The Other Child by Charlotte Link Read Free Book Online Page A

the hill on which the castle stood. In front of that was St Mary’s Church, widely known because Anne Brontë is buried in its churchyard. The castle and church seemed to protect the town, the school, the children.
    A pretty place, thought Jennifer.
    It was the sixth or seventh holiday that she and her husband Colin had passed on the Beckett Farm in Staintondale, and Jennifer, in particular, had come to love North Yorkshire. It had high windswept moors and wide valleys; endless meadows with stone walls; precipitous cliffs which plunged straight down into the sea; and small sandy bays nestling into the rugged rocks. She loved the town of Scarborough also, and its two large, semi-circular bays divided by a spit of land, as well as its old harbour, the fine houses up on South Cliff, and all the old-fashioned hotels whose façades had to stand up to the wind and the salt water and so were always peeling a little. Colin mumbled sometimes to himself that it might be nice to spend the holiday somewhere else, but that would have meant leaving Cal and Wotan in kennels, which was out of the question for such highly sensitive animals. Luckily it had been Colin’s idea originally to have pet dogs, and he had been clear that they should be particularly big dogs. Jennifer could always remind him of that when he complained. The main point for Colin had been the daily need to take them for walks of several hours. ‘A miracle cure for depression,’ he had said, ‘and healthy in every other respect too. One day you won’t be able to do without the activity and fresh air.’
    He had been right. The dogs and walks had changed her life. They had helped her to climb out of the trough. They might not have made her a really happy woman, but certainly one who found a meaning in her life once more.
    The dogs had been given to her by a charity that tried to find new owners on the internet for Great Danes who needed a good home. Cal had been found tied up at the side of a country road as a one-year-old, while Wotan had been brought to the animal shelter by his owners, after they realised slightly too late that life with such a big dog was not easy on the eighth floor of a tower block.
    People’s stupidity is terrible, Jennifer often thought. It’s often worse than intentional cruelty, because it’s so widespread. Stupidity and carelessness. That’s what causes so much suffering, particularly for animals.
    Today she had left the dogs on the farm with Colin and had gone to town with Gwen. Gwen had been taking part for three months in a course to conquer shyness. Its last class had been this past Wednesday and the course tutor had arranged a little leaving party on Friday afternoon. Jennifer had made sure she did not comment on the course. She did not believe in all that stuff. Were people who had become set in their ways over decades supposed to be trained in three months in how to change completely and take charge of their lives? In her opinion, this kind of thing was out to make money from the very real problems and issues of often desperate people – people who were willing to grasp at any straw and pay good money for it too. Gwen had admitted that she had spent all her savings on the course, but Jennifer did not have the feeling that Gwen had really benefited greatly from it. Of course, she was different now, but that had nothing to do with the mumbo-jumbo of those Wednesday afternoons, not in Jennifer’s opinion. Instead it was down to the absolutely astounding turn her private life had taken. A man. A man who had fallen in love with her.
    The engagement party was tomorrow. Jennifer had scarcely been able to believe it. Seeing as Gwen had met him here in this school, she had to admit that taking part in the course, and the sacrifice of her savings, had not been completely in vain.
    Gwen was getting married! This was sensational, a gift, an amazing turn of fate to Jennifer, who although she was