by Sharon Jones
The guy with the gangster hat laughed, but the other swore under his breath and bolted over to her.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’
‘I’m going to be an angel!’ she said, grinning and crunching snow between her fingers like it was warm sand and not frozen water.
The guy grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet.
‘Where’s Danny? I want my Danny,’ she said.
The guy brushed the snow from her skin and dress, hastily took off his dinner jacket and put it around her bare shoulders. ‘He’s meeting us at the club. He had something to do.’
She smiled contentedly. ‘Oh Danny boy-o-boy-o-boy.’
As the two guys helped her over the chain fence and back onto the icy pavement, the girl smiled in Poppy’s and Michael’s direction.
‘Goodnight, sweet poet,’ she said, blowing Michael a kiss before being dragged, stumbling, down the road.
‘This place is seriously weird. Are you sure you want to come here?’ Poppy said, watching them go.
Michael didn’t reply. His eyes were fixed on the students who stumbled down the road like characters from one of the old movies they used to watch when they were kids.
For a second he seemed so very far away, like a little bit of him had gone with them.
Michael swallowed and suddenly turned to her. ‘We should get inside and find your dad.’
‘Yeah,’ she agreed, and forced her lips into a smile.
As they headed for the open door, Poppy heard the girl’s voice singing: I’m lovin’ angels instead. Michael turned to look in their direction, and Poppy couldn’t help wondering if, in his head, Poet Michael was waxing lyrical about the angel in the red dress.
For Christian, whose star fell too soon.
ORCHARD BOOKS
338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
Orchard Books Australia
Level 17/207 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
First published in 2013 by Orchard Books
This ebook edition published in 2013
ISBN 978 1 40832 755 5
Text © Sharon Jones 2013
The right of Sharon Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
E-pub conversion by Avon DataSet Ltd, Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
Orchard Books is a division of Hachette Children’s Books, an Hachette UK company.
www.hachette.co.uk
www.franklinwatts.co.uk
www.orchardbooks.co.uk
www.hodderchildrens.co.uk
www.waylandbooks.co.uk