A Perfect Gentle Knight (15 page)

“A week! Can you stay home all that time?” Corrie asked him.

Fa smiled. “It's all arranged. I have a teaching assistant to take my classes—it will be good for him. And when the twins are napping or watching television I can work a little on my book.”

“But … do you
want
to look after them all day? Maybe you could pay the Elephant extra to take care of them.”

“Mrs. Elephant has made it very clear that she doesn't want any extra work. She's a rather touchy woman, isn't she? But never mind, I'm quite happy to stay home. We've been having a good time, haven't we? We've read some of the
Just So Stories
and we're about to start
The Water Babies
. We've played Fish and Slapjack, we've built a Tinkertoy castle, and we've drawn pictures of knights and dragons.”

“We have a
pox
, Corrie,” said Juliet. “We may die!”

“Nobody is going to die, Juliet dear,” said Fa. He rubbed some pink lotion onto her cheeks. “Now, remember not to scratch.” He picked up Juliet, and surprisingly for her, she leaned her hot head against his shoulder. Lucky Juliet and Orly, thought Corrie, getting a whole week of Fa's attention!

It was a week free of responsibility. No one had to worry about the twins at all—about bathing them or feeding them or taking them to and from school. But the next week the twins were fully recovered, Fa went back to his study, and they were on their own once again.

11

Guinevere

S
ebastian had barely noticed that the twins had the chicken pox. He became more and more remote, gazing at his sisters and brothers benevolently each morning through half-closed eyelids.

“Are you feeling all right, Sebastian?” Corrie asked him.

His eyes sparkled. “I'm fine!” Corrie waited for him to say more, but he had stopped confiding in her.

He had a secret, she decided. Something was going on in his life—something good, obviously—that had nothing to do with her or the family. So it must have to do with school. Corrie was glad he was happier. But she hated how much he excluded her.

“Let's play a new game,” Corrie told Meredith. “Let's spy on Sebastian.”

“
Spy
on him! Why?”

Corrie tried to be nonchalant. “Oh, just because he's been acting strange lately. It'll be fun. We can hide somewhere outside his school and wait for him to come out.”

The next day they pedalled fast the ten blocks to Laburnum Junior High School. They found some laurel bushes close to the entrance, dragged their bikes into them and collapsed on the damp dirt to catch their breath.

“The bell hasn't even gone yet,” panted Corrie. “It's a good thing Sebastian's school gets out later.”

They gazed fearfully at the red-brick building. It was so big! Roz said there were more than five hundred students in the whole school. All teenagers, who talked about scary things like dating and make-up and jiving. Corrie felt for Pookie in her jacket pocket. Certainly there would be no place for toy rabbits in grade seven.

“I wish we could stay at our school
forever
,” whispered Meredith. They became more and more depressed as the bell rang and swarms of kids holding books congregated on the steps. It was warm for February and the crowd lingered there, mostly in groups of girls and boys eyeing each other. “Hey, Linda!” a boy from one group shouted. “Kevin here says he likes you!” All the girls tittered and all the boys guffawed. White collars and shiny shoes and greased hair sparkled in the winter sun. It was like watching another species.

No wonder Roz abandoned the Round Table! thought Corrie. This school was too real for pretending. And no wonder Sebastian retreated so much into being a knight. You would have to do one or the other—either give in to the teenaged intensity or keep yourself aloof from it. Which would she do?

She was distracted from these confusing thoughts when Meredith hissed, “Look! There's
Roz
!”

Corrie gazed at her pretty sister. She moved down the steps in a pod of her friends. They talked in high, false voices, carefully not looking at the groups of boys. One of the boys, whom Corrie recognized as red-haired Ronnie, stared longingly after Roz. She and her friends disappeared around the corner as they headed for the bike stands.

Most of the groups on the steps had also left. It was chilly under the bushes and Corrie's legs were cramped from squatting in the dirt.

“Maybe Sebastian went out another door,” said Meredith.

Then he appeared. He wasn't alone, but was talking to a tall girl with a long thick black braid falling down her back. All her clothes were black too. She had her face turned to his and was listening so avidly that she tripped. Sebastian caught her arm. He kept his hand on it while she went down the rest of the stairs. Then he held her hand while they strolled down the street.

Corrie stood up, her legs shaking.

“Wow!” said Meredith. “He has a
girlfriend
!”

Corrie couldn't answer. What she had just witnessed couldn't be real. She rubbed her freezing hands together as they stood in the sunshine.

“Corrie, are you all right?” Meredith asked her. “
Say
something!”

“It's just so … odd,” said Corrie. “Sebastian's never had a girlfriend before!”

“Well, he
is
fifteen,” said Meredith calmly.

“Yes, but …” She couldn't explain. It was as if her brother had become a stranger. “I know her,” she said finally. “She used to go to our school. Her name's Jennifer—Jennifer Layton.”

“She looks so
glamorous
, like a movie star!”

“She didn't look like that before. She had shorter hair and she slouched. And she wrote poetry. She made up a poem for Remembrance Day that was so good she had to read it in front of the whole school. She was kind of shy—she kept her head down and mumbled.”

“She sure doesn't seem shy
now
,” said Meredith as they got on their bikes.

“I guess people change when they go to junior high,” said Corrie. “Like Roz has.”

And now, like Sebastian.

C
ORRIE LONGED TO TELL
Sebastian that she knew about Jennifer. But then he would find out she had spied on him.
A knight never lies
. Was it a lie if she just didn't say anything? But if she didn't, how else could she reveal that she knew?

She wrestled with this for several days. Finally, late on Saturday afternoon, she knocked on Sebastian's door. “Will you help me with this hood for Mercury?” she asked.

“You have done an excellent job of this, Gareth,” said Sir Lancelot, picking up the tiny hood. “All you need are some ties here.”

Corrie stared at her brother, then blurted out, “I know about you and Jennifer.”

Sebastian flushed bright red. He motioned Corrie in and closed the door. “You do? How?”

“We—Meredith and I—spied on you,” mumbled Corrie. “I'm really sorry, Sebastian,” she added quickly as he frowned. “It wasn't honourable. But you've been acting so strange lately and you wouldn't talk to me. I knew you had a secret. I just had to find out!”

“It was wrong of you to spy on me,” Sebastian told her. “Knights don't spy on fellow knights. But I'm sorry I was so secretive. I was going to tell you about her sometime. It's just so … new.” He smiled gently.

“Tell me about her now,” urged Corrie, sitting on his bed.

“Her name's Jennifer Layton—you probably knew her at Duke of Connaught. Isn't that amazing? ‘Jennifer,' like ‘Guinevere'! In fact, that's how the name originated—I looked it up.”

Now it made sense that Sebastian was suddenly so obsessed with the legends about Guinevere. “Is Jennifer nice?” Corrie asked shyly.

“She's amazing! She writes great poetry. And she doesn't think I'm weird. She really likes my long hair. That's because she's different too. None of the other girls dress or act like her. She's not silly like they are, and she's really confident. She won't do anything that's against her principles. She would make a good knight … if she wasn't like Guinevere, of course.”

“Does she know about the Round Table?”

“Not yet,” said Sebastian. “She might think it's too strange.”

Corrie was relieved. A knight with a girlfriend was just too confusing.

“The worst thing is that we can't see each other outside of school,” said Sebastian. “We walk home every day but I have to leave her a block from her house. Her parents are really strict. She's not allowed to go out with boys until she's sixteen. So we'll have to wait another year before I can take her places.”

Corrie felt even more relieved. If Jennifer was only a part of Sebastian's school life, things could stay almost the same.

“You just don't know, Corrie, how incredible Jennifer is. She's perfect. She's exactly like the real Guinevere—beautiful and brave.” His face was filled with wonder.

“Guinevere wasn't real, though,” said Corrie carefully. “She's just a story.
Jennifer
is the one who's real.” And nobody could be that perfect, she thought.

“Well … they're both real. This is probably hard for you to understand, Corrie, but I think Jennifer is actually a reincarnation of Guinevere.”

“A what?”

Sebastian looked excited. “Reincarnation. It's when someone from the past is reborn in someone's body in the present. They come back again. That's what the Round Table is, in a way. I'm the reincarnation of Sir Lancelot. Maybe you're even the reincarnation of Sir Gareth!”

Corrie felt dizzy. The intensity of Sebastian's words, the faraway look in his eyes, scared her. “But Lancelot and Gareth and Guinevere are just stories! They were never real!”

“They
became
stories, but the stories are based on historical figures. There's lots of evidence for that. Someday I'm going to visit Tintagel Castle and Glastonbury in England. Fa's been there. He told me he could actually sense Arthur's presence.”

“Okay …” conceded Corrie. “Maybe King Arthur and his knights
were
real. But I don't see how they can exist again in other people's bodies. That's too weird. Sir Gareth isn't in me. I just
pretend
I'm Sir Gareth.”

“It isn't strange at all,” said Sebastian patiently. “And probably you aren't a reincarnation of Sir Gareth. You would feel it if you were. Like I do—I
know
Lancelot is in me. Just like I know Guinevere is reincarnated in Jennifer so she and Lancelot can finally be together.”

“Does
Jennifer
know? Does she know she's the—What's that word again?”

“Reincarnation.”

“Does she know she's the reincarnation of Guinevere?”

Sebastian shook his head. “She's not ready to. One day she'll realize she's Guinevere, but it's not time yet. And I don't want to tell her too soon, in case it scares her.”

“
Don't
tell her, Sebastian. She might laugh at you.”

“Jennifer? She'd never laugh at me!”

Corrie suddenly felt older than Sebastian. Trying to disguise her worry, she patted his arm and said cheerfully, “Well, I'm glad you have a friend at school. I bet Terry and his gang are nicer to you now.”

Sebastian laughed. “Mordred, you mean! He's envious! He likes Jennifer too—he used to follow her around. Like I used to, before she began paying attention to me. She hates Mordred—she told me.” He smiled. “I'm glad you know about Jennifer, Corrie. Would you like to meet her sometime?”

“That's okay,” said Corrie hastily.

She still wasn't used to the fact that Sebastian was so absorbed in someone outside the family. Actually meeting Jennifer would be too much change. She must be nice, if Sebastian liked her, but Corrie found her threatening.

C
ORRIE AND ROZ
were sitting on Roz's bed while Jingle whizzed around the room. “Why is Sebastian so distracted these days?” asked Corrie. She wanted to hear Roz's version.

“He has a girlfriend!” Roz giggled. “Jennifer Layton—do you remember her from Duke of Connaught? She's kind of strange. She dresses all in black and she wears her hair in a long braid.” Her face softened. “But I'm really glad Seb has a girlfriend. He seems much happier, don't you think?”

“Yes …” said Corrie. What would Roz think if she knew about the reincarnation stuff?

Just the day before, Sebastian had shown Corrie a scarf of Jennifer's that he had tied around his arm under his shirt. He told Corrie it was a “favour,” like those that ladies used to give to knights. “It's Guinevere in her that made her give it to me,” he said.

“Does she know you've tied it around your arm?”

“No. Jennifer doesn't remember yet that Guinevere used to give favours to Lancelot. She will, though—she's getting more like Guinevere every day.”

Corrie had shivered at his words. But Roz made Sebastian sound perfectly normal. Probably there was nothing to worry about. Sebastian was simply in love, and acting as crazy as people in love did in songs and movies. What did
she
know about love? It didn't interest her in the least, so no wonder she couldn't figure out Sebastian.

“Maybe Jennifer will persuade Seb to cut his hair,” said Roz. “Maybe he'll even give up the Round Table. Do you still play that?”

“Of course we do! We have meetings every Saturday. Right now we're building a castle on the golf course to be Joyous Gard. And Sebastian will never cut his hair or give up being a knight! He's more Sir Lancelot than he ever was!”

Part of Corrie longed to tell Roz how true and confusing that was now. But if Roz thought there was something wrong with Sebastian, Corrie would have to admit it as well.

Roz smiled at her in an annoyingly grown-up way. “He has to give up the Round Table sometime. He's fifteen! You'll be fine without him—you can be the new head. And soon you'll be too old for it, too. Everyone has to grow up, you know.” She gave Corrie a syrupy smile, as if she were the older sister on
Father Knows Best
.