Dancing Through the Snow Read Online Free Page B

Dancing Through the Snow
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you need, but I am not leaving Min even to your tender mercies now.”
    “Jess, Enid has done well with other children. I suspected she and Min weren’t hitting it off, but had no notion —” Sybil Willis tried to delay her.
    “I’m not interested in excuses. Min does not give me the creeps. Enid does. I’ve been following this child’s progress for some time and I’ve decided we are kindred spirits. I, too, was thrown away in early childhood. And you can tell Enid for me that it was not my fault, any more than it was Min’s. Little children are not responsible for the evil worked upon them by their elders. Come on, girl. I’ve got your pack and we’ll fetch the rest of your things from the front desk if Enid doesn’t forget to leave them there.”
    Min tottered as Jess Hart swung around and Jess’s hand gripped her elbow and turned her to face the outer door. Before she could say a single word, she was swept across the empty waiting room into the hall leading out.
    Min felt as helpless as the girl in the fairy tale who pricked her finger and fell into a frozen sleep for one hundred years. Where was Dr. Jess taking her? But she could find no voice to demand answers. Then a warm flood of gratitude washed through her and started to melt the ice’s grip. She still had no idea where they were going or why. But, in the midst of confusion and fright, she suddenly knew, for the first time in years, that she was safe.
    And even if something went wrong, and it still might, she had nowhere to retreat to. She must trust her rescuer and forward march.

3
Sanctuary
    A S THEY STRODE, SIDE BY SIDE , through the empty building, neither of them spoke a word. Min tried to find enough spit in her mouth to moisten her dry lips, but her tongue had turned to a chunk of styrofoam. She felt a jolt of dread explode within her, doing its best to quench the joy springing up within her. It shouted that trusting people only got you bruised and battered.
    Kindred spirits.
Had she really heard those words?
    She doesn’t know me, Min cried deep inside herself. When she knows me, she’ll throw me away too. Everyone does. I have to stay ready.
    She turned her back on the woman who had carried her off, and glared at a piece of paper taped to a bulletin board near the front door.
    With Min’s bulging backpack slung over her shoulder as though it were full of feathers, Dr. Hart marched ahead, leaving Min to come to her senses and scuttle after her. She led the way to her van, still without making any encouraging little speeches the way most new people did. She opened the passenger door for Min. Automatically, Min got in and did up her seat belt. When they were driving down the snowy street, Dr. Hart broke the silence at last by letting loose a crack of laughter.
    “Did you see Enid’s jaw drop?” she gasped.
    Min’s head whipped around. Had Dr. Jess actually said what she thought she had heard?
    “If only I’d had a camera!” the woman added, still chuckling. Then she caught sight of Min’s shocked expression. “I know, I know. I should have given you a chance to say whether or not you wanted to come with me,” Jess Hart said. “I apologize. I am apt to get carried away. Everybody who knows me will tell you.”
    Min struggled to find an answer for this. No words came to help her out.
    “You needn’t comment,” the doctor told her. Her voice was still unsteady with laughter. “I should be sorry, but they made me so furious! I was on the verge of punching that woman in the nose. I bet she prefers toddlers to kids your age who are old enough to see through the sugar coating. Sybil must have been desperate to have placed you with her.”
    Min had turned her head away again but, at this, it swivelled back. There was a moment of stretched silence before she could recover enough to speak at last.
    “She says herself she likes the smaller ones. How did you know?”
    “I’m psychic. Let’s try to forget her. Min, has it all been too
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