Free Autumn by Maddy Edwards Page A

the time should ever call for it....”
    Silent tears spilled out of my eyes. He couldn’t see me, so I let their wet streaks fall where they would.
    I knew I couldn’t speak, so I just stood there in silence. I had been picturing Holt waiting in comfort and not in some dark prison. I could feel that he wasn’t uncomfortable, but how could he possibly be happy? He hadn’t reassured me at all. Instead, after seeing him I felt that all my fears had grown.
    “I’ll be back in a week,” I said, trying for the one bright spot. Samuel had told me I could see Holt once a week, and I was relieved to give Holt something to look forward to.
    “See you soon,” he whispered from the darkness.
    I thought of heading back into the light, knowing that no matter what, nothing could warm me.

Chapter Seven
     
     
    I spent only an hour with Holt. It felt like minutes, and I resented the sound of Samuel’s voice when he called down from the top of the stairs that it was time for me to go.
    “I’m going to get you light,” I said once I had managed to get my emotions under control. “Because this,” I waved my hand around to take in the darkness, “is ridiculous, even for Mrs. Cheshire.”
    I knew Holt was smiling when he said, “You go get ‘em.”
    I trudged back up the dark steps. Now that my eyes had adjusted and I could make out basic shapes, I didn’t have any trouble leaving the prison.
    “Samuel,” I started in right when I saw him. I ignored his tired expression and the dark circles. I especially ignored the pull I still felt towards him. Once Holt was released I was sure the pull would go away.
    With a slight widening of his eyes Samuel said, “Look, I’m working on getting him some light. Besides that he’s pretty comfortable. He’s fed. It’s warm. He has a bed.”
    “How am I supposed to know that he has a bed if I haven’t seen it?” I snapped.
    Samuel sighed and shook his head.
    “Trust me, he’s being treated a lot better than most prisoners who break serious laws.”
    “And I suppose I have you to thank for that?” I shot back.
    Samuel’s jaw tightened and his blue eyes burned.
    “You do, in fact,” he said coldly.
    I chided myself. Holt had told me to be nice to Samuel and here I was doing the exact opposite. If Samuel was the only one in the Cheshire household taking care of Holt, and really given that the other Fairies in the house were Lydia, Leslie, and Mrs. Cheshire herself that wasn’t hard to believe, I did have to be nicer to Samuel.
    “Sorry,” I said. “I’m just upset.”
    Samuel’s arms twitched, almost like he wanted to hug me but had thought better of it.
    “I know,” was all he said. “You should get back to see Carley. Tomorrow, after she leaves, meet Susan and me at UP UP and Away.”
    I nodded. We had reached the back door, and without another word I slipped through it back onto the street.
    I felt pulled in two directions. I wanted to be where Holt was, but I couldn’t, and not only that, he had warned me to keep myself safe. I didn’t even know what that meant. Safe from what? The only danger I had ever been in was from a crazed Water Sprite. Mrs. Cheshire had tried to attack the Summer Court, but that was in the past. There was no way she would risk her position of power to do it again.
    Would she?
    Carley and I spent a quiet last day. We both got teary-eyed, but when Nick came over and saw girls crying he threatened to leave if we didn’t stop, so we did.
    Mrs. Hightower was in crazy form, getting ready for my mother to get there. My mother was due to arrive that evening so the four of us could have dinner together. Bizarrely, Mrs. Hightower had invited Nick, and because Nick would brave any situation, even one involving dinner with four females, to be around Carley, he was coming as well.
    My mother had decided to drive, because, as she told me in a phone call, she had a lot of stuff. I had only packed summer clothes when I came to Castleton, because I never