Four Children and It Read online

  ‘You’re a rum sort of girl too,’ said Cyril.

  ‘Cyril! You might try to be polite,’ said Anthea. She looked at me. ‘So you really wished to meet us?’

  ‘Yes, I always thought we might – we might be friends,’ I said, blushing and feeling a fool.

  ‘Oh, how lovely of you! Of course we’ll be friends,’ said Anthea. ‘Look, you must come back home and have tea with us. So your name is …?’

  ‘I’m Rosalind. This is my brother, Robbie – and you’ve met Maudie – and this is my stepsister, Samantha, though we all call her Smash,’ I said.

  ‘Your stepsister, like in Cinderella?’ said Jane.

  ‘Yeah, I’m like really mean and spiteful and ugly,’ said Smash, pulling a hideous face.

  Jane took a step back, thinking she was serious.

  ‘She’s just fooling around,’ I said quickly. ‘Her mum married my dad.’

  ‘Worst luck,’ said Smash.

  ‘Did your mother die then, Rosalind?’ Anthea asked sympathetically.

  ‘Oh no, she’s fine. Well, she is now, though she was ever so upset at first, when they got divorced,’ I said.

  The four children blinked as if I’d said a rude word.

  ‘You poor thing!’ Anthea said, patting my arm.

  ‘But she’s fine now. She’s away at an Open University Summer School and –’

  ‘Your mother is at university?’ said Anthea. ‘Oh my goodness, she must be immensely clever.’

  ‘Not really. She just wanted a bit of a change. She’s hoping to get a different sort of job when she’s got her degree. She’s a bit fed up working in the bank,’ I said.

  ‘Your mother works in a bank?’ said Jane, sounding incredulous. ‘Oh, how lovely! Does she bring you home lots and lots of money? We had money once, great big heaps of gold coins, but we couldn’t spend them anywhere, so it was a total swizzle. We so wanted to be rich. You must be extremely rich, though, because banks have lots and lots of money.’

  ‘Stow it, Jane!’ Cyril hissed. ‘Their people must be very poor if their mother has to work.’

  ‘Life’s different in our time,’ I said awkwardly. ‘In lots and lots of ways. Women go out to work because they want to.’

  ‘But who looks after the house? Do you have lots of servants?’ Anthea asked.

  ‘We don’t usually have servants. Well, my mum has Bridget, our cleaning lady, but she only comes once a week,’ said Smash.

  ‘We all do our share,’ I said. ‘Our dad does the vacuuming, doesn’t he?’

  ‘What’s that?’ said Jane.

  ‘He – he sweeps the carpet with a special machine.’

  ‘Your father does that?’ said Robert, sounding astonished. He looked at my Robbie. ‘So in the future do boys do housework too?’

  ‘Yes – I do stuff like loading the dishwasher.’

  They looked blank.

  ‘That’s another machine that washes up the crockery,’ I said.

  ‘Oh, what fun!’ said Jane. ‘I like the sound of all these machines – and I especially like it that boys have to help in the house like girls. Oh, can we ask the Psammead to wish us into your time?’

  ‘So long as we don’t have to do all this housework!’ said Robert.

  ‘But first you’re our guests here, so please come up to the house,’ said Anthea, taking hold of my hand.

  Anthea, Jane, Maudie and I walked up the little path from the gravel pit. Cyril and Robert climbed up the edge. Robbie tried to copy them, but kept slipping back and had to follow us along the path. Smash climbed up too, and beat Cyril and Robert to the top. She showed off considerably when she got there. Anthea didn’t say anything, but she looked at me. We both rolled our eyes and then grinned. I knew we would be friends!

  It was quite a long walk up the hill to the house, through a little brambly wood. I ended up carrying Maudie.

  ‘Are you allowed out by yourselves like this, or will your dad be cross with you when we get back?’ said Robbie, trying to brush the gravel off his T-shirt.

  ‘Oh, Father’s nearly always away on business, worst luck,’ said Robert. ‘But he lets us go anywhere, doesn’t he, Cyril?’

  ‘So long as I keep an eye on everyone,’ said Cyril, with a lordly air. But then he held out his hand to Robbie in a friendly way. ‘Come on, little chap. Come with us boys.’

  Robbie went pink, so pleased to be included, even though he hadn’t managed gravel-climbing. We went through an orchard and picked an apple each, munching as we walked, and then into a proper garden smelling wonderfully of white jasmine. Anthea and Jane picked some jasmine and wound it round their hats like ribbon.

  ‘Would you like some jasmine in your hair, Rosalind?’ asked Anthea, and made me a little crown of it. She politely offered some to Smash too, but she pulled a face at the idea.

  The French windows were open at the back of the house so we could wander in. It was very dark inside, out of the sunlight, probably because there were thick net curtains and heavy velvet drapes at every window. The rooms were crowded with big dark furniture so that it looked very grand but a little gloomy.

  ‘Mother’s out visiting an old friend, so let’s have tea up in the nursery,’ said Anthea. ‘Jane, run and tell Cook that we have four guests and ask for two kinds of cake if possible.’

  ‘You’ve got your own cook?’ said Smash, looking impressed. ‘Can you tell her to cook anything you want? What fun! Could we have three kinds of cake – or even four?’

  ‘Cook’s not always very obliging,’ said Jane. ‘Do I have to be the one to ask her? She’ll be feeling extra grumpy today.’

  ‘Yes, but you know you’re her favourite. If anyone can get round her, you can,’ said Anthea.

  ‘Go on, Jane, be a sport,’ said Cyril.

  Jane sighed, but ran off obligingly.

  ‘Why is your cook feeling really grumpy today?’ Robbie asked.

  ‘She’s in a bit of a stew with us because we used up all her pots and pans for helmets when we were playing battles, and we were hitting each other on the head with ladles and they got a bit dented – the saucepans, not our heads. Though I did have a big bump on my head too, actually,’ said Robert. ‘Do you like playing battles, Robbie?’

  Robbie looked uncertain.

  ‘I suppose you can’t, not properly, if you’ve only got sisters,’ said Robert. ‘Never mind, I dare say you could play with Squirrel and me.’

  ‘Thank you!’ said Robbie.

  ‘No battles today, or we won’t get any tea at all,’ said Anthea. ‘Come upstairs, everyone.’

  There was a wide staircase with a shiny polished banister.

  ‘We’re not supposed to play on the banisters because I fell off and bumped my head – again,’ said Robert.

  ‘But we do,’ said Cyril. ‘So feel free to have a little ride on the banister if you want to.’

  Smash wanted to very much, of course. She ran to the top of the stairs and then simply whizzed down, shrieking with laughter.

  ‘Sh now, what’s that dreadful noise! You’ve only gone and woken up his little lordship, when I’ve just got him off to sleep!’ A rather fierce-looking woman came out on to the landing, glaring at all of us.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, because I wasn’t sure that Smash would apologize.

  ‘Is that your mother? I thought you said she’d gone out to tea? Does she get very cross?’ Robbie asked nervously.

  ‘That’s Martha, our nurse,’ said Robert. ‘Don’t worry, she’s often cross, but she doesn’t really mean it.’

  ‘Why do you have a nurse? Are you ill?’ Robbie asked.

  ‘Well, she looks after our little brother now,’ said Robert. ‘We chaps can look after ourselves, mostly.’

  We could hear wails and a small voice saying determinedly ‘Wanty Panter!’

  Maudie looked up, smiling. ‘Who that?’

  ‘You might as well let the Lamb get up to meet our guests, Martha, seeing as he’s awake,’ said Anthea cheerily.