The Secret Message by John Townsend Page B

meets the eye (and far more than meets his own eye).
    On his 80 th birthday (in 1980) it is time, at last, to tell the whole story.
    The basic facts are these: Freddy was born in a little cottage in the heart of the countryside. It belonged to the Squire, as did much of the land for miles around. Freddy’sfather worked in the Squire’s stables – not that Freddy ever knew Pa, who was killed by a carthorse in an accident shortly before Freddy was born.
    The Squire let Mrs Ovel and her children (Freddy, brother Harry and sister Maud) stay on in the cottage, despite there being no breadwinner to pay the rent. Ma worked hard tending a plot of land to grow food for the family and to sell for a few pennies. But country children at that time, more often than not, had an absolute whale of a time. The glorious fields were a wonderland of adventure – and the hay meadow was a magical, summer playground. It was another world then.
    Squire Hoadley and his bossy wife lived at
The Grange
, in beautiful grounds surrounded by tall hedges, up a long drive behind ornate iron gates that were always shut. Everyonesaid their only child, Giles Hoadley, was ‘wrapped in cotton wool’ and never allowed into the village. Much of the time he lived away at boarding school and never set eyes on other children in the village. Giles had a privileged childhood in so many ways, yet he was starved of the most important thing of all – a loving family. Freddy, on the other hand, had the happiest of families, despite all their hardships. These two boys, like flip-sides of a coin, grew up less than a mile apart yet without ever meeting – for all intents and purposes … at least, to begin with.
    In the cottage next to the Ovels lived another family, with two children; Daisy and Gordon. Both families shared a pig that they fattened on scraps all year, till the day the pig man called. After the killing and butchering, the two families had half each to salt and hang up for ham and bacon through the winter.
    Daisy from next door was best friends with Maud and Harry, while Freddy looked after her brother. Some people in the village called Gordon a simpleton. In fact, he’d had a head injury as a baby. At the village cricket match a ball flew to the boundary and smashed into his pram. He was lucky to survive but his abilities were impaired, which made most children laugh at him … but never Freddy – who cared for him like a brother.

    It was in the summer of 1911 when Freddy’s life changed. One evening, as the children ran through the hay meadow, Freddy happened to look across the valley into the Squire’s orchard, lit magically by a crimson setting sun.
    ‘Hey, look at all them bright red cherries in the trees,’ he panted. ‘How about picking a few?’
    Maud cuffed him round the head. ‘Don’t you dare think about such things, Freddy Ovel. Ma would skin you alive if she ever found out. It isn’t just stealing. You know what she says about you going anywhere near the Squire’s land.’
    Harry joined in. ‘Maud and me can go in the Squire’s wood, but you’re strictly forbidden, Freddy. Ma says you’re the baby of the family and must stay close to home. She lost Pa on the Squire’s estate, so she says she can’t risk her youngest going there.’
    Gordon looked up and said slowly, ‘Is the Squire a bad man, then?’
    ‘No, Gordon,’ Freddy answered calmly, ‘The Squire’s been very good to let us stay in his cottage, as we can’t afford to pay the rent. He’s usually quick to turf people out, but Ma says we’ve been “mercifully spared”.’
    Daisy grabbed Gordon by the hand and ranto the top of the hill, with Maud and Harry in hot pursuit. Freddy stood where he was and stared across at the orchard. The cherry-pickers had gone and their ladders were still propped against the trees … waiting.
    ‘I love cherries,’ Freddy whispered. He looked all around, but the others had disappeared over the brow of the hill. It was now or