Constable Evans 02: Evan Help Us Read Free Page B

Chapel Bethel. It was a little girl with red-blond curls and a bright red dress. She was skipping across the grass so lightly that she looked weightless. Evan didn’t recognize her as one of the village kids. She must be an outsider, staying at the holiday cottages, and rather young to be out alone, even in a safe place like Llanfair, he thought.
    He scanned the road for signs of someone keeping an eye on her, saw no one, and decided to keep an eye on her himself. It was an awfully big mountain up there and he didn’t want her to stray too far. Then she stopped her upward trek and started to come back. Evan sighed in relief. She was almost back to the dry-stone wall when she broke into a run. Evan saw she was heading for a young lamb, standing alone not far from the wall. He heard her call to it and throw open her arms as if she expected it to come to her like a puppy. Strangely enough the lamb didn’t run away. The little girl put her arms around it and picked it up. It was heavier than she had expected and she staggered forward with it, her face red with exertion. Evan wondered what she intended to do with it and where she was trying to take it.
    But he never found out because the lamb started struggling and bleating frantically. Its cries reached the ears of its mother, grazing not too far away. The old sheep raised her head and then came waddling to the defence of her offspring. The little girl looked around to see a large sheep charging toward her, uttering threatening baas. She dropped the lamb and fled back to the wall, as fast as her little legs could carry her.
    Evan ran to meet her, in case she needed help getting over the wall. But she scrambled over and jumped down the other side, her eyes still wide with fear. She ran down the bank, gathering speed as she went, and shot straight out into the road. Subconsciously Evan’s ears had picked up the whine of an approaching car some time ago. The whine had now become a roar. The little girl heard it too and froze in the middle of the road as the car came speeding up the pass.
    Evan rushed out into the road, snatched her up, and flung her to one side as the car swerved, breaks squealing and horn blaring. It passed them within inches and screeched to a halt.
    “Phew, that was a close one,” the driver yelled, his face a sickly green.
    “No harm done luckily,” Evan called back. He waved to the driver as the car took off again. “It’s alright, love. You’re fine.” He smiled down at the child who had started to cry.
    A scream made him look up. A young woman was running across the street, her eyes wide with terror. Her hair was a darker shade of red than the girl’s, but she was unmistakably her mother.
    “Jenny! Ohmygod, Jenny! What happened? Is she all right?” she shrieked.
    Evan set the little girl down. “She’s fine. Had a bit of a scare, didn’t you, love?” he asked the little girl. He didn’t add that he’d had a bit of a scare too. He could feel his heart still thumping.
    “The bear chased me,” Jenny said, rushing to cling to her mother’s legs. “It growled at me.”
    “Bear?” The mother looked at Even for explanation.
    “She means sheep,” Evan said. “She picked up a lamb and its mother came after her.”
    The young woman looked apologetically at Evan as she enfolded the child in her arms. “We’re from Manchester. She’s never seen a sheep before.”
    The little girl sobbed against her mother’s shoulder, her thin body heaving with each sob. The woman held her more tightly. “You were a bad girl to go out without Mummy, weren’t you?”
    The little girl nodded, her lower lip trembling.
    “It’s my fault, I suppose,” the woman said, straightening up again. Evan was interested to hear that her accent sounded more London than Manchester. “It was such a lovely day that I had the doors open. She must have gone out the front door while I was busy cooking her tea.” She glanced across to the row of cottages opposite, where