The Boy with No Boots

by Sheila Jeffries

  ‘ETHELDRA.’ Her mother’s voice boomed like a foghorn when there was a crisis. Even the chickens froze, and the two farm dogs slunk away and lay shivering against a wall. Sally only called her oldest daughter by her full name – Etheldra – if she was extremely displeased. ‘Get a hold of yourself,’ she thundered, ‘your father is ILL, and we have to get Kate to school. Pick up that halter.’

  Begrudgingly Ethie did as she was told, her face dark as a Victoria plum.

  ‘I can catch Polly,’ said Kate.

  ‘Not in your uniform please,’ objected Sally, her voice back to normal.

  ‘I won’t get it dirty, Mummy. It’ll be all right.’

  Kate took the halter from Ethie’s angry red fist.

  ‘Don’t worry, Ethie, I’ve caught Polly lots of times,’ she said, picking up a fallen apple from the garden.

  When Polly saw Kate coming into the field she turned into a different pony. She trotted over to Kate, making whickering noises in greeting, then she took the apple and stood placidly while Kate slipped the halter over her head.

  ‘Oh, well done. That’s my girl,’ said Sally, but Ethie refused to look pleased. Her temper had set in for the day, like a weather front. She glowered and muttered as they led Polly over to the cart. The three of them harnessed her up between them, buckling straps and organising the cart in silence. Only Kate talked, nonstop, to the pony, and Polly flicked her ears back to listen. Kate ran her hand down the pony’s sleek forelegs and inspected the neat little hooves.

  ‘Kate, your UNIFORM,’ protested Sally. ‘It’s already covered in hairs, and you can’t start school smelling like a horse.’

  Kate giggled, and Ethie’s frown wavered for a second as she caught her sister’s mischievous eyes.

  ‘Don’t START,’ said Ethie, rolling her eyes and tutting.

  Kate had lifted up Polly’s near foreleg. ‘She’s got a shoe loose.’

  ‘Oh lor,’ said Sally. ‘How bad is it?’

  ‘One of the nails is up.’ Kate fiddled with the metal shoe. ‘She ought not to go on it, Mummy.’

  ‘We can’t bother about it now,’ said Sally, ‘just hope for the best.’ She handed Ethie a watch on a chain. ‘It’s nearly half past nine. You’ll have to drive hard to get there. But be careful, Ethie, don’t get reckless, especially in Monterose with all those motorcars they’ve got now. And just remember, Polly might be frightened by the trains. Get there early and move her away before it arrives.’

  Kate turned to say goodbye to her mother, looked searchingly into her eyes, and there was a moment when both of them almost cried.

  ‘Don’t you worry – Daddy will get better,’ said Sally. ‘You just keep your chin up, Kate.’

  ‘Will you COME ON, Kate.’ Ethie was up in the cart, the reins in her hand, a tall whip propped in its slot beside her. The sun beat down on her face, her pimples itched annoyingly and her hair stuck to the back of her neck. She felt as if an over-tuned engine was hammering away inside her, and that she, not Polly, was the one being driven.

  Impatient to start, Polly set off at a furious trot, the high wheels of the cart bumping over the stony driveway. Kate sat facing backwards, drinking in her last look at Hilbegut Farm, waving as her mother got smaller and smaller. The two stone lions stared sightlessly after them as they sped into the distance towards Monterose.

  Freddie was earning lots of money. He was amazed to see the St Christopher’s girls turning up at the station in their grey and scarlet uniforms, arriving in a variety of motorcars and horse-drawn carts. He ran to carry their luggage, mostly brown leather suitcases with names on the lid and hard knobs at each corner which bruised his shins mercilessly. The girls intrigued him. Neat plaits and clean pink faces, so different from the ratty-tatty bunch he saw at school. Their voices were different too. Ringing and confident. Except for a few who looked apprehensive and timid, and one who was sobbing relentlessly.

  They were arriving early, so Freddie had plenty of opportunities, even a queue waiting for him. Time after time he carried cases over the cream and brown footbridge with girls who smelled of mothballs and soap, padding beside him in polished shoes. One tiny blonde girl was terrified of walking over the bridge where she could see the gleaming railway below through cracks between the boards. Her distraught mother was trying to drag her.

  ‘I’ll take her,’ said Freddie, sensing the child’s genuine terror. Remembering the times he had coaxed Annie a step at a time, he used those tactics now, holding the child’s icy little hands and making her look at his eyes as he talked her over the bridge. Then he squatted down and looked into her face. ‘When you come back,’ he said, ‘I’ll be here again to help you, you needn’t be afraid. My name’s Freddie. All right?’ The child nodded gratefully, her big eyes shining under the new oversized hat.

  ‘You’re a very special young man.’ Her mother, draped in fox furs and an immaculate cream suit, looked at Freddie approvingly. She opened her heavy pigskin handbag, took out a coin that flashed in the sun, and pressed it into his hand. A florin! Two whole shillings. He’d never had one before.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘My pleasure. And the name is Joan Jarvis.’

  The platform was now crowded with children and their parents. The man in the signal box pulled a lever with both hands, and the red and white signal clunked down. A train whistle screeched through the cutting and from the top of the bridge Freddie could see puffs of steam rising from the hills. Charlie pounded over the bridge, a rolled-up green flag in his hand.

  ‘Be glad to see this lot off,’ he winked at Freddie. ‘Spoilt little madams, ain’t ’em?’

  Freddie leaned on the bridge to wait for the train, while he tied the precious florin into his hanky, which was now so full of money it weighed his pocket down like a stone. He relished the anticipation of counting it and hiding it under the floorboards.

  Then he heard a terrible sound.

  The clatter of hooves on the road, the banging of wheels. And screaming. Everyone seemed to be screaming.

  ‘Look out. Stand back.’

  ‘Out of the way.’

  ‘Stop that pony.’

  Freddie bounded down the stairs two at a time and out of the station gate, the nerves twanging in his stomach. It was Annie’s story, for real. A horse and cart bolting through a crowded street, people screaming, barrows overturning.

  It was quick, and yet the moments seemed ponderously slow to Freddie. With his hand over his mouth, he watched in horror as a pony came galloping wildly, sweat flying from its flanks, foam and blood around its mouth. The cart was bouncing and zig-zagging, and driving it was a girl with dripping wet hair and a face contorted with rage. She wasn’t trying to stop the pony, she was thrashing the reins up and down. Words of fury spouted from her mouth as if she was a gargoyle.

  Clinging with both hands to the sides of the cart was a girl in a scarlet and grey uniform, her plaits flying.

  ‘Stop! Stop!’ people were shouting.

  ‘Whoa now. Whoa Polly.’ Ethie hauled on the reins and Polly slid to a halt, her flanks heaving. Ethie turned and shouted. ‘Get out. Now. The train’s coming.’

  Freddie strode forward to help, and as he did so the train surged noisily into the station. He saw the younger girl trying to stand up from where she’d been clinging. Then the pony saw the train. Terrified, she wheeled around in a panic, the cart was hurled onto its side and both girls were flung into the air.

  Ethie landed on the grass bank and quickly rolled over and sat up. But the girl in the St Christopher’s uniform landed on the road with a sickening crack, and lay still.

  A man in a cap moved forward to calm the plunging pony who was trying to drag the twisted wreckage of the cart. The train hissed as it pulled into the station, and a terrible silence descended over the scene.

  Freddie reached the girl in a few strides. He picked up her hat from the road and knelt down beside her. She was motionless, her eyes tightly closed, her face peaceful. He remembered Granny
Barcussy, how she had looked when he’d found her dead, how her shining aura had gone. This beautiful young girl wasn’t dead, he knew that. She was in a cocoon of golden light, and only Freddie could see it.

  But she was badly hurt, and deeply unconscious. Blood was oozing in a dark pool across the road, soaking into the dust around her head. Freddie touched her arm and she felt hot and limp. He was aware of the people crowding round her, someone shouting and shouting for a doctor. He looked into the shocked eyes of the girl who had been driving the pony, and her skin was deathly white and blotchy, her lips still with terror.

  ‘She’s not dead,’ said Freddie.

  He glanced at the girl’s suitcase lying nearby, and read the name embossed in white letters on the lid.

  MISS ORIOLE KATE LOXLEY

  HILBEGUT FARM

  Hilbegut Farm! The stone lions. The girl on the Shire horse. It was her. Oriole Kate Loxley.

  Chapter Nine

  THE BONDING

  The ten-thirty train steamed out of Monterose station with its precious cargo of children leaning out of the windows, waving to their parents. The atmosphere simmered with emotion, as parents craned on the edge of the platform to catch a last glimpse of the departing train. Hearing a shout, they turned to see Charlie thundering down the steps.

  ‘Is there a doctor here? Or a Red Cross nurse?’ he shouted. ‘There’s been a terrible accident – a little girl. Is there anyone who can help?’

  The lady with the fox furs stepped forward.

  ‘I’m Joan Jarvis and I was a Red Cross nurse,’ she said. ‘And I have a motorcar here if she needs to go to hospital.’

  ‘Come quickly, then. Quickly.’

  A crowd had gathered around Kate, and Freddie was in the middle of it. In the moments before help arrived, he knelt close to Kate, hoping that somehow his presence might comfort her. He didn’t know many prayers, so he made one up, saying it over and over in his mind. And he memorised every detail of Kate’s face. To him she looked like a beautiful rose petal that had fallen there, her skin translucent, her lips a peachy pink, her eyelashes dark curling silks. She had high cheekbones, a softly rounded chin, and her nose, Freddie thought, was aristocratic, her nostrils like two perfect little shells. On her left temple was a small mole, and on her neck a tiny pink scar like a crescent moon.

  Freddie had never been that close to a beautiful girl. Oblivious to everyone around him he committed her face to memory so that he could keep her image with him forever. It seemed like the longest and most fruitful moment of his life.

  Clasping her hand between his two rough palms, he sensed the subtle vibration that was uniquely hers, singing to him like the harmonics from a bell, those rhythmic sound waves that rippled out and out until they were gone but not lost. He hoped his own hands were transferring a stream of his energy and strength into her. This mysterious healing force was something Freddie had experienced himself, from his mother’s hand touching him when he was ill or hurt.

  Watching Kate, through those eternal moments, he felt he was floating beside her, in a place of shining light, a sanctuary where there was no pain, no fear but only peace.

  The noise of voices and running feet brought Freddie out of his trance unpleasantly like gravel spattering into his mind. Still holding Kate’s hand, he kept his gaze focused on her face, watching her skin becoming paler and paler, the stillness deepening. He felt he was watching an angel, an angel slowly turning to stone.

  ‘Move aside. Move back. Give her some air.’ Charlie’s voice was loud and rasp-like. ‘This lady’s a Red Cross nurse. Come on. Move back PLEASE.’

  Freddie looked up then, into the coal-dark eyes of Ethie who was kneeling on the other side of Kate, and he saw straight into her frightened soul where guilt, frustration and terror were huddled together.

  ‘Now then. I’m Joan. Let’s have a look at the poor girl.’

  The fox-fur lady was puffing and blowing from her run across the footbridge. She took off her hat, and the fox furs fell to the ground in a slinky russet-coloured heap.

  ‘Here, kneel on this, madam.’ Charlie took off his coat and put it on the ground for her.

  ‘Joan,’ she said firmly. ‘And put the coat over her, she’s getting cold. Let go of her hands now, please.’ She turned to Freddie. ‘Ah – you again – you stay here, will you? I might need your help.’

  ‘I’m Kate’s sister,’ said Ethie loudly. ‘That boy’s nothing to do with her,’ and she narrowed her eyes at Freddie.

  ‘Are you, dear? Now don’t you worry. It always looks worse than it is,’ said Joan. She smiled kindly at Ethie and gave her a little pat on the shoulder, a gesture which became a potent spark of love, igniting Ethie into an explosion of sobbing.

  ‘Can someone look after her, please?’ Joan appealed, and a buxom woman in a brown and white gingham dress stepped forward and led the sobbing Ethie away. She sat her down on the grassy bank and let her cry, holding her in both arms.

  Ethie’s sobs were peripheral to what was happening to Kate. Joan had checked her pulse and breathing, and was gently stroking her face.

  ‘What’s her name?’ she asked Freddie.

  ‘Miss Oriole Kate Loxley,’ he said. ‘From Hilbegut Farm – but I think they call her Kate, her sister did.’

  ‘Come on, Kate.’ Joan was gently tapping the child’s cheek which was now ivory pale. ‘She’s deeply unconscious.’

  ‘Cracked ’er ’ead,’ said someone. ‘’Ell of a crack it were.’

  ‘She must not be moved,’ Joan said. ‘She might have broken her neck, or her back. We must get her to hospital.’

  Freddie was horrified. He began to go pale himself at the thought of the serious injuries Kate might have. He felt nauseous and giddy.

  ‘You stay calm, lad,’ said Joan, noting his white face. ‘You’re doing really well, Freddie. Are you her brother?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Just take some deep breaths.’

  Freddie sat back, determined he wasn’t going to pass out, and he didn’t. The feeling passed. He felt detached from Kate now, the image of her forever imprinted on his soul. There seemed to be little he could do to help her, except sit there and pray his prayer.

  The shrill jangle of a bell announced the arrival of an old Model T ambulance with a red cross painted on it. Everyone moved aside to allow it free passage down the street. In a daze, Freddie watched the driver and his crew of one nurse in a starched white hat. They brought a stretcher and carefully manoeuvred Kate onto it, immobilising her neck with big pads of brown leather. She didn’t stir at all.

  ‘Like the Sleeping Beauty, ain’t she?’ said Charlie who still had his rolled-up green flag in one hand.

  ‘Someone should go with her,’ said Joan, looking at Freddie.

  ‘Her sister,’ he said.

  ‘She’s in a bit of a state. Of course she is.’ The motherly woman in brown gingham brought Ethie over to the ambulance. ‘I’m Gladys,’ she said, ‘I’ll go along with both of them. Someone’s got to see to the pony. She’s worried about it.’

  And Freddie heard himself saying, ‘I’ll do that. I know where Hilbegut Farm is. I can lead the pony home.’

  ‘She’s called Polly,’ said Ethie.

  ‘I’ll go ahead of you in my motorcar, and explain everything,’ Joan offered. ‘I know the way.’

  Joan brushed herself down, and Freddie gingerly picked up the fox fur and handed it to her. They both stared after the ambulance as it revved and roared up the station road with Kate inside, its bell ringing urgently. Freddie felt as if his whole life had been turned upside down and shaken violently, displacing his usual codes of behaviour.

  ‘You’re a very helpful young man, Freddie,’ said Joan. ‘I wish you were my son.’

  With those encouraging words ringing in his ears, Freddie then found himself being given Polly’s reins to hold. He’d never led a horse in his life but he tried to act as if he was used to it. Polly had been caught and disentangled from the cart, she’d
had a rest and was munching grass from the bank.

  ‘Take her gently,’ advised the man who had caught her. ‘She’s very shaken, and a bit lame. It was a disgraceful way to treat a pony. I shall be lodging a complaint to that girl’s parents. Headstrong young hussy.’

  ‘What about the cart?’ asked Freddie, eyeing the wreckage lying on the side of the road. One wheel had come off and was propped against a wall. ‘I could get the wheelwright to fix it.’

  ‘We’ll do that,’ said the man. ‘You go on, ’tis a long walk to Hilbegut.’

  Freddie set out awkwardly, surprised to find Polly walking meekly beside him. He remembered how Kate had been talking to the Shire horse, so he thought he would try it. What should he say? He wasn’t used to talking non-stop the way Kate did, and he felt embarrassed. So he waited until they were out in the country and then started on ‘Innisfree’ and a few other poems he knew. Polly seemed to enjoy them. She flicked her ears and gave him a gentle nudge with her soft nose. He walked with his hand on the crest of her mane, scratching her gently, and he began to enjoy her company.

  It was six miles to the village of Hilbegut, through beautiful countryside that Freddie knew well. Across the Levels, over the river bridge and through the peat-cutting fields where the ‘ruckles’ of cut peat stood in the hazy sun like a prehistoric village. Then through the withies, tall forests of willow stems shimmering red and gold, reflecting in the water. A pair of bitterns fishing, and vast flocks of lapwing with their strange wobbly flight that made their wings twinkle against the sky. The September meadows were full of the seed heads of knapweed, sorrel and thistle.

  After the years in town, cooped up in the bakery, stuck all day in school, the walk into his old haunts was an unexpected delight for Freddie. He saw people working in the fields, cutting peat or bundling willow and it felt good to nod and touch his cap as he passed by, feeling proud to be leading Polly. He stopped by a stone water trough to let her have a drink, amused by the way she stuck her face in and sucked noisily at the water, then shook herself all over sending bright drops flying out.