Free The Long Walk Home by Valerie Wood Page A

Should she feel guilty? What had he done to be sent home?
    'For some weeks now he has been behaving badly, so the school has informed me.' Her father continued to gaze at her. 'They have punished him, as I suggested they should, and given him several chances, but to no avail. He is set on a downward path, I fear.'
    'I'm sorry,' she managed to say. 'He doesn't like it there; perhaps that's why.'
    Her father frowned; a deep furrow which delved into his forehead. 'I didn't ask for your opinion,' he reprimanded her. 'I am giving you this information so you understand that when he comes home you are not to speak to him. No one must; not your mother, not Nanny or any of the servants, and neither must you. Do you understand?'
    'Yes, Papa,' she whispered. Poor Simon, she thought.
    'He will be kept in complete isolation for a month. A month in Coventry; we'll see how he likes that.' Her father stretched his neck and drew back his shoulders. 'And then he will be sent away to another school. One that knows how to treat recalcitrant boys. Cold baths, exercise every morning, beating when they misbehave. And,' he added, 'if I should find out that you have been communicating with him in any way— do not think you can slip him a note when I have told you not to speak to him— then you will be punished too. Is that understood?'
    Eleanor cast a glance at her mother, who was sitting still as stone, her face so pale and drawn that she looked as if at any moment she might slide out of her chair and fall in a faint to the floor.
    'Is that understood?' he thundered. 'Do not look at your mother. Look at me and swear it.'
    'Yes, Father,' she whispered. 'I swear it.'
     
CHAPTER NINE
     
    Mikey spent another night under St Mary's arch. It seemed to be the most sensible thing to do. No point in setting off in search of his fortune on the day of his mother's funeral. He was dead tired and felt wrung out, emotional and guilty too about leaving his young brothers and sister; but what could he do? If he could have found a job which paid enough to cover rent and food, then perhaps they could have all lived together, but that was asking the impossible. It was at least a shilling a week for a room.
    Besides, he thought honestly, if I only have myself to think about, then I can do so much more and travel further. He had it in his head that he would go away from Hull and the places he was familiar with. I shall be unencumbered, he thought. Just myself and the high road. I'll try for work chopping wood and so on, but even though those low hills I saw looked inviting, I'm no country boy and I think I'd be best heading for another town.
    He didn't know the country, never having been. He didn't know the sea either, only the Humber estuary which carried the salty smell of the sea and where on wild days seagulls came shrieking in over the tops of the churning water.
    He huddled against the wall. I could follow 'river's course, as far as it goes, and then cut across to the highways and make my way to . . . to where, he wondered. Where could I go to make my fortune? London? I don't know anybody who's been.
    The town clocks struck eight; people were moving about the streets. The theatres and music halls would already be filling up, as would the inns and hostelries. Good luck to them all, he thought sleepily, if they've money to spend. He closed his eyes and saw flower beds and trees and the place where they had put their mother to rest.
    'Hey!' A voice woke him from his slumber. 'You've pinched our spot again.'
    He rubbed his eyes. The two women he had seen last night were standing over him.
    'Sorry,' he mumbled. 'But I was that tired.'
    'Have you still not found anywhere else to sleep?' the older one asked him.
    'No. I haven't looked,' he confessed. 'I've been to my ma's funeral today. I'm going off tomorrow. I'm going to leave 'district.'
    He saw in the gloom that the women looked concerned. 'Going to seek your fortune, are you?' one of them asked.
    'I might be,' he