The Woman in the Wood Read online

  Linda was surprised their grandmother hadn’t got a television, and even more surprised that Maisy and Duncan could survive without one. ‘I love it, everything from Rin Tin Tin, Lassie and Champion the Wonder Horse, to Emergency – Ward Ten, Wagon Train and quiz programmes like Take Your Pick!’ she said. ‘We can only see an hour of TV after prep at school, but we all go mad if we aren’t allowed to see Wagon Train. I always want to kiss the screen when Robert Horton, the man that plays Flint McCullough the scout, is on. He’s so dreamy.’

  ‘Duncan asked Grandmother if she’d like one, but she reacted like he’d asked her if she fancied eating human flesh,’ Maisy said with a giggle.

  Maisy was thinking about how she was going to cope without Linda on the last Sunday evening in August. She was sitting at the kitchen table trying to play patience. Sunday’s usual programme of Sing Something Simple was on the wireless, Janice was polishing silver and Duncan was sorting his stamp collection.

  Janice looked sharply from Maisy to Duncan. ‘You two don’t seem to have much to say to each other these days,’ she said. ‘I hope you haven’t fallen out?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Duncan said. ‘We’re fine, aren’t we, Maisy?’

  Maisy smiled at Janice. ‘You’ve got a silver polish smear on your cheek, Janice. I think we’re just growing up now and finding new friends.’

  ‘Well, that’s how it should be,’ Janice said. ‘I’ve got some things to do in my room. I’ll see you again before bedtime.’

  Maisy didn’t really know what Duncan had been up to recently because she was always with Linda, but now she felt a bit guilty. Once Janice had gone, she got up and went round the table to put her arm around her brother’s shoulder. ‘We are OK, aren’t we? I’d hate it if you were hurt because of Linda.’

  They had been so close for so long that she couldn’t quite understand why she was willing to leave her brother out of things now. She wished she knew how to tell him how good it was to do girls’ things with someone she really liked, or that she’d started to look at boys flirtatiously and loved it when they looked back at her admiringly. But she couldn’t.

  That didn’t mean she didn’t care about him.

  ‘It’s fine, Sis, I’m not hurt. If anything, I’m glad I can be free to go and lark about with boys. We’ve lived in each other’s pockets too much really, haven’t we?’

  Maisy sighed with relief.

  ‘Well, that’s good then. Now shall we play Chinese Chequers if you’ve finished sorting your stamps?’

  They played Chinese Chequers for a while, and Duncan said the boys in the village all thought he was a bit special because he came from London and lived with his stinking rich grandmother who had a housekeeper and a gardener. ‘I quite like them all looking up to me,’ he admitted. ‘It’s a lot better than the way boys treated me in London, calling me weird and sissy because I didn’t play football in the street.’

  ‘I know exactly what you mean,’ Maisy told him. ‘I had my share of name-calling too.’

  ‘But I sometimes feel a bit guilty that we’ve almost forgotten Mother because we’re enjoying being here,’ he said, looking troubled. ‘So I want to go and see her. I’ve saved up some pocket money so I might go just before we start lessons again.’

  Maisy suddenly realized that the quiet, thoughtful state of mind she’d noticed he’d been in occasionally wasn’t, as she had thought, because of her, but because of their mother. It made Maisy feel a little guilty herself that along with barely giving her brother a second thought for weeks, she almost never thought about her mother.

  ‘But we don’t know the address of where she is,’ she pointed out. ‘Don’t you think it’s odd that Father hasn’t given it to us? For all we know he might not be taking our letters to her. He might have just shut her away and forgotten about her.’

  ‘Funny you should say that. Grace Deville said something similar.’

  ‘You’ve seen her again? You didn’t say.’

  ‘Well, I’ve got in the habit of saying nothing because I don’t want the village boys going there. But I go to see her every week. She’s not easy to like, Maisy – almost always grumpy and so suspicious of people. But I think life has dealt her a poor hand. She wanted to know about Mother and I told her the truth because I know she won’t say anything to anyone. She went very quiet and when I asked her what was wrong she said, “Mind they don’t just keep her there.” I asked her what she meant, and she said her folks put her away because they said she was a danger to herself, and she was in the asylum for twelve years.’

  Maisy gasped. ‘What did she mean, she was a danger to herself?’

  Duncan shook his head. ‘She wouldn’t say. Maybe she tried to kill herself, like our mother.’

  ‘But she’s so strong and fearless living out there all alone. I can’t imagine her ever being so sad that she wanted to kill herself.’

  ‘That’s what I thought. I was dying to know more, and I wondered if she escaped from the asylum and had to hide in the woods so she wouldn’t be found. I think you can probably learn to do almost anything if you really need to.’

  ‘I’d die of starvation,’ Maisy said with a grin. ‘I might be able to light a fire, even make a rough shelter, but I couldn’t kill animals, skin them and eat them.’

  ‘I wanted her to tell me how she survived in the early days, if she built her little house herself and all that kind of thing, but she clammed up. I’ll have to wait till she’s ready to talk again.’

  There was something about the way Duncan said ‘ready to talk again’ that made Maisy suspect he’d gone out there many more times than he was letting on. She guessed he didn’t know much more about Grace than he’d already said, but it sounded as if he had definitely established a relationship with her. Maisy had noticed he had a way with older women; at home in London he used to talk to the lady next door, and he chatted easily with women in the village shops here.

  ‘Why don’t we write a joint letter to Father, saying we’d like to write directly to Mother and need her address?’ she suggested. ‘If he doesn’t give it to us then we’ll know he’s got something to hide.’

  ‘Good thinking.’ Duncan grinned. ‘And now I’m going to thrash you at this game because you aren’t concentrating.’

  The following morning Maisy awoke to find the sun was already very warm, with the promise of a hot day ahead.

  Leaping out of bed, she pulled out her favourite pink gingham sundress which she hadn’t had occasion to wear since the previous summer. But to her surprise it was too tight where it buttoned down the front of the bodice, along with being a little too short. In fact, it was so tight it gaped when she buttoned it. All at once she realized this was because her breasts had begun to grow at last. They were only very small as yet, but it was a start.

  Tossing the sundress aside, she put on a pair of blue shorts and a blouse, then without even brushing her hair she rushed down to tell Janice her news.

  ‘I can’t remember being that pleased when mine started sprouting.’ Janice laughed. ‘But then I was in a convent and the nuns made us keep our vests on, even in the bath. They said you couldn’t be naked in front of God. But I suppose you thought you were going to be flat-chested forever, so no wonder you look like a dog with three tails now.’

  ‘Yes.’ Maisy beamed. ‘I thought I was a freak.’

  ‘Well, you aren’t, and I suppose I need to tackle your grandmother about getting you some new clothes that do fit you.’

  Maisy got the nine o’clock bus to Lyndhurst that morning as it was too hot to ride her bike. When she arrived Mrs Evans told her she was driving into Bournemouth to visit an old friend who was there on holiday. ‘You two can come with me and I’ll drop you off at the beach, if you like,’ she suggested.

  Maisy really admired her friend’s mother. She was tall and willowy, her dark hair swept back into a sleek chignon, and with a complexion like alabaster. She was wearing a simple blue shirt dress with silver heeled sandals, and to Maisy�
��s mind she looked like a film star.

  Both girls were delighted, doing a gleeful little waltz around the kitchen.

  Mrs Evans laughed with them. ‘Run along and get your stuff together, Linda. Can you lend Maisy a bathing costume?’

  Maisy wasn’t sure the red costume Linda picked out would fit her – it looked awfully small – but there was no time to try it on as Mrs Evans was sitting in the car waiting for them.

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ Linda reassured her. ‘You’re tiny, I don’t know why you think otherwise.’

  ‘I’ll pick you up at six o’clock outside Beales Department Store,’ Mrs Evans said as they approached the already bustling promenade. She pulled up to let them out and handed them each a two shilling piece to buy some lunch. ‘Please behave in a ladylike manner and take care in the sea,’ she added.

  Maisy thought Linda was so lucky to have such a wonderful mother. Even when she gave out a warning like that, she only sounded caring, not fierce.

  As the older woman drove off, the two girls exchanged gleeful grins.

  ‘What first?’ Linda asked. ‘The beach or a walk along the prom to see who’s about?’

  Maisy knew Linda meant boys; she was always saying the ones who lived in Lyndhurst were either gormless louts or prissy grammar school boys. Up to this moment Maisy had been scared of showing any interest in boys, but in view of discovering she was now about to sprout real breasts, she felt bolder.

  ‘A walk along the prom,’ she said. ‘We could hand-pick some company.’

  Linda giggled. ‘I could’ve kissed Mummy this morning when she said she’d drop us here. A beautiful day, you for company and a selection of boys to flirt with – what could be better?’

  The girls found so much to laugh about. First there were the two pimply-faced boys who followed them along the prom, then when they’d given them the slip by going into a shoe shop and nipping out the back way, they attracted the attention of two even uglier boys. They screamed with laughter at these two diligently following them, as if they believed the girls would turn and offer to kiss them.

  ‘Why do they do it?’ Maisy asked. ‘Do they hope we might walk to some secluded place where they can leap on us?’

  Linda giggled. ‘They don’t think,’ she said. ‘They’re so uncertain about themselves all they can do is follow girls around. If we turned and spoke to them they’d probably run off in fright. We should really feel sorry for them.’

  ‘Or we could walk really fast and wear them out.’

  ‘That would wear us out too,’ Linda said. ‘So it’s into another shop again to lose them.’

  After losing their admirers, the girls decided to go on the beach and sunbathe. They changed into their bathing costumes in the toilets and to Maisy’s delight her borrowed costume fitted perfectly.

  ‘Looks better on you than it ever did on me,’ Linda said, looking at her friend appraisingly. ‘You must keep it, it’s far too small for me now.’

  It was heavenly to lie on the beach on their towels, with the smell of seaweed, the seagulls wheeling overhead and the sea pounding on the shore. Maisy found herself dozing off and when she saw Linda was already asleep she let herself follow suit.

  The girls woke with a start at water dripping on to their faces. Leaping up they saw it was Alan Walker and Steven Carter, grinning like Cheshire Cats. Linda had introduced Maisy to these two boys in Lyndhurst after their first dancing lesson; she’d admitted later that they were the only two boys in the village that she liked. That particular evening Maisy had to go straight home, but Linda told her the following day that they had walked her back to her house.

  Both boys had deep suntans. ‘We hoped we might run into you in the village,’ Steven said. ‘We went away camping just after we last saw you. If we hadn’t, we might have sat on the doorstep of the dancing class till you came out, so we were really surprised to come across you here.’

  ‘We do a great deal more than just go to dancing lessons,’ Linda said and Maisy noticed she was striking a pose, stomach sucked in, one leg out in front of the other, and running her fingers through her hair.

  ‘Such as?’ Alan asked.

  Maisy had thought on her first meeting with these two that they were nice-looking. Steven was tallest, probably six foot, with dark hair and wide blue eyes. Alan had light brown hair streaked blond by the sun, a dimple in his chin and a mischievous grin.

  ‘We like the theatre, roller skating, cycling and netball, and Maisy plays the piano.’

  Maisy had a job not to laugh. Her friend had plucked those interests out of the air. To her knowledge, Linda had never mentioned liking netball, and Maisy had always hated it. She did play the piano, but Linda had never heard her.

  ‘We’re very keen readers too,’ Maisy threw in. ‘What interests do you two have?’

  Alan’s eyes flickered over her body in her red bathing costume. ‘We like swimming, we were just going in. Come with us?’

  Both boys began stripping off; beneath their trousers they were wearing swimming trunks.

  Linda had said earlier she didn’t want to do more than paddle because she didn’t want to get her hair wet, but that was now forgotten.

  ‘Last one into the sea buys ice creams all round,’ she said, and with that darted off down the beach.

  Maisy ran after her, and as they dashed into the sea, it was so cold that she shrieked. The boys reached them just a few seconds later, and Alan took Maisy’s hand and led her into deeper water.

  She sensed that because she had squealed at the cold water Alan assumed she couldn’t swim very well, if at all. Maybe he was leading her out into deep water in the hopes she would get scared and cling on to him. But Maisy was a strong swimmer, so she let go of his hand and struck out in a fast crawl.

  About two hundred yards out, she turned and trod water to see if Alan was following her. He was but it looked as if he was struggling. She swam back to him.

  ‘Gosh, you’re good,’ he panted out. ‘You went off like a rocket.’

  ‘I love swimming,’ she said. ‘But it looks to me that you’ve come far enough. We’d better go back.’

  It occurred to her that maybe swimming hadn’t been such a good idea. Her hair would be a mess now, and though she had never cared that much about what she looked like before, suddenly she did.

  Back in the shallows they held hands and jumped waves like a couple of small children. Steven and Linda were sitting on the beach chatting, with their feet in the sea.

  ‘Are you just here on holiday?’ Alan asked her. ‘Only I hadn’t seen you before that night when you’d been dancing.’

  They walked along in the shallow water chatting, and Maisy explained that she and her twin brother had come to stay with their grandmother in Burley and that they had a private tutor.

  ‘My father hopes we’ll both go to university,’ she said with a grin. ‘But I’m not sure I’d like that.’

  ‘Steven and I are going to Bristol University in October,’ Alan said. ‘I want to be a vet, and that’s the best place. Steve is doing law. We can’t wait to get there.’

  Maisy didn’t know why she should suddenly feel sad. That was a stupid reaction when she’d only known him for five minutes.

  ‘A vet, how wonderful,’ she exclaimed. ‘But doesn’t it take years to qualify? Like being a doctor?’

  ‘Yes, seven years,’ he said. ‘But there’s nothing else I want to do. I’ve wanted it since I was about six. What about you? Have you got some grand plan?’

  ‘I told my grandmother I wanted to be a scientist once, but I only said it to try and impress her. I haven’t a clue about what I really want to do. My brother has a new scheme every week – an explorer, a test pilot, always something dramatic. But I don’t know about me. I worry sometimes that I’ve got no ambition. Maybe I could teach.’

  ‘You could be a model, you’re very pretty,’ he said.

  Maisy glowed at the compliment. ‘Thank you, kind sir,’ she said with a giggle.

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nbsp; It was the very best of days. They ate fish and chips, swam some more and lounged on the beach, happy to just chat.

  Both the boys had sisters. Perhaps that was why they were comfortable talking to girls; certainly the conversation never lagged. But suddenly it was five thirty and the girls had to go and meet Linda’s mother.

  ‘Why don’t you join the dancing class?’ Linda suggested to the boys. ‘I know it’s only on for another two weeks but it’s good fun. I’m sure you could pick it up quickly.’

  ‘As long as we can dance with you two,’ Steven said. ‘If you have to be at Beales for six o’clock, we’d better go now.’

  Alan took Maisy’s hand as they made their way to the big department store, but just before they reached it, he pulled her into a shop doorway to kiss her.

  Maisy had always been scared that when eventually someone did kiss her, she’d freeze with fear because she didn’t know what to do. But to her delight it felt very natural and lovely. His mouth was soft and warm, he held her face between his two hands and the tip of his tongue just teased her lips in a way that gave her the funniest tightening feeling inside her.

  But they had to run then to catch up with Linda and Steven.

  Mrs Evans was waiting in her car. It seemed she knew the boys and their parents and offered them a lift back too. Linda sat in the front, and Maisy in the back between the two boys. Alan continued to hold her hand, stroking it with his thumb in a way that made her heart beat a little faster.

  ‘We’ll come to dancing on Tuesday, shall we?’ Steven asked. ‘It’s at six, isn’t it?’

  ‘Can’t come soon enough for me,’ Alan whispered in Maisy’s ear.

  Mrs Evans talked to the boys about their university places for the remainder of the journey home. It was quite obvious that she approved of them and would even welcome Steven courting her daughter. But Maisy wondered what her grandmother’s reaction would be. Somehow she didn’t think she’d approve of her granddaughter having a boyfriend.

  Alan walked Maisy to the bus stop once they got back to Lyndhurst. The High Street was crowded with holidaymakers, and although he put his arms around her as they waited in the queue and kissed her nose and forehead, it wasn’t an appropriate place for anything more.