Sparrow by Michael Morpurgo Read Free Book Online Page A

wishes it. Whether you help me or not, I shall do it. I shall walk to Chinon, and on my own, if I have to.”
    Jean de Metz could hardly believe his ears. The brashness of the girl, the insolence! Yet he admired her spirit.
    “I wonder,” he said. “Do you fight as well as you talk, as well as you spin?”
    “I could learn,” Joan replied. “But I shall need a good tutor.”
    “When? When must you start for Chinon?”
    “Now rather than tomorrow. And tomorrow rather than the day after.”
    Jean de Metz sat down in front of her, and took her hands in his. “Can you really beat the English Godoms?”
    “Yes, Jean,” said Joan. “With God’s help and yours, I will go to Orléans and lift the siege.”
    “Just like that.”
    “Just like that. But I shall need a little help. Will you help me, Jean?”
    “Leave your spinning, Joan, and follow me,” said Jean de Metz, and with that he turned on his heel and strode from the room. Joan went after him.
    “Where are we going?” she asked.
    “First to Robert de Beaudricourt,” he said. “Then to the Dauphin at Chinon, and then to Orléans.It’s what you wanted, isn’t it? And I have a feeling, Joan, that sooner or later you always get what you want. Is that right?”
    Joan linked her arm in his as he walked. “Sooner or later,” she laughed. “And sooner is always better than later.”
    Bertrand went with them, Uncle Durand and Henri Le Royer too. But only Joan was allowed with Jean to go inside to see Robert. Belami, like the others, found himself shut out in the courtyard. He perched on the wellhead and fluffed out his feathers against the cold.
    “You know what’s going on in there, Henri?” said Uncle Durand. “She’s winning her first battle. I understand now how it’s done. It’s simple really. She just thinks she’s going to win and doesn’t ever give in. She never gives in. That’s the whole secret. You know something else, Henri, I think this maybe the most important thing either of us will ever do as long as we live.”
    And even as they sat there they could hear Joan’s clarion voice ringing out from inside the Great Hall. “Have priests examine me if you like. Have the Pope himself question me. I should not mind. All I ask is that you send a letter to the Dauphin. Tell him I’m coming. Do it now, Robert, or it will be too late, too late for you, for the Dauphin and for France. In God’s name, Robert, stop your shilly-shallying!”
    As the argument raged inside – more a monologue than an argument – all of it quite audible, a crowd gathered in the courtyard to listen. “Will you look at them all!” said Uncle Durand. “It seems as if the whole world and his wife want to know what’s going on in there, and how important it is too.”
    “You hear what they’re calling her?” said HenriLe Royer. “‘The Maid’. Already they are speaking of her as the saviour of France. For goodness’ sake, she’s just seventeen, and a farm girl.”
    “She’s a lot more than that,” said Uncle Durand. “That’s the whole point, Henri. I know it. They know it. And soon all of France will know it.”
    At that moment the doors of the Great Hall opened and Joan came bounding down the steps two at a time. She flung herself into her uncle’s arms. “He’s going to do it, Uncle! Robert is sending a letter to the Dauphin. As soon as he replies, I shall be going to the Dauphin at Chinon.” Then she whispered in his ear: “It will all be as my voices said it would be, just as they promised me. Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I tell you?”
    As they rode away out of the castle through the clamouring crowds, a bewildered Robert de Beaudricourt stood on the steps watching her go,Jean and Bertrand on either side of him. “Why?” he said. “Why on earth did I agree to do it? I didn’t mean to. When they get this letter in Chinon, I’ll be a laughing stock, a laughing stock. What is it about that girl?”
    “There is God in her, Robert,” said