Read Online The Hidden Girl by Louise Millar - Free Book Online Page A

family moved in, nearly a hundred years ago. Only the roof and two bedroom windows were visible through the bare branches of the tall oaks and ashes around it. In summer, she suspected, Tornley Hall would be completely obscured.
    Hannah knocked on the front door. A cacophony of barking started up.
    ‘Who is it?’ a gruff voice shouted.
    ‘Hannah – from . . . across the field.’
    There was a pause. The door scraped open, and an unsmiling woman stood in the doorway. Instinctively Hannah stepped back. She was enormous. Over six foot tall, with broad shoulders, like a cage-fighter. She was dressed in men’s cords, a man’s checked shirt and an insulated waistcoat. Her face was red and sore-looking. Dry skin flaked around her nose. Dark-grey hair was pulled back in a tight bun. In one hand she had a piece of toast; in the other, a rifle.
    ‘Hi,’ Hannah said in the friendliest tone she could muster. ‘I’m Hannah. I’ve just moved in across the field – at Tornley Hall?’
    ‘H’llo.’ If the farmer was interested in her new neighbour, she wasn’t showing it. Two large hunting dogs pushed behind her. One barked, and the other joined in.
    ‘Shut-uppp!’ the farmer yelled. She split the toast, and threw it on the ground. The dogs pounced.
    Hannah tried to ignore the gun. ‘Listen, I’m sorry, but do you own a donkey?’
    It sounded so ridiculous she almost laughed.
    The woman glanced over to the field. ‘Escaped, has he?’
    ‘No. No, it’s just that last night I found him outside, in the field.’
    ‘Got out of his shelter.’
    It was presented as a statement, not a question. Hannah held her nerve.
    ‘Yeah. No. Sorry – no, he didn’t escape. He was braying really loudly last night, and it woke me up. I found him outside, with a lot of snow on him. I was a bit worried, so I put him in our garage overnight. I wasn’t sure if there’d been a mix-up and no one knew he was outside, or something.’
    The woman squinted at the distant field. The dogs pushed behind her, brushing Hannah’s legs. ‘Where is he?’
    ‘In my garage,’ Hannah repeated, wishing the woman would put down the rifle. ‘At Tornley Hall – the thing is . . . I’ve worked in hot countries, and I’m pretty sure that donkeys aren’t very good in cold weather. I think they need shelter. I just wanted to check that someone knew, and that, um . . .’
    How much more bloody diplomatic could she be? To her dismay, Hannah heard the farmer swearing under her breath.
    ‘Sorry?’
    The woman pointed the rifle downwards. ‘You can’t walk onto farmland and take animals. The police’ll have you for that.’
    Damn. This was exactly what she didn’t want.
    ‘Oh. No. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do anything to upset anyone. I just – it was late, and cold, and I didn’t know what else to do.’
    She couldn’t believe the words she was hearing come out of her own mouth.
    The woman softened a tiny amount. ‘It’s all right. Just put him back, please.’
    Hannah bit her tongue. So much for her negotiation-skills training. This woman was walking all over her.
    The farmer watched Hannah with expressionless pale-blue eyes lost in pockets of loose skin.
    Hannah forced herself to remember Barbara, and why they’d come to Tornley. She couldn’t damage their chances for this. She pointed to a barn. ‘I mean, could he go in there, maybe – till the snow’s gone?’
    The woman banged her gun down. Hannah jumped.
    ‘That shelter’s fine. My sons built it. And, as I say, you don’t just walk onto land and take livestock, or tell people what to do with theirs.’
    ‘No. No, I didn’t meant to . . . Sorry – I’ve just come from London, so . . .’ She knew she sounded pathetic.
    The farmer stood her ground, unflinching.
    ‘OK. I’ll put him back,’ Hannah said. ‘No problem – you’re probably right.’
    She waved goodbye, but the woman didn’t react.
    Disgusted with herself, Hannah returned to the field. If Jane and her other