Free Emily's Dream by Jacqueline Pearce Page A

the hall to the stairs leading up to her bedroom. She wanted to stomp up the stairs, but she made herself walk quietly.
    Once inside her room, Emily flung herself onto her bed and screamed into the pillow.
    â€œMilly?” a timid voice whispered. “Are you okay?”
    Emily rolled over and saw Dick standing by the door, pale and concerned. He looked younger than his years even though his yellow curls had been cut off, and he had recently started wearing long pants like a man.
    â€œOf course I’m okay,” Emily told him with a forced smile.
    She got off the bed and stood beside the metal birdcage that hung on a stand near the window. Inside, the yellow canary cocked his head sideways to look at her,then opened his beak to let out a cascade of sound. Emily smiled–this time, for real. The canary’s singing always improved her spirits.
    Dick came to stand beside her.
    â€œI’m sorry you got in trouble,” he said. Then he looked at her with a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes.
    â€œBut the game was fun,” he said. “And the look on Bishop Cridge’s face sure was funny.”
    Emily reached over and hugged her brother, laughing.

 2 
Daydreaming
    On Monday morning, Emily and Dick walked to school with their sisters, Alice and Lizzie.
    Dick, who was named after their father Richard Carr, was twelve, three years younger than Emily. Alice and Lizzie were two and four years older. Lizzie was already finished school, but she often walked with the others, then continued on to visit missionary friends, or their older sister Tallie, who lived in town. Between Lizzie and Emily’s two older sisters, Tallie and Dede, there was a big gap in their family where two brothers had died as infants.
    Tallie had left home to marry a naval officer and had children of her own now. Dede, the eldest, was fifteen years older than Emily. She had not married but instead focused her life on taking care of her family and doing Christian work. Both Dede and Tallie were proud to tell people they had lived in England before their parents moved to the colony town of Victoria.
    As Emily and her brother and sisters left their house behind and headed down Carr Street toward the school, Emily and Dick slowed to let Alice and Lizzie get ahead of them. Emily noticed that Dick seemed withdrawn and pale. Ever since he was a baby, he had often been sick and tended to tire easily. He was generally a quiet boy, but there was a hidden spark in him that Emily enjoyed fanning to life. He could use some brightening up now, she thought, looking at him sideways.
    Impulsively, she jumped off the wooden sidewalk onto the road and sprang back again. She knew she was being silly, but sometimes silly was the best thing. Shebounced back and forth from sidewalk to road until Dick began to laugh, and she was out of breath.
    â€œEmily!”
    Up ahead, Lizzie and Alice had stopped and turned back. Lizzie scowled, her hands on her hips. Alice looked worried.
    â€œWhy can’t you behave more like a lady–or at least act your age?” Lizzie said. “You are going to be dirty before you get to school.”
    â€œYou’re going to fall and hurt yourself,” Alice warned.
    â€œYou are going to make us all late,” Lizzie added.
    Emily rolled her eyes at Dick.
    â€œYes, yes,” she called to Lizzie and Alice. “We’re coming, mother hens.”
    â€œCome on,” she said to Dick, and she began to cluck and flap her elbows as she hurried forward. Dick hesitated for a moment, then he flapped after her, trying to keep his flaps a little more dignified.
    Alice laughed as Emily and Dick caught up to her, but Lizzie turned her back on them and marched forward. Emily marchedlike a soldier, swinging her arms and lifting her knees high. Dick grinned and swung his arms along with her.
    â€œOh don’t, you two,” Alice whispered.
    Lizzie’s head snapped around, and Emily and Dick