It had been Hally first, before the Linton children. He was the one who had caught up with Lucy that first day and said hi. Her mother had just dropped her off at her Uncle George and Aunt Babs’s place. Lucy was ten years old and she didn’t really want to be there. She didn’t know anyone here, and she had no idea how she would fill three whole weeks when there was nothing to do. It felt like forever.
She was mooching through the village, fed up and alone, when she happened to turn down a narrow lane which, she soon discovered, led to a cottage. It was white with a thatched roof and a garden bursting with flowers. She stood and stared. It was the cottage she had imagined from hundreds of stories, and the one she had visited in her dreams. Lucy wanted to sneak into the garden, but what if someone saw her? She wished she had a friend here, someone at her side to bolster her courage, but she didn’t, so – stuff it – she was going in alone.
Walking in through the gate was too obvious, so she clambered up the rough stone wall, grazing her knees on the way. Once at the top she could see that there were redcurrant bushes round at the side of the house. She jumped down, ran to the bushes and started to help herself to the fruit.
A boy was watching her, although she hadn’t known that then. She hadn’t spotted Hally yet. Apparently, he saw her stuffing berries into her pockets and scrambling back over the wall, and he caught up with her in the lane.
‘Hello?’ he said.
She whirled around. A boy had spoken – a tall, skinny boy with a shock of dark hair and deep brown eyes with tiny flecks in them. ‘Hi,’ she said, sensing herself flushing a little.
‘I’m Hally,’ he said.
‘I’m Lucy.’
‘You’re brave,’ he remarked with a grin. ‘D’you know who lives there?’
‘No?’ Lucy shrugged.
‘Kitty Cartwright.’
She shrugged again in a ‘so?’ kind of way.
‘Did you steal her redcurrants?’ She could tell he was impressed.
‘Only a few,’ she said, smiling now. ‘Want some?’
‘Yes please.’ Hally told her later that he’d never heard of anyone daring to sneak into that garden before. That woman in there was crazy.
‘C’mon then,’ she said. ‘We can go to my auntie and uncle’s garden and eat them there.’
They started chatting easily as they walked together, filling each other in on their ages and lives, all the important stuff.
Lucy stopped suddenly. ‘Hey, Hally!’ She nudged him.
He looked at her quizzically. ‘What is it?’
She nodded back towards the cottage. ‘See that house?’
‘Yeah?’
She smiled and started walking again, her face warmed by the afternoon sun, her heart soaring as he caught up with her, already knowing they would be friends.
‘I’m going to live there one day,’ she said.