The Last Train Home

Chapter Thirteen

Even though I would have been fine working on the farm, Mr and Mrs Goodwin had other ideas.

Before I had even woken up on Monday, Mr Goodwin had ridden down to the Thompson farm to ask if Alec would be free for the day. He had arranged with Mr Thompson that Alec would take his horse to our farm after breakfast so Alec could show me around some of the farms and give me a riding lesson at the same time. Although I did appreciate the offer and didn't want to turn down another riding lesson, in more of an open space, I didn't think I needed to know my way around the other farms.

Mrs Goodwin had promised to take my letter down to the Post Office whilst I was out with Alec which meant it would only be a week until Mum got it. I hoped she would read the letter and immediately send a telegram or something to let them know that I could go home. There would be no need for me to know my way around the village or the surrounding farms if I wasn't going to be there long enough for it to matter.

Still, when I found out about it I could hardly back out since the wheels had already been set in motion. Instead, I had to suck it up and come to terms with the fact that I would be spending my day on the back of a horse in the middle of nowhere rather than doing something useful. Mum had pretty much drilled into me that if I wasn't doing something useful, then it wasn't worth doing and it was a philosophy that I had lived with. Spending the day riding a horse with Alec didn't feel all that useful.

"We'll have to get you some more pairs of slacks," Mrs Goodwin said when I emerged from my room. "You only have one pair and with all the work you've been doing on the farm, they barely get a chance to be washed. I'll see if I can pick some up in the village, it shouldn't be too hard to guess the size."

"It'll be a good investment, those have got mud on them," Mr Goodwin gestured to the light splatter off mud up the legs off my slacks.

"That was your fault, you put the bucket down too hard yesterday and it soaked me."

"Excuses, excuses." He laughed. "Those will do for today since you'll be out on a horse, but for a life on a farm, you'll need more than one pair."

"My mum is going to love that, she was reluctant enough to buy me these."

"I'm sure she won't mind, not when she finds out about all the work you've been doing for us."

"If you want to eat something before Alec gets here, I suggest you get a move on. Although knowing that boy, he'll be here at mid-day," Mrs Goodwin said, shaking her head and glancing at the now clean windows.

I laughed and slid into my usual seat at the breakfast table before Mrs Goodwin slid me a plate of scrambled eggs alongside some slightly charred toast. Every now and then, Mrs Goodwin would glance over to the window and stare out onto the farm. Since we had cleaned the windows on Saturday, Mrs Goodwin sometimes just stops and stares out the window because she could. It certainly made the house a lot brighter now that we had sunlight streaming in rather than the strange yellowish glow from the electric lights.

We ate breakfast in silence with Mr Goodwin occasionally turning the pages of the newspaper to catch up on the latest news from the war. The paper said that the Polish were still putting up a fight against the Germans, but it didn't look good for them. Still, the fight was on the Continent and didn't look likely to travel here if our Navy had anything to do with it. Even with young men signing up to fight, life still went on.

After breakfast, I went down to the stables with Mr Goodwin so we could tack up Jigsaw for my adventure out with Alec. We had managed to squeeze in a brief ride the previous day, once the windows had been cleaned and they had been given the nod of approval from Mrs Goodwin. When we tacked up Jigsaw, Romeo kept knocking on the door of the stall to show that he wasn't pleased that Jigsaw was being taken out and he had to stay inside. Again.