The Songbird and the Soldier Read Online Free PDF Page A

something. And what about you, Sam? Has Jimmy managed to drive the music teacher to drink yet?”
    Sam smiled. “Close, I think. No. Nothing exciting really.”
    “Apart from pining after Dean,” Kate added, and Sam kicked her under the table. “Ow!”
    “What’s this?” Sam’s dad put down his knife and fork. “Sam? You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend?” He looked at his wife for her reaction, but she looked just as surprised as him.
    Sam cringed. She had been trying to keep the whole thing under wraps. The last time her mum and dad had got involved; it complicated matters, so she had wanted to keep this one to herself. And Kate knew that!
    “Is it anyone we know?” her mum asked.
    “No. I don’t think so.”
    “His name is Dean Fletcher. His parents live next door to me,” Kate offered, and promptly received another sharp blow to her ankle for her troubles. “Ow!”
    “Dean?” Mrs Litton said.
    “He’s a soldier.”
    “A soldier?” Mr Litton seemed a little more wary.
    “I’m going to kill you,” Sam said under her breath, and Kate grinned.
    “That’s not your usual type,” her dad said.
    “It’s no big deal,” Sam said trying to calm the excitement down. “We haven’t been going out long.”
    “Two months,” Kate mouthed.
    “And are we going to meet this young man?” her dad asked.
    “Not for a while,” Sam said. “He’s off to Afghanistan in a few weeks.”
    “Oh.” The mood changed.
    “What’s he like, Kate?” Mrs Litton asked.
    In an instant Sam was put aside and Kate was asked to describe Dean to her parents. Afghanistan, Sam thought. Yes, that was something of a conversation-stopper. Only a few more days and he would be back from training and getting ready to go out. Sam looked up.
    “Well, at least if he’s on the other side of the world I won’t have to worry how he’s treating you, will I?” her dad said.
    “Dad!”
    “I’m sorry, but that Rick fellow was bad news, Sam. He treated you exceedingly badly and you refused to see it. I guess you were just too young and too besotted.”
    Sam rolled her eyes. “Now look what you’ve started.”
    “Sorry,” Kate whispered back, unconvincingly. “We’re just trying to look after you, love,” said her mum.
    Sam’s dad changed the subject and the meal continued. At the end Mr Litton thanked Kate for staying to tea and told her she was welcome to come again anytime. Sam declared that she was not.
    Kate left soon after. Sam waved her off and then took Humphrey upstairs again. She sat down on her bed and thought back to the last time she had seen Dean.
    It had only been a quick visit. Dean had turned up at her school five minutes after the bell and surprised her while she was clearing up the classroom at the end of the school day. Sam had felt awkward when Dean started to make a move on her while people were still in the building. Dean had been very persuasive, obviously turned on by the whole schoolmistress thing. Had she been a different person, Sam might have had a great time. Nobody surprised them, no one even came in after he had gone, but it was all too stressful for Sam and eventually Dean gave up trying and left.
    Sam finished tidying the classroom and battled with the guilty feeling that she was probably a disappointment as far as girlfriends were concerned. Oh well, she thought at last, there was nothing she could do about it now. Hopefully she could make amends when he got back from training in a couple of weeks.
    Sam got up from her bed and walked over to where her big flower press lay on a pile of large books on the floor. Soon, she thought. Soon she would find a house of her own and then she would have a place for everything. She picked up the flower press and lugged it over to the bed. She sat down and patted the space beside her. Humphrey needed no second bidding. He jumped up and made himself comfortable. Sam hugged him to her and then played with his ears. “If only all men were as easy to love