by Ann Turnbull
In the High Street he passed Reggie Dean, and called hello. Reggie was all right now; a bit of a dope, but friendly enough. There was no one at school Lennie didn’t get on with these days except Bert Haines, and Bert never bothered him any more – he kept out of Lennie’s way. Bert had lost his hold over the other boys since the gorilla incident; he had only to start throwing his weight around and someone was sure to be loping about with hunched shoulders. What with that and the school pantomime, Lennie had gained a reputation as a joker. Growing two inches taller had helped, too.
Martin Reid was outside the grocer’s, loading up his bicycle. He did deliveries for Mr Greening.
“Coming this afternoon?” he called.
Lennie’s reply was drowned by the shattering roar of a plane, close overhead. Another followed it, then three more in quick succession.
Lennie stopped cycling. People had come out of the shops to stare up at the sky.
“My dad says there’s definitely going to be a war,” said Martin. “My brother wants to join up.”
“So does my sister,” said Lennie. “She wants to fly.”
“They won’t have women flying planes.”
“Mary says they will – says they’ll have to.”
He thought it sounded daft, too. And yet if any girl could get into the Air Force and fly a plane, Mary would.
“I’ll come round after dinner,” he said, and freewheeled down to the bottom of the High Street.
Mr Lee, the butcher, was ready with his parcels.
“I’m hoping you can take some extra today, Lennie? Ken’s mum just called in; seems he’s poorly.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I’ll make it worth your while.” Mr Lee pushed several parcels to one side. “Those are your usuals. You’d better do those first and then come back. These others are up the top end, mostly – I’ve written the addresses on; that one’s Dale House, Miss Ingram; and that’s The Hollies, Mrs Wilding.”
“Mrs Wilding?” Lennie’s heart began to race.
“Up Bridge Road, Woodend.”
“Yes. Yes, I know where it is.”
“Good. Off you go, then.”
Lennie filled the basket on the front of his bicycle.
Wildings. He was angry with himself for being so disturbed. The incident with the gloves was over, forgotten; no one had done any more about it, not even Dad. Dad said chances were the Wildings knew their son was untrustworthy and guessed Lennie was probably telling the truth. Ralph had written to Lennie after Christmas, saying he was sorry, asking Lennie to write, but Lennie had thrown the letter away. It all seemed a long time ago. Lennie was twelve; he had a job; he had other friends; he had forgotten Ralph – almost.
He left the Hollies till last. It was furthest out, anyway, further by road than it was from the woods off Love Lane. He cycled out of Culverton and along a country road between banks of hazel and wild garlic.
He had never approached the Wildings’ house from the front before. As he wheeled his bicycle round the side of the house he saw the gardener bent over a flowerbed and felt his legs trembling. He had to force himself to knock at the familiar back door.
It was a different maid who answered, not Stella. But then there was a query about the price of the sausages, and Mrs Martin had to be called, and Lennie waited in alarm as she came out, wiping her hands on her apron.
She didn’t recognize him. After all that had happened Lennie could scarcely believe it. But he was just the butcher’s boy, a fair haired boy with a bike; she didn’t give him a second glance. He was nothing to these people.
He took the money and wheeled the bicycle around the side of the house. And as he did so the front door opened, he looked up, and saw Ralph coming out, alone.
Ralph started. He knew Lennie.
Lennie swung his leg over the crossbar.
“Lennie!” said Ralph. He darted across the lawn and jumped a flowerbed. “Lennie, wait!”
But Lennie pushed hard on the pedals, sped down the drive, and swung out onto Bridge Road.
Back home, Mum said, “What’s up with you? You look ruffled.”
“I had to deliver to Wildings. I saw Ralph.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing. Well – he tried to speak to me but I rode off.”
Mum began laying the table for dinner. “Oh,” she said.
Lennie rounded on her. “You don’t expect me to speak to him, do you?”
“It depends what you want.”
“I don’t want anything to do with him.”
And yet Lennie knew that wasn’t true. He was angry with Ralph, and hurt, but—
“Mary says I should never have got mixed up with him,” he said. “She says the nobs are not like us; they’re all cheats and liars. She says they don’t have any real feelings; they make use of people like us. That’s what she says.”
“Mary’s young,” said Mum. “She doesn’t know everything.”
“What doesn’t she know?”
Tell me, he implored her silently; tell me it wasn’t really like that.
Mum said, “Perhaps you should look at it from Ralph’s point of view. His father is such a hard, righteous, upright man. And Ralph is afraid of him – you saw that. That’s why he let you down, because he was so afraid of his father, not because he didn’t care about you. He did care. He does.”
“But I wouldn’t have done it to him, no matter how afraid I was!” Lennie exclaimed. “I couldn’t have.”
“I know that,” said Mum. “But Ralph isn’t you. People are different. It’s harder for him.”
Lennie didn’t reply, but he felt comforted for the first time since that dreadful day.
And later, on Hazeley Common with Martin, watching the two flocks of pigeons mingle, separate, and fly off towards Culverton, he thought again of Ralph. He remembered the games they had played, the secret codes, the cigarettes they had shared.
Mum had said, “Perhaps you should look at it from Ralph’s point of view.” How did Ralph feel now? Guilty, unforgiven, left behind in the dark of winter?
Lennie still had the scrap of paper with Ralph’s school address on it that had been tucked under Blue Cloud’s ring. It was the only thing he’d kept. “Write to me,” Ralph had said.
Perhaps I will, Lennie thought.
Not today. Not yet. He wasn’t ready yet. But one day, perhaps quite soon, he would.
Books from Ann Turnbull:
Pigeon Summer
No Friend of Mine
Room for a Stranger
No Shame, No Fear
Forged in the Fire
Seeking Eden
PIGEON SUMMER
It is 1930, the height of the Great Depression. Mary Dyer’s father has left home in search of work, leaving his beloved racing pigeons in Mary’s care – much to her mother’s disapproval. During that long, hard summer there is barely enough money for bread, let alone pigeon feed, yet Mary clings to her dreams of racing glory, propelling her into ever deeper conflict with her mother.
Shortlisted for the 1992 Smarties Book Prize and the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award, as well as being dramatized for TV.
“A wonderfully moving story… I would recommend it to anyone” Independent on Sunday
“Buoyant, direct and unsentimental” Guardian
NO FRIEND OF MINE
In the mining town of Culverton, workers are clashing with their bosses. Lennie’s father is the Union secretary, a “troublemaker”. Ralph’s father is the boss, despised by his workers. Despite their very different backgrounds, Lennie and Ralph strike up a friendship, a happy escape from their own and their families’ troubles. But how strong is their alliance – really? While his dad fights injustice at the mine, Lennie finds that he too must battle prejudice, lies and betrayal, pushing his friendship with Ralph swiftly towards breaking point.
“A brilliant book which should be at the top of every 9 to 12 year old’s reading list”
Sunday Telegraph
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br /> ROOM FOR A STRANGER
When her older sisters leave home, Doreen gets a room of her own – at last! But it’s 1941, the cities are threatened by Nazi air raids and, to Doreen’s dismay, Mum has decided to take in an evacuee. Rhoda Kelly is a year older than Doreen, has a boyfriend in the Army and, worse still, is a talented singer. Forced to share a room – and the limelight – tensions grow between the two girls, erupting finally into bitter conflict, with potentially tragic consequences.
“The sharply drawn wartime poverty will thrill readers of nine and up”
The Times
“A lovely book for ten year olds plus”
Sunday Telegraph
NO SHAME, NO FEAR
1662. England is reeling from the after-effects of civil war, with its clashes of faith and culture. Seventeen-year-old Will returns home after completing his studies, to begin an apprenticeship arranged by his wealthy father. Susanna, a young Quaker girl, leaves her family to become a servant in the same town. Theirs is a story that speaks across the centuries, telling of love and the struggle to stay true to what is most important – in spite of parents, society and even the law. But is the love between Will and Susanna strong enough to survive – no matter what?
Shortlisted for the Whitbread Book Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize
“Here is a novel that needs a trumpet to be blown for it… Exact and elegant language takes you to the heart of each character’s feeling” The Guardian
“Frequently moving and unwaveringly honest”
Carousel
FORGED IN THE FIRE
London 1665–66. With the plague raging and the scent of smoke upon the wind, Will and Susanna, separated by class and distance, struggle to reunite. Will has become a Quaker and broken with his father. Leaving Susanna behind in Shropshire, he travels to London, swearing to send for her once he is settled. But Will is arrested and thrown in gaol for standing up for his beliefs. This, along with the rapidly spreading plague and a dire misunderstanding, conspire to keep the lovers apart…
SEEKING EDEN
1683. Inspired by William Penn’s vision of a Quaker colony and hoping to be free of the persecution they suffered in England, Will and Susanna Heywood have settled in Pennsylvania. Their son Josiah has found his own freedom, and adventure, in the employment of merchant George Bainbrigg, whose daughter, Kate, he has fallen in love with. It is only when the three travel to Barbados that Josiah learns the true nature of Bainbrigg’s work… and a painful struggle to uphold his beliefs begins.
Praise for No Friend of Mine
“A brilliant book which should be at the top of every 9 to 12 year old’s reading list.”
Sunday Telegraph
“A masterly book”
School Librarian
“Turnbull examines the class conflict from both sides, rigorously but without preaching. The material differences between the boys are picked out in revealing details.”
Geraldine Brennan, TES
“A thought-provoking and realistic read”
School Library Journal, US
“This fine historical novel evokes the time and place with spare detail. The class conflict is a burning reality… just as strong is the personal struggle with friends and enemies.”
Hazel Rochman, Booklist, US
“[Turnbull] has a clear and lively style… While the book’s atmosphere is true to its time, its perennially relevant themes of relations between the haves and have-nots and the difficulties of flawed friendship make it appealing to fans of contemporary dramas as well as historical fiction.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, US
Ann Turnbull grew up in south-east London but now lives in Shropshire. She has always loved reading and knew from the age of ten that she wanted to be an author. Her numerous books for children include Alice in Love and War, A Long Way Home and House of Ghosts, as well as her Quaker trilogy – No Shame, No Fear (shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Book Award and Whitbread Award) Forged in the Fire and Seeking Eden. For younger children, she has also written Greek Myths, illustrated by Sarah Young.
Local history was the inspiration behind the powerful and poignant trilogy of books about a mining family, the Dyers. Pigeon Summer, No Friend of Mine and Room For a Stranger follow the family and its fortunes from 1930 through to the early years of the Second World War. Pigeon Summer has been dramatized for TV and radio as well as being shortlisted for the Smarties Book Prize and the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award.
Find out more about Ann Turnbull and her books at annturnbull.com.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
First published by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
This edition published 2013
© 1994 Ann Turnbull
Cover illustration © 1996 Jean-Paul Tibbies
The right of Ann Turnbull to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieveal system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-4063-5107-1 (ePub)
www.walker.co.uk
