patterson enveloped Adele in a warm hug. ‘Be a good girl,’ she said, kissing her forehead. ‘And write to me to tell me how you are. Everything will turn out fine, you’ll see.’
    ‘Will Mum and Dad know where I am?’ Adele whispered, suddenly nervous again.
    ‘Of course they will,’ Mrs Patterson said. ‘Dr Biggs organized all this, love, so he’ll be checking up on you, and them.’
    Adele kissed baby Lily and patted Michael’s head as he never let her kiss him. ‘Thank you for taking care of me,’ she said to Mrs Patterson. ‘And say goodbye to Tommy for me.’
    She felt a little odd as she walked down the street towards the Tube station with Miss Sutch. She had lived here for as long as she could remember, and apart from a day trip to Southend with the Sunday school she’d never been out of London. While it might have been miserable at home most of the time, all the good memories of Pamela were here, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave those behind.
    ‘You can always come back, you know,’ Miss Sutch said suddenly, as if she’d read Adele’s mind. ‘I sometimes go back to the village I lived in as a child. I walk about and look at things, remember the good people and the ones who were nasty to me. Then all at once I find I’m glad I don’t live there any more. You see, you change with different experiences. What suited you once won’t suit you for ever.’
    To Adele’s surprise the train took them to Tunbridge Wells, the same place the old letter to her mother had come from. She would have told Miss Sutch about it, but the woman suddenly seemed flustered on their arrival, checking her watch and saying they’d have to get a taxi out to The Firs because she had to be back in London by six-thirty.
    From what Adele could see of the town from the train, it looked interesting. The houses were old, but not rundown like the ones by stations in London. As they hurried to get a taxi, Miss Sutch said that in the 1800s people used to come to Tunbridge Wells to take the waters. Adele supposed that meant there was a well in the town which was like medicine. She would have liked to know more but Miss Sutch got into a conversation with the taxi driver about him waiting to take her back to the station.
    Once they were right out of London the train journey had all been through open countryside, and Adele had been enchanted at the sight of new lambs frolicking in fields, primroses growing on the railway banks, and pretty cottages which looked as though they’d come straight out of story books. But once the taxi had left Tunbridge Wells and turned into narrow, winding lanes with thick hedges on either side and no more houses, she began to feel a little trepidation.
    It began to rain heavily too, the sky becoming so black that the bare branches of the trees suddenly looked menacing.
    ‘It’s a long way from the shops,’ she ventured.
    ‘Now, why would you need shops?’ Miss Sutch said sharply. ‘Mr and Mrs Makepeace will make certain you have all you need.’
    Adele didn’t feel able to say she was scared of not knowing exactly where she was. It would sound suspicious and ungrateful, but she sat up straight and tried to take note of landmarks to make herself feel less lost.
    The taxi turned off from the lane on to a muddy bumpy track, and Adele and Miss Sutch were thrown from side to side along the slippery seat while the driver cursed under his breath.
    ‘If this rain keeps up it will be impassable soon,’ he said, turning his head to look warningly at Miss Sutch. ‘So don’t you keep me waiting long now!’
    ‘I’ll just take her in and be right out again,’ Miss Sutch assured him, then patted Adele’s knee. ‘I’m sorry, my dear. I meant to stop for tea and get you settled in, but you can see how