Raven (33 page)

Looking
up, December half expected to see that strange woman in white who
had stood in exactly the same spot day after day to make sure Lilly
had gone to, and returned from, school.

She shivered as a dark black cloud moved overhead. The hairs
on the back of December's neck prickled and stood on end.
Strange
, she thought. It
was almost as if she herself was being watched. December turned and
looked all around her. The usual stream of students flowed from the
school gates. Some of the boys kicked about a football and laughed
as the ball hit one unexpectedly on the back of the head. “Oy!” he
shouted, with a laugh as he picked it up and kicked it as hard as
he could back at his friend.

A couple
of girls giggled at the group in an attempt to get their
attention.

On the
other side of the street, there was the usual bustling of
stallholders trying to sell their many wares, everything from
freshly cut flowers to second hand books. People were going about
their business. December could see no-one looking at
her.

She
shrugged her shoulders and hopped into the back seat of the black
Range Rover.

“
Have a good day, Miss Moon?” asked the driver, a man of about
sixty with shoulder length hair as white as his crisp shirt. While
on duty, he wore it in a neat pony tail at the nape of his
neck.

She
rolled her eyes at him and grinned.

“
After all these years, I wish you'd call me December, Monty.
You should know by now that I'm nothing at all like that aunt of
mine,” she tutted, smiling, although the smile didn't quite reach
her eyes.

“
And my day was, well, let's just say that it was
interesting.”

He
nodded and returned her smile, showing a toothy grin. “Sorry Miss,
it's habit, I suppose. Your Aunt Penelope would hate to hear me
call you anything other than Miss Moon. Oh, I did it again, didn't
I?” he laughed while shaking his head.

“
I've been driving you to and from this school for
years...Mi... December, and I don't recall you ever describing your
day as interesting, not since Miss Taylor left, anyhow. Want to
talk about it?” he asked as a gap in the traffic finally allowed
him to pull away from the kerb by the school.

Monty
was the only other person December felt she could talk to. He had
been in the Moon's employment since she was a toddler and he had
probably been more like family than any of her actual family
members. Although it was clear that her Aunt Penelope wasn't keen
on him, she had kept him on, purely at her dying brother's
request.

As they
drove through the London traffic and headed in the direction of
Battersea where they had lived her entire life, December regaled
Monty with the strange story of the flooded gymnasium. What she did
neglect to tell him, however, was the fact that even when the water
completely surrounded her, she was kept dry by an unexplained
bubble at her feet. A bubble that she was keen to get to the bottom
of.

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