Released

Chapter 3 - Cassie

Cassie Reeves was a fun loving girl with an extreme love and loyalty towards her friends. Yeah,was. When her mum finally died of a broken heart she lost all interest in anything. Her friends had been sympathetic and her teachers lenient but that hadn't lasted long. She had lived with her Grandmother until the old lady had become too frail from the loss of her daughter to look after herself and her Granddaughter.  Cassie's friends had soon become bored with her depressed state of mind. She was dumped and left to fend for herself in a home for girls. It wasn't too bad there, she had told herself.  Okay so many of the kids never washed and they constantly threatened to cut her hair off, but it wasn't too bad.

The day the lawyer came changed everything.  He was a tall serious man with dark eyes. She had watched as he came into the building from her lofty dorm.  For a moment, he glanced up but she pulled away from the dusty window quickly.  Within twenty minutes, a stroppy orphan came to collect her.  The girl's sullen stares sank into Cassie as she ran down to the office.

The mistress of the home Mrs Hallow simpily stared at Cassie as she entered the room, her eyes narrowed to slits and her lips pursed. The man then stood up to speak to her. His dark hat cast a shadow across his face in an effort to mask his features. The effect was rather sinister but Cassie couldn't help feeling safer now she was in his company.

"Cassie Reeves," He started in a low, not un-warm voice "I am here with news of your mother's will." Cassie was stunned.  she had believed that her mother had never any need to write a will, she had been happy all the way until her husband's death.

"There is not much in it i'm afraid." he had told her quietly. Cassie nodded, her parents had very little money int he first place. Her Grandmother supplied all that Cassie needed.

"However," He said with a slight nod in the direction of he Mrs Hallow." It would seem that your mother made an agreement with a friend that if she was to die the other would be responsible for the child."

Cassie nodded slowly, needing him to continue with what she was supposed to do about it.

"Miss Reeves, I have located the friend and her family. Her name was Jenny Rowell, I belive that you knew her quite well?"

Cassie answered in shock. "Well yes, I used to play with her son in the summer holidays. But they moved away from the Lake District when I was 14."

This time he nodded. "indeed they did, they moved south into Cornwall to be closer to other family. At the moment they live near the fishing town of Padboat."

Then Cassie asked a question that almost made the man cry, "So-so do they really want me?" She spoke quietly and with the air of someone who had suffered a lot of rejections. He picked up a pile of papers from on top of his briefcase and handed them to her. "Mrs Rowell's nephew sent these leaflets about the local area, letters from family members and messages from those who remember you in an effort to persuade you to come and live with them. Trust me, you'll be welcomed like a princess." He then rose gracefully out of his seat behind Mrs Hallow's desk and shook Cassie's hand.

"I will be sending my secretary, Lizzie, in four days to collect you. I believe that you will want to gather your belongings from the house before it is sold and to say goodbye to your Grandmother before you start your new life with the Rowell's."

She gave a small nod and rubbed the palm of her hand with her thumb in apprehension. He noticed and spoke soothingly.

"It is always difficult," he told her "But try and be brave. You never know, it be an adventure."

As he left the home followed by a flirtatious Mrs Hallow, Cassie couldn't help felling that she recognised his voice from somewhere. She frowned and ran back upstairs to call her Grandmother.