The Last Train Home

Chapter Forty-Five

Both Alec and I were glad when we could finally return to work on the treehouse. Although he could have worked on it whilst I was off for the week, he had kept his promise and spent the week wandering around the village or riding Duchess to the clearing and back. Since we were both off for that week, it surprised me that he didn't come and annoy me earlier, although he said he didn't because he wanted to give me a chance to recover from the bruises.

To be honest, I would rather have had him around - bruises or not - just so I had someone other than Jonathan and Barbara to talk to. There were only so many conversations I could have about the weather or what we would be having for supper before I started to lose my mind. Not even the jigsaw worked as a proficient distraction from the boredom that came with not working on the treehouse.

Our first day back, we resumed our task of hammering down the floor planks which gave us a decent spot to stand when we started to construct the rest of it. We had no idea how to approach the walls since there wasn't much to attack them too, but we were determined to finish the treehouse no matter what, even if it did become a little dangerous. For Alec, anyway.

"Are you sure you don't want me to do it? You're probably better off on this side," I said, readjusting my grip on the plank so it didn't wobble.

"No, I've got this," Alec said, "you need to have more faith in me."

"It's a little hard to do that when you've almost fallen off the ladder three times and that was before you had to wield a hammer at the same time."

"It's fine. I'm the master of multitasking."

"Coming from someone who can't walk and talk at the same time and just stops in the middle of the path," I muttered, just loud enough so that Alec wouldn't be able to hear me.

"Just hold the plank straight."

"Yes, sir."

Alec snorted behind the plank of wood I had been holding, which made it a little harder to hold it straight whilst laughing. Alec didn't appear to notice and I heard him shuffling the stack of nails around until he found the one he wanted. He had always been rather particular about which nails he used; I never understood it. Then again, there were a lot of things about Alec that I never understood.

I stood there, holding onto the piece of wood with small splinters digging into the palm of my hand as I waited for Alec to find the nail he wanted to use. How he managed to do anything remained a mystery to me since speed was not something he was no for no matter the context. If he went any slower, I was more than certain that it would look like he wasn't moving at all.

After a few minutes, I heard Alec readjust himself on the ladder and hoped that he would finally be getting on with the task he should have started at least ten minutes before. I bounced on the balls of my feet to try and stop them from falling asleep. Pins and needles had already set in once when Alec was trying to find the right positions to stand in on the ladder and having pins and needles whilst standing in a tree isn't exactly helpful.

"Alright, keep still or this could go horribly wrong."

"You having a hammer in your hand can cause things to go horribly wrong."

"Shut up."

I flexed my fingers out and tried to keep the plank of wood as still as possible between the palms of my hands. On the other side of the plank, Alec took a rather large breath and then started to hammer away. The sound echoed through my ears and the plank vibrated under my fingers with the force of the hammer against the nail. It felt like the plank of wood was trying to jump out of my hands every time Alec struck the nail but I fought to keep it as straight as possible so that we wouldn't end up with a wonky wall. We both wanted the treehouse to look perfect and we would struggle to do that if part of the wall is at a jaunty angle.