The Diddakoi Read Free Page B

either.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘I walked off,’ said Kizzy, which was a traveller’s way of saying she went apart and did it behind a bush.
    Kizzy walked off at school, among the gooseberry bushes, and Prudence caught her.
    Then Mrs Blount had to insist on Kizzy using the loo and Prudence, creeping up to spy – Kizzy had not realized she could lock the door – found her sitting face to the wall and called
the other girls to look. ‘Think you’re sittin’ on a horse?’ they jeered.
    When Kizzy could not bear it any more she ran home. There was a hole in the playground hedge; the hedge was holly and the prickles tore but Kizzy got through to save being seen going out of the
gate; then, her dress more ragged than ever, her hot cheeks scratched, her curly hair full of holly leaves, she ran down the lane, her old boots splashing in the puddles, until she reached home,
the wagon in the orchard and Gran: the wagon, Gran and Joe – Joe – Joe. Mrs Blount let her go but Kizzy always knew that in the morning she would have to go back.
    ‘Admiral Twiss sends his compliments and I have come for the little girl.’
    It was a cold March afternoon with flurries of snow outside the window, but the classroom was warm and the children had been quietly, almost sleepily, painting in their places; every head jerked
wide awake when Peters came stumping in.
    Peters was so short and small he was like a barrel on short legs; neither he nor Nat, who had been a jockey and seemed to be made of wire covered with old parched leather, reached to the
Admiral’s shoulder. ‘Twiss’s two gnomes,’ the Doctor and Vicar called them and, like gnomes, invisible for all the village saw of them, they tended him. No one would have
guessed Peters had been in the Navy, except that he liked things ‘shipshape’ as he said; he was a dapper little man with a fresh rosy complexion and country blue eyes. He walked with a
roll but that was because he had a bad leg. ‘Shot in a battle,’ the village boys liked to think but it had been crushed in a train accident; nor was he tattooed but not even Clem could
say Peters was not a proper sailor.
    The boys and girls gazed at Peters as he handed Mrs Blount a note. ‘Mr Fraser told me, Ma’am, to give you this.’ Mr Fraser was the headmaster. When she had read it Mrs Blount
got up and came down through the tables to Kizzy Lovell, bent and put an arm round her. ‘Kizzy,’ she said gently, ‘you are to go with Mr Peters,’ and when Peters had taken
Kizzy away, Mrs Blount told the children that Kizzy’s grandmother was dead.
    Admiral Twiss had found her late that morning lying underneath the wagon and had guessed at once what had happened. Travellers are laid in the open air when they are dying; they do not like to
die inside, not even in their wagons; and Gran was peaceful on the frozen grass with Joe quietly cropping tufts alongside. The Admiral had called Nat and they carried her into the wagon and laid
her carefully on her bunk; then Nat had gone to find the Smiths and Does, travellers the Admiral knew were in a camp not far away – the Does were Gran’s cousins’ cousins. Admiral
Twiss had stayed with Gran until the Does’ lorry and trailer came bumping in to the orchard; the Smiths were not far behind. They built a fire and made a strong brew of tea; he drank a cup
with them, then walked up to the House with Lumas Doe to telephone the doctor and find a letter the Admiral had written long ago at Gran’s dictation and kept for her. ‘So they will know
what to do,’ she had said. He gave the letter to Lumas. It was only then that they had thought of Kizzy.
    When Peters led her out of school, a woman was waiting at the gate. Kizzy knew her, she was Mrs Doe. ‘Wouldn’t come in,’ said Peters. She took Kizzy’s hand and Peters
drove them away in the Admiral’s ancient Rolls-Royce.
    ‘A Rolls-Royce!’ said Clem.
    ‘A very old Rolls,’ said Prue.

Chapter Two
    ‘What shall we do with