A Summer Promise by Katie Flynn Page B

have the rest of the hols to myself,’ she said slowly. ‘But what will Miss Spender say? She doesn’t always have the same timetable as a regular school so Alice may . . .’ and here Maddy crossed her fingers behind her back, ‘already be back in the schoolroom.’
    She was afraid that Tom would give himself away – give Alice away, really – by admitting that he had spent the last few weeks taking her, Maddy’s, place as Alice’s best friend, but he did no such thing. Instead he shrugged. ‘I think Alice gets her own way more often than not, and if she wants to explore the dales with us then that’s exactly what she’ll do. Have you ever met Miss Spender?’ And then, as Maddy shook her head, he gave a rueful grin. ‘Well, she’s wax in Alice’s hands. But Alice will be here in person quite soon, so there’s no point in discussing our plans until then.’
    Maddy was beginning to agree when another thought struck her. ‘Alice doesn’t know I’m not still dancing attendance on my gran,’ she said slowly. ‘So she’s expecting to see you, not me. Do you always meet by the beck?’
    Tom had been leafing through the book, exclaiming softly as he reached each illustration, but now he shook his head. ‘Always? You sound as if I’ve spent all my life here, whereas in fact I’ve only been here for five weeks, and Alice and her aunt and uncle were away for the first week of the hols because Mr Thwaite had promised her a seaside holiday if she passed the exam Miss Spender entered her for, which she did. Satisfied?’
    ‘Oh,
yes
, and I’m sorry if you think me nosy,’ Maddy said. ‘Only Alice and I spend a lot of time together – we’re best friends – so I couldn’t help wondering . . .’
    She left the sentence unfinished, because Tom had been staring towards the Hall and now he gestured to Maddy to follow his example. ‘Here she comes. Aha, and she’s wheeling my bicycle!’
    When Alice had awoken that morning her first thought had been of the chauffeur’s son. Though she had not yet had a chance to admit it to Maddy, for the first time in her life an interest in boys had suddenly made itself felt. He was not a handsome boy and she had never liked ginger hair, and at first he had just been someone to spend time with because Maddy was not available. As they grew to know one another, however, she found there were advantages in having a boy to do her bidding. He had a bicycle, and when he discovered that she did not have transport he had insisted upon giving her what he called ‘a seater’ so that they reached the village in minutes.
    There were other benefits too. When Alice brought a picnic so that they might go further afield, he took it for granted that it should be he who carried not only the sandwiches and fruit but also the stone bottles of ginger beer. Most appealing of all, though, was the fact that he thought her pretty and clever, for he did not know that her reading was a recent accomplishment, and she did not mean to tell him. He might have wondered a little when her uncle and aunt took her to the seaside as a reward for passing the examination, but it was easy enough to brush this aside, saying vaguely that she didn’t want to think about school work during the holidays.
    The sun was coming through a crack in the curtains and it looked like being a nice day, so Alice slid out of bed and padded over to the wardrobe. She had enjoyed herself very much at the seaside, though she had missed Maddy more than she imagined she would. Every time she had begun to explore a rock pool she had thought of her friend, but it had never occurred to her to suggest to her uncle and aunt that they might invite a child from the village school to accompany them.
    Her uncle could swim but refused to do so because he said Yorkshire water was too cold for a man of his years. ‘One of these days, when you’re older, we’ll go to the south of France, where it’s warm,’ he had told her. ‘You’ll