No Friend of Mine (10 page)

It was a different maid who answered, not Stella. But then there was a query about the price of the sausages, and Mrs Martin had to be called, and Lennie waited in alarm as she came out, wiping her hands on her apron.

She didn’t recognize him. After all that had happened Lennie could scarcely believe it. But he was just the butcher’s boy, a fair haired boy with a bike; she didn’t give him a second glance. He was nothing to these people.

He took the money and wheeled the bicycle around the side of the house. And as he did so the front door opened, he looked up, and saw Ralph coming out, alone.

Ralph started.
He
knew Lennie.

Lennie swung his leg over the crossbar.

“Lennie!” said Ralph. He darted across the lawn and jumped a flowerbed. “Lennie, wait!”

But Lennie pushed hard on the pedals, sped down the drive, and swung out onto Bridge Road.

Back home, Mum said, “What’s up with you? You look ruffled.”

“I had to deliver to Wildings. I saw Ralph.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing. Well – he tried to speak to me but I rode off.”

Mum began laying the table for dinner. “Oh,” she said.

Lennie rounded on her. “You don’t expect me to speak to him, do you?”

“It depends what you want.”

“I don’t want anything to do with him.”

And yet Lennie knew that wasn’t true. He was angry with Ralph, and hurt, but—

“Mary says I should never have got mixed up with him,” he said. “She says the nobs are not like us; they’re all cheats and liars. She says they don’t have any real feelings; they make use of people like us. That’s what she says.”

“Mary’s young,” said Mum. “She doesn’t know everything.”

“What doesn’t she know?”

Tell me, he implored her silently; tell me it wasn’t really like that.

Mum said, “Perhaps you should look at it from Ralph’s point of view. His father is such a hard, righteous, upright man. And Ralph is afraid of him – you saw that. That’s why he let you down, because he was so afraid of his father, not because he didn’t care about you. He
did
care. He does.”

“But I wouldn’t have done it to him, no matter how afraid I was!” Lennie exclaimed. “I
couldn’t
have.”

“I know that,” said Mum. “But Ralph isn’t you. People are different. It’s harder for him.”

Lennie didn’t reply, but he felt comforted for the first time since that dreadful day.

And later, on Hazeley Common with Martin, watching the two flocks of pigeons mingle, separate, and fly off towards Culverton, he thought again of Ralph. He remembered the games they had played, the secret codes, the cigarettes they had shared.

Mum had said, “Perhaps you should look at it from Ralph’s point of view.” How did Ralph feel now? Guilty, unforgiven, left behind in the dark of winter?

Lennie still had the scrap of paper with Ralph’s school address on it that had been tucked under Blue Cloud’s ring. It was the only thing he’d kept. “Write to me,” Ralph had said.

Perhaps I will, Lennie thought.

Not today. Not yet. He wasn’t ready yet. But one day, perhaps quite soon, he would.

Books from Ann Turnbull:

Pigeon Summer
No Friend of Mine
Room for a Stranger
No Shame, No Fear
Forged in the Fire
Seeking Eden

It is 1930, the height of the Great Depression. Mary Dyer’s father has left home in search of work, leaving his beloved racing pigeons in Mary’s care – much to her mother’s disapproval. During that long, hard summer there is barely enough money for bread, let alone pigeon feed, yet Mary clings to her dreams of racing glory, propelling her into ever deeper conflict with her mother.

Shortlisted for the 1992 Smarties Book Prize and the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award, as well as being dramatized for TV.

“A wonderfully moving story… I would recommend it to anyone”
Independent on Sunday

“Buoyant, direct and unsentimental”
Guardian

In the mining town of Culverton, workers are clashing with their bosses. Lennie’s father is the Union secretary, a “troublemaker”. Ralph’s father is the boss, despised by his workers. Despite their very different backgrounds, Lennie and Ralph strike up a friendship, a happy escape from their own and their families’ troubles. But how strong is their alliance – really? While his dad fights injustice at the mine, Lennie finds that he too must battle prejudice, lies and betrayal, pushing his friendship with Ralph swiftly towards breaking point.

“A brilliant book which should be at the top of every 9 to 12 year old’s reading list”

Sunday Telegraph

When her older sisters leave home, Doreen gets a room of her own – at last! But it’s 1941, the cities are threatened by Nazi air raids and, to Doreen’s dismay, Mum has decided to take in an evacuee. Rhoda Kelly is a year older than Doreen, has a boyfriend in the Army and, worse still, is a talented singer. Forced to share a room – and the limelight – tensions grow between the two girls, erupting finally into bitter conflict, with potentially tragic consequences.

“The sharply drawn wartime poverty will thrill readers of nine and up”

The Times

“A lovely book for ten year olds plus”

Sunday Telegraph

1662. England is reeling from the after-effects of civil war, with its clashes of faith and culture. Seventeen-year-old Will returns home after completing his studies, to begin an apprenticeship arranged by his wealthy father. Susanna, a young Quaker girl, leaves her family to become a servant in the same town. Theirs is a story that speaks across the centuries, telling of love and the struggle to stay true to what is most important – in spite of parents, society and even the law. But is the love between Will and Susanna strong enough to survive – no matter what?

Shortlisted for the Whitbread Book Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize

“Here is a novel that needs a trumpet to be blown for it… Exact and elegant language takes you to the heart of each character’s feeling”
The Guardian

“Frequently moving and unwaveringly honest”

Carousel

London 1665–66. With the plague raging and the scent of smoke upon the wind, Will and Susanna, separated by class and distance, struggle to reunite. Will has become a Quaker and broken with his father. Leaving Susanna behind in Shropshire, he travels to London, swearing to send for her once he is settled. But Will is arrested and thrown in gaol for standing up for his beliefs. This, along with the rapidly spreading plague and a dire misunderstanding, conspire to keep the lovers apart…

1683. Inspired by William Penn’s vision of a Quaker colony and hoping to be free of the persecution they suffered in England, Will and Susanna Heywood have settled in Pennsylvania. Their son Josiah has found his own freedom, and adventure, in the employment of merchant George Bainbrigg, whose daughter, Kate, he has fallen in love with. It is only when the three travel to Barbados that Josiah learns the true nature of Bainbrigg’s work… and a painful struggle to uphold his beliefs begins.

“A brilliant book which should be at the top of every 9 to 12 year old’s reading list.”

Sunday Telegraph

“A masterly book”

School Librarian

“Turnbull examines the class conflict from both sides, rigorously but without preaching. The material differences between the boys are picked out in revealing details.”

Geraldine Brennan,
TES

“A thought-provoking and realistic read”

School Library Journal, US

“This fine historical novel evokes the time and place with spare detail. The class conflict is a burning reality… just as strong is the personal struggle with friends and enemies.”

Hazel Rochman,
Booklist, US

“[Turnbull] has a clear and lively style… While the book’s atmosphere is true to its time, its perennially relevant themes of relations between the haves and have-nots and the difficulties of flawed friendship make it appealing to fans of contemporary dramas as well as historical fiction.”