Read Online Little Darlings by Jacqueline Wilson - Free Book Online

imagine Danny rowing, Danny running round with a racket. Another house has a huge Alsatian that leaps towards us as we peer through the gate. It can’t get at us but we run anyway, frightened its loud barking will alert someone.
    â€˜That can’t be Danny’s house. He’d never have a mad dog like that with children around. It would swallow little Ace for breakfast,’ Mum pants.
    I’m starting to think we’ll spend the rest of the night stumbling around Robin Hill, probably going backwards and forwards past Danny’s house several times without ever realizing. But right at the end of the lane there’s a big gate with limp bouquets of flowers and little teddies tied to it, and all along the wall there are smudges and blobs of writing, though we can’t read them in the gloom.We don’t need to. It’s obvious they are passionate messages from fans. This
must
be Danny’s house.
    Mum squeezes my hand tight. ‘We’ve found it, Destiny!’ She gives a little chuckle. ‘They’ll be so surprised when we knock on the door!’
    â€˜Mum! We can’t knock
now
. It’s much too early.’
    â€˜Oh, darling, we can’t wait now,’ says Mum, pacing up and down in her punishing high heels. ‘I can’t wait, I can’t wait!’
    â€˜Mum, what would we think if there was a knock on
our
door at three o’clock in the morning? It’ll worry them so – and they’ll get angry too.’
    â€˜Not when we explain,’ says Mum, but she’s started to waver. ‘Maybe you’re right. We’ll wait till it’s daylight, OK? It’ll give us a chance to get a bit of beauty sleep.’
    So we sit down on the path and lean against the wall. In spite of the cold and the worry and the excitement we both fall fast asleep.

4
SUNSET
    I wake up early, even though I was awake half the night. Mum and Dad rowed for hours and hours. They were yelling so loudly that Ace woke up and started crying too. I got to him before Claudia and lifted him out of his bed and took him backinto my room. Sweetie came too, burrowing into me with her little sharp elbows and knees, her long hair tangled all over my face.
    We lay there uncomfortably while the shouting went on. I tried pulling the duvet up over our heads. I made Sweetie and Ace pretend we were bears in a cave, but it only distracted them for a minute or two and then they got hot and poked their heads out of the duvet again. Mum was screaming now and Dad was shouting very, very rude words. Ace started muttering them too, but I put my hand over his mouth.
    â€˜Stop it, Ace. You mustn’t say that.’
    â€˜Dad is.’
    â€˜Dad’s being very bad.’
    â€˜Why is he so cross with Mum?’ Ace mumbled. ‘I hate it when Dad’s cross.’
    â€˜Mum’s
crying
,’ said Sweetie. ‘Shall we go and stop them, Sunset?’
    â€˜No, then they’ll be cross with us. Shh now.’
    â€˜I want Mum!’ Ace said.
    â€˜Well, you’ve got me just now. Come here, little Aceman Spaceman. Time to dream your way over the moon and in and out the stars.’
    I stroked his hot head and his silky straight hair while he nestled close, and in a few minutes he was breathing deeply, fast asleep.
    â€˜He didn’t do a wee in his pot,’ Sweetie whispered. ‘Watch out, Sunset, he’ll wet the bed.’
    â€˜No he won’t,’ I said firmly, though I worried she might well be right.
    The bed’s still dry now, and I should lift him out quick and put him on his pot, but if he wakes up he’ll wake everyone and it’s so quiet and peaceful. Sweetie’s stayed in my bed too. She’s stretched out like a starfish, taking up most of the space. She’s still got purple shadow on her eyelids. I stare at my sister, sighing. It’s so unfair. Why can’t
I
be little and pretty. I’d give anything to be tiny and