Rather than just stand by the streetlight or twirl around, his arms outspread in the falling snow, something compelled him to start to walk to the park.

Snowflakes were falling all around him, like soft petals. And he imagined them sparkling on his cheeks when they landed. But it was so far to walk. And he could feel that his cheeks were rosy from the cold and possibly the tip of his nose was turning red.

A carriage stopped for him. The driver from next door, who was on his way home, and offered him a ride.

Colin hopped up into the seat next to the driver, who smiled at him and said, “And where did you think you’d want to go, my boy?”

“Hyde Park, of course,” Colin answered.

There was a Christmas festival in Hyde Park. His mother had told him she’d already seen it set up. They’d gone last year. Not that he thought the rides would be running at midnight or the Ferris wheel, especially given the snowstorm, but nonetheless, the park seemed like a large expanse, a brilliant canvas on which to see a blanket of white powdery snow that had already covered the ground. A place where there might be a way to make snowballs and maybe a sculpture of a castle.

When they arrived at Hyde Park, there was snow on the ground, lots of it. The kind gentleman let him off at the corner. The snow was sparkly, at first, lit by the street lamps.

He hadn’t counted on how dark it was going to be when he entered and started to wade through the snow, deeper and deeper into the park . . .

~ CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN ~

the other side of the wall

Tess had a feeling she was in a hallway, even though she couldn’t feel a wall on either side of her. Was the ground beneath her feet solid? Was there ground beneath her feet? Or could she just step forward and there wouldn’t be ground, walk off at any moment if the ground stopped and fall into the giant void of nothingness. There was darkness all around her.

She held the marble up as if it could somehow be a guiding light. But still there was only darkness. A strange kind of darkness as if she was in a cave or tunnel or a hallway except that there weren’t any walls.