“Fred!” She leaned towards him, but Grandad was there, too, looking annoyed – and Sunny.
Sunny barked at him and Fred stopped, looking uncertainly at Anna. Then he heard Dad pounding up behind him and he skittered sideways along the path, not sure what to do. As Dad reached out to grab at him, he shot away up the towpath, and darted under the fence and into the shadows of the wood.
“What happened?” Anna gasped. “Fred was off his lead, Dad!”
Her dad nodded grimly. “He slipped his collar.”
Mum hurried up to the gate. “You were right, Anna. He was upset about going without you.”
Dad sighed. “I’ll go and get him. Naughty thing!”
“Shall I come, too?” Anna suggested, putting her foot up on the side of the boat, ready to jump over to the bank.
Dad shook his head. “Better not. He’s in a bit of a tizzy, isn’t he? I don’t want him getting any more excited.”
Anna watched anxiously as Dad headed into the woods. Poor Fred. He really wouldn’t understand what was happening. He was probably hiding under a bush somewhere, feeling even more miserable than she was.
Anna wriggled free of Gran’s arms, and jumped out on to the bank. “I know Dad said to wait here, but I can’t!” she told Mum. “I won’t go into to the wood. I just want to see if Dad’s found him yet.” She was pretty sure that he hadn’t.
She could hear him calling for Fred, and he was sounding more and more worried every time. Anna shivered as she came into the shadows of the trees hanging over the fence. It was getting late, after nine now, and the sun had set. It was almost dark.
A sudden, horrible thought made her stop, just as she was about to lean over the fence and peer in to look for Dad and Fred.
What if they didn’t find him?
It was even darker in the wood, and Fred’s red coat would blend into the shadows. If he was upset and hiding, Dad just wouldn’t see him.
Anna gasped and climbed up on to the fence, trying to see through the dark trees.
“Anna!” Mum called. “Don’t climb over there.”
Anna twisted round to look at her. “Can’t I go and help look? Please? Fred will come if I call him, Mum. He’s scared, but he isn’t scared of me.”
“No, wait there.” Mum dropped the bags and came over to her. “Dad will find him. He’ll be back in a minute with Fred, I’m sure he will.”
But just then, Dad came hurrying back up the thin thread of a path, a worried expression on his face. “I can’t find him,” he said anxiously. “The silly dog’s gone racing off somewhere. I’m sorry, but I think we should all go and look and call for him. Have you got a torch?” he shouted across to Gran and Grandad.
Grandad nodded and went back into the boat. He returned with two big torches and handed one to Dad.
“My phone works as a torch as well,” Mum said. “We’d better split up, then we can look everywhere. Anna, come with me, OK?”
Anna nodded. She was too upset to say anything. Her beautiful Fred was lost, hiding somewhere in this horrible wood, all alone.
Fred huddled in a hole under the roots of a tree, watching the trees get darker and darker in front of him. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was, but he thought he could find his way back to the boat. He’d gone quite far, racing as fast as he could away from Sunny and all the angry people shouting at him. But he could always follow his own scent back the way he’d run.
He just wasn’t sure that he wanted to go back. Not yet, anyway. Dad had been trying to take him away from Anna, and he didn’t understand why.
Fred snuffled at the dusty leaf litter in the bottom of his hiding place. What else could he do? He didn’t want to stay here. It was getting dark and even though he could see quite well in the dim light, he didn’t like it much. He wanted to be sitting on his comfortable cushion, with Anna stroking his ears.
Fred’s ears twitched. There were footsteps coming down the path. He wriggled uncertainly and poked his nose out of the hole. Someone was calling for him! Fred was about to jump out and see who it was when he recognized the voice. It was Grandad, sounding worried and calling, “Here, Fred! Fred! Come on, boy!”
Fred listened and then he scrunched back up into his hiding place, making himself small. Grandad had been cross with him back on the boat, and Fred could hear the strain in his voice now, too.
He wouldn’t go back just yet. Not while people were still cross. He’d stay hidden a little while longer.
Chapter Six
“But we can’t stop looking!” Anna stared up at them all in horror.
“It’s too dark,” Dad explained. “We can hardly see, even with the torches, sweetheart.”
“Someone could trip over. If you put your foot in a rabbit hole you could break an ankle,” Mum added, putting her hands on Anna’s shoulders.
“I know you want to find Fred, and I’m really sorry. But we just aren’t going to find him like this,” said Gran.
Anna shook her head, looking back out at the dark trees. “We can’t leave him out there all night. He’ll be scared!” She took the torch out of Dad’s hand, and started to flash it around the path again, calling for Fred. Her voice sounded hoarse and her throat hurt, she’d been shouting for so long. “There’s a noise!” she gasped, starting forward excitedly. “A rustling, can’t you hear it? It has to be Fred!”
But when the creature came out from between the trees, it stopped in surprise, instead of running to greet them. Anna’s torch flashed on to a pair of frightened, glowing eyes. She rushed to hug it, but the fox whisked away, its red bushy tail nothing like Fred’s beautiful feathers.
“It wasn’t him,” Anna whispered miserably.
“It was only a fox,” Gran nodded, as Anna sagged with disappointment, her shoulders drooping. “Anna, it’s so late, you’re exhausted. We’ve been searching for two hours now. You need to go to bed. We all do. Your mum and dad have still got to drive back.”
“But Fred…”
“I think he’s upset and he’s hiding,” Dad explained, hugging her. “We can start looking again tomorrow. We’ll get up really early and come straight here. I’ll just have to go into work late. Fred’s not used to the dark, is he? When it’s light he’ll feel better and come out. He’ll want to come back to us then.”
“I want him back now!” Anna sobbed. She hated the thought of Fred being too scared to come and find her.
“We all do,” Dad said, but Anna couldn’t help thinking he was only saying that. If he really wanted Fred back, they’d keep looking all night.
“Just one more look,” she begged, pulling away. Then her feet seemed to wobble underneath her and everything went blurry. Someone grabbed her and she heard Mum’s voice. It seemed to be coming from a long way away.
“Anna, you’re asleep on your feet! Come on.”
Anna lay in her little bed, worrying. Even though she’d been almost asleep out in the wood, now she felt horribly awake. She kept putting her hand out to stroke Fred to make her feel better, and then she’d realize all over again that he wasn’t there.
The boat rocked a little, and she sat up, looking hopefully at the door. “Did you find him?” she gasped, as Gran and Grandad came in. She had been so upset when they took her back to the boat that Grandad had promised to go and have one last look if she would be sensible and get into bed.