When Marnie Was There (19 page)

“Yes, he did really!” Jane said. “And tonight it’s my turn, isn’t it, Mummy?”

Mrs Lindsay said, smiling at Anna, “They fight over these privileges. Personally I prefer a bedroom! Jane, show her around. Tea’s in the bear garden as usual.” She picked up a pile of folded curtains. “I must just take these up.”

Jane laughed at Anna’s surprised face. “That’s the name of our own room, I’ll show you in a minute. Mummy, can we eat the doughnuts?”

“Yes, I’ve laid it all ready.”

Anna was looking at a watercolour hanging on the wall at the foot of the stairs. It was a picture of the staithe and sailing boats on the creek.

“Gillie did that,” said Jane, coming and standing beside her.

“Who’s Gillie?” Anna asked in a low voice.

“She’s a sort of pretend auntie – an old friend of Mummy’s. Her real name’s Miss Penelope Gill but we always call her Gillie.”

“Don’t you ever let her hear you calling her Penelope!” said Mrs Lindsay, laughing. “She hates the name, though really I can’t see why. I suppose it wasn’t so fashionable when she was young.” She moved on up the stairs, then looked down over the banisters. “Are the others coming, Janey?”

“Yes, we shouted to them.”

“Good.” Mrs Lindsay smiled down at Anna. “Stay as long as you like. Do your people know you’re here?”

Anna shook her head and mumbled shyly that it was all right, she didn’t have to be back any special time.

“That’s fine, then.” Mrs Lindsay bent and picked up Roly who was following her up, step by step. “You come up with me, my love,” she said, hugging him. “Jane, when you see the others coming, ring the bell, otherwise they may forget they’re on the way home and start cockling or something!”

“Oh, yes!” Jane ran and fetched down a big cowbell from a shelf over the door. “Look, Anna, isn’t it super? It came with the house. It’s twice the size of an ordinary one. You can hear it halfway down the creek. Andrew tried it yesterday.”

“You can hear it halfway down the creek”… For a moment Anna was convinced she had heard these words before somewhere. But where?… When…? Her mind went blank as she tried to remember.

Jane was at the window, peering down the creek, the bell in her hand. “Yes, there they are!” she cried.

She rang the bell, and Anna, watching from the narrow side window, saw the others – three specks of navy-blue in the distance – start running up the bed of the creek towards them.

F
IVE MINUTES LATER
they were all crowding into the long, low room known as the bear garden. Toys, books and games filled the shelves round the walls, and a long table running down the middle of the room was laid ready for tea.

Jane went to fetch the teapot and a large jug of milk from the kitchen, and Priscilla, running in just ahead of the boys, pulled out a chair for Anna and sat down quickly in the one beside her. She turned and smiled at Anna, her eyes shining.

Anna smiled back. “Did you find our note?”

“Yes, that’s why I ran.”

The others came in and they all started tucking in to the buns and doughnuts, while Jane poured out tea and milk. Everyone talked at once and everyone talked loudly. “Don’t wait to be offered things,” said Andrew. “Take what you want while it’s there, otherwise you may miss it. But just to start you off, allow me to offer you a doughnut.”

Priscilla said quietly to Anna, under cover of the general hubbub, “I hoped you’d come back. I’ve been wanting you to for ages.”

“Have you?” Anna was pleased. “Why didn’t you ask me?”

“I couldn’t with the others there.” Scilla glanced quickly round the table. “I saw you first, before any of them did. I saw you from my room.” She lowered her voice and said softly and deliberately, “You know where my room is, don’t you?”

Anna looked at her quickly. “Oh! Is it at the top, looking out over the creek?”

“Yes, the one at the end.” Priscilla smiled a satisfied, secret smile, and buried her teeth in a slice of bread and jam. In a minute she said, still in the same low voice, “Did you mind when we caught you the other day? You looked a bit frightened at first and I thought perhaps we shouldn’t have. I wanted to catch you by myself, without all the others. I thought it would be more fun, but of course Andrew got there first,
as
usual.”

“What did Andrew do first
as
usual?” called Andrew from the other side of the table. “Stop whispering, you two. Do you know, Anna, Scilla thinks you’re her own property, just because she made up a story about you before she ever saw you!”

“Did you?” Anna turned to her. “What sort of story?”

Priscilla smiled and said nothing.

“Has she told you her secret name for you yet?” asked Andrew.

“Yes, tell us!” said Jane. “What is it?”

Anna shook her head. “I don’t know.” She looked at Scilla hopefully, but Scilla was not saying any more. She sat quietly smiling to herself, looking as if she was in a contented daydream, but eating steadily all the while. Bun after bun disappeared into her mouth, apparently almost unnoticed. Anna was quite surprised. Priscilla was the least fat of all the Lindsays.

Anna herself was eating more than she usually did in other people’s houses. This was the first time she could ever remember going out to tea and enjoying it. Mrs Lindsay not being there made it easier, but even when she came in once or twice, she accepted Anna so much as a matter of course that Anna could not help feeling at home.

After tea they all went into the kitchen to wash up. Anna was hanging around hopefully, trying to look helpful – although she had not the least idea where anything was kept – when Scilla came running to her and under pretence
of offering her a drying-up cloth, whispered something quickly in her ear.

Anna looked puzzled and bent her head lower.

Scilla whispered again. “I left it on the beach.”

“What?”Anna was mystified.

“You – something I was doing for you. I thought you’d be staying on down there as usual, and would find it. It was pretty.”

“I’ll look for it tomorrow,” said Anna.

“It won’t be there, the tide will have washed it away.” Scilla was looking at her expectantly. Anna thought quickly. The tide would still be out. If she ran down there soon she might still see whatever it was before she had to go back to the cottage. But she did not want to leave yet. Not so soon!

“Shall I go when I leave here?” she asked. Scilla nodded eagerly. “What is it?” Anna asked, smiling.

Scilla looked up at her from under her eyelashes, then said in a whisper, “Your secret name!”

She skipped away before there was a chance to ask her any more, and though several times during the next hour Anna caught Scilla looking at her with the same expression of quiet excitement – as if she were hugging some secret to herself but quite happy to wait until Anna was ready to share it – nothing more was said between them.

Anna stayed on until Matthew, and then Scilla had been sent up for their baths, and Mrs Lindsay had come in and was beginning to tidy up. Jane was upstairs singing to Roly,
who was now as wide awake as he had been sleepy an hour earlier. Anna helped Mrs Lindsay stack away the games on the shelves, while Andrew, yawning, sprawled on the window seat and gazed out over the water.

“There, that’s fine!” Mrs Lindsay turned and smiled at Anna. “Time to go now,” she said gently. “Look at poor old Andy nearly dropping off his perch! But do come again. Come whenever you feel like it, and thank you for helping to tidy up.” She smiled again and went out of the room without waiting for a reply.

Anna followed uncertainly, suddenly tongue-tied, but saw, as she came out into the hall, that Mrs Lindsay was now busy in the kitchen. Through the half-open door she could see her, back view, as she stood arranging things on the larder shelves. She was singing to herself under her breath. Anna hesitated, wondering if she would come out again, then slipped thankfully out of the side door, closed it quietly behind her, and ran.

Never, never had she liked being in anyone else’s house so much! Mrs Lindsay might almost have known that Anna’s voice always failed her when it came to saying “thank you for having me”. She had not even given her a chance to say a proper goodbye! It was almost as if, in leaving the formal goodbyes unsaid, she had left the door open behind Anna so that she really could come back whenever she felt like it.

She ran back to the cottage, cheeks flushed and eyes
shining, told a startled Mrs Pegg that she would not be long, and set off again down towards the sea.

The tide had already turned when she reached the beach. The sky had clouded over, and it looked grey and solitary, very different from the sunny place where they had played cricket that afternoon. It had been silly to come all this way just to see something written in the sand by a little girl, she thought. But she had wanted to come. She liked Scilla and was pleased at her wanting to share a secret with her, even if it was only a childish one.

She walked down to the water’s edge, and saw it. Shells and strips of seaweed had been used to make a careful pattern of each letter, and the name MARNIE lay spelled out on the sand.

“B
UT HOW DID
you know?” Anna asked, still amazed. “What made you think of that name?”

It was the next morning, and she and Scilla were sitting on the wall at the top of the stone steps outside The Marsh House. Anna had hardly been able to wait to see Scilla again and ask her.

“Did you like it?” Scilla asked eagerly. “Did you think it was pretty?”

“Yes – yes, it was lovely. But how did you know?” Anna asked again.

“Well, I’ll tell you. I wasn’t sure at first – I kept wondering – and then when I asked you if you knew my room I was sure. I was almost sure before – but there are some things I just can’t understand. I mean, well, look at this –” she leaned forward and pointed to a rusted iron ring that hung from the outside of the wall. “You see? It’s broken – rusted away – how could you have tied the boat to that? And yet there isn’t another anywhere. There isn’t anything else you could have used. I’ve looked everywhere.”