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.I check the dining room, and then the front room, and finally I burst into the kitchen, where I find Thor, the Swedish guy, rolling some dough.Glancing over at me, he smiles, but he quickly returns to work."Where is he?" I ask, standing in the doorway."Who?""Toad.I'm supposed to meet him."He stares at me."Why would you be meeting Toad?""He said I could go into the forest with him today," I reply, starting to panic as I realize that I might be too late."He told me to meet him at sunrise.""Sunrise was twenty minutes ago," Thor replies, continuing to knead the dough."I noticed him hanging around for a few minutes longer than normal.He's normally gone by the time first light shows, but this morning he was taking his time.I thought it was pretty strange, to be honest.Not his usual kind of behavior.I guess he gave you time to show up, but Toad's not the kind of guy who gives second chances." He pauses."Then again, he's not the kind of guy who invites people to go with him.What gives? Did you promise to give him a little something in return?""Which way did he go?" I ask, hurrying to the window.Damn it, I was determine to wake up on time, but it's difficult when you haven't got an alarm clock.I was hoping that the sunlight itself would get me up, but I guess I was more tired than I realized."No way of telling," Thor says."I think he's got a set routine, but I've never paid much attention.Toad's the kind of guy who just gets on with things and doesn't make too much of a fuss.It's not as if he leaves an itinerary pinned to the wall.In fact, I don't think he's ever allowed anyone to go with him out into the sticks, at least not as long as I've been here." He pauses."Face it, you're too late.Seeing as you're up, though, you might as well give me a hand.""I'm going to catch up to him," I say, heading over to the door."Not so fast," he says, grabbing my arm and pulling me close."What did you offer old Toad, huh?" He presses himself against me, and there's a leery grin on his face."Whatever it was, maybe you'd like to do the same for me?""He invited me," I say, trying to get free from Thor's grip."That's all.""Pretty young woman like you," he replies, putting a hand on my waist."Are you seriously saying Thor invited you out there for your conversation skills, or your ability to survive in the wild? We both know what he wanted.Seeing as he ditched you, why not do to me whatever you were going to do to him? It wouldn't hurt, would it? Just a little friendly interaction, if you know what I mean.Everyone else is asleep, so we could slip into the pantry for a few minutes.""Get off me!" I say, trying harder and harder to get away from him."Or what?" he asks."You gonna scream?""If you touch me," I reply, trying to sound as if I'm not scared, "I'll hurt you.I'll scream, but also I'll hurt you, and I'll make sure that everyone knows what you're like.""Come on," he says, pressing himself more firmly against me, "what's the harm? It's not like I'm asking you to marry me.We're in a bad place.You never know when we might die, so why not be nice to each other? Why not share the fun? Or do you wanna be Toad's girl? Do you think you can get better favors from him? I'm the cook around here, remember.Toad catches things, but I make them edible.If you're gonna cozy up to anyone, it should be me.""Leave her alone," says a voice nearby.Turning, I see that Patricia Connors is watching from the doorway."We were just messing around," Thor says, letting go and taking a step back."It's good to keep the spirits up with a little banter, you know? I thought she looked sad, so I wanted to think of some way to put a smile back on her face.""I thought you were going with Toad today," Patricia says, turning to me.She clearly doesn't believe a word that Thor just said."I was a few minutes late.""Toad won't like that," she replies with a smile."Still, he can't have got too far.Go catch up."I look over at Thor."Leave him to me," Patricia adds."Thor and I need to have a little word.Elizabeth, you need to go and find Toad.Show him he can rely on you.If he decides you're not pulling your weight, he might decide there's no point letting you stay."Without replying, I run out of the room, and finally I get out into the yard at the front of the farmhouse.I glance over my shoulder, making sure that Thor hasn't tried to follow me, and then I turn and stare out at the horizon.With the sun so low in the sky, it's hard to make too much out; there are trees in the distance, running to the crest of a hill that borders one side of the dirt road, but there's no way of telling if Toad went that way.Running around the house, my heart racing, I look toward the wide open fields that stretch as far as the horizon.There's still no sign of him, though, and it's starting to look as if I've messed up.All I had to do was get up in time, and instead I slept too long, wrapped up in a dream about my brother."Damn it," I mutter, turning and glancing toward the trees again.At the last moment, just as I'm about to give up, I spot movement a few hundred meters away [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]