‘OK.’ He followed her into the house, slipping off his hat when they went through the door. He glanced around the room, noticing, Laurel was sure, the brand-new coat of paint Daddy had given the walls. ‘Your parents aren’t home?’
‘Daddy’s down in the field, and Mummy’s gone to borrow a television set for the coronation.’
‘Ah. Of course. Well, I should be fine here, if you need to get on with that tidying.’
Laurel nodded but she didn’t move. ‘I’m going to be an actress, you know.’ She was overcome by a sudden urge to tell the man all about herself.
‘Are you now?’
She nodded.
‘Well then, I’m going to have to look out for you. Will you play the London theatres do you think?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Laurel, nodding in that considering way grown-ups did. ‘I should say that I probably will.’
The man had been smiling but his face changed then, and at first Laurel thought it was something she’d said or done. But then she realised that he wasn’t looking at her any more, he was staring beyond her at the wedding photograph of Mummy and Daddy, the one they kept on the hall table.
‘Do you like it?’ she said.
He didn’t answer. He’d gone to the table and was holding the frame now, staring at it as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. ‘Vivien,’ he said softly, touching Mummy’s face.
Laurel frowned, wondering what he meant. ‘That’s my Mum-my,’ she said. ‘Her name’s Dorothy.’
The man looked at Laurel and his mouth opened as if he was going to say something, but he didn’t. It closed again and a smile came on his face, a funny smile as if he’d just worked out the answer to a puzzle and what he’d found made him happy and sad all at the same time. He put his hat back on his head and Laurel saw that he was going to leave.
‘Mummy won’t be long,’ she said, confused. ‘She’s only gone to the next village.’
He didn’t change his mind, though, walking back to the door and stepping out into the bright sunshine beneath the wisteria arbour. He held out his hand and said to Laurel, ‘Well, fellow hen-wrangler. It’s been lovely to meet you. Enjoy the coronation won’t you?’
‘I will.’
‘My name’s Jimmy, by the way, and I’m going to look out for you on those London stages.’
‘I’m Laurel,’ she said, shaking his hand. ‘And I’ll see you there.’
He laughed, ‘I’ve little doubt of that. You strike me as just the sort who knows how to listen with her ears, her eyes, her heart all at once.’ Laurel nodded importantly.
Laurel wrinkled her nose, not sure what he meant.
He said, ‘Do they make jokes together, and laugh and dance and play?’
Laurel rolled her eyes. ‘Oh yes,’ she said, ‘always.’
‘And is your daddy kind?’
She scratched her head and nodded. ‘And funny. He makes her laugh, and he always makes her tea, and did you know he saved her life? That’s how they fell in love—Mummy dropped off the side of a big deep cliff, and she was frightened and alone and probably in mortal danger, until my Daddy dived in, even though there were sharks and crocodiles and certainly pirates, too, and he rescued her.’
‘Did he?’
‘He did. And they ate cockles afterwards.’
‘Well then, Laurel,’ the man, Jimmy, said, ‘I think your dad sounds like just the sort of fellow your mum deserves.’
And then he looked at his boots, in that sad-happy way of his, and waved goodbye. Laurel watched him go, but only for a little while, and then she started wondering how many cart-wheels it would take to get all the way down to the stream. And by the time her mother got home, and her sisters too—the brand new television set in a box in the boot—she’d all but for-gotten the kind man who’d come that day and helped her with the hens.
Table of Contents
THE SECRET KEEPER
Part One
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Part Two
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Part Three
Twenty-two
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Twenty-eight
Twenty-nine
Thirty
Part Four
Thirty-one
Thirty-two
Thirty-three
Thirty-four