Strange Star Read Online Free Page B

Godwin.’
    ‘But on the invitation it said Mrs Shelley.’
    ‘That’s just for appearances.’
    ‘Oh.’ He was still confused. So the Shelleys weren’t husband and wife but two people who lived together and had children. He’d not realised people did that. So many rules were being broken tonight, he was struggling to keep up.
    ‘Please, call me Mary,’ she said.
    ‘Mary.’ Felix nodded. It sounded daring, and he liked it.
    Together they lifted the girl onto the chaise longue. In the candlelight, she looked about fourteen, he guessed. Her eyelashes were stupidly long, and she’d a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. It was a nice face, the sort that would be missed, and it vaguely reminded him of someone.
    ‘Shouldn’t we fold her arms over her chest?’ Felix asked, because that’s what he’d done when Mother died.
    ‘Would you do it?’ Mary said. ‘I don’t think I can touch her again.’
    ‘Very well.’
    Lifting her right arm, Felix laid it across her body,then did the same with her left. The muscles hadn’t yet set. Nor had her skin cooled, which he supposed was due to heat from the fire. She still wore a pair of clogs that had rubbed her heels raw. He slipped them off gently, and seeing her toes so grimy with dirt made him sad.
    ‘I’m going to fetch water to wash her feet.’ Then he saw the look on Mary’s face. ‘What’s wrong?’
    Mary pressed her hands to her mouth.
    ‘My goodness. I think I know her!’ Forgetting her desire not to touch, Mary reached forward to smooth the girl’s hair from her neck. In doing so, she again revealed the scar. ‘I’m sure it is … I know that mark … and yet it’s hardly possible she should come all this way!’
    All this way?
    So the girl wasn’t local, then. This much Felix understood, for she wasn’t dark like the Italians or flaxen-haired like the Swiss and both lived up here in the mountains. No, this girl was as freckled as a hen’s egg. Yet still she felt familiar, somehow.
    ‘Why would she come here?’ Felix asked.
    Mary didn’t answer. Her mouth fell open.
    ‘Goodness!’ she cried. ‘Look!’
    The girl’s arms had dropped to her sides. Felixfrowned. Now he’d have to arrange her all over again, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to, not when she felt so unexpectedly warm.
    Then he realised. Something was happening.
    The girl’s feet twitched. The lump in her throat bobbed up and down. Her eyelids trembled, then opened. Felix felt his own jaw drop. Mary cried out, sinking to her knees to take the girl’s hand.
    ‘She’s alive!’ Mary cried. ‘Felix, look! She’s alive!’
    Felix was looking. Not just at the poor dazed girl, but at Mary herself. It made him catch his breath.
    ‘We saved her,’ Mary said.
    Tears ran down her cheeks. She was thinking of her baby, Felix thought, who she’d lost then dreamed of warming by the fire. In the confusion of feelings that tore through him, his eyes misted over. There would always be those who couldn’t be saved.
    *
    The girl revived quickly, though she was very weak; she’d clearly not eaten for days. Once they’d propped her up against cushions and tucked a blanket over her legs, Felix warmed brandy and milk at the hearth.
    ‘Ta very much.’ Speaking huskily after she’d downedthe drink, the girl held out her cup for Felix to refill. This time she gulped greedily.
    ‘Slow down!’ Mary said. ‘Or you’ll be sick.’
    On hearing Mary’s voice, the girl froze. Very slowly, she lowered the cup from her mouth. A line of milk clung to her top lip, yet she looked deadly serious.
    ‘I found you, miss,’ she said.
    Outside, the thunder grew loud again. A fresh squall of rain rattled the windows, making the room feel darker and colder.
    Mary peered closely at the girl. ‘I do know you, don’t I?’
    ‘You do, miss. You know my sister too,’ she said, growing agitated. ‘I’ve come all this way to find her. It’s taken me weeks, but I’m here now and if you’ve so much as