Chapter 24: Family Day

The Crown school's hall smelled of floor polish and orange squash, and every folding chair had a name taped to it.

Hazel's two were in the third row.

Cora Mercer, said one, in her purple marker.

Torin, said the other, with a small crown drawn over the T.

"It's a very small chair," Torin said.

"It's a normal chair," I said.

"My knees are at my ears."

"You're a king. Handle it."

He lowered himself into it with great care, and the wood creaked, and the mother in front of us turned around and went pink.

I took his hand and held it on my knee.

Nobody in the hall stared for long.

Half the north knew his face, and the other half had known him as the man who carried the girl with the inhaler through the frost.

Hazel stood at the side of the stage in her good dress, with her braids done by the housekeeper and her lanyard tucked into her collar.

She was going to give a talk.

Her topic was Shoals Of Lake Aldous, With A Map, because she had been told she could choose.

She found us in the crowd and gave a tiny, serious nod.

Then her eyes went to the back of the hall, and I turned to see what she saw.

Declan stood in the open doorway.

He had put on the dark suit again, and he held his phone switched off in his hand.

He had arrived forty minutes early and waited in the corridor.

He hadn't been given a front chair, and he didn't think he had the right to ask.

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