The Fledgling by Cadell Elizabeth

Author:Cadell, Elizabeth [Cadell, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The Friendly Air Publishing
Published: 2016-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Tory woke next morning to find that Philippa had already left the house. Tory had a bath, and lay for some time in the water trying, unsuccessfully, to imagine her father’s reactions at being summoned to England. Then she dressed and went down to make her breakfast, after which she tried out some of the household equipment. She began with the vacuum cleaner; then she put two of her blouses into the washing machine, transferred them to the spin drier and after that roller-ironed them, and at the end of her labours decided somewhat prematurely that housework presented no problems provided that there were enough labour-saving devices.

It was eleven o’clock when she had finished her work, and she decided to go out and look for Derek and his dog. The day looked warm—there was sun slanting in through the window of the sitting room, and the trees in the school grounds opposite were motionless, which meant that the wind, which yesterday had seemed to be blowing straight off the Polar ice, had died down. But when she went outside and walked to the corner of the road, she found that an English January sun was not the January sun she had known in Lisbon. This one gave light, but no heat.

The waste ground that morning could well have been called a recreation ground; there were school parties playing football and handball and netball, ponies trotting round and round an improvised arena, on their backs juvenile riders in various stages of proficiency, from knee-grippers to mane-clingers. Scouts were taking compass bearings; around or between all these groups were dog owners exercising their pets. Tory could not see Derek or Leo, but she noticed close to Philippa’s garden wall the two boys who had thrown rubbish into the garden the day before. They were kneeling in the wet mud, hammering and digging, and as she drew nearer she saw that it was not Philippa’s wall, but the wall of the house next door, at which they were working; as it had been made too high for them to throw things over it, she concluded that they were planning to push things under it. She stood watching them for a time, and then turned to see Derek and Leo coming towards her. Leo, recognising her, without hesitation came bounding up; she bent and lifted him into her arms and stood trying to keep her face out of reach of his eager tongue. Derek’s greeting was laconic.

“’lo.”

“Hello.” She put the dog on the ground. “Did you bring a ball?”

He produced the tennis ball, and for some time they played with it, and as on the day before, it was Leo who decided when the game had gone on long enough.

“Where you going now?” Derek asked. “Back to number 14?”

“I don’t know. You could come with me if you wanted to.”

“No. Too near old mother Dexter. You can come home with me, only I don’t suppose you want to see Mrs. T any more. She said to bring you.

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