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rainbowfic2021-02-21 10:51 am
thisbluespirit) wrote in rainbowfic2021-02-21 10:51 am
Entry tags:
Ecru #20 [Divide & Rule]
Name: Out on a Limb
Story: Divide & Rule/Heroes of the Revolution
Colors: Ecru #20 (resume)
Supplies and Styles: Eraser
Word Count: 3245
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some mild animal peril (but no animal harm!)
Notes: 1933; Same Age AU cntd. Edward Iveson, Julia Graves, Caroline Aldridge, Nancy Long.
Summary: Julia goes to great lengths and gets nowhere fast.
***
Julia walked up the hill, hoping to cool her temper out in the air. Nancy had decided to hold a small school reunion at her aunt’s house while she was away and had cajoled Julia into coming along. Julia had thought perhaps everything would be better now they were grown up, but all she’d found so far was that people like Jane Allison and Harriet Robbins did not improve with age. She wished she’d turned Nan down, but now she was here she’d have to stick it out to the end.
“Julia,” said a voice behind her.
She turned to see Edward Iveson heading towards her across the field. Somehow she always seemed to wind up putting her foot in it with Ned. She’d thrown his book into the pond years ago, and then she’d stopped him from chasing down some girl on the train at the end of their last school term and a dozen other things she regretted. Julia bit back a sigh. She still liked Edward. She could put him out of her mind quite happily, but whenever they met again, she only wished he’d like her back.
“Do you mind if I join you?” said Edward, falling into step alongside her. “I’ve got a favour to ask, and, more importantly, I’m under strict instructions from Nan to make things up with you. She tells me I’m unfair to you.”
Julia’s heart beat unsteadily, though she refused to get her hopes up. “I am a wanton destroyer of books,” she reminded him.
“True,” said Ned, and then grinned. “I seem to remember being pretty obnoxious myself, though. Shall we call a truce?” He held out his hand.
Julia took it. She could have danced. “Done!”
“What happened to the rest of the party?” Edward asked, frowning around him as if Nancy and her other former classmates might leap out of the hedgerow.
Julia pulled down the corners of her mouth. “Oh, I left them behind. They don’t like me much, either. I should never have let Nan talk me into this.”
“Well,” said Edward, skirting round that topic, “it wasn’t them I wanted to talk to you about. Do you remember Caroline Aldridge who went to your school?”
Julia did, vaguely. “Quiet, pretty, cries a lot?”
“I don’t know about that,” Edward said, stiffening. “The thing is, she lives in the next village, and it’d be nice of you to invite her to join your party.”
“Isn’t that up to Nan?”
“Oh, she sent an invite over when I asked, but Caroline – Miss Aldridge seemed rather worried about whether or not she’d be welcome. You could persuade her, couldn’t you?”
Julia had to work to keep up with his long strides. Her heart sinking down into her stomach didn’t help much. Ned wasn’t interested in her – as usual. He was too busy thinking about someone who was nice and quiet and pretty and never threw books into ponds. It didn’t matter really, of course. If it made her feel miserable, that was pure silliness. “I expect so,” she said.
“You’re a brick,” said Ned and squeezed her shoulder.
Julia returned from the next village with Caroline Aldridge duly in tow. It ought to have been good to have someone else in the house who didn’t hate her, but Julia had been sorely tempted to push her in a ditch halfway over. Not that that would have done anything except made Edward hate her again – and quite right, too.
She led the way into the kitchen to find that while she’d been gone, one of Jane’s brothers had come over with two friends, and now they and Jane and Harriet were peering into a small cage at a pet rat belonging to one of the said friends.
“It won’t bite, will it?” said Harriet.
Jane straightened up. “Honestly, Harriet. It’s perfectly tame.”
“I don’t know – those tails.” Harriet gave a dramatic shudder and put her hand on Jane’s brother Will’s arm.
Julia managed not to roll her eyes at that and stepped forward to re-introduce Caroline to them before washing her hands of all of them and going in search of Nancy.
That evening was no better than the rest of the weekend. Julia didn’t enjoy the addition of Caroline, or Jane’s brothers to the mix, even if it diluted some of the original awfulness and even Nancy was on edge because she thought the men might start getting rowdy and she didn’t want trouble in Aunt Daisy’s house. She needn’t have worried on that account. They mostly wound up playing childish games, except in the middle when Fred’s rat escaped and no one could find it. Then, having got into a hunting mode, they switched to playing Sardines, and hoped that the rat would turn up in the process.
Julia, by the time it was her turn to hide, was quite happy to shut herself in a cupboard. Not that Edward flirted as obviously with Caroline as Harriet and Will did with each other, but he had found an excuse to be close by her most of the evening, being very attentive. It shouldn’t have bothered Julia; it wasn’t anything to do with her – but it did. Low level misery settled in the pit of her stomach and wouldn’t shift. Closing the cupboard door, she sighed in relief and hoped not to be found until the party was over. Her prayers were not answered. It was less than a minute before Caroline opened the door and stifled a small cry of surprise before slipping in beside Julia.
“Oh, well done,” said Julia, and then tried to pretend she wasn’t being petty and consoling herself with the fact that Caroline wasn’t with Edward, when the worst possible thing happened: Edward discovered them and joined them inside. He’d probably been keeping an eye on Caroline, drat him.
The three of them remained in the closet for what seemed like hours. Julia pressed herself against the shelves and tried to make out jam labels in the gloom in an effort to distract herself from Edward and Caroline’s whispered conversation.
There was a merciful pause for some minutes, but then Edward coughed, and said, “I wondered if I could take you out some time. If you liked.”
Julia knocked two pots of plum jam off the shelf and cursed under her breath as she hastened to catch them. She fixed her attention on replacing them in precisely the same spot again while Caroline hesitated and dithered eventually said that she wasn’t really sure.
“Oh,” said Julia, who had had enough. She jumped back from the shelves, cannoning into the other two. “Fred’s rat!” She crossed her fingers, but honestly, it had to count as a white lie. It was better than throwing pots of jam at them both, which was she felt was the only other possible response to having a front row seat to this terrible half-hearted courtship.
At Caroline’s scream, the rest of the house came running. Julia wasn’t sorry.
“Heavens, who died?” said Nancy, sitting down opposite Julia at the breakfast table the next morning.
Julia stopped scowling into her porridge and looked up. “Oh, nothing. I didn’t sleep well, that’s all. What time did everyone else get to bed?”
“Don’t ask,” said Nancy. She gathered up the nearby abandoned bowls – those catching the train had had first serving. “Remind me never to do anything like this again.”
Edward walked in. “I’ve seen everyone off. Jane and company in the car – Mary and Harriet safely onto the train, so it’s just us now. Don’t look like that, Nan. We’ll get this place tidied up – and you know Aunt Daisy. It’ll be neater than it has been for years before we’re done.”
Julia swallowed her last mouthful of porridge and, out of the corner of her eye, saw something moving by the door. She put her spoon down and turned as slowly and as carefully as she could in the chair. Fred’s rat! They’d all forgotten about it, even Fred.
She flung herself forward, but it ran, the tip of its tail ghosting her fingers as it darted along the hallway. “Damn!” said Julia. Nancy and Ned were watching her in bemusement, but she didn’t have time to explain. Someone had to get that poor animal before it was too late.
She tried to be stealthier, following it up the stairs, but every time she pounced, it slipped out of her grasp and went on up the next flight. The third floor was it, though. She’d have to catch it now. Julia shut the door to the stairs behind her and shut all the doors to the other rooms, once she’d checked them for a frightened pet rat – and then was just in time to see it scurrying up the ladder to the loft.
“Who left that open?” she said. “Drat them – and the stupid rat!”
Only a section of the attic had boards laid down, so Julia had to make her way across the rafters as carefully as she could, not wanting to plunge her foot down through the plaster. It wasn’t dark at least – there was a small gabled window at either end.
“Come on,” said Julia. “Over here – I’ll give you cheese or whatever it is that rats actually eat, I promise. You won’t like it if I leave you loose in this house. People don’t take kindly to unexpected rats, I’m afraid.”
“Julia!”
She turned on her knees, awkwardly, but Edward wasn’t yet in view, presumably standing at the bottom of the ladder on the floor below. “Shh! I’m trying to talk sense into a rat.”
“Good luck with that. Look, I’ve told Nan to bring some cheese up, so if you keep quiet until –”
Julia spotted the rat, up on the narrow window sill and at the same moment, the crack in the bottom left pane. “Oh, no,” she said, hurrying forward, paying no need to whatever it was Edward was saying. “No, no, no – drat you! You’ve got no sense.”
“What are you doing now?” said Edward, his head emerging through the trapdoor behind her.
Julia tugged at the stiff catch on the window. “Does this open?”
“No,” said Edward, his tone altering sharply. “Julia, don’t you dare even think about –!”
The window gave and Julia climbed out onto the ledge. Above her, sitting on the gabled roof, was the rat. She could see its tail hanging down. Too caught up in the chase now to be sensible, she hauled herself up onto the roof and cupped the rat in her hands. She could feel its tiny heart pounding against her. “It’s all right,” she told it, pulling it in close. “I’m here to rescue you.”
“Julia,” said Edward from somewhere immediately beneath her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She raised her head and finally took in her own predicament. The garden seemed an awfully long way down, and she couldn’t possibly climb back without letting go of the rat.
“Julia!”
She swallowed. “I’m all right. Ned, if you can take the rat, I expect I can get back down.”
“Don’t move,” he said. “Not an inch, Julia! Stay exactly where you are. I’ll fetch – I don’t know – a box or something for that thing, and rope, maybe – something we can tie around you in case. Promise me you won’t try anything until I get back.”
Julia pressed herself back towards the sloping roof as it met the gable, and had to admit he had a point. “Yes, yes. Do that. I’ll stay put, I promise.”
He must have gone then, since he said nothing more. Julia tried to focus on the wider panorama over the village instead of thinking of the more immediate view down to the ground, but it wasn’t easy. Her hands around the rat grew sweaty, but she kept it huddled in against her. If it escaped again, it would have to live up here with the birds.
“Bloody hell, Julia,” said Nancy, poking her head out the window. “What possessed you?”
“I’ve got the rat,” Julia said. It was simpler than trying to explain the mix of pig-headed determination and anger with Edward that had propelled her into her current precarious position.
“All right,” said Nancy. She withdrew and then, after a few more moments, Julia heard Edward’s voice and the two of them arguing about something. She could only hear Nancy’s half of the conversation clearly: “Not like that – here, let me.” And then: “I don’t care. You’re taller. You’re going to have to.”
Shortly after, Edward reappeared, and climbed up onto the window ledge. He stood slowly and reached up to Julia. He had cord wound around his waist, the end trailing back behind him. “All right?” he said.
Julia nodded. “Yes. Are you ready for the rat?”
“God,” he said, and managed to look paler than usual. “Yes. Hand the horrid thing over.”
She hugged it to her. “It’s not horrid, it’s sweet. It’s not its fault Fred didn’t bring it up to behave properly.”
“It’s the tails,” said Edward vaguely, rather as Harriet had, and then as he reached up, Julia leant over and carefully transferred the rodent from her hold to his. Edward gave a short, cut-off sound, but set his mouth and then lowered himself down to hand the rat to Nancy, waiting safely inside.
That done, he stretched up again, to pass Julia a length of cord.
“Tie it around your waist,” he instructed. “Wind it round twice – it’s not as thick as I’d like. Can you do a proper knot?”
Julia, having her hands free to grasp the decorative tiling on the top of the gable roof, was now at leisure to glare at him. “I can, yes, thank you.”
“You’d better,” he said. “Because if you fall –”
Julia closed her eyes momentarily. “Ned. I know.”
“I’m sorry. Are you done? Pull on it – be certain.”
“Yes, yes. I am.”
“Do you think you can climb back down? I’ll be waiting to grab you.”
Julia considered. It wasn’t very far back down to the ledge. “Yes. Hang on.” She shifted round and then slid down the sloping tiles to the window ledge. Once she was there, Edward caught hold of her arm from inside the attic, and then helped her back through the window.
She dropped into a trembling, breathless heap on the boards by the window. Edward watched her as he untied the cord from his waist.
“Is the rat safe?”
Edward’s mouth tightened. “The rat is fine, yes. The damned rat would have been fine without you trying to kill yourself!”
“I couldn’t leave the poor thing up there.” Julia tried to release the cord around her, but her fingers were shaking too much.
Edward’s frown grew. He leant forward, batted her hands away, and set to work on the knot, his fingers tickling her side in the process. “I didn’t say we’d have left it there. I told you I’d brought cheese. If you’d waited, we could have put some on the window sill and caught it that way without any risk to anyone. Next time think before you do something so reckless!”
Julia swallowed. She felt sick. “Where is it?”
“Can’t you think about anything else?” Then he released her from the cord and relented. “Nan’s got it in a box downstairs. It seems fine! Come on. We should go and find her – let her know you’re safe.”
Julia shook her head. “I’m sorry. I c-can’t move yet.”
“Idiot,” Edward said, but in a far softer tone than previously. He crouched beside her. “Come on,” he said, putting a hand to her arm. “Buck up. I’ll help you, and then you can have a cup of tea. I’m sure Nan will have put the kettle on ready.”
Julia blinked away tears of reaction. She already felt steadier, and a cup of tea did sound nice. She nodded.
“I don’t know,” he said, drawing back. “So much bravery wasted on a rat!”
Julia gave a shaky laugh, warmed despite herself at the backhanded compliment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to let it get away.”
“I know,” he said, and helped her navigate the way back to the trapdoor and the ladder, watching her down it before following. “Come on, you ridiculous girl. Tea!”
By the time they reached the kitchen, Julia was feeling much more herself. “Why was the ladder down, anyway?”
“I was putting the camp bed back up there,” said Edward. “I didn’t expect you and a rat to go dashing up it and trying to throw yourselves out the window. Next time you’re around, I’ll keep it firmly shut and bolted, I promise. Talking of which, I’d better finish putting things away. You’ll be all right now, won’t you?”
Julia nodded, but her mood dropped again as she watched him run back up the stairs. She sighed and headed into the kitchen.
“Tea,” said Nancy, presenting her with a cup at the door. “I thought you’d need it.”
Julia took it and sat down at the table. The wobbly feeling came back over her in a wave. Her throat closed up and tears threatened, but she stared hard at the liquid and refused to let them fall.
“What were you thinking?” said Nancy, sitting down opposite her with her own cup and saucer. She pushed a tin of shortbread across the table.
Julia took a sip of sweet, milky tea. “I wasn’t.”
“Did Ned say something?”
Julia grimaced. “No, not really. I was annoyed with him – but it doesn’t matter.”
“You like him,” said Nancy and at Julia’s hasty shake of her head, she added, “Don’t worry, I won’t say a thing. I’ve known for ages. He did apologise to you at least, didn’t he?”
Julia’s heart sank steadily. “Yes, yes, he did. And then he more or less asked me to ask Caroline Aldridge out for him. Except then he did that himself when we were all stuck in the stupid closet together.”
“He’s an idiot,” said Nancy, stretching out her hand over the table to close it around Julia’s. “Don’t waste any tears on him.”
“He’s not.”
“He prefers Caroline Aldridge to you,” Nancy said. “Like I said – an idiot, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Anyway, you’re not as big a fool as me. At least Ned’s a decent sort underneath. But Jane! Was she always that vile?”
Julia drank more tea. “I’m afraid so.”
“There you go,” said Nancy. “Fools both of us. I’ll do my best to find someone better than Jane, and you put my silly cousin out of your head. He’s afraid of rats and heights, you know. Not very heroic. I thought I was going to have to push him out of the window earlier.”
“Nan!”
She shrugged. “It’s true. Not worth it, Julia. Find someone else. Someone better.”
“I’ll do my best,” said Julia, but her mind strayed treacherously back to the way it had felt when he’d put a hand on her arm and been kind up in the attic, and how he had climbed out of the window for her, despite disliking heights and rats. But it was Caroline he wanted, Caroline he’d held hands with in the cupboard, Caroline he was thinking of probably even now, and Nancy’s advice was sound. Time to let go of childish dreams and move on.
***
Story: Divide & Rule/Heroes of the Revolution
Colors: Ecru #20 (resume)
Supplies and Styles: Eraser
Word Count: 3245
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some mild animal peril (but no animal harm!)
Notes: 1933; Same Age AU cntd. Edward Iveson, Julia Graves, Caroline Aldridge, Nancy Long.
Summary: Julia goes to great lengths and gets nowhere fast.
***
Julia walked up the hill, hoping to cool her temper out in the air. Nancy had decided to hold a small school reunion at her aunt’s house while she was away and had cajoled Julia into coming along. Julia had thought perhaps everything would be better now they were grown up, but all she’d found so far was that people like Jane Allison and Harriet Robbins did not improve with age. She wished she’d turned Nan down, but now she was here she’d have to stick it out to the end.
“Julia,” said a voice behind her.
She turned to see Edward Iveson heading towards her across the field. Somehow she always seemed to wind up putting her foot in it with Ned. She’d thrown his book into the pond years ago, and then she’d stopped him from chasing down some girl on the train at the end of their last school term and a dozen other things she regretted. Julia bit back a sigh. She still liked Edward. She could put him out of her mind quite happily, but whenever they met again, she only wished he’d like her back.
“Do you mind if I join you?” said Edward, falling into step alongside her. “I’ve got a favour to ask, and, more importantly, I’m under strict instructions from Nan to make things up with you. She tells me I’m unfair to you.”
Julia’s heart beat unsteadily, though she refused to get her hopes up. “I am a wanton destroyer of books,” she reminded him.
“True,” said Ned, and then grinned. “I seem to remember being pretty obnoxious myself, though. Shall we call a truce?” He held out his hand.
Julia took it. She could have danced. “Done!”
“What happened to the rest of the party?” Edward asked, frowning around him as if Nancy and her other former classmates might leap out of the hedgerow.
Julia pulled down the corners of her mouth. “Oh, I left them behind. They don’t like me much, either. I should never have let Nan talk me into this.”
“Well,” said Edward, skirting round that topic, “it wasn’t them I wanted to talk to you about. Do you remember Caroline Aldridge who went to your school?”
Julia did, vaguely. “Quiet, pretty, cries a lot?”
“I don’t know about that,” Edward said, stiffening. “The thing is, she lives in the next village, and it’d be nice of you to invite her to join your party.”
“Isn’t that up to Nan?”
“Oh, she sent an invite over when I asked, but Caroline – Miss Aldridge seemed rather worried about whether or not she’d be welcome. You could persuade her, couldn’t you?”
Julia had to work to keep up with his long strides. Her heart sinking down into her stomach didn’t help much. Ned wasn’t interested in her – as usual. He was too busy thinking about someone who was nice and quiet and pretty and never threw books into ponds. It didn’t matter really, of course. If it made her feel miserable, that was pure silliness. “I expect so,” she said.
“You’re a brick,” said Ned and squeezed her shoulder.
Julia returned from the next village with Caroline Aldridge duly in tow. It ought to have been good to have someone else in the house who didn’t hate her, but Julia had been sorely tempted to push her in a ditch halfway over. Not that that would have done anything except made Edward hate her again – and quite right, too.
She led the way into the kitchen to find that while she’d been gone, one of Jane’s brothers had come over with two friends, and now they and Jane and Harriet were peering into a small cage at a pet rat belonging to one of the said friends.
“It won’t bite, will it?” said Harriet.
Jane straightened up. “Honestly, Harriet. It’s perfectly tame.”
“I don’t know – those tails.” Harriet gave a dramatic shudder and put her hand on Jane’s brother Will’s arm.
Julia managed not to roll her eyes at that and stepped forward to re-introduce Caroline to them before washing her hands of all of them and going in search of Nancy.
That evening was no better than the rest of the weekend. Julia didn’t enjoy the addition of Caroline, or Jane’s brothers to the mix, even if it diluted some of the original awfulness and even Nancy was on edge because she thought the men might start getting rowdy and she didn’t want trouble in Aunt Daisy’s house. She needn’t have worried on that account. They mostly wound up playing childish games, except in the middle when Fred’s rat escaped and no one could find it. Then, having got into a hunting mode, they switched to playing Sardines, and hoped that the rat would turn up in the process.
Julia, by the time it was her turn to hide, was quite happy to shut herself in a cupboard. Not that Edward flirted as obviously with Caroline as Harriet and Will did with each other, but he had found an excuse to be close by her most of the evening, being very attentive. It shouldn’t have bothered Julia; it wasn’t anything to do with her – but it did. Low level misery settled in the pit of her stomach and wouldn’t shift. Closing the cupboard door, she sighed in relief and hoped not to be found until the party was over. Her prayers were not answered. It was less than a minute before Caroline opened the door and stifled a small cry of surprise before slipping in beside Julia.
“Oh, well done,” said Julia, and then tried to pretend she wasn’t being petty and consoling herself with the fact that Caroline wasn’t with Edward, when the worst possible thing happened: Edward discovered them and joined them inside. He’d probably been keeping an eye on Caroline, drat him.
The three of them remained in the closet for what seemed like hours. Julia pressed herself against the shelves and tried to make out jam labels in the gloom in an effort to distract herself from Edward and Caroline’s whispered conversation.
There was a merciful pause for some minutes, but then Edward coughed, and said, “I wondered if I could take you out some time. If you liked.”
Julia knocked two pots of plum jam off the shelf and cursed under her breath as she hastened to catch them. She fixed her attention on replacing them in precisely the same spot again while Caroline hesitated and dithered eventually said that she wasn’t really sure.
“Oh,” said Julia, who had had enough. She jumped back from the shelves, cannoning into the other two. “Fred’s rat!” She crossed her fingers, but honestly, it had to count as a white lie. It was better than throwing pots of jam at them both, which was she felt was the only other possible response to having a front row seat to this terrible half-hearted courtship.
At Caroline’s scream, the rest of the house came running. Julia wasn’t sorry.
“Heavens, who died?” said Nancy, sitting down opposite Julia at the breakfast table the next morning.
Julia stopped scowling into her porridge and looked up. “Oh, nothing. I didn’t sleep well, that’s all. What time did everyone else get to bed?”
“Don’t ask,” said Nancy. She gathered up the nearby abandoned bowls – those catching the train had had first serving. “Remind me never to do anything like this again.”
Edward walked in. “I’ve seen everyone off. Jane and company in the car – Mary and Harriet safely onto the train, so it’s just us now. Don’t look like that, Nan. We’ll get this place tidied up – and you know Aunt Daisy. It’ll be neater than it has been for years before we’re done.”
Julia swallowed her last mouthful of porridge and, out of the corner of her eye, saw something moving by the door. She put her spoon down and turned as slowly and as carefully as she could in the chair. Fred’s rat! They’d all forgotten about it, even Fred.
She flung herself forward, but it ran, the tip of its tail ghosting her fingers as it darted along the hallway. “Damn!” said Julia. Nancy and Ned were watching her in bemusement, but she didn’t have time to explain. Someone had to get that poor animal before it was too late.
She tried to be stealthier, following it up the stairs, but every time she pounced, it slipped out of her grasp and went on up the next flight. The third floor was it, though. She’d have to catch it now. Julia shut the door to the stairs behind her and shut all the doors to the other rooms, once she’d checked them for a frightened pet rat – and then was just in time to see it scurrying up the ladder to the loft.
“Who left that open?” she said. “Drat them – and the stupid rat!”
Only a section of the attic had boards laid down, so Julia had to make her way across the rafters as carefully as she could, not wanting to plunge her foot down through the plaster. It wasn’t dark at least – there was a small gabled window at either end.
“Come on,” said Julia. “Over here – I’ll give you cheese or whatever it is that rats actually eat, I promise. You won’t like it if I leave you loose in this house. People don’t take kindly to unexpected rats, I’m afraid.”
“Julia!”
She turned on her knees, awkwardly, but Edward wasn’t yet in view, presumably standing at the bottom of the ladder on the floor below. “Shh! I’m trying to talk sense into a rat.”
“Good luck with that. Look, I’ve told Nan to bring some cheese up, so if you keep quiet until –”
Julia spotted the rat, up on the narrow window sill and at the same moment, the crack in the bottom left pane. “Oh, no,” she said, hurrying forward, paying no need to whatever it was Edward was saying. “No, no, no – drat you! You’ve got no sense.”
“What are you doing now?” said Edward, his head emerging through the trapdoor behind her.
Julia tugged at the stiff catch on the window. “Does this open?”
“No,” said Edward, his tone altering sharply. “Julia, don’t you dare even think about –!”
The window gave and Julia climbed out onto the ledge. Above her, sitting on the gabled roof, was the rat. She could see its tail hanging down. Too caught up in the chase now to be sensible, she hauled herself up onto the roof and cupped the rat in her hands. She could feel its tiny heart pounding against her. “It’s all right,” she told it, pulling it in close. “I’m here to rescue you.”
“Julia,” said Edward from somewhere immediately beneath her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She raised her head and finally took in her own predicament. The garden seemed an awfully long way down, and she couldn’t possibly climb back without letting go of the rat.
“Julia!”
She swallowed. “I’m all right. Ned, if you can take the rat, I expect I can get back down.”
“Don’t move,” he said. “Not an inch, Julia! Stay exactly where you are. I’ll fetch – I don’t know – a box or something for that thing, and rope, maybe – something we can tie around you in case. Promise me you won’t try anything until I get back.”
Julia pressed herself back towards the sloping roof as it met the gable, and had to admit he had a point. “Yes, yes. Do that. I’ll stay put, I promise.”
He must have gone then, since he said nothing more. Julia tried to focus on the wider panorama over the village instead of thinking of the more immediate view down to the ground, but it wasn’t easy. Her hands around the rat grew sweaty, but she kept it huddled in against her. If it escaped again, it would have to live up here with the birds.
“Bloody hell, Julia,” said Nancy, poking her head out the window. “What possessed you?”
“I’ve got the rat,” Julia said. It was simpler than trying to explain the mix of pig-headed determination and anger with Edward that had propelled her into her current precarious position.
“All right,” said Nancy. She withdrew and then, after a few more moments, Julia heard Edward’s voice and the two of them arguing about something. She could only hear Nancy’s half of the conversation clearly: “Not like that – here, let me.” And then: “I don’t care. You’re taller. You’re going to have to.”
Shortly after, Edward reappeared, and climbed up onto the window ledge. He stood slowly and reached up to Julia. He had cord wound around his waist, the end trailing back behind him. “All right?” he said.
Julia nodded. “Yes. Are you ready for the rat?”
“God,” he said, and managed to look paler than usual. “Yes. Hand the horrid thing over.”
She hugged it to her. “It’s not horrid, it’s sweet. It’s not its fault Fred didn’t bring it up to behave properly.”
“It’s the tails,” said Edward vaguely, rather as Harriet had, and then as he reached up, Julia leant over and carefully transferred the rodent from her hold to his. Edward gave a short, cut-off sound, but set his mouth and then lowered himself down to hand the rat to Nancy, waiting safely inside.
That done, he stretched up again, to pass Julia a length of cord.
“Tie it around your waist,” he instructed. “Wind it round twice – it’s not as thick as I’d like. Can you do a proper knot?”
Julia, having her hands free to grasp the decorative tiling on the top of the gable roof, was now at leisure to glare at him. “I can, yes, thank you.”
“You’d better,” he said. “Because if you fall –”
Julia closed her eyes momentarily. “Ned. I know.”
“I’m sorry. Are you done? Pull on it – be certain.”
“Yes, yes. I am.”
“Do you think you can climb back down? I’ll be waiting to grab you.”
Julia considered. It wasn’t very far back down to the ledge. “Yes. Hang on.” She shifted round and then slid down the sloping tiles to the window ledge. Once she was there, Edward caught hold of her arm from inside the attic, and then helped her back through the window.
She dropped into a trembling, breathless heap on the boards by the window. Edward watched her as he untied the cord from his waist.
“Is the rat safe?”
Edward’s mouth tightened. “The rat is fine, yes. The damned rat would have been fine without you trying to kill yourself!”
“I couldn’t leave the poor thing up there.” Julia tried to release the cord around her, but her fingers were shaking too much.
Edward’s frown grew. He leant forward, batted her hands away, and set to work on the knot, his fingers tickling her side in the process. “I didn’t say we’d have left it there. I told you I’d brought cheese. If you’d waited, we could have put some on the window sill and caught it that way without any risk to anyone. Next time think before you do something so reckless!”
Julia swallowed. She felt sick. “Where is it?”
“Can’t you think about anything else?” Then he released her from the cord and relented. “Nan’s got it in a box downstairs. It seems fine! Come on. We should go and find her – let her know you’re safe.”
Julia shook her head. “I’m sorry. I c-can’t move yet.”
“Idiot,” Edward said, but in a far softer tone than previously. He crouched beside her. “Come on,” he said, putting a hand to her arm. “Buck up. I’ll help you, and then you can have a cup of tea. I’m sure Nan will have put the kettle on ready.”
Julia blinked away tears of reaction. She already felt steadier, and a cup of tea did sound nice. She nodded.
“I don’t know,” he said, drawing back. “So much bravery wasted on a rat!”
Julia gave a shaky laugh, warmed despite herself at the backhanded compliment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to let it get away.”
“I know,” he said, and helped her navigate the way back to the trapdoor and the ladder, watching her down it before following. “Come on, you ridiculous girl. Tea!”
By the time they reached the kitchen, Julia was feeling much more herself. “Why was the ladder down, anyway?”
“I was putting the camp bed back up there,” said Edward. “I didn’t expect you and a rat to go dashing up it and trying to throw yourselves out the window. Next time you’re around, I’ll keep it firmly shut and bolted, I promise. Talking of which, I’d better finish putting things away. You’ll be all right now, won’t you?”
Julia nodded, but her mood dropped again as she watched him run back up the stairs. She sighed and headed into the kitchen.
“Tea,” said Nancy, presenting her with a cup at the door. “I thought you’d need it.”
Julia took it and sat down at the table. The wobbly feeling came back over her in a wave. Her throat closed up and tears threatened, but she stared hard at the liquid and refused to let them fall.
“What were you thinking?” said Nancy, sitting down opposite her with her own cup and saucer. She pushed a tin of shortbread across the table.
Julia took a sip of sweet, milky tea. “I wasn’t.”
“Did Ned say something?”
Julia grimaced. “No, not really. I was annoyed with him – but it doesn’t matter.”
“You like him,” said Nancy and at Julia’s hasty shake of her head, she added, “Don’t worry, I won’t say a thing. I’ve known for ages. He did apologise to you at least, didn’t he?”
Julia’s heart sank steadily. “Yes, yes, he did. And then he more or less asked me to ask Caroline Aldridge out for him. Except then he did that himself when we were all stuck in the stupid closet together.”
“He’s an idiot,” said Nancy, stretching out her hand over the table to close it around Julia’s. “Don’t waste any tears on him.”
“He’s not.”
“He prefers Caroline Aldridge to you,” Nancy said. “Like I said – an idiot, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Anyway, you’re not as big a fool as me. At least Ned’s a decent sort underneath. But Jane! Was she always that vile?”
Julia drank more tea. “I’m afraid so.”
“There you go,” said Nancy. “Fools both of us. I’ll do my best to find someone better than Jane, and you put my silly cousin out of your head. He’s afraid of rats and heights, you know. Not very heroic. I thought I was going to have to push him out of the window earlier.”
“Nan!”
She shrugged. “It’s true. Not worth it, Julia. Find someone else. Someone better.”
“I’ll do my best,” said Julia, but her mind strayed treacherously back to the way it had felt when he’d put a hand on her arm and been kind up in the attic, and how he had climbed out of the window for her, despite disliking heights and rats. But it was Caroline he wanted, Caroline he’d held hands with in the cupboard, Caroline he was thinking of probably even now, and Nancy’s advice was sound. Time to let go of childish dreams and move on.
***