More than you know, I thought. More than you’ll ever know.
When we got back to Aunty Ellie’s we found a black car parked outside and a tall, grey-suited man waiting for us in the sitting room. Aunty Ellie introduced him and said he was the Lord Lieutenant of the county, whatever that meant. From the way he stood and from the shine on his shoes he looked extremely important, you could tell that much. And what he had to say made even Humph sit up and listen.
‘I am commanded by Her Majesty the Queen to accompany you all tomorrow to London, to Buckingham Palace, for a private audience with Her Majesty. Her Majesty wishes to convey to you personally her thanks for your help in recovering the golden orb, and she will, I believe, personally present you with your reward.’
‘What, me as well?’ said Gran, sitting down before she fell down.
‘Everyone, including the dog I believe,’ said the Lord Lieutenant looking at Humph with great respect. ‘Particularly the dog.’
Well, of course, we couldn’t sleep much that night. Will and I were sharing a room at Aunty Ellie’s and we lay in the dark and talked and talked about Hayes Barton, about the Queen, about our friend Walter and his amazing master plan. ‘I just wish I could see him again,’ I said. ‘Just once.’
‘In truth,’ said a voice from the direction of the chest of drawers, ‘you have been patient long enough, dear cousins both.’ His voice, no doubt of it. I sat up and switched on the bedside light. Walter was standing in between the beds looking down on us. ‘So,’ he said, sitting down on my bed. ‘All is well that ends well, and it has ended well for all of us. You have your farm and I will have my family back in Hayes Barton where they belong. We have taken back what was mine, what was rightly ours.’
‘It was you all along wasn’t it?’ I said. ‘You sent out the invitations for that party to everyone, didn’t you?’
He smiled and took my hand. ‘To begin with chick, it was mere curiosity. I wished to see my descendants, to see what had become of them all. You can understand that, can you not?’
‘But why me?’ I asked. ‘At the party, why did you come and talk to me?’
‘Ah, sweet cousin,’ he said, patting my hand. ‘There fate indeed took a hand as she does in all things. It was you that found me, for I was sitting surveying my descendants when you came and sat beside me. And then it was that I saw your name – you had it writ upon you if you remember – Bess Throckmorton – as you know, the very name of my dear, dear wife whom I saw at once that you resembled in more than name. ’Twas fate, cousin Bess, that brought us together and led us into this merry dance. I asked you to free me from my prison and take me home to Devon with you, and you did. So I learned of your father’s misfortune and began to conceive my plan. But alas, my schemes all miscarried when your grandmother became ill.’
‘But one thing I’ve never understood,’ I said. ‘Why did you take Sally away like that and where did you go?’
‘How else was I to get to Hayes Barton and play the ghost? I had to make the farm available, did I not? I knew of only one certain way to do it.’
‘You became headless, didn’t you?’ said Will. ‘And you frightened them off, like you did with the horrible Barrowbills. Brilliant! Wicked!’
‘Wicked it may be but it never fails, it seems,’ said Sir Walter. ‘Let us say that I persuaded them they would be happier somewhere else.’
‘That was a bit cruel,’ I said.
‘Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, cousin,’ said Walter.
‘You’re beginning to sound like Gran,’ I said.
‘What about the reward, though?’ Will asked – he was asking all the questions I wanted to ask. ‘How did you know there would be a reward?’
‘I confess,’ said Walter, ‘I confess that fortune favoured us in this, but fortune once stirred can act most powerfully in our endeavours. If truth be told it was on impulse that I took the bauble and I was at my wit’s end to know what to do with it. I saw you that night secreting it in the muck heap. So I dug it up myself, for I needed time to consider what might be done with it.’
‘And the search up at the horrible Barrowbills’ was just a game, wasn’t it?’ I said.
‘Indeed,’ said Walter smiling, ‘but one I think we all enjoyed.’
‘We’re going to see the Queen tomorrow,’ I said.
‘I know it, cousin,’ said Walter.
‘You didn’t arrange that as well, did you?’ Will said.
‘Faith, no,’ Walter laughed.
‘Why don’t you come with us?’ I asked.
He shook his head. ‘I have had my fill of kings and queens,’ he said. ‘I will wait for you at Hayes Barton.’
‘You’ll be there?’ I asked. He nodded.
‘If you do not mind, cousin,’ he said.
‘That’s what you really wanted all along, wasn’t it?’ said Will. ‘You wanted to come back and live at Hayes Barton.’
‘I perceive you are as sharp as I am, Master Will, a chip off the old block some might say, though that’s not a phrase I care for overmuch.’ And he rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Yes indeed, look for me at Hayes. I shall be there.’ And he was gone.
Buckingham Palace was all crunchy gravel and long corridors and pictures as big as houses. Father looked a bit stiff, I thought – he always looked uncomfortable in a suit – and when it came to it he got his bow all wrong. But Mother looked as if she belonged there. She had her best dress on – the kingfisher blue one with the gold braid. She curtsied beautifully and was soon chatting away to the Queen as if they were old friends. Little Jim was wide-eyed throughout. He sucked his hand all the time and dribbled. And Will and me? Well, we were so terrified that we could hardly say a word. Gran and Aunty Ellie smiled perpetually and kept licking their lips frantically in case they cracked. Humph was just himself. We had him on a lead, (a brand new one, of course), just in case the corgies were around. There’s not a lot of difference in size between a big rabbit and a corgi and I didn’t want him disgracing himself.
So we came home after our great day in London. Father bought Hayes Barton and we moved in before Christmas. My friend Walter comes and goes as he pleases. Of course he only appears to Will and me, and he never goes headless anywhere. We insisted on that. So I suppose you could say he really has become one of the family.
On Christmas Day we were out walking together, my friend Walter and me, when I dared at last to ask him what I’d always longed to ask him. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll do it just this once, and only for you.’
And at that he took his cloak off and with a grand flourish laid it down across a muddy gateway. I held his hand and tiptoed across it in my wellingtons. ‘Thy servant, Your Majesty,’ he said.
‘Thou art indeed a true friend,’ I said in my queenliest voice. ‘And I would have thee by my side forever.’
‘So you will, my lady,’ he said bowing low. ‘So you will.’
Which type of book do you like best?
Take the quiz . . . then read the book!
Who would you like to have an adventure with?
a) On my own
b) A ghost
c) Someone in my family
d) My best friend
e) My pet
Where would you like to go on holiday?
a) A remote island or a far-away mountain
b) A fantasy world
c) Anywhere as long as my family and friends are there
d) A different time period
e) The countryside
I would like to be . . .
a) Explorer
b) Author
c) Someone who helps others
d) Warrior
e) Circus ringmaster
My favourite stories are . . .
a) Full of adventure
b) Magical
c) About friendships and family
d) War stories
e) About animals
If you answered mostly with A you’ll enjoy . . .
; KENSUKE’S KINGDOM
Washed up on an island with no food and water, Michael cannot survive. But he is not alone . . .
If you answered mostly with B you’ll enjoy . . .
THE GHOST OF GRANIA O’MALLEY
There is gold in the Big Hill, but Jessie and Jake can’t bear for the hill to be destroyed. Can they save it before it’s too late?
If you answered mostly with C you’ll enjoy . . .
LONG WAY HOME
George doesn’t want to spend his summer with another foster family . . . but this time he may have found somewhere to call home.
If you answered mostly with D you’ll enjoy . . .
FRIEND OR FOE
It is the Blitz. One night David and his friend see a German plane crash on the moors. Do they leave the airmen to die?
If you answered mostly with E you’ll enjoy . . .
WAR HORSE
In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of battle from both sides of the trenches.
MICHAEL MORPURGO
The master storyteller
For more great books see:
www.michaelmorpurgo.org
www.egmont.co.uk
My Friend Walter Page 12