The Travellers

Chapter 3 - Freedom

"We should be at the next town within the week if everything goes well. We usually walk all day and rest in the evenings, if you need to stop then let me know and we can have a break." Ivy informed me later that day. Robert, Henry and Matt both rode horses but being the girls we just walked on foot. They were very traditional. Women cooked and men earn the money.

I haven't often walked for long periods of time and my legs began to ache after only an hour. Slowly I was trailing behind the rest of the group when Sam slowed until he was walking beside me.

"You need to catch up. You can't let yourself fall to far behind the rest of us."

"Sorry, I'm trying." I sighed.

"Listen, I'm sorry I was so rude to you before. It's hard for us to trust people..." I thought he would say more but he didn't, silence fell between us, broken only by the distant sounds of the other Travellers further up the road and the crickets chirping in the long grass.

I had never been out of St Colin before and as we walked passed streams and fields willed with flowers I wondered why. It was so beautiful to see the butterflies and birds flying around. I realised that I was free now.

"Did you tell the rest of your family that you were leaving?" Sam said a while later.

"Um, well it's only me. My Mum died two years ago and my Dad left me. There was no reason for me to stay in St Colin anymore." As I explained this to Sam I felt a new sense of freedom I had never had before. Now I had left I realised that there was no reason for me to stay there anymore. Deep down I had been hoping that one day my Dad might come back, telling me how much he missed me and that he wanted to start again. But he had never cared, I knew now I had been much better off without him than if he had stayed.

Sam didn't say anything else, now I was getting to know him better I saw that he rarely ever spoke, except maybe to Em. At some point in the day Em came running over to us and Sam picked her up and carried her to the rest of the journey as we played eye-spy. I could see that Sam loved Em; he was very protective of her watching where she went to make sure she didn't get lost or left behind.

Dinner that night was quiet; everyone was tired from the walk. Jennie was sat opposite from me and kept shooting me mean looks; I just ignored her. Eventually we went to bed, Sam stayed up to tie the horses down, so they wouldn't stray too far from the camp. We were camping near a small stream and the gentle trickle of water helped me go to sleep.