The Child Thief by Dan Smith

think that’s where she may have gone?’
    Lara nodded.
    ‘Why do you think that?’ Natalia asked, sitting beside us. ‘Did she say she was going?’
    She shook her head. ‘I saw.’
    ‘You saw?’
    ‘I saw her go. After Petro brought me back and you made me come inside, I was sitting here and I saw her run around the house. She ran around and went straight up. I watched her all the
way to the trees.’
    ‘Where those men are now?’ I pointed at the window and the dark smudges on the snow beyond.
    Lara nodded.
    ‘OK,’ I said. ‘Good girl.’
    ‘Am I in trouble?’ she asked.
    ‘We’ll talk about that later.’
    I took Natalia’s elbow and beckoned her through to the front room. ‘Do you think Dariya saw what they did? What her father did?’
    ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘Why else would she run away like that?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Dimitri’s such an idiot. What he did. Trying to do it to make his child safe, and now he’s damaged her for ever. Imagine if you saw your father do a thing like that. String a
man up from a tree and—’
    ‘That’s enough.’ She glanced over my shoulder at the bedroom door. ‘We have to live with these people. They’re our friends, Luka. Svetlana’s my sister. And
Dariya is safe.’
    ‘If she hasn’t frozen to death up there, have you thought about that?’
    ‘Luka.’
    ‘You imagine how that idiot will feel if he’s driven his daughter away to freeze to death on the rise. Hanging a man to make her safe, while frightening her away to die.’
    ‘Luka!’ her voice harsh but quiet. The words hissed. And her eyes were over my shoulder again.
    I turned to see Lara behind me. Fresh tears in her eyes. ‘It’s my fault,’ she said. ‘I killed Dariya.’ She ran to her mother and threw her arms around her.
    ‘No, angel, she’ll be fine. You’ll see. The men will find Dariya.’ Natalia narrowed her eyes at me and stroked our daughter’s hair, running her hardened fingers
over her head.
    ‘Will you go?’ Lara turned to look at me. ‘You’ll find her.’
    I forced a smile. ‘If Dariya is there, your Uncle Dimitri will find her. They don’t need me.’
    ‘Please,’ she said.
    ‘Lara, it’s not your fault.’
    ‘It is my fault, Papa. I should have told you I saw her, but I was afraid I’d get into trouble.’
    ‘You’re not in any trouble.’ Natalia held her tighter.
    ‘Please, Papa. Please find Dariya.’
    ‘Of course he will, won’t you, Papa?’ Natalia glared at me.
    I sighed and nodded. ‘OK, angel, if it’s what you want. I’ll help them look.’
    To my daughter I was still a hero. I was still a figure of strength and adult wisdom. She had not yet grown to understand that even fathers are fallible. That even fathers make mistakes, just as
everyone else does. And even fathers cannot beat all the odds.
    ‘Thank you, Papa.’
    I sat on a chair and pulled on my boots before taking my coat from the hook by the door. I stood for a moment and looked at my daughter. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said.
‘We’ll find Dariya.’
    ‘Promise?’
    ‘Yes, my angel. I promise.’

9
    Adding my own footsteps to the many stale ones which now littered my land, I went round the house and climbed over the fence, starting up the gentle slope towards the line of
poplars and the dark smudges that lay within. In the field beneath my feet, winter wheat seedlings lay in the stubble of the last harvest, buried beneath the snow.
    To the west, the sun was low on the horizon, spreading a muddled amber glow across the steppe. A beautiful sight for eyes that had never seen it, the sign of approaching darkness to those that
had witnessed it countless times. It would drop within the hour, orange turning to red, like blood spilling across the snow, then it would bow its head and be gone from our world for another night.
And the most bitter cold would sweep in to replace it.
    The snow was deep here but I tried to move quickly as I crossed the field I would harvest and re-sow