The Assassin by Tom Fletcher

Author:Tom Fletcher [Fletcher, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

26

L’enfer

The Crawford family had lived for three generations in a small town outside Rochester in Kent. Max’s grandfather had taught science in the local school. Max’s father, Jack, had served for almost thirty years in the military, moving the family from the terraced house in which Jack had grown up to a semi-detached house on Watling Street with an orchard. Jack had loved sitting under the trees with his Daily Telegraph crossword.

Max had gone to a string of boarding schools for the sons of officers, never really settling. Constant scrapes, running away, drama. One headmaster had said he had ‘a great brain but a terrible mind’. Another had thrown him out for being ‘disrespectful and obstinate’. Max had written to a local company that the week of work experience with them had been more useful than his lessons. The head had told him not to send the letter, as it would damage the school’s reputation. Max had refused.

When Max had turned up at his parents’ front door with another letter – this one informing them that they would have to find a new school – he had expected his father to be furious. But Jack Crawford had asked him to describe the circumstances carefully, not to leave anything out. Max had done so, his voice monotonous at first, dreading the reaction. But as he watched his father’s reactions he became more animated, more descriptive.

At the end of his story, he had paused to await the verdict. He feared sorrow more than anger. But his father smiled, hugged him, and simply said, ‘I’ll talk to your mother. We never liked that head. We’ll just have to start again.’

This had been part of what held them together as a family. Jack was away for long periods. Max was a rebellious and unpredictable teenager. Perhaps the only predictable thing was that he would follow his father into the military, though the more conventional regiments had quickly passed him over and moved him on, until he found the regiment.

Meanwhile the other thing – the thing that really held the family together – was his mother, Lily. Jack adored her, in a quiet, undemonstrative way. Max would catch him just watching her as she moved about the house. She loved France, having been there once on a school trip. She could be stern with Max, and had plenty of reason to be. But she showed her love for him through food, especially puddings. Custard seemed to solve most family rows. His parents didn’t speak of the younger brother that he had all too briefly known.

When Max had found his home in the regiment, earning his promotions, he and his father had brought a small place in France for Lily. Now in her early sixties, she had thrown herself into renovating the old barn, and making it home. Jack, initially less enthused, had found himself pulled along by the joy it brought to her, and Max’s cajoling. Max persuaded them to sell the place outside Rochester. He and his father spent a week planting cuttings from his beloved orchard in the new garden.

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