Free Safe Harbour by Marita Conlon-Mckenna Page B

with his display of bravado.
    ‘Don’t touch them, Hugh!’ she ordered, but he just ignored her.
    He was pretending to limp around the room, lifting up one leg and trying to balance on the wooden leg. ‘Arrgh my hearties! I’m a big bad pirate and I want your gold!’ Hepaced up and down, getting more reckless.
    Sophie couldn’t calm him down. She turned back towards the bedroom just as the large looming figure of her grandfather appeared.
    ‘What are you doing? How dare you invade my bedroom!’ His eyes were cold and unflinching.
    Sophie’s face flamed with guilt. She should have made sure that Hugh hadn’t come into this room. Hugh had managed to knock the rest of the legs out onto the floor, where they lay in a grotesque pile.
    ‘What is this! What have you done?’ roared their grandfather.
    Hugh began to giggle – not the right thing to do at all as it made the old man angrier.
    ‘Pick them up carefully and place them back where they belong!’ he ordered stonily.
    Hugh looked like some kind of octopus, with legs sticking out at every angle.
    ‘One by one – carefully!’
    ‘Grandfather, we … we’re sorry, honestly!’ pleaded Sophie. ‘We didn’t mean to do any harm, it’s just that it’s so wet outside and we got bored, Hugh wanted to play. We didn’t mean to touch your things …’
    ‘I told you both not to come into my room. Do you two understand English? You have plenty of places to go in this house. I have accepted having the two of you foisted on me, but I am at least entitled to my own privacy in my own home.’ He was shouting now.
    Hugh was trying to look contrite. ‘I never saw an artificialleg before, Grandfather,’ he said. ‘They’re funny-looking things!’
    Her grandfather raised his hand as if to hit the child but Sophie forced her way between them. ‘Don’t touch him!’ she warned.
    ‘You want to see what an artificial leg looks like? Then I’ll show you!’ Grandfather began to roll up his brown tweed trouser leg, exposing the pale painted shape that replaced the flesh and bone. There was a grotesque raised scar at the top, a bump of mottled skin like a line dividing the real from the unreal.
    Horrified yet fascinated, the two children stared. Hugh’s eyes were almost popping out of his head.
    ‘Are you satisfied now, you young pup?’ Grandfather demanded. He stood, almost swaying with emotion in front of them. ‘Now get out of my sight, the two of you! Go to your rooms!’
    They both ran off, relieved to get away from him. Sophie made sure that Hugh went into his own room despite his pleas to stay with her.
    She flung herself on her bed, utterly miserable. She was so ashamed of their behaviour. They should never have gone into Grandfather’s room – it was all their own fault. They had broken their promise and invaded his privacy. He must think that they were two very bad-mannered children. What if he wrote to their parents or the authorities to complain about them? Where would they be sent then?
    Sophie knew that she couldn’t leave things the way they were. Oh why did Hugh have to be so bold sometimes! Ifonly he hadn’t gone into the bedroom!
    Grandfather probably thought they were jeering at him. His poor leg! She wondered what had happened to him. Maybe he had fought in a war like Dad was doing now. Still, he shouldn’t have tried to hit Hugh, no matter how annoying he was. He was still small.
    Nancy slipped a tea-tray wordlessly into her room, refusing to be drawn into conversation or forced to take sides.
    Mrs Kellett, Sophie’s teacher in her old school, had always said never to be afraid to apologise and say sorry. She said that it took backbone and good character always to do the right thing.
    Sophie made up her mind what she would do. She marched up to her grandfather’s study and knocked on the door.

CHAPTER 16
This Is London
    ‘Who is it?’ Grandfather called out irritably.
    ‘It’s me! Sophie!’
    She could hear him moving around,