The Mind's Eye (20 page)
Authors: K.C. Finn
Tags: #young adult, #historical, #wwii, #historical romance, #ww2, #ya, #europe, #telepathic, #clean teen publishing, #kc finn
nothing, finding it hard to focus on my balance at the same time as
her words.
“
Steven’s told me that you know about us,” Blod said, her low
tone suggesting that she would even be afraid for the clouds to
hear us talking, “I don’t want to know how you worked it out; I
‘spect you see a lot just sitting in that chair when no-one’s
looking at you.”
given Blod any credit for thinking about me as a person rather than
a hindrance and that annoying urge to feel sorry for her was slowly
returning as I carried on my snail-pace trek.
“
But he went mad at me in the kitchen last night,” Blod
continued, “He’s worried that if you worked it out then I must be
giving off hints or something. He’s got a rotten
temper.”
“
Well so have you,” I muttered, instantly regretting that I’d
let the comment slip.
Blod gave off a tiny laugh. “Well yeah, he wound me up all right. I
slapped him in the face actually. Just a bit, you know, but it left
a mark and that’s why he had to go home.”
“
That’s one way to get rid of him,” I supposed. Blod laughed
again, this time brighter still. “Personally,” I said gingerly, “I
don’t know why you ever got involved with him in the first place.
Did he used to be nicer?”
“
Oh God no,” Blod answered with a half-smile, “He’s always
been moody. When he first came to the village all the girls fancied
him, thought he was mysterious, you know?” I was surprised to feel
her holding my shoulder steady as I struggled on towards the tree.
“But most of them got fed up after a while; he was too
temperamental for them. But not for me.”
believe it. Bickerstaff had the same hot-headedness as Blod, the
same selective deafness, even the same wicked smirk when he knew he
was in the right about things. They were peas in a pod, no
mistaking it.
“
The problem was I lied to him, see, about my age,” Blod said,
her golden hair falling down so I couldn’t see her face, “Nine
years is a big age gap, init? I thought if I added a couple of
years on, he might be interested in me.”
“
And clearly he was,” I added awkwardly, “What I don’t
understand is how it all went so wrong after… well, when you found
out you were having Ness.”
“
Steven wanted to do it all proper like,” Blod explained,
“Especially when I told him my real age. He wanted to marry me,
make it right.”
“
Why on Earth didn’t you let him?” I asked in
disbelief.
realising we had reached the base of the tree. Blod turned on me,
her angelic face hard and serious. Her blue eyes cut into me like
diamonds.
“
If he had, everyone would have known the reason why,
especially with Ness coming along just four months later. They
would have all said I’d trapped him.” Blod’s expression grew
fiercer, her eyes both angry and sad. “I didn’t want people to
think I was that kind of girl.” Blod took one of my crutches away
as she helped me sit down on the grass. “Mam told everyone I’d gone
to secretarial school until after the birth and we hushed it up,
just kept it in the family.”
“
But no-one knows that Bickerstaff’s the father?” I
questioned.
her head. “No, so don’t breathe a word,” she said harshly.
“
I won’t,” I promised.
together quietly for a moment under the shade of the huge tree and
I made a silent congratulations to myself for making it the full
thirty paces. Who would have thought that Blod, of all people,
would be the one to get me there? As I looked across at the out
buildings a wheelbarrow came around the side of one of them. My
heart leapt into my throat when Henri appeared with it. He was
wearing borrowed clothes again, but these must have belonged to
Idrys since they were miles too big around the middle. Henri had
tied the huge shirt in a knot at his back, leaving his chest and
stomach exposed to the morning sun.
“
It’s a bit wrong to fancy your cousin, you know,” Blod said,
nudging me hard in the arm.
“
We’re not related by blood,” I said immediately, which was
true, it just also happened to be true that we weren’t related by
marriage either.
“
He’s a bit young for me,” Blod mused. She too was watching
him push the barrow nearer to us, his slightly tanned skin glowing
in the sunlight.
“
Good,” I said sharply.
“
Oh give over,” Blod said with a wave of her hand, “He didn’t
look at me once last night. All he did was smile at you. You’re
well in there.”
“
D’you think so?” I asked all too keenly.
expected Blod to revert to form and tease me about it, but she
nodded with a wicked glint in her eye. After a moment she got up
and brushed herself down from the dewy grass, cupping one hand
around her mouth as she started to wave with the other.
“
Oi! You!” she called brazenly.
sight of us, dropping the barrow instantly and starting to jog
over. As he approached he undid the knot in his shirt and pulled
the baggy fabric around him to fasten it properly. I tried my best
to hide my disappointment, but it was no easy task.
“
I’ve got to go in and get the breakfast started,” Blod said
as Henri arrived beside her, “You walk Kit in when she’s done out
yur, right?”
against Henri’s ear and whispered something to him, then turned and
gave me a wink as she slunk away through the grass back towards Ty
Gwyn. Henri’s dark brows were knitted in confusion as he sat down
beside me under the tree, hugging his knees up to his chest.
“
Kit,” he began with half a smile, “What does ‘no funny
business’ mean?”
fervently that Doctor Bickerstaff wouldn’t take Leighton’s little
slip up over Henri seriously, so I was suitably horrified when he
turned up a few days later at Ty Gwyn asking to speak to ‘the
Norwegian boy’. Henri and Idrys were loading coal into the sitting
room fire when Bickerstaff came in and Idrys wheeled me away
quickly to leave the two chaps to converse. But Idrys must have
known something was up, because he wheeled me right into my bedroom
and told me to sneak back mentally and find out what was going on.
It was much quicker to find Henri’s mind with him in the same
house, so the doctor had hardly begun speaking by the time I was
listening in.
“
You’ll be pleased to know, Mr Haugen, that the local
constabulary has accepted your identification papers as genuine,”
Bickerstaff said in his deadpan tone.
“
I should hope so,” Henri answered stiffly. I felt rather
guilty that he’d inherited so much contempt for Bickerstaff from me
before ever having a chance to actually meet the man in person, but
there was a suspicious look in the doctor’s eyes that told me it
was probably best for Henri to be on his guard.
“
Tell me, how exactly are you related to the Cavendish
children?” he pressed.
“
We’re cousins by marriage, on Kit’s mother’s side,” Henri
explained, just as we’d rehearsed. “It’s a very distant connection,
but my parents are dead now, and I had no-one else to turn to.” I
felt that old sadness creep into Henri’s chest as he spoke, knowing
the sincerity would lend itself to Bickerstaff believing our
story.
“
On her mother’s side,” the doctor repeated, “Her mother
being…?”
Gail
, I whispered.
he could to stop himself from jumping with the shock of my voice in
his mind.
“
Gail,” he answered quickly.
“
Her maiden name?” Bickerstaff pressed.
The doctor
asked question after question about my family to Henri, who
repeated my answers to the letter. Bickerstaff didn’t seem entirely
satisfied, in fact he once or twice looked around him as though
there were answers hidden somewhere on the walls, like he was
trying to catch a schoolboy cheating on a test. After he had
exhausted his supply of questions the doctor shoved his hands into
his pockets irately. I could feel Henri’s amusement at the sight of
his defeat.
“
Tell me then young man,” the doctor said finally, “What are
your intentions now that you’re here?”
his own now, for that was something I had no idea about. I felt him
stiffen his shoulders proudly.
“
Well sir, I turn eighteen in August, about six weeks from
now. My intention is to enlist for the British Army and fight the
Hun like everyone else.”
changed in the doctor’s face, his steely resolve falling away
slowly. He nodded ever so gently.
“
I’m sure we’re all keen to heed the call, when it comes,” he
replied solemnly.
Henri had
mentioned fighting for us a few times before, but now that he was
here in North Wales I couldn’t bear the thought of having to let
him go again. He was too proud to tolerate my attempts to persuade
him not to enlist, so in the end I stopped talking about him going
away and decided to enjoy whatever time I had with him, secretly
praying every night that the war would end before he had the chance
to go off to training. I thought perhaps my prayers were being
answered as July rolled in, when the papers started reporting on a
great on-going battle over the British airspace. It seemed like
Luftwaffe planes were being shot down left, right and centre by the
RAF, and every report that came in saw Mam and Blod punching the
air with joy that Clive and the boys were part of that great
success.
Despite the
low rations and the lack of money, Idrys managed to get Henri
kitted out with some proper clothes and put him to good use on the
farm. He took over my afternoon walking practice, which generally
ended with us sitting under the nearest tree and talking until
Idrys called him back to work. Mam invited him over most evenings
for dinner, but Leighton had got into the nasty habit of following
us from room to room with his watchful little eyes. It was
painfully ironic that the only real privacy we had was when I went
to my bedroom and Henri went to his, where we were able to talk in
his head across the pasture.
It was a
too-warm night in the middle of July that I found Henri standing by
his window trying to cool off. I waited for a moment quietly as he
took in some deep breaths of the night air, but Henri gradually
stopped what he was doing and started to smile.
“
You’re there, aren’t you?” he asked.
know?
“
I think I’m learning to recognise the change in my head,” he
explained. Henri moved to lie down on his bed and look up at the
cobwebbed ceiling of the Pengelly Cottage.
Listen,
I began excitedly,
I didn’t want to tell you when Leighton was
there, but
Blod told me there’s a summer
dance in the village hall at the end of next week. All the
teenagers are going.
“
You mean somewhere your brother and Idrys can’t get into to
pester us?” Henri asked with a laugh. “We have to go, of
course.”
Excellent,
I said, agreeing silently
that between my little brother and the old farmer we couldn’t get a
moment to ourselves.
That’s settled then,
except for one little thing.
“
Oh?” Henri asked, waiting.
I’m not sure if I can actually dance,
I admitted,
In fact I’m not sure
that I really have walking mastered yet. But I’d still like to go,
even if I have to sit it out and just watch.
“
Don’t be silly,” Henri said with a smile, “We’ll figure
something out.”
Henri and I
went to Mam with the suggestion of me learning a few dance steps,
mostly because we knew that she would say yes without even thinking
about it. Mam didn’t disappoint us; in fact she took me off potato
peeling duty for the rest of the week so that the time could be
reserved for Henri and I to practice. Leighton was enlisted to move
the furniture around in the small sitting room to make space, which
left him with a wicked scowl across his mouth. When Henri offered
to help move the chairs Leigh was so vicious in replying that I
shouted him out of the room, which allowed me to watch Henri shove
the sofa backwards with his long, strong arms. He turned and caught
me looking with a smile.
“
Idrys won’t be happy, you know,” he mused guiltlessly, “I’m
supposed to be picking fruit or something right now.”