Once Was a Time Read Online Free Page B

Whatever had brought this woman to my house must have really been urgent.
    â€œWhat is the news?” I asked, as politely as I could,because she was an adult, and she seemed important, and I didn’t want her to tell Daddy that I’d been rude.
    â€œIt’s not appropriate for me to tell you, unfortunately,” she said with an apologetic smile. “Your father is in the car, and he would prefer to tell you himself.”
    Instinctively, I took a step out of my house, closer to the car. I was just in my pajamas, and the night air chilled me.
    Kitty held back. “Who are you, though?” she asked, squinting her eyes. She was not trying as hard as I was to be polite.
    The woman didn’t look offended, though. She reached into her breast pocket and pulled out an identification card that she showed to me and Kitty. It had her photo on it and declared “Royal Department of Nuclear Research” at the top. “I’m with the government,” she explained. “I’ve been working closely with Professor Bromley on his research into time travel portals.”
    I gave Kitty a look to say, See? We can trust her. Dad’s re­search was secret. If this woman knew about it, she was safe.
    â€œCan it wait until morning?” Kitty asked. She yawned elaborately. “We’re rather tired.”
    â€œI’m afraid Professor Bromley would like to speak with you now,” the woman said firmly.
    My quick imagination was working at double time now. Was Daddy hurt? Had he heard that Mummy was hurt? Perhaps he had discovered the secret of time travel and needed to share it with me. Perhaps he needed my help.
    I followed the woman through the spitting rain to the car, Kitty close behind me. A sleek black car came into view when we reached the street. The woman opened the door to the backseat, and Kitty and I both peered in. It was so dark that maybe I was missing something, but I couldn’t make out a figure in there. I turned around. “Excuse me,” I said. “Where—”
    At that moment, two men emerged from the shadows. One grabbed me, the other grabbed Kitty. An instant later, he’d thrown a large burlap sack over my head, covering my entire body. After that, I saw nothing.
    I yelled and wriggled and kicked, but a ten-year-old girl is no match for a fully grown man. A strong fully grown man. I kneed him in the stomach as hard as I could, but other than a quiet “Oof,” he didn’t even respond.
    He picked me up and threw me into the car. I scrambled blindly for the door, but a second later, I felt the car accelerate away.
    I’d been kidnapped.
    I screamed as hard and as loud as I could, and I could hear Kitty screaming, too, which gave me comfort: Wherever they were taking me, at least they wer e taking Kitty, too.
    I tried to shimmy out of the sack, but those men had tied it tightly at the bottom. I stuck my hand down there, hoping to loosen the knot, but all I succeeded in doing was falling out of the seat as the car suddenly turned a corner. I landed in a heap, my head knocking against Kitty’s legs.
    I stayed like that the rest of the drive, my head pressed to Kitty’s shins, trying to convey through layers of skin and hair and burlap, It will be all right. As long as we’re together, it will be all right.
    Kitty started talking at some point. “We’ll pay you,” she offered to whomever might be listening. “Whatever you want, I promise our parents will pay. If you just let us go.” Her voice wavered. “Please.”
    Nobody replied.
    I didn’t know if Kitty was right about her offer. Of course our parents would pay a ransom for us if they could, but I didn’t know whether they could afford whatever these people asked for. Neither of our families were rich. Before the war, my dad was just a normal scientific researcher and physics professor at the university. We lived in a comfortable house, but it