Authors: K.C. Finn
Tags: #young adult, #historical, #wwii, #historical romance, #ww2, #ya, #europe, #telepathic, #clean teen publishing, #kc finn
The Mind's Eye (19 page)
“
Do you need to sit down?” he asked, his rich voice shaking as
much as my body was.
“
That’d be a good start,” I replied.
“
I thought you were dead,” I mumbled, “I tried to reach you
and it was all just black, just nothing.”
“
We crashed on the rocks when we came ashore,” Henri said,
taking my shaking hand in both of his, “I was unconscious for a
long time, up until last night. As soon as I woke up, I told them
to put me on the train here.”
“
You must be so tired,” I said, gazing at his strong, smooth
hands clasping mine, hardly daring to believe I could really feel
them there.
“
Not any more,” he said with a nervous laugh.
sitting together on the old sofa, which was very strange for me.
The only chair I was used to sitting in always had wheels on, so
leaning back into the cracked leather and feeling it under my legs
was all very new. As was holding hands with a boy. And not just any
boy at that.
“
So you lied to them? Pretended we were related?”
Henri’s face again, watching his warm smile and his sharp jaw as he
sucked in his cheeks thoughtfully.
“
Well how else was I going to find you?” he said with a happy
shrug. “The home guard in Scotland tracked down your evacuation
home and gave me some train fare. I think it was cheaper than
feeding me there, they had enough problems with the other boys that
made it across.”
“
That made it?” I asked, feeling his grip on my hand tighten a
little. “Did some of them… not?”
solemnly, his smile fading off. “I was very lucky,” he whispered,
“We lost half our own boat one night in a storm. It was a miracle
the whole thing didn’t capsize.”
Without any
warning I burst into tears, the culmination of two days of frantic
worry and despair exploding in a fit of pure relief. I threw my
arms around Henri so fiercely that he fell back against the sofa,
cradling my head against his chest as I tried desperately to stop
sobbing and looking like such an idiot in front of him. He stroked
my hair gently with one hand, I felt the other hand hovering at my
waist, like he didn’t know if it was okay to hold me there or not,
but eventually he put both arms around my shoulders instead.
“
It’s okay Kit, I’m safe now,” he soothed, “I’m here
now.”
“
It’s hard to believe you’re really here,” I sniffed, drying
my eyes as I listened to the familiar thump of his
heart.
“
Imagine how strange it is for me,” he exclaimed, “knowing now
that the voice in my head has a body and a face!” I looked up at
him, laughing as he smiled down at me. “And a very pretty face,
too,” he added shyly, his brown eyes glittering. His heart rate
quickened where I was leaning over it. I was about six inches from
his lips.
knock at the door and I sat up as sharply as my weak form would let
me, drying my eyes just before Mam and Idrys came in. Henri stood
up immediately and bowed his head politely to them both, but Mam
was upon him in moments with one of her bone-crushing embraces. She
kissed both his cheeks until he started to blush, holding his
lovely face up for appraisal.
“
Welcome young man, Da’s told me everything about you!” she
said.
was standing behind her, shook his head to us both as if to say
‘Not everything, obviously’.
***
Idrys
suggested that Henri could stay with him at the cottage across the
pasture and help out on the farm, an idea that Henri and I were
elated with. He came out to enjoy the rest of my birthday party,
introduced to the assembled people as ‘Cousin Henri’, my extremely
distant relation, who had just made the amazing journey across the
North Sea, escaping the clutches of the Nazi swine like the hero
that he was. Mam enjoyed embellishing the thrilling tale from the
bare bones that Idrys had given her and Henri couldn’t get a word
in edgeways to correct any of the details, so the contents of my
party were all terribly impressed with him despite the fact that he
was rather shy of actually talking at length with any of them.
The only
person who made it quite obvious that he disliked Henri was
Leighton, which was terribly out of character for my little
brother. Leigh was usually the first to want to make a new friend,
but every time I looked at him he was giving Henri these nasty
little sideways looks, most especially when Henri spoke to me or
even just smiled in my direction. I tried not to waste much time
worrying about Leighton when I could spend it returning Henri’s
smiles and conversation. He was very softly spoken compared to the
loud Welsh contingent all around us, but his deep smooth voice was
easy to pick out in the din.
“
I’m not sure I’m going to be much good on a farm,” he
admitted, biting his lower lip. He had a little piece of cake stuck
to it that I wanted to sort out, but the table was too wide to
reach him. “I only know how to measure and cut.”
“
Idrys knows all that,” I said quietly, “he’s not going to
expect miracles.”
“
So… he knows everything?” Henri’s brown eyes were dark and
round with interest.
gently. “More or less. I didn’t mean to tell him, but it’s turned
out really well to have someone to help me.”
“
To help us,” Henri corrected, “I don’t think your policeman
would have let me in if not for his influence.”
leaning very close to each other over the table to talk in such low
tones and a loud spluttering from Leigh’s direction startled me
backwards. I looked at him, panicked in case he was choking on
cake, but all he did was give Henri another of those rotten looks.
I was about to tell Henri to take no notice when Doctor Bickerstaff
rose from the far end of the table. He was looking straight over
our heads, blue eyes flickering to Blod for just a moment as he set
down his napkin.
“
Excuse me a moment,” he mumbled as he stalked off toward the
house.
few seconds later that Blod started clattering about between Henri
and me, collecting our plates despite the fact that we still had
cake left on them. I gave her a knowing look and she scowled at me
shamelessly.
“
Well I’m going to get these washed up,” Blod said all too
loudly, “Since I’m everyone’s bloody slave and it’ll be me that’s
still doing them at midnight otherwise.” Her complaints didn’t have
their usual confidence and her walk had less of its carefree sway
as she too approached Ty Gwyn. Henri craned his neck to watch her
go before turning back to me.
“
It’s not impossible to imagine them together,” he whispered,
shifting and sitting in Blod’s space so that he was beside my
wheelchair, “The little girl is the image of him.”
quietly, but I wasn’t really thinking about Bickerstaff and Blod.
Henri was so close I could smell the freshness of his borrowed
shirt. He leant casually on the armrest of my chair, the soft brown
hairs on his forearm brushing against my much paler limb. I watched
him rubbing his palm with his fingertips; a trait I knew was always
accompanied by the prickle of nerves in his spine. He smiled at me
again when I had taken far too long to reply and I couldn’t help
the toothy grin that escaped. I wanted to giggle, even though he
hadn’t said anything remotely funny. There was something sparkling
deep in his big brown eyes, like he too was in on the joke.
“
Ouch!”
hair style banged into my elbow as Leighton forced himself into the
total lack of space between Henri and me. I rubbed my arm and
curled my lip at him.
“
What are you doing?” I snapped.
complete innocence. “It’s a bit chilly now,” he suggested, “I
thought you might want to go inside.”
“
No thank you,” I said through gritted teeth.
“
But you look cold,” Leigh insisted, “I could wheel
you.”
“
If I want to go inside I’ll ask Henri to wheel me,” I
insisted.
brother wouldn’t be put off. He put all his strength into pulling
my chair back from the table and took me about ten feet away where
we couldn’t be heard. His little freckled face was livid.
“
Look, I don’t remember any Cousin Henri, Kit,” he whispered
viciously, “I’m not stupid you know; I want to know what’s going
on.”
“
He’s come from a terrible place crawling with Nazis, Leigh,”
I pleaded, “Telling them he’s family is the best way to protect
him.”
“
But how do you know him?” Leighton pressed, his little hands
balled into fists. “He’s all… close to you. It’s weird. Boys don’t
do that to you, Kit.”
reminding of that, but Leigh was all too happy to point out my
total lack of a social life, especially where any admirers might
have been concerned. When I’d started at grammar school there used
to be a lot of boys who liked to talk to me at the gate at lunch,
but that was before I started to walk funny and become known as
‘the girl with the pink rash’. I was trying to appreciate
Leighton’s protectiveness, but frankly he was getting in the way of
the precious time I had with Henri before Idrys decided to go home
for the evening.
“
We were pen friends,” I lied irately, “We know a lot about
each other, that’s why he’s so friendly. Now will you please take
me back over there?” My brother’s rosy lip fell into a frown as he
grabbed the chair handles and started to obey me. “And whatever you
do, don’t tell anybody that we’re not really related to him,” I
chided in a perfect imitation of Mum.
“
Oops,” Leigh said quietly.
“
What?” I demanded, “What have you said?”
“
Nothing much,” he mumbled, leaning in near my ear, “But
Doctor B asked me about Henri… and I think I said that I didn’t
remember him.”
nothing else to Leigh as he brought me back to the table and he
skulked off back to his place with his head down low. Henri watched
him go with a sympathetic sort of look.
“
Is everything all right?” he asked, turning back to
me.
he must have already seen the worry on my face. Henri rested his
smooth hand on top of mine and I couldn’t help but smile as his
warmth crept through my skin. Leighton was right, actually, I was
getting cold, but if that meant Henri was going to warm my hand up
then I wouldn’t complain. But Henri snatched his hand away again as
a loud cough caught us both by surprise.
“
You’re in my seat,” Blod snarled.
away quickly with an apology as the blonde goddess threw herself
down hard onto the chair. She too was shivering, though I was sure
it wasn’t just from the cold.
“
Where’s Bickerstaff?” I asked her gently.
gathering in one corner of her eye. She pushed it away
violently.
“
He’s gone home,” she whispered, her voice
cracking.
I offered
Blod the chance to talk to me that night but all I got in return
was the usual abuse and a very clear message that her life was none
of my business, thank you very much. I was therefore terribly
surprised to find her waking me up the next morning. Blod didn’t
really wait for me to stir before she started to remove the night
splints from my elbows; I came around fully when she was sorting
out the ones on my knees.
“
Why are you doing this?” I mumbled sleepily, “Mam
usually-”
“
Oh bugger Mam,” she said quietly, “Come on, I said I’d take
you out for a walk before breakfast. Hurry up and get a
wash.”
barely ten minutes to get sorted before she was back in the
makeshift bedroom, rushing me into my shoes and grabbing my
crutches and chair. I decided against questioning her any further
until we were out in my usual practice space behind her bedroom
window. It was a still, silent morning, so silent that I slowly
realised we were awake and the rest of the house wasn’t. Blod got
me up onto my crutches at the edge of the grass.
“
How far d’you usually go?” she pressed.
“
Almost to that tree,” I replied, and without another word we
were off.
my first three, slow steps before she started to speak, all the
while focused on my feet padding hard into the dewy grass.
“
I don’t want your opinion, right?” Blod began, half vicious
and half afraid, “But I’ve been going mad about this all night,
I’ve got to tell someone, and it’s only you that knows what’s going
on.”