The Woman in Black Read Online Free Page B

terrified.

The Empty Village
    The children pulled their coats around them and tightened their scarves. Huddled together outside the bus, teeth chattering, hands deep in pockets, none of them spoke. Eve noticed how Flora held Fraser close to her. The night was bitterly cold but, Eve thought, it was more than the cold that sent a chill through them all.
    The village was eerily quiet. Empty. Not like London after the bombings, where there were still plenty of people around, trying to put their lives back together again, stumble on, go forward together. This was the opposite. The buildings were still here; it was the people who had gone. They seemed to be in a ghost town.
    ‘Everyone stay close by …’
    Eve turned. Jean was issuing an unnecessary order to the children. None of them had moved.
    Behind her, Jim Rhodes gave the tyre a kick, then, swearing some more, but under his breath this time, he made his way towards the back of the bus.
    ‘There’s a spare in the boot,’ he announced.
    Jean walked in step with him. ‘I’ll give you a hand.’
    Jim Rhodes stopped walking, stared at her. ‘You?’
    ‘I’ve changed many a wheel in my time.’ Her eyes twinkled when she spoke, the corners of her mouth turned up, almost a smile. Jim Rhodes returned it. Slightly flustered, she turned to Edward, who was still attached to Eve’s coat. She held out her hand. ‘Edward. Why don’t you help us?’ It was less a question, more a command.
    Edward just clung tighter to Eve.
    Jean stood her ground, arm still outstretched. ‘Come on. I’ll show you how we change a tyre.’
    He shook his head, clinging all the harder.
    ‘I don’t think he’ll …’ Eve began, then stopped. Jean marched towards Edward, took his hand and pulled him away from her.
    ‘He can’t stay attached to you all the time,’ she said, dragging the scared little boy away with her. ‘Watch the other children, please.’
    Concerned and a little scared herself, Eve walkedround the side of the bus to where the children were huddled. They still hadn’t moved and they were all staring at a field at the side of the road, eyes wide with fear and wonder. Eve hurried towards them, wondering what the source of their fascination could be. A sheep was looking right back at them.
    ‘I never seen a sheep before …’ Alfie sounded shocked.
    Fraser frowned. ‘Why’s it staring at us?’
    Flora, Eve noticed, had her eyes closed. ‘Make it stop …’
    Joyce turned to Eve, hands on hips, taking charge in the absence of Mrs Hogg. ‘Miss, it’s scaring the younger children.’ Her tone of voice demanded that action be taken.
    Eve smiled. ‘It’s only a sheep. It won’t hurt you.’
    She turned away from the children and the sheep. The village drew her attention. It rose out of the cold mist like a land-locked
Mary Celeste.
    Then she heard something. Faint, but unmistakable. The sound of … what was it? Voices? Yes. Singing. Coming from the village.
    There were some empty cottages in front of her. They were old with sagging roofs, weeds climbing mildewed walls. One of the cottages, she noticed, was burned out, but there had been no attempt to knock the rest of it down or to patch it up. It hadjust been left. A broken metal sign hung off the front wall:
    Mr Horatio Jerome M.S. Esq., Solicitor.
    Eve could read it in the moonlight. Did the sound come from in there?
    She listened. Yes. She thought that it did.
    She looked at the burned-out house once more. And she felt something. Some pull, some … she couldn’t explain it. Not even to herself. A fascination? A draw?
    And there they were again. The voices. They were children’s voices.
    Eve looked back at the bus, at the children standing there. None of them was singing, and by now most of them were attempting to pet the sheep. Jean and Jim Rhodes were busy with the spare tyre and Edward was watching them. None of them appeared to have heard the voices.
    Eve turned back to the burned-out cottage. To the