At last her mother arrived with Joan, and Joan looked at Ethie kindly.

‘Any news?’ she asked.

‘No. They won’t tell me anything,’ said Ethie.

‘And are you feeling better, my dear?’

Ethie looked at Joan gratefully. No one usually called her ‘my dear’. But she’d cried all her tears. She looked apprehensively at her mother, reading the darkness in her eyes as anger.

‘I couldn’t help it,’ she said. ‘We just got there and Polly was startled by the train. She . . .’

Sally gave Ethie a hug, patting her back reassuringly. ‘Don’t you distress yourself, Ethie. We’ll talk about it tomorrow when you’ve had a bath and a rest. We just have to keep calm now and everything will be all right.’

Her kind words soothed her troubled daughter like hot cocoa.

‘Kate’s going to be all fine, you’ll see,’ said Joan.

The door opened again and a doctor in a white coat came in with a nurse fluttering beside him.

‘Are you Mrs Loxley?’ he asked.

‘I am.’ Sally’s eyes flickered with anxiety.

‘Your daughter is basically all right,’ he said. ‘She’s conscious now. She’s got a cut at the back of her head which we’ve stitched and bandaged. We’ve checked her thoroughly and everything is fine. She needs rest, that’s all, to get over the concussion.’

Sally collapsed into a chair. ‘Oh – thank God. Thank God,’ she wept, and seemed incapable of saying anything else until she’d composed herself.

‘You can see her in just a few minutes,’ said the doctor. ‘The nurse will fetch you.’

Sally nodded, her eyes misty. ‘Our beautiful Kate,’ she whispered. ‘I couldn’t bear to lose her. She’s such a – a light – a shining light.’

‘Freddie was right, wasn’t he?’ said Joan. ‘And he’s such an extraordinary young man.’

And Ethie glowered, thinking again of how she might float away in the river and become a beautiful sea nymph.

Kate lay quietly in the starched white bed, her eyes roaming around the unfamiliar hospital ward, her head tightly bandaged and her dark plaits, still with the red ribbons, over her shoulders. She was glad to be lying so comfortably, against a stack of pillows, and glad to be opposite a window which looked out on a clump of elm trees and the rooftops of Monterose. Hundreds of sparrows fussed on the roof tiles, and she could hear them chirruping, reminding her of the farmyard at home. Her school uniform was neatly folded on the chair next to her bed, and someone had put a jug of water and a glass on the table for her. She was fascinated by the nurses who glided to and fro like sailing boats. To find that someone so strict and efficient was also kind and cheerful was inspiring to Kate. Once she felt well enough to talk she asked so many questions that eventually the ward sister told her to be quiet and rest.

‘She’s a chatterbox,’ she heard her saying.

‘Where have I heard that before?’ Sally came into the ward and straight to Kate’s bed. Tears poured down her cheeks.

‘Don’t cry, Mummy. I’m all right.’

‘I know. Silly, aren’t I? These are good tears, Kate. Oh, I’m so, so thankful you’re all right.’

‘What about Daddy?’ asked Kate.

‘He’s not very well, dear. He’s got to stay in bed for two weeks. Doctor’s given him some medicine – let’s hope it works. Hope and pray.’

‘And Ethie? Was Ethie hurt like me?’

‘No, she wasn’t,’ said Sally carefully. ‘But she’s deeply upset, and sorry too.’

Kate was quiet. It wasn’t the first time she’d puzzled and soul-searched over Ethie’s behaviour. She decided not to say anything further, sensing that her mother had enough to deal with.

‘I want to be a nurse, Mummy,’ she said seriously, and then another question surfaced. ‘What about Polly? Poor Polly, she was exhausted. She was sweating and she lost a shoe, and Ethie made her – made her gallop on the road when she didn’t want to . . .’

Seeing her daughter close to tears Sally just hugged her quietly, rocking her a little.

‘You stay calm, dear. Polly is fine. A nice young man brought her home, walked all the way with her. Freddie, he said his name was.’

‘Oh.’ Kate’s eyes widened. ‘I know him.’

‘No, you don’t. He’s a big boy, not anyone from school that you know.’

‘Oh, but I do,’ said Kate. ‘He was with me when I was lying in the road.’

‘But how would you know that, Kate? You were out cold for two hours.’

‘I saw him, Mummy. I did. He was with me, and he held my hand between his hands, and he had the bluest of blue eyes,’ insisted Kate, ‘and he . . .’

‘He what?’

‘Don’t think I’m being silly, Mummy, but – he was like a guardian angel in ordinary clothes, a brown coat and a cap, and he made me better.’

Chapter Ten

THE LONELINESS OF BEING DIFFERENT

Freddie lay awake that night, his face turned towards the sky. The harvest moon whitewashed the flaking paint on the open window, and lit up the treasures he kept there, his collection of bird’s feathers, a chunk of alabaster, his tins and matchboxes, and Granny Barcussy’s nature book. The night air smelled of cider and soot. As always, Freddie was listening to the owls in the distant countryside, his mind filtering out the sounds of the town. The owls made him feel at home again, where he felt he belonged.

But he did pay attention if a motorcar drove past the bakery, sometimes even getting out of bed to watch the beam of headlights cutting through the darkness.

Engines fascinated him and he studied them at every opportunity. Today he’d had his first ever ride in one. Joan had driven him back from Hilbegut in her majestic Model T Ford, with its polished burgundy bonnet and silvery headlamps. She’d let him crank it for her, to start it, and he’d felt a buzz all up his spine when the engine responded, first with a splutter, then settling into a business-like rhythm.

‘When you’re old enough, you can have a go,’ Joan promised, and Freddie was in awe of her as she confidently handled the huge metal beast, her bony arms steering it wildly through the lanes. He’d never been so fast in his life. Seeing hedges and trees whizzing past was strange and different, feeling the wind on his cheeks, and his legs vibrating as the car hurtled along the stony road.

He sat next to Kate’s mother in the back, but they didn’t talk. Sally clutched her hat with one hand and the back of Joan’s seat with the other, sitting straight and alert as if she was driving herself. When they swept to a halt outside Monterose Hospital, Sally turned and looked at him.

‘Thank you,’ she said, ‘for bringing Polly home. I don’t know who you are – but I’m very grateful.’

Aware that he was playing truant from school, Freddie chose not to tell her he was Freddie Barcussy from the bakery. He just said, ‘Kate is going to get better, I know it.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I just do.’ Freddie looked directly into Sally’s surprised eyes and said no more. He thanked Joan for the ride, allowed himself one glance at the hospital where Kate was, and sprinted home through the wide streets of Monterose, reaching the bakery at his usual time of ten past four.

Sad that he couldn’t tell his parents about this secret day, he’d gone to bed with his mind on fire.

The sound of the Model T Ford had set up home in his mind, a sound that was both satisfying and disturbing, like a new voice on earth.

The wooden clock in his bedroom seemed to tick faster and faster, and at two o’clock in the morning he got up, lit a candle and counted the clump of money tied in his hanky. It included the precious florin Joan had given him and he spent some time examining it in the candlelight. There were a few sixpences too, and in total he had earned ten shillings and ninepence. Breathing hard with excitement he prised open the floorboard under his bed and added the money to his hoard which was tied in a grey woollen sock, now so heavy that it had to be picked up with both hands.