Page 8 of Summer At Willow Tree Farm

ans and a grubby T-shirt, his eyes too big for his freckled face, the boy had looked decidedly feral.

‘Toto, you mean?’ Her mother smiled as if enjoying a private joke.

‘Yes, Toto, that was it. He said he was taking Josh to their clubhouse. Is it safe?’ She should have asked this before. Josh wasn’t the most agile of children. And she didn’t want him to feel awkward. Or worse, end up in some hideous initiation ceremony. Like she had. ‘Isn’t Toto a dog’s name?’ Why would anyone give their child a name like that?

‘Toto’s short for Antonia.’

‘That boy’s a girl?’ The obese gymnasts relaxed. Surely a tomboy would be less feral than an actual boy.

‘Yes, she’s Art’s daughter.’

The obese gymnasts began doing backflips in Ellie’s stomach.

Less feral, my arse.

CHAPTER THREE

‘Dad, Dad, Dad, you’ve gotta come quick.’

‘Damn it!’ Art wheeled back the axe to stop himself from nearly hacking off his foot a second time in one afternoon. ‘Toto, what is wrong with you? Don’t run up and shout at me when I’m chopping.’

But Toto already had her hand buried in his overalls to drag him who knew where. ‘You’ve got to come. Josh is stuck up a tree and he’s going to die if you don’t rescue him.’

He placed the axe by the tree stump and gripped his daughter’s shoulders to stop them shaking, from either exertion or terror, it was hard to tell.

‘Calm down. Who’s Josh and what tree is he stuck up?’ They’d deal with the dying bit in a minute.

‘Josh is the new kid.’ Toto gasped between breaths. ‘Dee’s grandson.’

Crap. Just what he needed, Ellie’s kid breaking his neck after they’d been here exactly half an hour. She was just the type to sue them into the ground for child endangerment.

‘What tree’s he stuck up?’

Toto tried to drag him towards the woods. ‘The Clubhouse tree.’

‘Can’t he just climb down again?’ he said. ‘There’s a ladder. I built the thing myself.’

‘No, it’s the ladder he’s stuck on.’

‘How can he be stuck on the ladder?’ Had the thing broken? The cost of the lawsuit spiralled up.

‘I don’t know,’ Toto wailed. ‘He just did. And now he can’t get down and he’s afraid and he could fall. And he’s way way up, right near the top. If he falls, it’s gonna hurt.’

She yanked his overalls. Grasping her wrist, he lifted her fingers off. ‘Stop tugging me. I’ll go sort it out.’

Toto tried to shoot off ahead of him, but he grabbed her arm.

‘Dad! Don’t hold me. I need to run back; he’ll be scared without me.’

‘I’ll go. You need to go tell his mum what’s going on.’ He’d be more than happy never to have Ellie know about this, but just in case her son did end up injuring himself, it was the only responsible thing to do. ‘And show her where the tree is.’

Toto nodded. ‘Oh, OK.’ But, as she tried to dart off towards the farmhouse, he yanked her to a halt again.

‘But do me a favour.’

‘Yes, Dad?’ She waited for his instructions, total and utter trust radiating from her.

And he got light-headed.