Free 13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison Page B

find him.”
    “She can’t have seen him,” said Warwick. “He’s been with me for the best part of an hour.” He scanned the trees. “Where is she?”
    “I don’t know,” Tanya replied. “She must not have seen that we stopped, and kept on walking.”
    “What did she look like?”
    “Pretty,” Fabian said, a hazy look in his eyes. “Really pretty.”
    Warwick said no more. Instead he turned and continued to stomp through the woods. Tanya and Fabian plodded after him in silence. Tanya watched as a tiny fairy, much like the one she had buried, landed gently on Warwick’s back and collected a downy feather caught in his hair, then flew back up into the trees to make its nest. Tanya stayed close to him, feeling safer, but her dislike of Warwick left her confused and a little resentful of the feeling.
    The journey back to Elvesden Manor was long and weary, but thankfully the fairies troubled them no more. For the second time in as many days, Tanya was glad to see her grandmother’s house.

7
     
    As soon as Warwick had closed the garden gate behind them, Tanya untied the rope from Oberon’s collar, and then the four of them battled through the overgrown weeds toward the house.
    “I suppose you’re going to have to tell my grandmother about this,” Tanya muttered as they trudged into the kitchen. Its familiar smell was oddly comforting.
    Warwick turned to face her, his expression grim. “Under normal circumstances I would. But I understand you only went into the forest to find your dog, not out of disobedience, so the matter can stay between us.”
    Tanya stared at him in surprise. Fabian looked equally flabbergasted.
    “There’s one condition.” Warwick’s eyes bored into them. “You promise me now, both of you, that you’ll never set foot in those woods again.”
    They both promised readily. Neither harbored any desire to repeat the experience. Apparently satisfied, Warwick turned up the volume on a small portable radio on the windowsill.
    “Other news now. Reports are coming in of a suspected child abduction from the maternity ward of an Essex hospital. Security camera checks have so far proved futile, with evidence that the cameras had been tampered with prior to the incident. It’s been confirmed that the child in question—a boy thought to be little more than a week old—had been abandoned near the hospital shortly after birth, and was being cared for by staff there.
    “Police are asking for the mother to come forward, and have also issued a description of a teenage girl who was seen acting suspiciously in the reception area prior to the incident. She is now wanted for questioning. An eyewitness described the girl as—”
    Warwick turned the radio off and rubbed a hand over his bristly chin.
    “I hate the news,” he said softly, then turned and left, leaving Tanya and Fabian alone.
    “Oh, no,” Fabian said in an exasperated voice. He was craning his neck to view his sleeve. “My best T-shirt. It’s ripped! Look at it.” He sighed in annoyance, then looked at her hopefully. “Are you any good at sewing?”
    “Terrible,” she answered.
    “I’ll leave it here later on,” he said thoughtfully. “Maybe Florence will mend it.”
    “Thanks for coming with me,” she said, after Warwick’s footsteps had faded away.
    Fabian shrugged. “It was partly my fault anyway. If I hadn’t scared the rabbit it might not have happened.”
    “But you still came. Even though you knew we’d get into trouble if we got caught.” She shuddered, remembering how easily they had become lost, and the mysterious black holes in the ground.
    “I couldn’t let you wander off alone,” said Fabian, his eyes darkening. “People have disappeared in there.”
    “I know. I read about one of them, a girl with an unusual name. Something Bloom.”
    “It was Morwenna.”
    “That’s it,” said Tanya. “Morwenna Bloom. I read about her in a newspaper clipping that fell out of one of the books in the