A Horse Called Hero by Sam Angus Read Free Book Online Page B

towards the stairs.
    Still clutching her sheet to her bosom, Mrs Sprig followed them to the foot of the stairs and watched him go up, her mouth hanging open. ‘Can’t have this, just can’t
have
all this . . . not knowing what’s going on in my own house . . .’
    Later that afternoon in the kitchen, after he’d visited Hero at Windwistle, Wolfie hissed, ‘He drank from a bucket, all of it, a whole bucket.’
    ‘What bucket?’ whispered Dodo.
    ‘I don’t know – a whole bucket – but he drank all of it.’ Wolfie opened his arms wide to express the great quantity of milk consumed by Hero.
    ‘But who gave you a bucket of milk?’ hissed Dodo.
    Wolfie lowered his eyes. ‘I don’t know, but it was definitely for Hero, because it was left outside his stable.’
    ‘It must have been Ned,’ said Dodo.
    Wolfie wondered what Spud would think about so much fresh milk being left outside horses’ doors, then his head turned to the basket of eggs that was accumulating in a basket by the larder
door.
    ‘My son Henry will be home on leave soon,’ said Mrs Sprig, intercepting Wolfie’s glance.
    ‘Has Henry got a medal?’ asked Wolfie.
    ‘Shut up, Wolfie,’ said Dodo.
    The eggs are for Henry, thought Wolfie resentfully. Mrs Sprig was a squirrel, just like Dodo said. A squirrel with a very strong tendency to hoard.
    Later, he perched on the bedroom with a postcard and a pencil. He’d chosen a print of a mounted huntsman, a bugle to his lips, a group of staghounds at heel.
    Dear Pa
    You must come here. I have a horse. He is grey. He has dark eyes. He has no mother so he has to drink condensed milk or goat’s milk which is not
     very nice. There is a shop. It has pear drops. It is easy to buy eggs but they only had one tin of condensed milk and Hero has drunk it all. Please come soon. Please bring tins of milk. We are
     with Mrs Sprig in Hollowcombe. she is not very nice to us.
    Love, Wolfie
    Ps You must come very soon. He is called Hero after you, Pa. He likes honey too.
    PPs I am in the same class as Dodo. I like the school here.
    A week later, the letter that Dodo both longed for and feared was waiting for them on their return from school.
    ‘Pa!’ Wolfie shouted. ‘It’s from Pa!’ They took it up to Windwistle and read it together there on the straw, as Hero wandered around, exploring everything with his
muzzle, nuzzling Wolfie for food.
    ‘
My darling children . . .
’ Dodo read aloud:
    I’ve missed you so very much.
    Honey is very important for a young horse, Wolfie, especially if he didn’t feed from his dam. A good grey will have a silver tip to his tail. Does Hero have
     that?
    Dodo, do you have paints and brushes there? Shall I send you some? Ma used to holiday somewhere close to where you are. I’ll look up the name of the house one day – Spud
     knows where Ma’s papers are but she’s away making barrage balloons somewhere. I don’t think she enjoyed the bombs in London.
    It may be a while before I See you –
    Dodo’s voice grew quiet and rushed. Wolfie listened, his eyes following Hero.
    – but there is something I must tell you, something that will come as a shock to you both, but I know that I must tell you and that I must defend myself to you
     both.
    I’m at my regiment’s headquarters. I have handed myself in, and am being held here on suspicion of having committed an offence.
    Dodo read on to herself, almost whispering.
    I haven’t been charged with this offence and hope that I won’t be, though I will probably be questioned and have to go through a disciplinary procedure. Then, I
     think, I’ll be free and able to see you both and perhaps be allowed to take some non-combatant work.
    ‘What is it Dodo, what’s “dissip—”’ Wolfie was trying to snatch the paper, annoyed by the long words of it.
    This could all take rather a long time and I won’t be allowed to see you, nor anyone, nor allowed to leave here until it’s over.
    I’m glad that Spud was sensible and sent