Authors: Rosemary Sutcliff
Simon (35 page)
Amias cupped his hands and called back, ‘Up here in the cider orchard,’ and an instant later, as the two girls came out through the gate, rose to his feet and went strolling down to meet them. Simon hung back a few minutes, for the pleasure of seeing them coming up between the blossoming fruit trees; Mouse with her dark skirts caught up to show the gay murrey-striped petticoat beneath, Susanna with a knot of periwinkle tucked into the wide square collar of her grey puritan gown. Then he strode down after Amias, and the four of them came together just where the young apple trees of the high orchard met the ancient leaning ones of the lower slopes.
Susanna went at once to Simon, and Mouse to Amias, for that had become the established order. But Mouse’s first words were for her brother, and they were hotly indignant. ‘Simon, I don’t think it was at all nice of you to tell that poor old soldier that you couldn’t afford to give him anything but a mutton pasty, especially when he was an old comrade of yours! We shouldn’t have known anything about it, Susanna and I, if we hadn’t chanced to come out from the still-room just as he was leaving.’
‘And he told you I wouldn’t give him anything but a mutton pasty?’
‘Oh, he wasn’t complaining, you know, but I think he was a little hurt. Susanna and I gave him sixpence each, which was all we had, and he was
touchingly
grateful!’
‘I’m sure he was,’ said Simon.
But Amias subsided into the low branches of a quince tree, with a crow of laughter.
Mouse turned on him with raised brows. ‘It appears that we amuse you,’ she said.
‘No, oh no.’ Amias hiccoughed. ‘Only—I gave him a crown, and Simon bestowed his life’s savings on him. A deserving object. Oh, bless my soul.’
‘Well!’ began Mouse indignantly; and then she too dissolved into laughter, and Simon joined in, until, catching sight of Susanna’s pointed face, grave and puzzled and a little shocked, he managed to stop himself.
‘I’m sorry about your sixpence, Susanna,’ he said.
‘Oh, I don’t mind about the sixpence,’ Susanna told him. ‘But—but would you say we had been encouraging that man in the Path of Wickedness?’
‘Bless you, Podbury don’t need no encouraging,’ Amias cut in, wiping the back of his hand across his eyes, as he disentangled himself from the quince tree.
‘I wouldn’t say any such thing,’ Simon said. ‘And I’m sure he’ll find your sixpence very useful.’ He felt the corners of his mouth twitching, and tried desperately to straighten them, lest he should hurt Susanna’s feelings.
She looked at him gravely. ‘I don’t always quite understand about things being funny,’ she said, rather wistfully. ‘I hope you don’t mind. I am trying to learn.’
Simon reached out and touched her hand. ‘Sukey, I’m rather a dull sort of fellow. I like you as you are,’ he said, and then felt that he had not chosen his words very well.
But Susanna found nothing amiss. She did not speak. She simply went on looking at Simon.
There was some magic about the lower orchard that evening, that seemed to hold them there, though it was really time to go
in to supper. Dusk was creeping through the long grass, but it had not yet risen high enough to dim the delicate radiance of the blossom starring the old knotted branches of pear and apple, quince and damson and cheery trees, and the faint cool fragrance of the apple bloom was all about them, seeming to float on the quiet twilight air. Then a little wind came soughing up the valley, bringing the scent of rabbits to flutter Joram’s nose, and scattering a flurry of petals like an elfin snow-storm on to the grass.
‘Supper,’ said Mouse sensibly, and held out a hand to Susanna, as they turned back towards the wicket gate, with Joram dodging about in front of them. Simon and Amias dropped behind, each with a hand on the other’s shoulder, as they strolled through into the garden close.
It was almost a year since Simon had returned from his soldiering, but this evening, as he entered his mother’s garden, he had all at once a vivid sense of homecoming. He remembered how, in those weeks before the battle of Torrington, he had felt that he did not belong here, but was only a passage-hawk and had not yet earned his right to come home. Now, quite suddenly, it was as though Lovacott had opened its innermost door to him; the door of some secret sanctuary that he had not known existed before, swept and garnished, with a fire burning in the hearth, to welcome him home.
‘Look,’ Mouse called back over her shoulder, ‘the jonquils mother got from Spalding are flowering beautifully this spring!’
The jonquils grew close under the parlour window, and inside the candles had been lit already, and the room was as golden as the jonquil petals. Glancing in, as they passed, Simon saw Balan hanging in its familiar place above the mantel; but now, the single blade, in its worn sheath that had been made for two, did not look lonely, any more.
‘I think,’ Amias was saying, beside him, ‘that next time I come, I shall bring Balin back. I shan’t be using it again; it’s too long and heavy for the new style of sword-play, and it seems a shame to break up a case of rapiers. It will still be mine, of course, but we’ll house it in its old place, along with your Balan; they belong together, after all.’
I should like to thank the people—especially Miss Margaret Bourdillon and Colonel Crookenden, CBE, DSO—who helped me to find out the many things I needed to know for the making of this book.
Rosemary Sutcliff was born in 1920 in West Clanden, Surrey.
With over 40 books to her credit, Rosemary Sutcliff is now universally considered one of the finest writers of historical novels for children. Her first novel,
The Queen Elizabeth Story
was published in 1950. In 1959 her book
The Lantern Bearers
won the Carnegie Medal. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and in 1978 her book,
Song for a Dark Queen
was commended for the Other Award.
In 1975, Rosemary was awarded the OBE for services to Children’s Literature and the CBE in 1992. Unfortunately Rosemary passed away in July 1992 and will be much missed by her many fans.
Also by Rosemary Sutcliff
Beowulf: Dragonslayer
The Armourer’s House
The Capricorn Braclet
The High Deeds of Finn MacCool
The Hound of Ulster
The Sword and the Circle
The Light Beyond the Forest
The Road to Camlann
The Shining Company
Sun Horse, Moon Horse
The Witch’s Brat
The Chronicles of Robin Hood
Bonnie Dundee
The Mark of the Horse Lord
Frontier Wolf
Knight’s Fee
Blood Feud
Simon
Song for a Dark Queen
Tristan and Iseult
Warrior Scarlet
Brother Dusty-Feet
Sword Song
SIMON
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17314 3
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
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This ebook edition published 2013
Copyright © Sussex Dolphin Limited, 1953
First Published in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, 1953
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