Read Online Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald - Free Book Online Page B

act as if I had no special connection to them at all.
    â€œHello,” I said.
    They both said, “How do you do, sir?” as if I was someone important.
    I said that I’d been sent by George Corporamore, even though being an imposter like that is something that can get you into quite a lot of trouble. I showed them the Blackbrick cart, which Kevin was now crouching behind, and I said that I was there to inform them that the whole plan about their daughter coming to the big house was a hundred percent genuine.
    I went on to say that I was sorry about the previous mix-up when Kevin had come on his own, and that of course we should have notified them in advance and how when I thought about it—ha, ha, ha—they must have been very suspicious about the whole arrangement.
    And they said they hadn’t meant to be uncooperative but that Kevin’s late-night arrival had seemed a little strange, and we all exchanged these friendly knowing looks with one another. I was more or less brilliant the way I lied about everything.
    They asked me if I had a letter, and by then I’d had a major crash course in thinking on my feet, so I said we’d arrange to have that sent on, and they nodded their heads as if they thought that was totally grand.
    Everyone in the house was rustling about and there were screeches and cries and other noises mingled together—a mixture of excitement and worry. The kids clustered around, still staring, making me feel kind of edgy.
    I did it, though. I pulled it off. It was stressful because of the pressure that comes from being a massive liar. For a while I thought the thudding in my head was never going to stop. But then she came to the door and it did stop. Everything did.
    I wondered why nobody had ever told me how ridiculously good-looking my gran was. I also wondered why she’d never told me about the squillion brothers and sisters she had. I must have had all these old relatives that she’d neversaid anything about as long as I’d known her, which is my whole life. When she was old, Granny Deedee was forever going on about how important family is, and how you need to stay close to your loved ones. So it seemed strange that she’d never said a single word about this whole gang-load of brothers and sisters and I was only finding out about them now.

    Before she left her house, she held each of the children’s faces and kissed them on the tops of their heads. Standing in the doorway, her dad blew his nose and her mum stroked her hair and buttoned up her thin coat. I tried to assure them that she was in safe hands and that everything was going to be fine, not that you can ever really guarantee anyone anything like that. I did my best to seem like I knew what I was talking about, but I have to admit that I found it difficult to say anything at all. It was mainly because of her face and how beautiful it was.
    Kevin was still hiding behind the cart. She walked with me backward down the little scraggy path, waving at her mum and dad and all those kids. I told them that there was no need for them to keep waving us off. I told them to go inside or they’d freeze. Eventually they closed the door. And then Kevin jumped out from his hiding place, and she nearly died. When she’d recovered, he took her by the hand, all gentle and tender. As she climbed up into the cart, her messy hair brushed against my face by accident and Icould feel her breath on my skin, and something inside me started to get warm.
    Kevin put the blanket around her, and he kept saying, “How are you?” and she kept saying, “I’m the finest. It’s so wonderful to see you.”
    They were obviously much too busy talking to each other to think about practical things like driving the cart, so I took the reins, and the horses started trotting back toward the Abbey.
    â€œKevin, I can’t believe it—you came back for me, just as you promised,” she said, and he