She snatched at the dream that had comforted her for so long. It was faded and thin, like a letter too often read.

There was something irresistible about popcorn.

All the way up the river she's been holding back somehow, waiting. Now you'll both have to wait. I'm not going to disappoint her, Kit. When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.

There is no escape if love is not there," Hannah had said. Had Hannah known when she herself had not even suspected? It was not escape that she had dreamed about, it was love.

How right- how incredibly, utterly right- and how impossible!

From that first moment, in a way she could never explain, the Meadows claimed her and made her their own.

What a pity every child couldn't learn to read under a willow tree.