Chapter Five
Toby and Rachel went back to the sunroom where Rachel gave a gasp as she saw the jigsaw.
‘Look at that,’ she said in awe. The picture they had made had changed to a scene of a large grey castle flanked with two courtyards. In one courtyard a group of people were dancing while several small boys kicked a ball about. In the other courtyard there was a fountain with a statue of a dolphin and cherubs. Toby reached down and put the last piece in place.
‘That’s the castle where we went,’ he said incredulously.
‘I said it was magic,’ Rachel reminded him.
‘Yeah, but you said I’d be bewitched if I ate or drank anything but I wasn’t. Anyway, you’re the one who stole the dragon so if anyone is going to be bewitched, it’s you.’
‘I did not steal it.’ Rachel turned pale. ‘It followed me. I tried to get it to go back. Do you think something awful will happen to me, like a curse or something?’ she asked anxiously.
‘Nah,’ scoffed Toby. ‘You’ll be fine. It was a great adventure and Spike is awesome.’
He and Rachel smiled at each other as Aunt Phoebe arrived home. She was relieved to see that they were getting on a bit better, and praised their efforts at putting the jigsaw together.
‘Well leave it there on the floor until you’ve done all of them,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid the weather forecast isn’t very good. It’s going to rain again tomorrow.’
‘That’s okay, Aunt Phoebe. I don’t mind,’ said Toby with a grin at Rachel.
While Rachel washed the dishes that night, Toby carefully filled an old plastic container with the scraps left over from their dinner.
‘I’m glad it was chops,’ said Rachel. ‘I’ll bet Spike will love to chew on the bones.’ She smuggled the dragon outside where they played with it in the shed before they had to go in to bed.
‘What on earth were you two you doing in the shed?’ asked Uncle Neville as they came in the back door. ‘I wouldn’t have thought a mower and a few sacks of fertiliser were very interesting to play with.’
‘Were playing at being escaped prisoners,’ said Toby with a sudden burst of inspiration, as Rachel hugged a sleepy Spike tightly under her sweatshirt. ‘We have to hide from the enemy and make up secret codes and things.’
‘Well I suppose it’s better than being glued to the television,’ said Uncle Neville doubtfully.
The next day Toby bounced into Rachel’s room before breakfast.
‘I’ve been thinking about the castle,’ he said, as he tickled Spike under the chin. ‘It must be something to do with the jigsaw. When we finished making it, that’s when the rainbow appeared.’
‘Yeah,’ muttered Rachel.
‘What’s the matter? I thought you’d be really excited. You’re the one who’s into magic and fairytales.’
‘If you must know, I’m tired,’ said Rachel crossly. ‘I hardly got any sleep at all. Spike spent half the night crunching bones under my bed and the other half trying to play with me. He’s even eaten a piece off the end of my pillow case and I don’t know how I’m going to explain that to Mum.’
‘Tell her you got hungry in the night,’ suggested Toby, and ducked as Rachel threw her pillow at him. ‘Here, I’ll take Spike outside for a walk while you get dressed.’
Rachel had cheered up by the time she had eaten breakfast.
‘What are you two going to do today?’ asked Aunt Phoebe. ‘Play escaped prisoners again?’
‘Yes,’ said Toby at the same time as Rachel said, ‘No.’
‘Were going to make another jigsaw,’ said Rachel. ‘What are you going to do, Mum?’
‘Oh, don’t worry, I won’t get in your way. I have a heap of letters to type out in the study. Then I’ll have to do some more shopping as we seem to have run out of cat food.’
Rachel blushed, while Toby offered to help clear the table. He figured the sooner Aunt Phoebe was out of the way the better. Rachel brought Spike’s carton down to the sunroom and tucked it behind the couch. The dragon was very interested in the jigsaws until he found they didn’t taste very nice. After spitting out a piece onto the floor, he curled up on Toby’s legs where he fell asleep.
‘What do you suppose the next one is?’ asked Rachel, looking at the pile of mixed up pieces.
‘There’s a whole heap of bits that look like shops. Let’s see if we can finish that one.’
They worked in a companionable silence, interrupted only by a whiffling from Spike as he settled himself more comfortably, and the occasional sigh of satisfaction from Rachel as she fitted another piece into place. Toby realised with surprise that he wasn’t feeling at all tired. Last night he’d had the best night’s sleep since coming to his cousin’s house, probably because of the exercise of the football game.
‘Maybe that magic food and drink helped,’ he thought, although he decided not to tell Rachel in case she started up with more of her fairytale stuff.
‘They are shops,’ said Rachel at last, as they put more of the puzzle together. ‘They are really old fashioned though. You can see cobblestones on the street and there’s one of those really old fashioned cars.’
‘It’s a vintage Ford,’ said Toby, wondering why girls found it so hard to recognise different cars. ‘All the early ones were black. It was the only colour they made.’
‘Only a couple of bits to go, now,’ said Rachel excitedly, scrabbling around in the heap of pieces on the floor.
‘This bit goes in here, and oh, this is the last piece.’ She held it up as the sun shone into the room and cast a golden glow over the picture.
‘There’s the rainbow, come on,’ said Toby, climbing to his feet and heading to the door.
‘Wait,’ commanded Rachel. ‘I’m going to bring Spike with us but I’m putting him in a bag first. He’s heavy if you carry him for long.’
‘Good Idea,’ agreed Toby, as she stuffed the unwilling dragon into her sports bag. ‘Let’s take the Frisbee too. That way I can have a game with those boys.’
Rachel and Toby ran across the bridge through the rainbow and stopped in surprise. There was no sign of the castle at all.
They found themselves standing in a street outside an old fashioned drapers shop. Rolls of fabric were stacked in the window alongside a display of gloves and handkerchiefs. A large poster advertising a girdle made Toby splutter with laughter but he stopped as a loud voice came from behind them.
‘What are you children thinking of, coming out improperly dressed? It is disgusting. I don’t know what the world is coming to.’
Toby and Rachel spun around to see a tall, straight backed old lady glaring at them though a pair of round, steel rimmed spectacles. Her hair was scraped back from her face into a rigid bun, which made her large hooked nose look unpleasantly like a beak. A tight black bodice was fastened with a row of tiny pearl buttons down the front and a long black skirt fell down almost to the ground above her shiny black boots. The black pillbox hat perched on her head was adorned with a spray of small feathers, which quivered as the old lady shook her head in disapproval. She fixed Rachel with a piercing look and sniffed. Rachel felt uncomfortably aware that her jeans were stained with grass on the knees, and her T-shirt had a small hole in it just below the shoulder, where she had caught it on Spikes bony back.
‘Come on,’ she muttered, and pulled Toby down the street away from the old lady’s gimlet stare. There was a small group of boys gathered around the Model T Ford, which was parked outside a toyshop. The children joined the crowd, hoping to look less conspicuous. Their jeans and T-shirts were certainly a lot more comfortable than what the other children were wearing, Rachel reflected. Instead of soft sneakers they wore clumsy leather boots that laced up halfway to the knee. Brown tweedy trousers and a tightly buttoned jacket were worn over a stiff white shirt. Caps with a peak, in the same sort of tweedy fabric, completed their outfits. On the other side of the street a girl of about Rachel’s age walked along pushing a pram. Two little girls, probably her sis
ters, walked behind her. All three were dressed in dark dresses that came down to their ankles with just a hint of lace petticoat and bloomers showing beneath. They all wore white starched pinafores with large white collars around their necks. The two little girls wore bonnets while the older girl wore a straw boater tied under her chin with a broad brown ribbon.
‘This is summer,’ thought Rachel, with a glance at the sun that was beating down from a blue, cloudless sky. ‘They must be baking in those outfits. If those are their summer clothes, I’d hate to see what they had to wear in winter. No wonder that old lady thought we weren’t dressed properly.’
Toby was pushing forward to get a look at the car, and what he was wearing was the last thing on his mind. A horse clip clopped over the cobbles and continued down the street. It was pulling a carriage in which a man and his wife sat surrounded by parcels.
‘Wow, it would be great to go in one of those,’ said Rachel. At that moment there was a stir as the toyshop opened and a stout gentleman and his son were bowed out by the shopkeeper. The boy was carrying a large model of a sailing ship. It was made of wood, with a set of carefully sewn and strung canvas sails. The other boys gasped in envy as the boy importantly put his ship in the back seat of the car before climbing in front next to his father.
‘They’re not wearing any seatbelts,’ Rachel whispered to Toby in scandalised tones.
‘They won’t go fast enough to need them,’ Toby replied. ‘Just watch.’
The stout gentleman inserted a handle in the front of the bonnet and after a couple of turns the engine roared into life. With a cloud of evil smelling black smoke and a lot of puffing and banging, the car drove off. It drove so slowly that most of the boys were able to run alongside it, making jeering remarks about the boy and his purchase. There were only two boys left outside the shop and the smaller one suddenly burst into tears.
Jigsaw Page 5
