The Fall of a Sparrow

By Griselda Heppel

11 year-old Eleanor has been sent away to a spooky old school run by a great-aunt she’s never met. Shunned by the other girls, dismayed by Great-Aunt Margaret’s coldness, Eleanor struggles with loneliness; so when a strange, skinny little boy, all flapping arms and nodding head, greets her as a long-lost friend, it feels great to have an ally, however quirky his behaviour. As Davey follows her around, begging her to play games and climb the lime tree ‘like they used to,’ Eleanor is baffled; then bewilderment turns to horror when she realises the boy knows things about her he can’t possibly know, things no one should know... 
Susanna, her one friend, helps her face the truth. Unravelling the mystery draws Eleanor into a dark web of family history, awakening a tragic past that soon threatens to engulf her. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Jun 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781800469235

Griselda Heppel

Griselda Heppel read English at Cambridge and worked in publishing for a few years before moving to Oxford with her husband to bring up their four children.

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Also by Griselda Heppel

Ante’s Inferno

The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst

Copyright © 2021 Griselda Heppel

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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ISBN 9781800469235

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Matador® is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

In memory of

Rupert Heppel

1950 – 2018

There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Epilogue

Chapter One

One Fine Day in April 1968

They were up to something.

Storming into the kitchen to tell Mum that if Robbie didn’t stop doing the twist in front of the TV screen right now I’d twist his head right off, I was brought up short. It was something in the way Mum’s gaze met mine before dropping back to the sheet of paper on the table before her, the tiny movement of her hand as if she thought to hide it; while Dad just stood, hands in his pockets, looking nowhere in particular.

‘What’s this?’ I said. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Come and sit down, Eleanor,’ said Mum. ‘We’ve got something to tell you.’

Oh no. This didn’t look good. Sliding into a chair, I glanced at Dad. But he’d seized the kettle, as if this was the most important thing he could do, and was filling it at the sink. On the worktop beside him lay a tray with teapot, cups and saucers, and – what, on a weekday? – a plate of chocolate biscuits. Something was definitely going on.

‘Such good news,’ said Mum, giving me her most encouraging smile. ‘We’ve found you a school!’

From the hob the kettle made a rushing sound. I let it fill my brain, willing it to block out the meaning of what I’d just heard. ‘I don’t need a school,’ I said. ‘I’ve got one.’

‘No, Eleanor. Things… have changed.’ Mum followed Dad with her eyes as he filled the teapot, brought the tray to the table and sat down.

‘Proper tea! Shall I call Robbie?’ I was already half out of my chair. Anything to derail a conversation that didn’t bode well. Even if it meant luring my wretched brother away from his sole mastery of Crackerjack on BBC 1 to demolish all the biscuits.

‘No.’ Dad put a hand on my arm. ‘Not yet. Listen to Mum. She’s had a letter from your Great-Aunt Margaret, who runs a really nice school in the countryside, in a beautiful old house surrounded by fields and woods and… oh yes.’ His eyes gleamed in the way they always did when he tried to enthuse me and Robbie for yet another slog around a mediaeval castle. ‘With ponies! Doesn’t that sound fun?’

I watched Mum pour the tea and couldn’t reply.

‘The thing is, Ellie—’

‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ Mum snatched up the letter. ‘She’s offered you a place! For next term! At such short notice I never imagined—’

‘What?’ My hand knocked my cup, splashing tea into the saucer. ‘Straight after Easter? No. I’m not going. I’m not leaving West Hill. I’ll—’

‘Eleanor—’

‘—manage better after the holidays, you’ll see. I’ve got Angie’ – my voice rose, and I couldn’t help it because all the time I talked, Mum just shook her head, her mouth getting tighter and tighter – ‘and… and some of the others, they’ll be on my side—’

‘Mrs Scott phoned last week.’

That silenced me.

‘We didn’t tell you,’ Mum went on. ‘Didn’t want to upset you, not until we had a solution. She was very calm… and quite pleasant, really… but firm. Said it was regrettable but after what… happened’ – Mum’s voice went funny, as if the words didn’t want to come out – ‘she couldn’t possibly have you back. I’m sorry, darling.’

‘Not have me…’ I got no further. Everything – blue and white crockery, scrubbed pine tabletop, Mum’s hand holding the letter – dissolved into a blur in which images from that last awful day flooded my mind and wouldn’t disappear, no matter how hard I blinked.

Mum put down the letter. ‘Eleanor, listen,’ she said. ‘It may be for the best.’

Now my head shot up. ‘How can it be for the best? I’ve been expelled! How fair is that?’

I knew something had to happen, that there’d be… what was Mrs Scott’s favourite word? Ah yes, consequences. They’d been hanging over me all through the holidays, she’d made sure of that. But this!

‘Not expelled.’ Dad put his arm around my shoulders. ‘You’ve been asked to leave. That’s different. No one at your next school need know your record.’

I yanked my shoulder away. ‘My… I have a record?’

Mum glanced at the door but luckily the kids’ cheering on Crackerjack covered everything else. ‘Of course you haven’t.’ She glared at Dad. ‘But you do need a fresh start. And that’s where Great-Aunt Margaret comes in. I wrote to her, you see, as soon as we knew… the state of things… and she replied at once. A good sign, don’t you see? She really wants you!’

Rubbing my face on my sleeve, I tried to focus on her, tried to take in the meaning behind that eager smile. ‘How can she want me?’ I said at last. ‘I’ve never met her, never even heard of her. Who is Great-Aunt Margaret?’

‘Great-Aunt Margaret—’ Mum began.

Then it hit me. Nice school in the countryside, Dad had described it, with fields, woods, ponies… A hollow opened up in my stomach. ‘Oh no,’ I said. ‘It’s a boarding school, isn’t it? You’re sending me away.’

No need for either of them to answer. Not when their expressions said it all.

‘I can’t believe this,’ I said. ‘You want to get rid of me too, just like Mrs Scott.’

‘Eleanor, no.’ Mum’s face crumpled. ‘Of course we don’t. But we tried all the schools around here. None of them had room.’

I stared at her. So that’s what all those ‘work’ phone calls last week had been about, for which she’d shooed Robbie and me into the garden so she could concentrate. The floor seemed to slide from under my feet and I wrapped my ankles around the legs of my chair, pressing my bones hard against the wood. ‘Not true,’ I said. ‘There must be somewhere.’

Dad shook his head. ‘I’m afraid n—’

‘There must be.’ I wouldn’t look at him. Or Mum. ‘Some school that will… yes!’ It came to me. ‘What about St Chad’s? I could go there with Mum and Robbie! OK, so they don’t normally take girls, but—’

It was no use.

‘I know this sounds hard,’ said Dad, putting his hand on mine, ‘but Mum and I think it will be good for you to get away completely. And Ashstone House is an excellent school.’

‘You can learn to ride, Eleanor!’ Mum’s eyes shone. ‘You’ve always wanted to do that. Now’s your chance.’

My leg muscles began to ache as a wave of tiredness swept through me. Unwrapping my ankles from the chair legs, I sat up and took a few sips of tea. To my surprise there flickered, somewhere deep inside me, the tiniest spark. It was true. I had always wanted to ride. Ever since watching Champion the Wonder Horse, anyway. Just like Robbie wanted to drive a tank and mow people down.

Coming round the table, Mum gave me a hug. I buried my face in her shoulder, woollen threads tickling my nose, and took a few deep breaths. All right, then. If this was what I had to do, I’d do it. Then the thought came that soon I’d have to manage without hugs like this, and I couldn’t speak.

‘Right.’ Rising to his feet, Dad smoothed down the hair at the back of his head. ‘I’m only halfway through redrafting Chapter 8, so…’

‘Wait.’ Pulling away from Mum, I looked at her. ‘You still haven’t explained about Great-Aunt Margaret. Why’ve I never heard of her before?’

‘Because,’ said Mum, ‘I hadn’t either, not until five years ago. She wrote to tell me her husband had died. It seems he was my uncle – Grandpa Fielding’s brother.’

Now I forgot everything. ‘Grandpa had a brother?’

The door swung open and Robbie charged in. ‘Ha, you missed a smashing programme, El – hey!’ His eyes fell on the table. ‘Chocolate biscuits! Why didn’t anyone tell me?’

Chapter Two

Ashstone House

For the next two weeks, the happiest person in our household was, without a doubt, Robbie. While I woke every morning with butterflies in my stomach at the thought that, not today, no, but soon, everything in my life was about to change, Robbie took to entering my room and looking round, as if deciding which part to occupy first. I threw him out, of course, so then he made for the sitting room to bounce on the sofa, crowing that now, at last, he’d get to watch whatever he wanted on television; and, seeing as I wasn’t going to be around, he might as well have my after-lunch sweet ration too. When, on the last day of the holidays, he interrupted my packing every ten minutes to tell me what time it was, even Angie – who’d come over to see me off – rolled her eyes.

‘Guess there are some people round here you won’t miss that much,’ she murmured.

Crouching down to rifle through my bookcase for which of my favourites to take, I had my back to the room. ‘I’ll miss you,’ I said.

‘Ah – hum. Me too,’ she said. ‘But you’ll make lots of new friends, don’t worry. Ashstone House sounds so cool.’

‘Yeah.’ I stared at the books in front of me.

‘And the head being your long-lost relation!’ Angie flopped onto my bed. ‘I still can’t believe nobody knew about her. Not even your mum.’

‘Yup.’ Rising, I tossed a couple of paperbacks into my trunk lying open on the floor. ‘A family rift, apparently. Happened long before Mum was even born. She grew up thinking her father was an only child.’

‘That’s so sad.’ Angie folded her arms over her knees. ‘Do you think they had an argument, your great-uncle and your grandpa?’

‘Who knows?’ I shrugged. The figure of the grandpa I could only just remember rose before me: a tall, shadowy presence with watery eyes and a soft moustache, who patted my five-year-old head and hid jelly babies in my pockets. How could anyone pick a fight with him?

A thundering on the door followed by a piercing, ‘At the next stroke, it will be 11.30 am precisely,’ made us both jump. Angie’s head hit the wall behind her, and her face screwed up in pain. That was when it occurred to me that picking a fight with your brother might not be so unlikely after all.

Robbie knew what he was doing, though. If I could have stopped time passing, I would have. I closed my trunk, chatted away to Angie, tried to eat lunch, anything not to think about the moment when Dad would finish packing up the Mini and that would be that. But at last I couldn’t duck it anymore. As Dad held the passenger door open for me to climb through into the back, I turned to say goodbye to Angie and Robbie – and for a second wondered where my brother had got to.

‘’Bye, Ellie.’ Angie gave me a big smile. ‘Good luck!’

Returning the smile with the broadest one I could manage, I spotted Robbie, and realised why I hadn’t before. He wasn’t leaping about. Or crowing. He just stood beside Mrs Stewart from next door who’d come over to look after him, saying nothing, one hand clutching something in his pocket, watching as first I, then Mum, got into the car.

Then, as we were about to leave, Robbie dashed forward, a funny, solemn expression on his face, and thrust his arm around the frame of Mum’s open window. I felt something drop into my lap, but Dad started the engine and I just had time to wave at Robbie as we drove off.

It wasn’t until we’d left them all behind that I looked to see what he’d given me.

Loki, his favourite troll.

I held it tight for a long time, stroking its long, straggly black hair.

The drive took hours. Ashstone House lay deep in the Dorset countryside, and the roads wound more and more, so that by the time we descended a long track leading to a great, square, gabled house, I was too sick to care what came next. After a minute or two of gulping the fresh air outside the car, I followed Mum and Dad down a dark stone porch to an open door at the end, where a figure waited to greet us.

‘Frances, James – how lovely to meet you.’

As Mum and Dad leaned forwards to shake hands, I caught a glimpse of a stately, white-haired lady with a hook nose and pale eyes. Turning, she led the way along one side of a huge, square hall, filled with long tables laid for supper.

‘This is so good of you, Aunt Margaret,’ said Mum. ‘I don’t know what we’d have done without—’

The white curls fluttered, showing a bluish tinge, as the figure walking before me shook her head. ‘Don’t, please.’ She raised her hand. ‘I was so glad you got in touch. I hated this whole business, you know. I could never understand Alexander’s attitude. I’d have got him and your father together long ago if I’d had my way. I expect you felt the same.’ Reaching a staircase, she turned right down a dark corridor.

‘Well, yes.’ Mum hurried to catch up. ‘I would have if—’

‘Ah. You didn’t know about it, I forgot. Better that way, perhaps.’

‘Actually—’ Mum began.

‘Come in, come in!’ Throwing open a door, my great-aunt ushered us through it. ‘Sit down and tell me all about yourselves.’ Waving my parents to a worn, pale blue sofa near a big marble fireplace, she turned to me. ‘And now, Eleanor, let’s have a look…’

She stopped dead. The warmth in her expression vanished, to be replaced by something that looked like shock. It certainly shocked me. I stood, hardly daring to breathe, as she stared at me, motionless, save for a slight quivering around her chin; and when at last she moved to sit down opposite my parents, I almost fell back, as if released