Read Online Charlie by Lesley Pearse - Free Book Online Page B

reflection that wasn’t too smart. If she was seen in the garden after the front door was sealed, she might find herself in trouble, and have the things taken from her.
    ‘Bury it,’ she said aloud, and for the first time in days she managed to laugh because it seemed a bit like something the children in the Famous Five books would do. She found a small trowel in the summer-house, then without any hesitation climbed up on to the side wall which backed on to the wooded cliff beyond.
    The view from the wall was just of dense trees and bushes, there wasn’t even so much as a glimpse of the sea down below to her right, or of the Beacon in its rocky cove. Nor could she see the road to her left, although it was only twenty-five yards or so from where she sat. In fact it could have been any old wood, with no suggestion that just ten or twelve feet in front of her perch was a sheer cliff face. Charlie had been warned again and again throughout her childhood never to venture over the garden wall, yet unbeknown to her parents she had explored the dangerous route back to the road dozens of times and knew every inch of it well.
    Using a tree to help her, she dropped on to the soft loamy soil below, and staying close to the wall, wriggled through the bushes until she came to a small clearing. Then she began to dig.
    It took some time. Once through the thick layer of leaf-mould the ground was very hard and dry, and she had to stop frequently to listen for anyone walking along the road. But fortunately no one came by and once the hole was some three inches deeper than the box, she placed it inside, scraped the loose soil back around and over it, then stood on it to compress it. Finally she hauled a rotten log on top of it, scraped a little more soil around it, and satisfied, stood back to admire her work.
    Even if some other foolhardy person scrambled through the bushes, her treasures would be safe. One shower and there wouldn’t even be a footprint to show anyone had been this way. She tucked the trowel under an evergreen bush and turned and went back the way she had come, dropping silently back into the garden.
    The following afternoon Charlie set off to visit her mother in hospital with some trepidation. She was tired after another sleepless night worrying. Anxious too about the jewellery she’d taken. Knowing her mother as she did, it was probably the first thing she’d ask about. Should she reassure her that she’d hidden it away? Or was it better to say nothing for now?
    ‘Your mum’s been moved into the big ward now,’ a small blonde nurse called out to Charlie as she came along the corridor carrying a bunch of flowers.
    ‘Why?’ Charlie asked as she got nearer. She had seen this young nurse on previous visits, in fact she’d stopped to comfort her when she saw her crying once as she was leaving.
    ‘We need that single room for emergencies.’ The nurse had a wide smile and sparkling brown eyes. ‘Your mum’s on the mend now, and once she’s settled down, she’ll be less depressed too with other women to talk to.’
    Charlie doubted that. ‘What’s she been like today?’ she asked.
    ‘Down in the dumps, I’m afraid.’ The nurse made a grimace. ‘I offered to wash her hair, thinking it might make her feel better, but she nearly bit my head off.’
    Charlie’s heart sank. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, embarrassed that her mother seemed set on upsetting all the nursing staff. ‘She doesn’t mean to be nasty. It’s just that she’s in pain and worried.’
    ‘We understand,’ the nurse said brightly, but Charlie sensed that this particular nurse had almost run out of sympathy. ‘Go on in and see her. She’s right down the end of the ward.’
    The ward seemed huge, with six beds on either side. Almost all of the patients were very old. Some smiled at Charlie, perhaps curious because she was Chinese and wondering who she was visiting, others just lay there, their eyes dull and lifeless. It was a bright ward,