Free The Girl by the River by Sheila Jeffries Page B

But many times he saw fear in her eyes, and it manifested as anger – just like Annie – and if Tessa hurt herself, she was
terrified and would run away and hide in the most unlikely places. No one was allowed to touch or even look at any wounds she had, not even Kate with her nursing experience. ‘I’ll do it
BY MYSELF,’ Tessa would yell, and it was the same when she was learning something new. She wouldn’t accept help.
    ‘Heaven help her when she starts school,’ Kate often said.
    The convoy of nine vardos with their domed green canvas roofs came to a halt, parked along the level end of the street, filling it with colour and noise. Annie hobbled out of her gate and stood
with the family, watching the gypsy women climb down from the vardos and unload willow baskets full of clothes pegs, paper roses, elder flutes, bunches of herbs and handmade lace. With a basket on
each arm, they began their journey down the road in their flowing skirts and coloured shawls, knocking on every door.
    ‘Will they come to us?’ Lucy asked.
    ‘Ah, they’ll come,’ Freddie said, his eyes watching the last vardo which was smaller than the rest and decorated in red and purple. He tried to see the lettering on the side.
No one had emerged from it, and the door stayed firmly shut.
It had to be her
, he thought uneasily.
    Kate went into the cottage and came out with a bucket of water. She carried it over to the nearest horse, a bay cob with a shaggy black mane trailing almost to the floor. She put the grey metal
bucket down and the horse drank noisily. Along the street neighbours appeared with buckets and took them to the horses.
    ‘Thank you kindly, ma’am.’ The dark-eyed gypsy lad gave Kate a smile and a nod.
    ‘Can I bring my children over to stroke your horse?’ she asked.
    ‘Yer welcome, lady. I can see you love horses.’
    ‘I do,’ Kate beamed at him. ‘What’s his name?’
    ‘Prince.’
    ‘He’s wonderful. So GOOD, aren’t you, Prince?’ Kate gave the horse a kiss on his soft muzzle. She ran to fetch the girls who were waiting with eager faces. She lifted
Tessa down from the wall.
    ‘You hang on to her, Kate,’ Freddie said anxiously. ‘Don’t let her get under his feet.’
    Kate could feel Tessa trembling with excitement when she put her down next to Prince. The horse lowered his head graciously to the two children, blowing hot air out of his velvety nostrils.
Tessa gasped and turned big eyes to look at Kate. ‘He’s like a DRAGON,’ she whispered.
    ‘A dragon?’ Kate laughed in delight. ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘’Cause his breath is on fire,’ Tessa said. She reached out and ran her soft fingers through Prince’s mane, entranced by its heavy, wiry fronds. The sun glistened through
it in ripples of silver and tinges of blue.
    Then she did something unexpected, something that took Kate’s breath away. Tessa parted the festoons of mane as if they were curtains, crept through them and sat down between the
horse’s front legs. She reached up and touched the softness of the horse’s belly hair. And Prince never moved a muscle.
    ‘Mummy!’ hissed Lucy. ‘Tessa’s being naughty.’
    Kate trusted horses. She knew better than to reach in and drag Tessa out. ‘Leave her alone. She’s all right,’ she said. She felt Tessa was having a magical experience and to
break it would be sacrilege. Even so, she was relieved when Tessa emerged, her face radiant.
    ‘Prince loves me,’ the child whispered, ‘and I felt his heart beating ever so slowly under his fur.’
    Kate picked Tessa up. ‘Stroke him here,’ she said, rubbing Prince’s neck just behind his ear. ‘He likes that.’ She had a lump in her throat, remembering Daisy, the
huge Shire horse she had loved as a child. She felt it was an important experience for Tessa, a moment of trust and bonding, and finding unconditional love, the kind of love which Tessa might not
find in humans. A child like Tessa was going to have a hard, hard