He wondered what to do. He didnʼt want to stay in the garden, but he did not want to take the girl back to the scruffy classroom either as he was truly worried that she might faint, stuck in her bodice as she was. By no means, he wanted to be the reason for her feeling unwell.
“Well, perhaps you should go back to your room and have a little rest, Miss Sarah. We can continue tomorrow,” he mumbled disappointedly. In fact, he was not only disappointed but rather annoyed. He found that it should have been his turn now to get his own share of quality time with Sarah; after all, Damian had been allowed to spend the whole weekend with her. But he guessed that obviously it wasnʼt meant to be.
Suddenly, Sarahʼs face lit up.
“Our garden is big,” she said. “I actually know a good place where we could go, a little bit further away from them.”
She scornfully nodded her head over to the women who were currently struggling to chase away some obtrusive blackbirds, who had come flying and were now picking at the hems of the delicate linen.
There was a certain twinkle in Sarahʼs eyes, showing her determination to pull Henryʼs idea of ʻoutdoor lessonsʼ through. She most definitely didnʼt appear as if she was in the mood to return to her room and to quit class altogether that day.
“Why not?” Henry said happily in response to her suggestion. From his afternoon strolls, he knew that the garden was huge and offered several nice spots where they would be able to sit and learn without being disturbed by anyone. He was thrilled at the thought that Sarah might know a slightly more secluded place, maybe somewhere in the back recessions of the garden, where they could continue having fun and even flirt a little bit.
Just that they didnʼt stay in the garden.
When Henry followed Sarah, he noticed to his puzzlement that she walked all the way around the mansion and towards one of the gates which led out of the garden. There he spotted a narrow pathway that disappeared deep into the forest.
Henry hesitated.
“Miss Sarah, I am not sure if this is such a good idea...” he mumbled, torn between his duty as a teacher, which would have meant to interfere and hold Sarah back, and his urge to give in to the sweet temptation of following her into the solitary woods.
“Why? Are you afraid of the forest?” Sarah sniggered.
“Of course not,” Henry gave back. “It is just...”
“What?” Sarahʼs chuckling ebbed and she looked a little sad.
For a moment, Henry pensively stared at the girl who had already opened the gate and was in the process of stepping outside. She was looking at him expectantly, her eyes sparkling with hope.
And with a quick, slightly nervous backward glance, he walked after her and through the gate.
They didnʼt get very far, though.
“Mr. Abbott!? Sarah!?” Henry suddenly heard Lady Partridgeʼs shrill voice behind him, which made him startle.
Damn it... he thought angrily.
“Where are you going?” the lady asked, appearing puzzled.
“It is alright,” Sarah called over to her, entirely unmoved by the lie which was to follow. “Mr. Abbott decided to transfer Biology lessons into the open today. He wants to show me some plants and trees. We can barely do that in the classroom, can we?”
Henry had no recollection whatsoever of having announced that he would hold Biology lessons with Sarah; especially not in the open. Still, he saw no alternative than to play along with her. Reassuringly, he nodded over to Lady Partridge, who asked in wonder, “Do you not have sketches of them in your books?”
“Yes, but it is not the same,” Sarah replied before turning to Henry again. “Isnʼt that right, Mr. Abbott?”
“Oh, right, yes, it is not the same, no…” Henry stammered nervously.
Lady Partridgeʼs glance fell on the school books in his hands, and Henry guessed that the poor fooled woman came to the conclusion that she was about to intrude on some modern ways of teaching which she didnʼt understand and better not questioned.
“Well, right then... Do not go too far, though,” she finally mumbled, turned around and rushed back to the laundry chaos, which was in the process of getting completely out of control judging by the hysterical screams which could be heard coming from the front yard.
Do not go too far.
Henry feared that he could not guarantee for that once he was entirely alone with Sarah.
* * *
As soon as they set foot on forest ground, Sarah noticeably livened up. Her eyes were sparkling and her face acquired a healthy color again. There was even a little smile playing over her lips.
Pleasant coolness surrounded them the deeper they ventured into the woods. The tall trees stood so close together that only a few glimpses of sunlight managed to penetrate the thick foliage of the treetops. It was exceptionally quiet except for the twitter of a few birds and the sound of Henryʼs and Sarahʼs footsteps on the ground as they were treading on little twigs and leaves.
“Would you like me to tell you where I got the flower from that fell out of my book the other day?” Sarah asked after having quietly walked next to Henry for a while, her books pressed to her chest as if she wanted to protect herself. Henry could sense that despite her obvious joy about their little excursion, the fact that she was all alone with him in the forest made her shy and insecure.
“If you feel like telling me,” Henry replied, happy that she wanted to let him in on some secrets of hers, as he took this as a sign of her growing trust in him.
“I do feel like telling you,” Sarah answered. She plucked a berry from a raspberry bush and stuck it into her mouth.
“I got it from my mother,” she added, chewing away on the berry. “My father sent it to her from Austria. Priscilla, I mean, Lady Partridge, is not my real mother, you know? She is just my aunt. And Horatio is my uncle.”
“Oh, are they?” Henry tried his best to sound as if this piece of information was entirely new to him. Deep inside, though, he felt like a liar as he pretended to be entirely ignorant. After all, Oscar had already told him everything. But he knew he would feel equally like a liar towards Oscar if he broke his promise to keep quiet about the conversation which they had had on the train. Hoping that Sarah would not expect him to comment on her words in any way, he preferred not to comment on them at all.
“Would you like to see where my real mother is?” Sarah asked, saving him from his misery.
Henry nodded quietly.
To his surprise, Sarah suddenly took a sharp left turn and led him even deeper into the forest. He wondered if they would ever find their way back home again. All the trees had begun to look the same to him, and the path they had initially walked on was entirely covered by vegetation in this part of the forest and was by now far from being recognizable.
After about five minutes, they arrived at a small fenced-in site. Upon coming closer, Henry noticed to his surprise that it was a little graveyard which appeared rather neglected, overgrown with wildflowers and shrubs as it was.
Sarah placed her books on the ground next to the entrance, opened the rusty, creaking gate which led inside the cemetery, and slipped through it. Henry followed her as she was crossing the yard until they reached the far end of it. There, unobtrusively nestled in the corner, was a very small grave with a withered wooden cross in which somebody had carved the name ʼMelissa Farringworthʼ in simple, scrawled letters. Judging by its size, Henry gathered that the grave carried an urn.
“Is she the woman that I saw on one of your drawings?” Henry asked carefully.
Sarah nodded quietly. Then she bent down to remove some leaves which had fallen down on the grave and some moss which had started to grow all around it. Henry noticed that Melissa Farringworthʼs grave was the only one which appeared somewhat looked after amidst the wilderness around it, and he guessed that this was due to Sarahʼs intensive care alone as he could not imagine that anybody else ever ventured to this place. All the other graves seemed to belong to people who had died more than a centu
ry ago, with no surviving relatives left to remember them.
“I am sorry that she is dead,” Henry said.
“This is a very old graveyard, you know,” Sarah explained matter-of-factly, ignoring his words of sympathy. “It has not been used for ages, because the official one for the villagers is in Oxford town. But Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Horatio did not like my mother very much and found that this place would be as good as anything; after all, the council does not charge any fees for it. But I am actually quite glad that my mother is here because it is so close to home. So I can come and visit her every day. As for my real father, I do not know where he is. After my mother died and I moved to the mansion, he stopped writing to me. Or maybe Uncle Horatio threw his letters away, I do not know…”
“Are you implying that you come here on a regular basis?” Henry asked when Sarah had finished cleaning the grave and wiped the soil off of her hands with a handkerchief.
“Of course,” she replied, casting him an uncomprehending look.
“I mean, do you not think it is a little bit dangerous for a young girl like you to be all alone in the forest?”
“Only when Uncle Horatio and his hunting mates are around. They tend to shoot at anything that moves,” Sarah scoffed.
She picked her books up from the ground, then they slipped back through the entrance gate and left the cemetery.
“Apart from that, this forest is a safe and peaceful place,” Sarah added. “I have never felt in danger here. The animals do not cause me any harm because they know that I love and respect them.”
Henry frowned at what he found was a pretty unhealthy level of naïvety. After all, animals were not necessarily the only predators which could be found in dark forests. And not all animals cared if a human being loved them.
Suddenly, something rustled in the undergrowth.
“Shh...” Sarah indicated Henry to be quiet and not to move. She pointed her finger over to the thicket in the distance, but Henry couldnʼt see anything. All he noticed was that his heart was beating faster when Sarah placed her hand on his arm and inched closer to him. Her hair brushed his shoulder. He found this sensation electrifying.
“They are more afraid of us, you see?” she whispered next to his ear. Then he saw it: a young roe deer. It didnʼt seem to notice that Henry and Sarah were secretly observing it as it was happily munching away at some leaves of a tree.
After a little while, it slowly walked away.
To Henryʼs disappointment, Sarahʼs hand let go of his arm again.
“When I see that my uncle aims at one of them, I let out a loud yell. Then they get scared and run away,” Sarah explained as they continued their walk through the forest. All of a sudden, she stretched out her arms and closed her eyes, a wide and carefree smile spreading across her face. She deeply inhaled the cool air, then she opened her eyes again, hopped onto a nearby tree trunk which had fallen down and lay horizontally on the ground, and began to balance on it.
She appeared so gleeful and carefree that it seemed to Henry that the whole world was nothing but a playground for her, as long as that world lay beyond the walls of Partridge Mansion.
He was walking next to her, ready to catch her in case she fell, and could hardly believe his luck when it actually happened: she began to sway, then stumbled, and finally fell—straight into his arms.
Utter surprise and secret fascination lay in her eyes as she was clinging to his shoulders. Henry noticed how incredibly light she felt in his embrace and how her sweet scent filled his nose and dazzled his brain.
For a moment, they were just staring at each other, both puzzled by the unexpected body contact. Sarahʼs face was frighteningly close to his, her lips slightly parted, her eyes fixed on his mouth.
I could kiss her now... Henry thought, his heart hammering with an almost unbearable force in his chest. But even though the occasion was incredibly unique, he didnʼt dare as Sarah was suddenly falling right back into her shyness again.
“I really should not dash about like that, should I?” she laughed nervously and blushed. “You must really teach me some manners, Mr. Abbott.”
Reluctantly, Henry let go of her. Her hands slowly slipped off his shoulders as she tried to regain her posture.
Henry was unable to speak. He was still dazed by the fact that her body had been so close to his and how nice it had felt to hold her in his arms.
“Come, let us go to my favorite place now,” Sarah said merrily. “I must learn something, or else I will be as daft as a piece of toast.”
And as if he was under the influence of an unbreakable spell, Henry followed her like a stupid sheep in the herd.
* * *
It seemed to Henry that Sarah knew the forest by heart. While he had long ago lost his bearings, she was dancing through the woods like a fairy queen, humming a little tune, and every now and then turning around to see if Henry was following her. And when she saw that he still was there, she cast him such a sweet and charming smile that it made his head spin and his heart jump excitedly in his chest.
Eventually, they reached a clearing.
“We are almost there,” Sarah said and stepped out of the dark forest and into the sun.
The next moment, Henry found himself on a large meadow, overgrown with marguerites, yarrow, and purple lilies. It was quiet and peaceful here, and a gentle breeze cooled the otherwise sizzling air. The far end of the meadow was marked by the shores of a small lake, lined by reed and willow trees.
Sarah bent to pick some flowers., and as she did so, she was surrounded by swarms of bees and butterflies who were busy with their love play. Then she walked over to the waterʼs edge, her gaze lost in the distance. The slight wind got hold of her hair and played with her chestnut curls.
Like a painting... Henry thought mesmerized as he was quietly watching her. He sat down in the shade of one of the willow trees, unable to turn his eyes away from Sarah.
Just as if she had sensed Henryʼs gaze on her, she turned her head to look at him, and when she saw him sitting under the tree, she walked over to him and sat down on the grass next to him, carefully placing the flowers, which she had picked, on the ground.
“Do you like it here?” she asked.
“I find it absolutely magnificent,” Henry whispered.
“It is my favorite place,” Sarah added. Then she took her history book and flicked the page open where they had stopped reading before they had left the classroom.
Henry suddenly felt overwhelmed with a feeling of immense contentedness. Completely at ease with himself and the whole world around him, he made himself comfortable by lying back on the grass while listening to Sarah as she continued citing the names of the kings.
“Henry IIIʼs successor to the throne were Henry I, Henry II and Henry III. And then there was King Paul.”
Suddenly, she stopped.
“You are sleeping and not paying attention at all,” Henry heard her say, a slightly reproachful tone to her voice.
“I am paying attention...” he mumbled drowsily.
“If you were, why didnʼt you correct me then when I said that Henryʼs successor was King Paul when it was in fact Richard II?”
Henry blinked at her with one eye. He wanted to see her face when she blushed; and he was certain she would turn red in response to his words which were about to follow.
“I did not want to interrupt you as I like the sound of your voice so much,” he said softly.
Blushing.
“And I adore the way you blush...”
More blushing.
Henry couldnʼt suppress a grin because of his little teasing game. After all, she had teased him, too. He could have said even more things to her which would have made her blush so much that her face would have never gone back to its normal complexion again. But he didnʼt want to scare her, as he had by now learned that what lay hidden behind Sarahʼs wild and cheeky nature was indeed a highly sensitive and shy girl that played with fire without knowing how to handle that
fire once it was kindled.
“Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI,” Sarah continued nervously, desperately trying to keep her calm. Henry sensed that his blunt remarks had deeply unsettled her.
Then, all of a sudden, she stopped citing again, closed her book and put it aside. Knowing that she was quite impulsive, Henry momentarily worried that he might have unsettled her a little bit too much and that she would get up and leave.
But she did not leave. To Henryʼs utter surprise she lay down next to him instead and began to watch the clouds which were passing above their heads.
“Have you ever noticed that no cloud ever looks like the other?” she whispered.
Henry & Sarah Page 15
