The thing is, I don’t want to remember the bad thing that happened because it frightens me, but Dr A. reckons if I talk about it just once, I can forget it for ever. That would be really neat. Françoise is pretty cool about everything and if I start to get freaky she just goes, ‘Oh Soph, chill out will you, you’re upsetting the dog,’ or something like that. She has great clothes by the way and says I can borrow them but she’s bigger than me which is a shame. So, as I want to forget the bad thing for ever, I thought I should tell you that I really should not blame you for what Auntie Kate did. It was not your fault. I know that now, and I also know that she did not mean to hurt me. She was just trying to protect me from the house. See, when Philip left me by the pool that day, I suddenly remembered all the fun Mum and Dad and me used to have. I missed them so much I thought my heart had broken. So, I needed you and I went to find you. I knew that I could do it and I did. But I met Auntie Kate down the lane, and she said it was really dangerous for me to go to the house. She said that I should never have gone to the fen. She hid me somewhere smelly and told me to wait for her. She said that only she could save me. She told me lots of things, Uncle Will, about the horrible things that happen to children out in the marsh. She told me that I must not go to anyone, that the marsh monster could change into anything it liked, even into you. She said I must hide, and if I saw you, it would be the marsh monster in disguise. But she didn’t come back to save me, and she wasn’t there when the men took me away, so I thought they were all monsters.

Well, that sounds really silly, doesn’t it? and I hope Dr A. is right because now I’ve written it out, that means that I can forget it for ever.

I love you, Uncle Will, but I think Auntie Kate is pretty sick. Maybe Dr A. would talk to her? Anyway, it was good about the rabbit, wasn’t it?

Sophie XXXX

Will read the letter again, then a third time. He folded it carefully and tucked it into his shirt pocket. He placed a hand on the arm of the bench, thinking briefly of all the times he and Kate had sat there together.

The tiny silhouette was still out on the skyline. He pulled himself painfully up and began to walk down the path towards the sea bank. His thoughts were clear for the first time in months.