CHAPTER 7

When Mrs Williams dropped Polly off at Folly Farm on the following Saturday, she stopped for a chat in the kitchen. Charlie and Polly paused by the door to listen.

‘Honestly,’ Mrs Williams told Mrs Bass, ‘I don’t know how your Charlie is doing it, but I hear they’ve developed a new exercise for Polly’s posture and I have to say it’s working wonders!’

‘Well, yes, the thing is, I should probably tell you –’

Charlie pushed through the door before she could finish. ‘Mrs Williams,’ she said quickly, ‘have you heard that Polly came to watch netball training?’

‘Did she now?’ Mrs Williams raised her eyebrows and smiled. ‘That might explain why she was on the computer last night reading about how the England netball team won the Commonwealth gold medal in Australia! She’s very taken with the idea of “funetherness” – whatever that means!’

‘It’s a combination of fun and togetherness,’ Polly explained as she followed her friend into the kitchen. ‘It’s the mantra of England Netball.’

‘Well! That sounds excellent.’ Mrs Williams looked down to see Boris banging his tail on the floor in support. ‘How’s your knee, by the way? Polly told me you had a nasty fall in training.’

‘Did you?’ Mrs Bass looked surprised.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Charlie replied. ‘It was nothing. It’s fine now.’

‘You’re a tough one, you are,’ said Mrs Williams. ‘I was just telling your mother how much Polly’s fitness is improving – isn’t it, sweetheart? You’re definitely getting stronger. I hope this term at school will be a bit easier.’ Mrs Williams smiled, mainly at Boris, and shrugged her shoulders. ‘One day at a time, I guess.’

Charlie realized that every time she had seen Polly’s mother over the last year, her face had been locked in tension. Now it seemed a tiny bit more relaxed.

‘Would it be all right if Polly kept coming here at weekends?’ Mrs Williams directed her question at both Charlie and Mrs Bass. Polly nodded vigorously. ‘She’s always so upbeat when I collect her and I think it’s doing her the world of good. Alex is busy at the races on Saturdays and Sundays and he’s particularly keen that she should have time away from the racehorses.’

‘Obviously Noble Warrior is a racehorse,’ said Charlie’s mother, ‘and you should know that –’

Polly jumped in. ‘Ah, but he’s a retired racehorse and he’s completely different now he’s not being trained to gallop flat out. We’ve been teaching him dressage and it’s great for his muscle development,’ she went on breathlessly.

‘As for Polly,’ Charlie added, we’re working hard on her core strength, Mrs Williams, and we wondered if it would be OK if we went to see an instructor who specializes in working with people recovering from injury and living with a diffability?’

Charlie glanced briefly at her mother, whose left eyebrow had shot towards the ceiling.

‘A diffability?’ said Mrs Williams. ‘Is that from the same dictionary as funetherness?’

‘It could be!’ said Charlie. ‘It just means that you have to approach life differently. This instructor isn’t far away and she encourages all sorts of exercise and alternative therapy,’ she continued, eager for a reply.

Mrs Williams looked at Polly, who gave her a thumbs up.

‘There’s a session free on Wednesday,’ Polly said. ‘That way I can go straight from school.’

Charlie’s mother pursed her lips but said nothing.

‘Oh, Wednesday evenings are no good, I’m afraid.’ Mrs Williams was looking at the diary on her mobile phone. ‘I won’t be around to do the lifts.’

‘That’s not a problem,’ Charlie said quickly. ‘Mrs Wheeler has said she can take us.’

Caroline Bass looked at her daughter with her eyebrow still raised. ‘Has she?’

‘Yes,’ Charlie said firmly. ‘We’ve done all the research, Mum, and it’s a fabulous place. Miss Cameron has got all the right endorsements. Honestly, it will be brilliant.’

‘Also, it means I can still work on my fitness while I help out the netball team with theirs,’ Polly added.

Mrs Bass looked from Charlie to Mrs Williams, who was smiling broadly.

‘She’s such a star, young Charlie, and they make such a good team. They’re real planners and they’ve got a solution for everything, haven’t they?’ Mrs Williams laughed, perhaps a little nervously. ‘Diffability.’ She rolled the word around on her tongue as if trying it for size. ‘Diffability. I like it.’

She enveloped Charlie in a hug and whispered, ‘Thank you,’ into the top of her head.

Charlie was thrilled. She needed Mrs Williams to have complete trust in her. Polly gave Charlie a high five as they turned together to head out of the kitchen.

‘Charlie does have a good track record of building up confidence,’ said Mrs Bass. ‘But I think it’s a bit different with a person rather than a horse!’

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Mrs Williams put her phone back into her bag. ‘I think people can sometimes be more straightforward. At least they can tell you how they feel and have a proper discussion!’

‘Indeed,’ said Mrs Bass, glancing back at Charlie. ‘As long as they tell you the truth.’

Charlie gave her mother a grin as she and Polly headed for the stairs. They threw themselves on to the bed to discuss the details.

‘We have to go for an assessment and then Miss Cameron will decide whether to take you on,’ Charlie said. ‘I’ll talk to Mrs Wheeler about logistics. We’re the last drop on the school run so she could leave the bus here and then take us in the horsebox with Noddy and Percy.’

‘How on earth is that going to work?’ asked Polly. ‘Your dad may have eyes only for the cows but I think even he might notice a big bus parked in his farmyard.’

The girls heard the sound of a departing car as Polly’s mother headed home. They were still trying to work out how they could get Noble Warrior and Percy out of the yard, into the horsebox and away for the lesson, when they heard footsteps on the stairs. Charlie stopped talking and Polly’s eyes widened at the firm knock on the door.

‘May I come in?’ Mrs Bass asked politely.

‘Sure thing, Mum,’ Charlie answered breezily. ‘We were just discussing netball drills and how to improve my footwork.’

‘Were you?’ Mrs Bass was not smiling. ‘I wondered if you two wanted to discuss anything with me?’

Charlie looked at the floor. ‘Don’t think so,’ she mumbled.

‘Really?’ Mrs Bass answered. ‘Well, good luck with that lesson on Wednesday.’

Charlie chewed the inside of her right cheek. Polly blushed. Mrs Bass waited. Neither of the girls said a word.

Mrs Bass held up her hand.

‘I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you two have a think about it, chat it through with each other and maybe this evening after your dressage training and your ride back to the stables, you might want to have a full and frank discussion about … everything.’

Mrs Bass turned on her heel and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Polly’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Charlie blew out a deep breath.

‘She knows!’ Polly said slowly.

Charlie swallowed hard. Her mother always had a knack of knowing what she was up to, what she was thinking and planning. But if she knew, why hadn’t she stopped them?

Charlie thought about the new security camera on the side of the chicken shed and the reflected light she kept seeing when she looked up at the house. Maybe her mother had been on to them for a while.

‘Tell you what, let’s find out.’ Charlie got off the bed and walked to her window. It had been raining on and off since they’d gone back to school, but today was blessedly a bright, warm day. The leaves were just starting to turn from their summer green to the autumn shades of burgundy and ruby, and in a few weeks, they would start falling from the trees.

Charlie had noticed a ring-shaped mark on the window ledge a few days before, but couldn’t work out where it had come from. Maybe she’d left a cup of tea there and it had made a stain. Now, Charlie went to her dressing table and took out some talcum powder.

‘What are you doing?’ Polly asked.

Charlie took the container of talc and tapped it lightly, showering the window ledge with a very thin layer of white powder.

‘We’ll see if this is disturbed when we come back.’ She noticed Polly’s confused expression and grinned. ‘Trust me!’