The Last Train Home

Chapter Thirty-One

Time didn't slow down.

Eva received another letter from Anthony just days after Dad's visit telling her he would be deployed in just a few days time. By the time the letter arrived, he had already left for France. I did my best to make her feel better, but it was hard because Dad hadn't been deployed yet and I had been able to see him before he was. She didn't get that luxury.

Planes continued to pass overhead and Alec had made some offhanded comments about potential plans for the Germans to try and invade. Of course, it was more of a rumour than anything else since his brothers had written explaining that they were going out on more drills than normal. They assumed the worst and I couldn't really blame them. In truth, I didn't like the direction the war had started to take and knew it would be a matter of time until Dad was deployed too.

Still, even if time didn't appear to slow down, work on the farm continued as usual. The sheep added to our workload and our first lambing season had started to approach so we were getting ready for a lot of added work. Jonathan said he would teach me the art of shearing the sheep when it came up, although I didn't think I would have the strength to hold the sheep down to stop it from hurting me.

"Can you go down to the stables and feed Jigsaw and Romeo for me? I need to check on the sheep for a second, they were creating a lot of noise in the early hours of the morning," Jonathan said as we finished up breakfast.

"Of course, do you think something's wrong with them?"

"I don't know, I doubt it, but I'm going to check just to be on the safe side. It's been a long time since we've had animals other than chickens and horses on this farm so I want to make sure that everything is as it should be."

"Right."

"You know what you're doing when it comes to feeding the horses?"

"I've seen you do it enough times."

"True enough, but you have to get the amounts just right."

"Leave her alone, Jonathan. I'm sure Sybil will be fine with the horses," Barbara said, shaking her head a little.

"Alright, alright." Jonathan held his hands up in mock defeat. "You don't have to gang up on me."

Barbara laughed and turned back to her breakfast without saying another word, although I could see the slight trace of a smile on her lips. She had definitely warmed to me and we even teamed up to annoy Jonathan on multiple occasions. I couldn't say we were friends, more friendly acquaintances which was more than enough for me. It would be weird if we became real friends, she was definitely more of a mother figure than a friend.

After breakfast, Jonathan headed up towards the sheep pen and I went down to the stable to feed the horses. Jigsaw and I were firm friends, but I still had my doubts about Romeo since he was such a big horse. I still didn't like to get too close to him if I could help it and spent all of my Jigsaw so I didn't have much knowledge or experience with Romeo. He still scared me, and I expect he always would.

Jigsaw whinnied when he saw me coming, although I think that was more to do with the promise of food than actually seeing me. I could hear him stomp his foot inside the stall which showed just how impatient he really was when it came to food.

"I'm coming," I said, laughing slightly.

I reached the stable and opened up Jigsaw's stall, taking his food bowl out of it and tucking it under my arm. Jigsaw watched me wall out of his stall with the bowl, lightly stroking his nose as I went, and moved towards Romeo's stall. The other horse watched me without making a noise, his eyes following me as I unlocked the stall to step inside.