My Friend Walter by Michael Morpurgo

Author:Michael Morpurgo [Morpurgo, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Egmont
Published: 2011-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

ALL THE ANGER INSIDE ME EVAPORATED AS HE embraced me and then, putting his cloak around me, he led me back through the narrow doorway into his room. ‘Dearest cousin,’ he said, ‘you cannot know what joy it brings me to see you again.’ As he looked at me his brow furrowed suddenly into a frown and the smile left his lips. ‘Yet I dread to know why you have come. There is something in your eyes that tells me it is not just to see your friend Walter. Is it bad tidings that you bring me, cousin? Your grandmother?’

I shook my head. ‘She’s all right,’ I said.

‘Then it needs must be the farm,’ said Walter. ‘Has it happened so soon? My poor Bess, have they taken the farm from you, and your home too? I see from your face that I have hit the mark.’

‘How did you know?’ I asked.

‘It is in the nature of the spirit, cousin,’ he said, ‘to be a spy, to eavesdrop. Many a time I sat with your mother and father in the kitchen as they tried to find a way out. I saw the papers, cousin, I read the letters from the bank and from the landlord. I thought this might happen in the end – your mother thought so too – but your father is a fighter and I thought matters might yet be put right. I hoped as he did that a good harvest might save him. Is there no hope at all?’

‘The sale’s today,’ I said. ‘We’ve had to sell everything, even Sally.’ My friend Walter shook his head sadly and looked away. ‘We’re moving out tomorrow,’ I went on. ‘We’re going to live at Aunty Ellie’s till we can find somewhere else.’ And he put his arms out and hugged me to him. ‘You said it would be all right,’ I cried, burying my face in his cloak. ‘You said that if I believed it enough then everything would turn out all right, and I did believe it like you said but nothing turned out right.’

I felt him stiffen. Then his hands were on my shoulders and pushing me away from him. When I looked up, his face was smiling and his eyes shining with excitement. ‘And so it shall be, chick. So it shall. I will meddle just once more in your world but to better effect this time, I trust. I had a mind to do this before but I did not dare to for fear of blundering. But now I see I have no choice.’ He wiped my eyes with his cloak. ‘Be sure dear cousin, that all that can be done will be done to restore your family’s fortune, and mine too.’

‘But it’s too late,’ I said. ‘I told you the sale’s today. It’ll be over by now.’

‘It is never too late,’ Walter replied, turning to go. ‘But we must make haste. I may not be able to restore your home and your farm,

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