The Carousel Read Free Page A

out in the fields, and cottage gardens, as we rocketed past, were purple with Michaelmas daisies.
    I remembered my small companion and turned to see how she was getting on. She had not yet opened her comic or unbuttoned her coat, but the tears had receded and she seemed a little more composed.
    "Where are you going to?" I asked her.
    She said, "Cornwall."
    "I'm going to Cornwall, too. Whereabouts are you going?"
    "I'm going to stay with my grandmother."
    "That'll be nice." I thought about this. "But isn't it term time? Shouldn't you be at school?"
    "Yes, I should. I'm at a boarding school. We all went back, and then the boiler blew up, so they closed the school for a week till it's mended and sent us all home again."
    "How terrible. I hope nobody was hurt." "No. But Miss Brownrigg, our headmistress, had to go to bed for a day. Matron said it was shock." "I'm not surprised."
    "So I went home, but there's nobody there but my father. My mother's on holiday in Majorca. She went at the end of the holidays. So I've got to go to Granny."
    She didn't make it sound a very attractive prospect. I was trying to think of something comforting to say to jolly her along when she picked up her comic and settled down, rather pointedly, to read it. I was amused but took the hint, found my book, and began to read. The journey progressed in silence until the waiter from the restaurant car made his way down the train to tell us that luncheon was being served.
    I laid down my book. "Are you going to go and have some lunch?" I asked her, knowing about the ten-pound note in her bag.
    She looked agonised. "I ... I don't know which way to go."
    "I'm going. Would you like to come with me? We could have lunch together."
    Her expression changed to one of grateful relief. "Oh, could I? I've got the money, but I've never been on a train by myself before, and I don't know what I'm meant to do."
    "I know, it's muddling, isn't it? Come along, let's go before all the tables get booked up."
    Together we made our way down the lurching corridors, found the restaurant car, and were shown to a table for two. There was a fresh white cloth, and flowers in a glass carafe.
    She said, "I'm a bit hot. Do you think I could take off my coat?"
    "I think that would be a good idea."
    She did this, and the waiter came to help her, and fold the coat, and lay it over the back of her seat. We opened the menus.
    "Are you feeling hungry?" I asked her.
    "Yes I am. We had breakfast ages ago." 
    "Where do you live?"
    "In Sunningdale. I came up to London with my father in his car. He drives up every morning."
    "Your . . . ? Was that your father who saw you off?"
    "Yes." He hadn't even kissed her good-bye. "He works in an office in the City." Our eyes met, and then she looked hastily away. "He doesn't like being late."
    I said, soothingly, "Few men do. Is it his mother you're going to stay with?"
    "No. Granny's my mother's mother."
    I said, sounding chatty, "I'm going to stay with an aunt. She's broken her arm, and she can't drive her car, so I'm going to look after her. She lives at the very end of Cornwall in a village called Penmarron."
    "Penmarron? But I'm going to Penmarron too."
    This was a coincidence. "How extraordinary."
    "I'm Charlotte Collis. I'm Mrs. Tolliver's granddaughter. She's my granny. Do you know Mrs. Tolliver?"
    "Yes, I do. Not very well, but I do know her. My mother used to play bridge with her. And my aunt is called Phoebe Shackleton."
    And now her face lit up. For the first time since I had set eyes on her, she looked a natural and excited child. Her eyes were wide behind the spectacles, and her mouth opened in a delighted gasp of surprise, revealing teeth too big for her narrow face.
    "Phoebe! Phoebe's my best friend. I go and have tea with her and things, every time I go and stay with Granny. I didn't know she'd broken her arm." She gazed into my face. "You . . . you're not Prue, are you?" 
    I smiled. "Yes, I am. How did you know?"
    "I thought I knew your face.