“No, Anna, I’m sorry,” said Grandad. “But I was thinking – Irish Setters are good trackers, they were bred for hunting. I’m pretty sure Fred will find his own way back. We’ll probably see him sitting in the front of the boat, watching the ducks in the morning!”
“Or he’ll wake us up at four o’clock scratching at the door,” Gran put in, perching on the end of Anna’s bed.
“You really think so?” Anna sniffed.
Gran hesitated, just for a second, but Anna had felt it.
“What I think is that you need to get to sleep,” Gran said quickly. “If we do have to go looking for Fred tomorrow morning, you’ll want to be up early. We’re going to bed now, too.”
Anna listened to them fussing around getting ready for bed, and gradually everything grew quiet. But she still couldn’t sleep. If only Sunny and Fred had got on better, this would never have happened. But now poor Fred had been driven away.
Everyone had tried to tell her that it would be fine – that Fred would be back soon, or that they’d at least find him tomorrow morning. Anna wanted so much to believe that they were right, but she couldn’t help thinking about what might happen if they weren’t.
Where was Fred? What if he’d run all the way through the wood to the road? Mum and Anna had been through the wood and seen the cars roaring past…
Anna shivered. Surely Fred wouldn’t have gone out into the road, would he? He was used to walking in town, and they’d been careful to train him to stop and sit at the edge of the pavement. But what if he didn’t see what it was in the dark? It was a country road, with a grassy verge and no kerb. He might not realize it was a road at all.
Anna rolled over and buried her face in the pillow to try to stop herself crying. But she couldn’t hold back the tears seeping out of the corners of her eyes.
Fred could get run over. What would she do if she never saw him again?
Fred stuck his muzzle out of the gap under the tree roots and sniffed cautiously. He’d never been out this late before. He wriggled out of his hiding place and shook himself. His legs felt strange, cramped up and wobbly. He walked slowly around in a little circle, sniffing for the scent trail back to the boat. He was jittery and upset, and it seemed harder to find a scent than it usually was. But at last he found it and began to trot back through the wood.
He wriggled under the fence and came back out on to the canal bank. He could see the boat, looming up out of the canal like a darker patch of shadow. Fred slunk across the grass towards it, not sure what to do. The boat was quiet and all the lights were out. Everyone was asleep, perhaps. They might shout at him again if he woke them up. He went up closer, standing on the edge of the bank, his ears twitching as he tried to listen for Anna.
Quietly, carefully, he jumped into the deck well at the bow of the boat. He could stay here till the morning, he thought. And Anna would see him when she woke up. But then he heard a shifting, creaking noise from inside, and paws padded over towards the door.
He had forgotten about Sunny.
There was a low, uncertain growl from the other side of the door and Fred backed away miserably, bumping up against the side of the boat.
He jumped back on to the bank, his paws scrabbling a little against the damp, slippery grass, and padded away. He needed Anna, but he couldn’t get to her without going past Sunny first. He would have to wait until morning, he decided wearily. All of him ached after the hours curled up in that uncomfortable hole. And he was so tired.
Fred wandered along the bank, sniffing at the other two boats on the mooring. He couldn’t smell any dogs on either of them. Cautiously, he put his paws up on the side of the hull of the last boat and looked in at the stern well. There was a canvas awning folded up, and he jumped lightly down into the boat, wriggling under it and curling up, fidgeting to settle his aching paws.
Then, at last, he fell asleep.
Chapter Seven
Anna had strange, horrible dreams all night. She and Sunny and Fred went round and round in circles, chasing each other, and however hard Anna ran, she seemed to be standing still. In the worst dream, which seemed to keep coming back, she and Fred both had wings, and Anna was flapping and flapping and trying to catch up with him, but he was always too fast.
She woke up with a jolt, gasping for breath. The dream seemed so real that she expected her arms to ache. She stretched them out gingerly, but they felt just like they usually did.
“You’re awake, Anna!” Gran bustled over to her. “I was about to get you up.”
Anna blinked and then looked around, her fingers clenching on her bedcover. “He’s not back, is he?” she asked, her voice very small. She knew he wasn’t. He’d have been all over her by now, barking and licking.
Gran sighed. “No. No, he isn’t yet.”
“What time is it?” Anna asked, jumping out of bed and starting to pull on her clothes. It didn’t look like early morning – the sun was bright already, and Gran was dressed and making breakfast.
“It’s eight o’clock. Oh, I know you wanted to wake up early, Anna, but you were so tired, and you were up so late last night.”
Anna stared at her in horror. How could they have let her sleep for so long? “I have to go out and look for Fred!” she gasped, hopping her way into her jeans.
“Grandad’s been out for a while, searching the wood again,” her gran explained. “And your mum and dad will be here soon to help as well. They said they’d just go and walk along the road that runs by the back of the wood first.”
Anna nodded miserably. So it wasn’t just her worrying that Fred had gone further than the wood.
“We’ll have to move the boat this morning as well,” her gran said gently.
Anna yanked her sweater over her head and turned to look at Gran in horror. She’d forgotten that they couldn’t stay on the mooring. “We’ve still got to go?” she whispered. “We have to leave Fred behind?”
“We won’t go far, I promise. Just a little further up the canal. Grandad says he’s sure there’s somewhere we can stop and moor up, about a mile further on from here. Then we’ll hurry back.”
Anna nodded, but she felt like howling. Somehow it seemed like giving up on Fred, even though she knew they were coming back.
The boat shook a little as Grandad stepped back on board, and he came in through the saloon door.
Anna opened her mouth to ask, but Grandad shook his head. “No sign at the moment, Anna, sorry. But your mum called, saying they’ve parked over where they were last night. They’re going to walk along to the village and go into the shops to ask if anyone’s seen him.” He eyed Anna anxiously and added, “They printed out a few posters, too.”
“But Fred’s only been gone one night…” Anna said, shaking her head. “He’s not really lost, is he? We don’t need posters up!” Putting up posters made it feel all the more real.
Grandad shook his head. “I know what you mean, but if someone sees Fred and doesn’t realize he’s lost – if they just think he’s off the lead and they can’t see his owner, they won’t do anything, will they? People will know to be looking out for him if they see a poster.”