Free Daughter of the Regiment by Jackie French Page B

‘Here, take it.’
    Cissie lifted the lump from the boy’s hand. It looked sticky, and sort of shiny. It must be honeycomb, Harry realised, not like the honey that came in jars.
    Cissie tasted it. ‘It’s … it’s strange.’
    ‘But good,’ asked Daniel anxiously.
    ‘Good,’ agreed Cissie. She tasted it again.
    ‘I’d give you some to take home,’ said the boy regretfully. ‘But I did promise Ma.’
    ‘No, please,’ said Cissie quickly. ‘I wouldn’t want to take your honey. Maybe … maybe you’ll be this way again though. You could show me the tree. Then I could get some for myself.’
    ‘I will if I can,’ said Daniel. ‘But I can’t tell you when. It took me and Mabel half the day to ride here, and it’ll be the rest of the day to get back, and the roof’s still not secure on the house and there are fences to build …’
    ‘I understand,’ said Cissie softly.
    ‘Maybe you could come our way sometime? It’s a grand spot we’ve got by the river. The most beautiful place you’ll ever see!’
    Cissie was silent for a moment. ‘I like the creek,’ she said finally. ‘It’s sort of mine. I don’t think I’ll ever see a place more beautiful than this.’
    ‘But this is a creek, not a river! A river’s much more grand.’
    ‘This is my place,’ said Cissie stubbornly. ‘I think it’s lovely.’
    The boy looked round, as though seeing the cascades, the waterlilies, the gentle grass for the first time. ‘WeIl, it’s a beautiful place, too,’ he agreed. ‘Do you think you can come? One of the soldiers will bring you surely if you ask?’
    ‘I will if I can,’ said Cissie. She hesitated. ‘It’s nice to have someone to talk to. Someone who isn’t a soldier. I mean I love them all, but … do you have any sisters?’ she asked hopefully.
    ‘Three,’ said Daniel cheerfully. ‘All younger than me and all the worst nuisances you’ve seen in all your born days. Sarah’s the oldest. A bit younger than you, I think. Then there’s Bet and Laura, and two brothers, too, Benjamin and Charlie. Charlie’s eight years old and Ben is seven. And we’ve dogs—a pair of them—and a dozen hens and twenty-seven head of cattle.’
    ‘I’ve got a pet bear,’ said Cissie wistfully. ‘It eats gum leaves. But it sleeps most of the day. I’d like to see dogs.’
    ‘You must get them to bring you down!’ urged Daniel.
    ‘I will,’ said Cissie. ‘I will.’
    The horse whinnied and they walked away. Harry waited, but neither came again.

chapter sixteen
Heart’s Place
    White Ice had laid an egg and wanted to proclaim it to the world. Sky Maze leapt up onto the box beside her, prepared to lay on top of her if she wouldn’t move. White Ice squeaked and flapped down to the floor.
    ‘I wish I’d seen them,’ said Angie. It was Saturday morning. Angie had brought three pots of jam—her mum had been cooking up the last of the apricots—and her homework to fill in time while Harry was watching through the hole.
    ‘I wish you’d seen them,’ said Harry. It was the truth. Some time in the past week he’d stopped feeling that Angie was an interloper. Cissie was hers now, as well as his.
    Angie peered down at the hole again, and shook her head. ‘Still nothing,’ she said. ‘You know, it’s funny. It’s almost as though nothing happens till we’re watching.’
    ‘Except we don’t know what’s happened that we haven’t seen,’ said Harry practically. ‘I mean all sorts of things might have happened. Cissie might have been bitten by an eel or Sergeant Wilkes might have been carried off by a wedge-tailed eagle.’ He grinned as Angie giggled. ‘Cissie must have been here lots of times when we haven’t seen her. It’s her favourite spot—her special place, she said.’
    ‘I know. It’s just … I just feel we haven’t really missed anything. But you’re right. Who knows what we haven’t seen?’ She bent down to the hole again. ‘Still nothing happening. Feel like a swim?