Everyone was silent. It was an awful thought that George and Anne had had such a narrow escape.
‘Good thing I yelled my head off to warn them, then,’ said Julian, cheerfully, seeing how white Anne had gone.
‘Cheer up, Anne – think what a tale you’ll have to tell at school next term.’
‘I think some hot cocoa would do us all good,’ said Aunt Fanny, pulling herself together, though she felt very shaken. ‘I’ll go and make some. Quentin, see if the fire is still alight in your study. We want a little warmth!’
The fire was still alight. Everyone crowded round it. They welcomed Aunt Fanny when she came in with some steaming milk-cocoa.
Anne looked curiously round the room as she sat sipping her drink. This was where her uncle did his work, his very clever work. He wrote his difficult books here, books which Anne could not understand at all. He drew his queer diagrams here, and made many strange experiments.
But just at the moment Uncle Quentin did not look very clever. He looked rather ashamed, somehow. Anne soon knew why.
‘Quentin, it is a mercy none of us was hurt or killed,’ said Aunt Fanny, looking at him rather sternly. *I told you a dozen times you should get that ash tree topped. I knew it was too big and heavy to withstand a great gale. I was always afraid it would blow down on the house.’
‘Yes, I know, my dear,’ said Uncle Quentin, stirring his cup of cocoa very vigorously. ‘But I was so busy these last months.’
‘You always make that an excuse for not doing urgent things,’ said Aunt Fanny, with a sigh. ‘I shall have to manage things myself in the future. I can’t risk our lives like this!’
‘Well, a thing like this would only happen once in a blue moon!’ cried Uncle Quentin, getting angry. Then he calmed down, seeing that Aunt Fanny was really
shocked and upset, very near to tears. He put down his cocoa and slipped his arm round her.
‘You’ve had a terrible shock,’ he said. ‘Don’t you worry about things. Maybe they won’t be so bad when morning comes.’
‘Oh, Quentin – they’ll be much worse!’ said his wife. ‘Where shall we sleep tonight, all of us, and what shall we do till the roof and upstairs rooms are repaired? The children have only just come home. The house will be full of workmen for weeks! I don’t know how I’m going to manage.’
‘Leave it all to me!’ said Uncle Quentin. ‘I’ll settle everything. Don’t you worry. I’m sorry about this, very sorry, particularly as it’s my fault. But I’ll straighten things out for everyone, you just see!’
Aunt Fanny didn’t really believe him, but she was grateful for his comforting. The children listened in silence, drinking their hot cocoa. Uncle Quentin was so very clever, and knew so many things – but it was so like him to neglect something urgent like cutting off the top of the old ash tree. Sometimes he didn’t seem to live in this world at all!
It was no use going up to bed! The rooms upstairs were either completely ruined, or so messed up with bits and pieces, and clouds of dust, that it was impossible to sleep there. Aunt Fanny began to pile rugs on sofas. There was one in the study, a big one in the sitting-room and a smaller one in the dining-room. She found a camp bed in a cupboard and, with Julian’s help, put that up too.
‘We’ll just have to do the best we can,’ she said. ‘There isn’t much left of the night, but we’ll get a little sleep if we can! The gale is not nearly so wild now.’
‘No – it’s done all the damage it can, so it’s satisfied,’
said Uncle Quentin, grimly. ‘Well, we’ll talk things over in the morning.’
The children found it very difficult to go to sleep after such an excitement, tired though they were. Anne felt worried. How could they all stay at Kirrin Cottage now? It wouldn’t be fair on Aunt Fanny. But they couldn’t go home because her father and mother were both away and the house was shut up for a month.
‘I hope we shan’t be sent back to school,’ thought Anne, trying to get comfortable on the sofa. ‘It would be too awful, after having left there, and started off so gaily for the holidays.’
George was afraid of that, too. She felt sure that they would all be packed back to their schools the next morning. That would mean that she and Anne wouldn’t see Julian and Dick any more those holidays, for the boys, of course, went to a different school.
Timmy was the only one who didn’t worry about things. He lay on George’s feet, snoring a little, quite happy. So long as he was with George he didn’t really mind where he went!
Chapter Three
UNCLE QUENTIN HAS AN IDEA
NEXT morning the wind was still high, but the fury of the gale was gone. The fishermen on the beach were relieved to find that their boats had suffered very little damage. But word soon went round about the accident to Kirrm Cottage, and a few sightseers came up to marvel at the sight of the great, uprooted tree, lying heavily on the little house.
The children rather enjoyed the importance of relating how nearly they had escaped with their lives. In the light
of day it was surprising what damage the big tree had done. It had cracked the roof of the house like an eggshell, and the rooms upstairs were in a terrible mess.
The woman who came up from the village to help Aunt Fanny during the day exclaimed at the sight: ‘Why, Mam, it’ll take weeks to set that right!’ she said. ‘Have you got on to the builders, Mam? I’d get them up here right away and let them see what’s to be done.’
I’m seeing to things, Mrs. Daly,’ said Uncle Quentin. ‘My wife has had a great shock. She is not fit to see to things herself. The first thing to do is to decide what is to happen to the children. They can’t remain here while there are no usable bedrooms.’
‘They had better go back to school, poor things,’ said Aunt Fanny.
‘No. I’ve a better idea than that,’ said Uncle Quentin, fishing a letter out of his pocket. ‘Much better. I’ve had a letter from that fellow Lenoir this morning – you know, the one who’s interested in the same kind of experiments as I am. He says – er, wait a minute, I’ll read you the bit. Yes, here it is.’
Uncle Quentin read it out: ‘It is most kind of you to suggest my coming to stay with you and bringing my boy Pierre. Allow me to extend hospitality to you and your children also. I do not know how many you have, but all are welcome here in this big house. My Pierre will be glad of company, and so will his sister, Marybelle.’
Uncle Quentin looked up triumphantly at his wife. ‘There you are! I call that a most generous invitation! It couldn’t have come at a better time. We’ll pack the whole of the children off to this fellow’s house.’
‘But Quentin – you can’t possibly do that! Why, we don’t know anything about him or his family!’ said Aunt Fanny.
‘His boy goes to the same school as Julian and Dick, and I know Lenoir is a remarkable, clever fellow,’ said Uncle Quentin, as if that was all that really mattered. ‘I’ll telephone him now. What’s his number?’
Aunt Fanny felt helpless in face of her husband’s sudden determination to settle everything himself. He was ashamed because it was his forgetfulness that had brought on the accident to the house. Now he was going to show that he could see to things if he liked. She heard him telephoning, and frowned. How could they possibly send off the children to a strange place like that?
Uncle Quentin put down the receiver, and went to find his wife, looking jubilant and very pleased with himself.
‘It’s all settled,’ he said. ‘Lenoir is delighted, most delighted. Says he loves children about the place, and so does his wife, and his two will be thrilled to have them. If we can hire a car today, they can go at once.’
‘But, Quentin – we can’t let them go off like that to strange people! They’ll hate it! I shouldn’t be surprised if George refuses to go,’ said his wife.
‘Oh – that reminds me. She’s not to take Timothy,* said Uncle Quentin. ‘Apparently Lenoir doesn’t like dogs.’
‘Well, then, you know George won’t go!’ said his wife. ‘That’s foolish, Quentin. George won’t go anywhere without Timmy.’
‘She’ll have to, this time,’ said Uncle Quentin, quite determined that George should not upset all his marvellous plans. ‘Here are the children. I’ll ask them what they feel about going, and see what they say!’