Girl in the Red Hood Read Online Free Page A

you live in Ward?" he asked. Liesel racked her memory, trying
to remember the village's name. Ward sounded right. Even if it
wasn't, she didn't really care. She just did her best to nod.
    "What are you doing out here alone?" She
could hear the frown in his voice. Liesel finally opened her eyes
and looked at him, but couldn't answer through her chattering
teeth. His expression softened. "Well, no matter. We'd best get you
home. I'm sure your mum's worried something awful. I know my wife
would be." He didn't see, but Liesel felt a tear roll down her
cheek. Yes, Mother would have worried.
    As he carried her, he talked. Liesel found
his voice soothing. He was a hunter, he said, and his name was
Paul. He didn't usually come this far east, but the buck he'd been
chasing had led him outside of his normal grounds. He had a family
back in higher country, including a daughter about her age, and he
didn't like to leave them for long. She began to drift in and out
of slumber as he carried her back and chatted away.
    It wasn't until they were at the edge of the
village that she realized she'd fallen asleep.
    "You, man!" The hunter called out. "I have a
girl here, and she's not well! Do you know where I might find her
family?"
    "I'm new here. I wouldn't know." Liesel's
eyes were closed, but she recognized the worn, rough tone of her
father's voice. Instead of its usual arrogance, however, it was
hoarse and broken. A small piece of Liesel's senses returned,
enough to feel pity for the man. But with the pity came rage as
well. It was he who had dragged them to this place of death, and
he'd been the one to hold her back when Amala still could have been
saved. And he knew it, from the sound of his voice.
    "If you please," the hunter said,
uncomfortably shifting her weight in his arms. "I found this girl
in the forest. She was being attacked by a wolf-"
    "Girl?" Warin's voice lifted slightly. "I
been missin' mine since I came home and found her mother dead."
    "I...I'm sorry," the hunter said softly. "I
found this child in the woods, like I said, bitten by a wolf.
Perhaps the pain of losing her mother was just too much..." He
stepped forward again. "If you would just look and see if she's
yours." Liesel heard her father rouse himself from the stoop slowly
and walk towards them.
    "Aye, she's mine. Don't know what the fool
girl was thinkin', runnin' into the woods alone at night." Despite
his harsh words, his voice was soft and gentle. Familiar arms
lifted her from the hunter's. Liesel wished she could find her
voice to thank the stranger for his kindness.
    Her father didn't put her into the bed, and
Liesel couldn't look to see if it was because her mother's body was
still there. Instead, he simply carried her to a wooden chair in
the corner of the room and cradled her as he had done when she was
young. The last sound Liesel heard that night was Warin's quiet
sobbing as he held her close. Her last thought was a desperate one.
She still hadn't escaped the woods.
     
     
3. FINDING THE SUN
    "You're not readin' that book again, are
you?" Warin called through the doorway. Liesel paused, trying to
come up with something to say. She had nothing, however, by the
time her father walked inside. "You've read that blasted book every
day for the past month," he shook his head at her. "You're goin' to
bring both of us to madness if you don't leave this house
sometime."
    Despite Warin's rare show of paternal love
the night her mother died, Liesel and Warin had spoken less in the
month that followed than ever. He'd never even asked about the
wolf, just accepted what the hunter had told him. Then he'd gone on
as if nothing had even happened. The wolf attack, her mother's
death, even his new job at the blacksmith's stall merited only a
few words. And Liesel was fine with that. In fact, she was more
than fine. She knew he missed Amala, and she knew he was grieving,
but it did little to lessen his accidental participation in her
mother's death. Warin had never even