Chapter 1

The piano duet came to a triumphant end. Eleanor and Toby Roberts smiled happily at each other.

“Well done, Nell!” said Toby. “I was pushing you.”

“Dead right, little brother. You didn’t half take it at a lick.”

“It is presto agitato.”

“More like prestissimo agitato the way you went at it.”

“Very well done then.”

“Thank you, kind sir, and now let’s go and see where Mum’s got to with supper. I’m getting a bit peckish.”

Their mother, Vanessa, greeted them.

“Hi, you two! Would you both lay the table? You took that at a pretty good lick.”

“Dead right!” answered Nell wiping her forehead.

“Actually, Toby, you might have done better to wait until the final crescendo before really building up speed.”

Toby thought about it for a moment. “Yes, Mum. You’re right. Thanks.”

Toby, aged thirteen listened to his mother for it was she who had taught him to play. She was a graduate from the Royal Academy of Music and now taught piano and clarinet. She had also sung solo soprano at public concerts but after she married and Nell was born she found she did not have the time to rehearse let alone range round concert halls and confined herself to the church choir.

Nell was three plus years older than Toby. She was developing into a good looking young woman but no great beauty. She had benefitted from her mother’s teaching but was nowhere near as accomplished a pianist as Toby was clearly going to be. She had decided she was going to be a vet and rather hoped that she would be able to deal mostly with horses.

At that moment Edward joined them.

“Noisy children!” he said with a smile. “That sounded pretty good actually.”

“Thanks, Dad,” smiled Toby. “Nell didn’t do a bad job either.”

Edward put an arm round her shoulder and squeezed it gently. “Patronising younger brothers,” he said softly.

“Dead right!” replied that young lady.

“More importantly, Nessa my love, have we got time for a drink before sups?”

“If it’s wine that you can go on drinking with it.”

That is what the parents had. The young stuck to water. They were not given any option.

“Nell sweety,” said Nessa after they had sat down, “Mrs Pettigrew asked whether you could baby-sit for them tomorrow evening. I said I thought so.”

“Oh, Mum, no! It’s Susie Dickinson’s birthday party. I can’t miss that.”

“Oh!” Nessa paused. “That’s a bit tricky. She said that she’d left you to last because she felt she had been taking advantage of you lately.”

“Please, Mum, don’t make me. Susie’s one of my best friends.”

“If Mrs Pettigrew’s happy would you do it, Toby?”

“I can’t say I’m keen, Mum. What would I have to do?”

“Probably play with Allie for half an hour and then put her to bed with a story. I’m sure she’ll have had a bath. I don’t think the Pettigrews will be back much after half past nine.”

Toby looked thoughtful for fully half a minute before saying, “OK. I’ll give it whirl. I can’t say I’m particularly looking forward to it.”

“Thank you, sweety.”

Thanks, Toby. I owe you.”

Toby grinned. “I’ll hold you to that.”

After supper while the young cleared things away Nessa rang Leah Pettigrew and explained the problem. She was unworried.

“Nell knows her way around so if Toby could come over a bit before half past six I can show him where things are and give Allie a few minutes to get used to him.”

Toby was still mildly apprehensive when he went next door the following evening despite Nessa having reassured him that if he found himself out of his depth he could always ring her and she would come and help him.

Leah with Allie in pyjamas and a dressing gown beside her welcomed him warmly. “Thank you so much for stepping into the breach.”

“You’re a better man than I Gunga Din,” quoted her husband, Sean, who was standing in the background.

That helped Toby relax and he bent slightly down to Allie.

“Hello, Allie,” he said with a smile. “We’ve never met but I have seen you in your garden from my bedroom window quite often. You always seem to be running.”

Allie nodded shyly. “It helps me with the races at school.”

“I bet. What a good idea!”

Allie nodded more enthusiastically but her mother forestalled her.

“Come on in, Toby, and I’ll show you where everything is.”

She led him into the kitchen and showed him Allie’s mug, the milk and the biscuits. “Only half a mugful and only one biscuit,” she said.

She took him on to the bathroom (“Don’t worry. She can do it all on her own.”) and to Allie’s bedroom where Allie introduced him to her teddy bear, Rufus, and her cloth doll.

“What’s her name?” asked Toby.

“Araminta,” replied Allie, “but I call her Mint ‘cept when she’s been naughty.”

“Is she naughty often?”

“No. Only when I want her to be.”

That amused Toby. “Sounds a very good arrangement,” he said.

Allie nodded vigorously.

“Right! Well we ought to be on our way,” said Leah. “We won’t be back late. We’re going to a Hospice fund-raising do which is from seven to nine but there’ll be a bit of clearing up to do afterwards so we should be back by about half past or a little later. Oh, the telephone! There’s one in the kitchen and another extension in the sitting room. Then if you’re feeling peckish there’s bread in the fridge, jam and things in the same cupboard as the biscuits. Butter’s on the side there.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine and Mum did me a bacon and cheese toasty before I came over.”

“Great!”

Both parents gave Allie a hug and a kiss goodnight and left.

“Well now, Allie, what are we going to? A bit of reading?”

“I want to show you my drawings first.”

“Great! Where are they?”

“In my room.”

“OK.”

She seized his hand and set off for the stairs at a run. When Leah had taken him there everything in Allie’s room was tidy. It did not stay that way. Allie opened a cupboard, pulled out a sheaf of paper which she dropped on the floor and fell on her knees beside it. Toby knelt too.

“This is Miss Tyler, my teacher.”

Toby looked at a picture of a tall woman with long, slender legs and pudgy arms. She was wearing a bright yellow blouse with short sleeves and a navy blue skirt to just below her knees. Her hair was blonde and was all over the place. She had big dark eyes and a very toothy smile.