The Beautiful Visit

The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard Read Free Book Online

Book: The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard Read Free Book Online
Authors: Elizabeth Jane Howard
People always learn like that. Think of schools. You ought to know that. You’re always
reading.’
    ‘It saves a certain amount of time. I couldn’t get enough species together in my head unless there were books.’
    ‘She’s showing off. You read lots of fairy tales.’
    ‘I don’t.’
    ‘You do.’
    ‘I hardly ever read them. I read books out of the library.’
    ‘Don’t be silly. It doesn’t matter what you read anyway.’
    ‘It does matter what I read.’
    ‘The trouble with you is,’ said Lucy very gravely, ‘that you take yourself far too seriously for your age. You simply can’t go about being so old and crying. Do you read a lot?’
    ‘Well, a bit,’ I said cautiously.
    ‘You don’t read just to talk about reading anyway. I hardly ever read. It depends whether you need it. I like moving about.’
    We were quite close to the wood which was striped with different trees; dark, aloof and inviting.
    ‘I never like starting a wood,’ said Elspeth.
    There was a small iron gate. We went in. It did feel rather like going into a place that easily might belong to someone who resented our feet and our voices. A blackbird flew low, chattering
dramatically.
    ‘Where are we going?’
    ‘To the middle,’ said Lucy. ‘There’s a clearing with a bank.’
    I looked up at the sky streaked with branches and suddenly thought of Michael and his kite. He would like Elspeth and scorn Lucy, and he was the kind of awful person whom it was difficult not to
believe, so perhaps it was a good thing he wasn’t there.
    ‘Is Rupert coming?’ asked Elspeth.
    ‘He’s coming for the dance. Just for Christmas; otherwise he has to work.’
    ‘Who is Rupert?’
    ‘Rupert Laing. His father was at school with Papa. He always comes in the holidays.’
    ‘He sounds mysterious and rich.’
    ‘Why?’
    I didn’t know why I’d said that. How silly. How very very silly.
    ‘How odd. He is mysterious. I don’t think he’s rich. You’ll see. He looks into the back of you, and he makes very silly jokes.’
    There was a silence. Rupert was finished. To me he was just an appalling embarrassment and Lucy and Elspeth had explored his character and whereabouts sufficiently to leave him alone.
    ‘Here we are,’ said Lucy.
    It was a clearing, a hollow, filled with Spanish chestnut suckers, reddish brown, with shining sharp bumps. We sat down on the rubble of leaves and moss.
    ‘Now,’ said Elspeth.
    ‘All right,’ said Lucy. ‘But you can’t expect a house every time you go for a walk.’
    Elspeth rolled on the ground clutching her knees; then leaped up and walked slowly, darting down for a silvery stick. One was too long and she bit it. It snapped in half, and she bit it again in
a rage and stamped it into the leaves.
    ‘It wouldn’t have been strong enough,’ said Lucy. ‘I’ll help.’ And she, too, joined in the collecting. I sat, feeling miserable and stupid. I had no idea what
they were doing.
    ‘We collect sticks,’ said Lucy.
    ‘We collect special useful sticks,’ said Elspeth, pouncing in time to her words. I smiled foolishly and sat still. They put eight sticks upright and firm in the ground, two
and two in a square. Then they laid thinner sticks in between to make walls, which crept up slowly with uneven ends. I stared at the ground, a tear dropped on to a leaf, tap, and it overbalanced;
oh horror, I was going to cry, and for no reason I filled my hands with earth and squeezed, ground the tears out of my eyes; tap, tap, tap, they seemed endless. It was terrible to be sixteen and
cry in a wood.
    ‘You’re crying,’ said Lucy, concerned, and they both came and stood in front of me looking down. ‘What’s the matter?’
    I looked up and snatched bravely. ‘I’m a bit homesick, that’s all.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Lucy. She squatted. ‘Bad luck. You needn’t be. Have you got a handkerchief?’
    ‘Yes.’ Really, I couldn’t use other people’s handkerchiefs.
    Elspeth stared. I blew my

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