Free Eva's Holiday by Judi Curtin

today. And besides……there’s this match I want to see, and I know they’re showing it on TV in the pub in the village.’
    ‘Yes, sorry, girls,’ said Mum. ‘I really need to go home and get the tea started.’
    The boys all had to go home too, and Hans and Friedrich realised it was time for them to check in to their Bed and Breakfast.
    The commotion of everyone leaving woke Miley. He jumped up, grabbed his stick and raced down the hill after everyone else.
    The field seemed suddenly quiet with just Kate and me left.
    We sat on the rug, and Kate looked at me, ‘I suppose you’re going away too?’ she said.
    I shook my head, ‘Not yet. I’ll stay until I have to go home for dinner. What about you?’
    ‘I’m staying here,’ she said.
    ‘I know. But until when?’
    She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. We can’t leave Jeremy unguarded. So I’ll stay until the danger is over. For a few days anyway.’
    ‘But you can’t! Where will you sleep?’
    She gave a bigger shrug. ‘I can sleep here. I’ve often done that before.’
    ‘But that was … before … you know … you weren’t on your own then.’
    ‘I know,’ she said fiercely. ‘I was with my dad. But Dad’s not here now is he?’
    I gulped. Kate hardly ever mentioned her dad, and when she did, it always made me feel embarrassed.
    ‘So I’ll have to manage on my own,’ she said, in a quieter voice.
    ‘But you said you had a tent then. You—’
    Suddenly she grabbed my arm. ‘The tent – I forgot I still have it at home. If I get the tent everything will be perfect.’
    She stopped talking and put her head down. ‘But I can’t go and get the tent. I can’t leave Jeremy on his own. He needs me.’
    ‘I’ll stay here,’ I said. ‘I’ll take good care of Jeremy while you’re gone.’
    Kate shook her head.
    ‘Thanks, but I can’t leave. If I leave, it would be like abandoning him. You’ll have to go and get the tent.’
    Great. Once again I was getting the tough job.
    As I stood up to go, Kate seemed a bit uneasy.
    ‘You don’t need to chat to Martha or anything,’ she said. ‘Just get the tent, and come straight back, OK?’
    That sounded like a good plan to me, so I nodded, and set off down the field.

    The house looked even creepier than before. I felt like a small, lost child in a fairy story, as Itook a deep breath and knocked on the door. I jumped as the door creaked open at my touch. I jumped even higher when an old woman stuck her head out through the open window next to me. She had a thin, wrinkled face and long, white, straggly hair. She was wearing a shirt that looked like it was about a hundred years old.
    ‘Who are you and what do you want?’ she barked in a deep voice.
    ‘Er … I’m Eva. I’m Kate’s friend.’
    She gave a witch-like laugh.
    ‘Are you indeed? Now why are you here? I hope Kate’s not in some kind of trouble.’
    I thought about telling her the truth, but I wasn’t brave enough.
    ‘No,’ I said slowly. ‘She’s not in trouble.’
    Martha leaned farther out the window.
    ‘What’s Kate been telling you anyway?’
    I took a step backwards.
    ‘Nothing. She just told me about her dad, that’s all.’
    Martha narrowed her eyes. ‘That wasn’t my fault, you know. I hope she told you that.’
    I took another step backwards. This was totally weird. How could Kate’s dad being knocked down have been Martha’s fault?
    Surely she hadn’t been driving the truck?
    How awful would that have been?
    I decided it was time to get down to business.
    ‘Kate and I are going camping,’ I said. ‘So I need to get her tent. She said it’s in the bottom of the wardrobe in her bedroom.’
    ‘You’re not coming in here,’ said Martha.
    She needn’t have worried. There was
no way
I was going into that house without a team of minders to protect me.
    ‘Maybe you’d be kind enough to pass the tent out then please?’ I said in my sweetest voice.
    Martha didn’t reply, but she vanished from the window.