The Evacuee Summer: Heart-warming historical fiction, perfect for summer reading

‘Oi! Watch it!’ Ted had to be firm that that sort of behaviour was never to go on around Milburn, as it was the sort of thing that could lead to the pony getting unintentionally spooked and then somebody ending up hurt, he explained.

‘We didn’t mean anything,’ said Jessie.

‘I know, son, I know,’ Ted replied, ‘but none of you are used to big animals an’ yet yer ’ave to do their thinking for ‘em.’

Connie and Jessie looked at their friends with frowns, each twin seeming to forget that they had been happy to try to sneak up behind their pals to do likewise only a mere matter of moments ago. But their unhappy expressions reminded the others that their father hadn’t been in Harrogate long, and already he was having to lay down the law, which risked spoiling a nice day, and so for a little while all the children felt suitably chastened.

‘I’m sorry, Daddy.’ Connie sounded so contrite and in fact her saying she regretted anything was so out of the ordinary that Aiden immediately apologised too and then went and stood by Connie to show solidarity with her.

On the final run-through Roger managed to do it all very adequately with – best of all – no reminders from any of those watching him. And so it was then that with a smile, he stepped well away from Milburn to take a theatrically low bow, with one hand behind his back and the other swooping extravagantly towards the ground as he made a flurry of quickly delivered feathered waving gestures as if he were a nobleman bowing to his queen, and he was rewarded by an enthusiastic round of applause from his audience. Even Milburn tossed her head up and down, and whiffled her whiskers, as if she were agreeing with everyone that Roger had achieved a success of heroic proportions.

Ted asked Jessie to take hold of Milburn’s bridle just above the bit to keep her steady while he and Roger climbed up into the trap and took their seats on the driving bench. The ever-sensible Aiden passed up the whip to Ted, taking care to wrap the rope bit of it around the whippy bit and to move slowly in order not to startle the pony, as he’d been instructed.

‘I’ll drive Milburn round the block to see ’ow she goes, an’ then you take over, Roger,’ said Ted, and then he looked towards the children. ‘An’ you lot, you can walk wi’ us if yer likes, but keep jus’ behind us, out of ’arm’s way, an’ no messin’ about or shoutin’, mind. We don’t know whether she’ll spook easy an’ so let’s not ask fer trouble.’

Milburn lifted a front leg and stamped it down as she champed on her bit and tugged at the reins, clearly eager to be on her way.

With that, Ted neatly manoeuvred the pony through the yard and out onto the road, with Aiden and Jessie paying especially close attention to exactly how he managed to do this. They wanted to be doing it themselves before too long, and if they could grasp the technicalities before the other children, then so much the better. Larry and Connie followed, but Tommy stayed behind with Angela, offering to change the pony’s water and clean out her stall ready for when she came back.

Roger said a distracted ‘thank you’ to his son for thinking ahead and sorting Milburn’s stable, then immediately found himself gazing benevolently around as he sat beside Ted, before he turned back to smile at the children and give them a quick salute, looking as if he was enjoying the sun on his back on this lovely balmy day. Then, much to the twins’ amusement, Roger obviously remembered that he should be watching Ted more closely and so he tried to concentrate on what Ted was saying with a suitably attentive face.

After a while, Ted said ‘giddy up’ and gently touched Milburn with the whip on the flat of her broad back, and she broke into a smart trot. Ten minutes later the children were red-faced with the effort of racing along just behind the trap.

Next, Milburn was slowed down to an amble, before being made to walk out briskly, then to trot again, and turn left and right, and pull up from a trot to a dead halt, all of which she did as if she were an old hand. Finally Ted took her to a busier road, where there was some traffic moving along, to see what she was like near cars (not that there were very many as petrol rationing was biting), and buses and larger vehicles.

The game little chestnut did everything she was asked to do with the minimum amount of fuss, and she didn’t flinch or even flick an ear in the direction of the traffic. Ted said ‘good girl’ several times in appreciation, getting a twist of her ears in reply to him.

Back at Tall Trees, Ted halted her with a ‘whoa!’ and the application of a gentle pressure on her mouth, and then he handed the leather reins across to Roger, who took the gathered loops up cautiously and held them in the way Ted instructed, although he said he hadn’t enough hands just at the moment to cope with the whip as well, and so Ted said he’d hang on to that and that he really didn’t think Milburn needed it as she seemed to be very willing.

‘You need to make her think you know what you’re doin’, and then she’ll do what you want. She’s got a bit of spirit but she’s a nice pony, an’ you’ll ’ave the ’ang of ’er in no time,’ Ted promised.

Roger hoped that would indeed be the case, and then he clicked his tongue against his teeth in the way he had seen Ted do, and rather to his surprise Milburn began to walk forward on this command as if he were an old hand too in the pony-driving stakes.

Mabel had come out to see them off and she held up her hands in silent applause, and Roger couldn’t resist a little smirk in her direction, at which Mabel gave a dismissive downward wave of her hand, with a jolly call of ‘Gi’ over, Roger!’

This time they were out for quite a while longer, during which time Roger picked up the rudiments of driving the trap quite quickly, mastering the firm tones needed for the hups, walk-ons, giddy-ups and whoas much more easily than he or anyone else had expected, indeed so much so that the children quickly became bored again as there was a lot of walking, trotting, turning and stopping, and categorically no drama at all. Then Ted announced that it was getting on and Milburn had probably had almost enough, although they were going to give her a step out into the country before they brought her back to Tall Trees, and so while Ted didn’t mind giving each of the children a turn at driving the trap tomorrow, what he could say was that it wasn’t going to happen today and that the children should probably make their way home without them, to see what Tommy and Angela were up to.

It had been brewing for a while, but at this confirmation of nothing in it for them any longer, the children soon lost the last remnants of interest and, challenged by Larry to a race, they peeled off to gallop home as quickly as they could without even the tiniest moan of disappointment.

It was a much happier-looking Roger who drove the trap back into the yard half an hour later, and then untacked and sponged down a now sweaty Milburn, before popping her back in the neatly mucked-out stall that Tommy had got ready, all executed without a hitch.

He and Ted stood back to watch her drink, and then nodded at each other in the way that men sometimes do when they feel a job has been well done.

When Roger and Ted went into the kitchen it was to find Mabel, Peggy and Barbara all looking engrossed as they leant over the kitchen table.

Peggy got up to give Ted a hug, and he tried not to show his shock at the sight of her blotchy face and her bloodshot eyes peeping at him from underneath their swollen lids.

Peggy gave Ted a weak half-smile and then turned again to the kitchen table, which was covered with a swathe of white cotton fabric delicately sprigged with red, pink and blue summer flowers, and soon the women had their heads bent close together once more as they tried to pin the fabric to a pattern for a summer dress for Connie and eke out in the spaces around this enough material for a summer blouse for Peggy. It was like they were doing a very complicated jigsaw puzzle.

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