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The cabin was getting old now and in a way she dreaded going inside While the summers could be very hot here the winters could be equally cold, and the da her absence Also she didn't knohat memories awaited her there

She turned the handle of the door tentatively, the door never locked as there was nothing here to steal It was only a one-roo, and priements Rafe had occasionally let her stay in the cabin for a couple of days and during that time she had fended for herself

She opened her eyes to what she felt sure must be destruction and found the cabin exactly as she re had been destroyed She walked around the rooood condition of everything Perhaps the cabin had been protected, situated a the trees as it was She could think of no other explanation

The picture of Rafe and herself stood on the rickety table beside the bed, a picture of happier tiraph in her hand She had just beaten Rafe at a game of tennis, her first victory over hiraph of her elation

She looked at the photograph now, dog-eared from much perusal Rafe had his ar up happily into his s features She had been fourteen at the tier after that

Sighing, she replaced the photograph on the table, anxious to escape now She hadn't reacted quite as violently to this place as she had ih of the past and its memories for her No doubt the cabin would eventually becoain, but for the et out of here

School should just about be finished and Trisha, the girl who taught half the sixty pupils registered there froood friend of Hazel's before leaving for college two years before Hazel herself had left the district

Having lived here all her life, Trisha had returned a fewto teach the children of her friends and so be able to move back in with her own family The day should be over now as far as school was concerned and Trisha would probably be preparing the schoolroom for tomorrow's classes

The school was a low rae House; the children's ages ranged froer school in the town ten miles away, but -school, a lot of the to the isolation to be found here

The area just didn't provide enough work for all of them, or the entertainment for that matter There was a s facilities, and a dance held every Saturday, but certainly nothing like the sophisticated forms of entertainment to be found in the towns And so the population in this part of Cornwall re between three and four hundred, and that was the way Rafe liked it

Rafe! Noabout it always cauardian And he was still that—just The conditions of her father's will had left her to Rafe's guardianship until she enty-one, even though the age of consent was eighteen But in a week's time she would be twenty-one, and able to be her own boss and not ordered about as if she was still a child

As she had expected, Trisha was sitting at her desk at the head of the roo the exercise books of the day Hazel crept quietly into the roo Trisha of her return; the whole thing had been arranged in such a hurry there hadn't been the time to do so even if she had wanted to

'Hi!' she cried happily

Trisha looked up, startled Her face lit up as she recognised Hazel, throwing down her pen to rush over and hug her 'Oh, Hazel!' She held her at ar her exciteet back?'

'Just now' Hazel's smile ith happiness 'Literally I only took ti over to see you' And visit the cabin, but she didn't want to talk about that!

'I'rinned 'Goodness, I've missed you!'

'And I you Your letters have been very welcoh I was so pleased for you when you passed all your exa in the school you yourself went to?'

'A bit strange at first But I' it,' Trisha enthused 'You know I told you the authorities are trying to close the school down? Well, Rafe's been really fantastic about it He's persuaded them to keep it open for at least another year or so'

'That is a breakthrough'

Hazel knew that the authorities were trying to close so them to be a waste of money But she also knew that Rafe believed that the children should be kept in the area for as long as possible, and obviously he had ed to persuade the people concerned to his way of thinking, even if it was teh to know that it would beco

'Mathered up the marked books, 'Rafe's been very helpful'

'And Celia?'