"How's that letter coming along?" Mr Goodwin asked, peering over my shoulder as I flicked through the dictionary.
"I'm going to write two and put them in the same envelope. One to Mum and then one for her to pass onto Dad for me; I want to tell Dad about all the work we've done," I said.
I shuffled my letter to Mum over a little until it was covered by the envelope, just so Mr Goodwin wouldn't read it. Although I wanted to go home, I didn't want him to think that I didn't appreciate my time with them and I knew he would get the wrong end of the stick if he read my letter. With the help of the dictionary, I had managed to stumble my way through a letter that almost begged Mum to let me go home as soon as possible. I knew how that would go down if Mr Goodwin read it.
"I'm sure he'd appreciate that."
"If I can find how to spell the word corrugated, then maybe." I thumbed through the dictionary. "I know it starts with a 'cor' but I can't find it."
"Ah, it's a tricky one. It's a double 'r' and then a 'u'. There it is." Mr Goodwin pointed to the word in the dictionary and I quickly copied it down before I lost it again.
"Thank you."
Mr Goodwin nodded and walked across the room to the kitchen where Mrs Goodwin was preparing supper. He muttered something to her and nodded his head towards me, but they were talking too quietly for me to be able to hear them. I ignored the thought of them talking about me and instead focused on finishing the letter, using the dictionary for almost every other word until I was certain I had finished it to the best of my ability.
I tucked the two letters into the envelope and stuck the back down before flipping it over and pulling Mum's letter from my pocket. She had included our address on the back of her letter so I could copy it out and make sure I got it right. The last thing I wanted was for Mum to not get my letter because I had put the wrong address on the front or I had spelt it wrong. Like Mum, I left the Goodwin's address on the back just in case I did spell something wrong and it needed to be sent back. Once again, I copied it from Mum's letter.
With the letter written, I left it on the mantle for Mrs Goodwin to find and put a stamp on the next time she went to the village. When I had mentioned that I wanted to write to Mum, she had said I could have a maximum of two stamps a week since they couldn't afford any more than that. I didn't mind, I could send a letter to Mum and Dad with just two stamps although I didn't intend on staying long enough to use more than the one stamp I needed for the letter. With any luck, Mum would read the letter and send it for me.
It had taken me all afternoon to write both letters and by the time I had written the addresses on the envelope and placed it on the mantle, it was time for supper. Much like supper at home, Mrs Goodwin required that we sit around the square table that leant against a wall. I sat across from Mrs Goodwin with Mr Goodwin sitting to my right and having the joy of facing the ageing wall in front of him. At least I had Mrs Goodwin's smiling face.
"Can you believe it's been an entire week since you moved in with us?" Mr Goodwin said, taking a sip of his water.
"A week of you two traipsing mud into the house," Mrs Goodwin muttered.
"When the weather turns, we can start to work on the house a little more. With this one, we'll have it done a lot quicker."
"My mum was obsessed with cleaning so I can help there as well," I said.
"I would expect nothing less. If you make the mess, you're the one who has to clean it up. However, I won't begrudge a little bit of help with the general housework."
"We can start with cleaning the windows, try and get a little bit more light in here if we can. That'll be tomorrow's task, if you're up for it, Sybil." Mr Goodwin turned to look at me.
"Definitely."
We lapsed into silence and continued to the rest of supper, but I couldn't shake the feeling of dishonesty that crept up inside me. I didn't want to lie to them, especially since they had allowed me to stay in their house in the first place. They didn't have to, they could have decided after one day that I wasn't the child for them or even not agreed to take me on Friday. Even if Mrs Goodwin had her reservation against me, she didn't turn me away or even appear all that annoyed that Mum wanted me to stay under their roof for a little longer.
Still, lying seemed like my best option since I didn't want to turn around and I say I didn't plan on staying any longer. Not only would that just be rude, but it would also throw their hospitality back in their face and that was not something I was willing to do. I wanted to go home more than anything but I also didn't want to upset them, especially Mr Goodwin who had been so welcoming to me since day one. Until Mum decided to see sense and allow me to go home, I would have to keep up with the charade.
After supper, I helped Mrs Goodwin with the dishes since I had spent the entire day helping her and it only seemed fair to continue that streak even after our trip to the village. Evenings with the Goodwin's were quiet with not much to do other than lay on my bed and stare at the ceiling. Mr Goodwin would do some of the evening chores on the farm if they needed doing and Mrs Goodwin would entertain herself with some knitting or reading.
I lingered downstairs for a little while, thumbing my way through the dictionary but it didn't make too much sense. How anyone remembered to spell all of those words, or even a large chunk of them was beyond me. There are so many different spellings for the same word that I would never be able to remember them all, no matter what.
"Does it make for good reading?" Mr Goodwin asked.
"Huh?" I looked up.
"The dictionary. I never thought of it as a riveting read myself, but each to their own I suppose."
"I was just having a look through it. There are a lot of words in it."
"Well, that's why it's a dictionary." He dropped down beside me on the sofa. "You can keep that one if you want, that way you don't have to keep asking for it when you want to write a letter home. I have another one I can dig out if I need it later."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded. "My spelling isn't the best either, despite my old profession."
I laughed and continued to look through the dictionary, but I didn't say anything else or expand on my issues with not only spelling but everything to do with Literacy skills. All through school I had struggled with spelling, reading, I even struggled to write my own name until the age of seven. It wasn't exactly something I liked to explain to people and had been one of the reasons why I've never been all that thrilled to return to school. Since school hadn't come up since that first day, I didn't feel the need to tell them the truth.
Since flicking through a dictionary isn't exactly a fun thing to do, Mr Goodman decided that I could get some evening horse riding practice in and I didn't hate the idea. I didn't think horse riding would become something I could see myself doing regularly, but it was nice to have something to do in the evening for a change.
We walked away from the house and down towards the newly repaired stable where both Jigsaw and Romeo stood with their nose poking out of the stable door. Jigsaw whinnied when we approached and I jogged down the last of the slope and scratched his nose which earned me a kiss on the neck in response. I still wasn't all that keen on Romeo since he was a little taller than Jigsaw and had startled me the first time I met him.
I helped Mr Goodwin to tack up Jigsaw, something that looked incredibly complicated and I knew would take some time to get used to. The last time he had given me a riding lesson, he had shown me the correct way to tack up and had directed me how to sit in the saddle. I hoped this time I might be able to at least walk a short distance on Jigsaw. At least then I could tell Mum that I definitely did something new since I didn't think sitting on the back of the horse would count.
"Let's take him down to the empty paddock and we can see about getting Jigsaw moving. It'll only be for a short while, though, and then we need to put him back for the night," Mr Goodwin said.
"That's fine."
"Come on then."
He led me down a separate dirt track and through a high gate that was being secured to the fence using an old horseshoe. I watched Mr Goodwin remove the horseshoe and swing the gate open, gesturing me inside. Jigsaw seemed eager to be out of the stable and almost led me into the paddock himself as Mr Goodwin closed the gate and made sure it was secure. Once we were in the paddock, Mr Goodwin stroked Jigsaw's neck and turned to look at me.
"Right, you remember what I taught you about the correct way to get up on a horse?"
"Stand on his left side, hold the reins and put the left in the stirrup thingy. My weight goes onto my left foot so I'm pretty much standing and then I swing my right leg over and sit down on the saddle before putting my right foot in the other stirrup."
"You got it! Do you think you can do it yourself?"
"We'll see," I mumbled.
Mr Goodwin nodded and took a step back whilst I followed the steps I had just explained. I tucked my left foot into the stirrup and gripped onto the reins before using them to pull me up into a standing position and swinging my leg over the side. Once I was sitting on the saddle, I negotiated my foot into the right stirrup to make sure it was resting correctly.
"Excellent. Now, one of the first things you should remember is to relax your hands against the reins so you don't tug too hard on his mouth. Sit up straight and relaxed in the saddle to help with your balance. To get him to move, you can give him a light squeeze with your legs, not a kick, to get him to start walking and always look between his ears and never at the ground. If you want him to stop, just say 'woah' in a calm voice, and he should stop."
"Alright."
"Do you want me to lead him for a bit? Just so you can get the feeling of being in the saddle of a moving horse?"
"That would be easier."
He smiled and took hold of the lead, clicking his tongue a little and gentle pulling on it with Jigsaw following him. I felt myself tighten my grip on the reins a little when we started moving, but instantly relaxed once Mr Goodwin's voice echoed through my head as a reminder that I had to relax or I would hurt him. It was a strange feeling at first, I almost wanted to get him to stop and let me down onto the ground so I could walk.
After a while, I started to get into it a little better, relaxing further into the saddle and becoming more comfortable on Jigsaw's back. Mr Goodwin turned and looked at me. I watched him approach Jigsaw and unclip the lead which he had been using, allowing me to have complete freedom of Jigsaw's movement.
I followed his instructions and gently squeezed Jigsaw's body with my knees, startled when he started forward on his own. Mr Goodwin stayed near us the entire time to make sure nothing happened and even helped me to steer Jigsaw around the paddock a few times. Once we had done the circuit a couple of times, I decided to call it a night.
"Woah, Jigsaw," I muttered, surprised when he actually came to a stop just as Mr Goodwin had said.
"Nicely done. We'll have you riding like you've been doing it all your life in no time."
"Really?" I swung my leg over the side and clambered out of the stirrups and onto solid ground. I would love to say my dismount was graceful, but it really wasn't and I almost fell face-first onto the dirt.
"I think so. Why don't you head back inside, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and you could do with some rest. I'll cool Jigsaw down and put him to bed."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Go on, off you go."
I smiled at Mr Goodwin who clipped the lead back onto Jigsaw's bridle. If it took another week for Mum to get back to me, I might be able to learn a little more about riding a horse, but that remained to be seen.
~~~
A/N - Here we are! Chapter Eleven! I'm on Chapter Twenty-Seven offline and I know this is going to be a long story so be prepared for over the usual Thirty-Five chapter limit xD
Questions! Do you think Sybil's mum will change her mind? Why or why not? Do you want to see more of Sybil riding horses?
Comment below!
First Published - May 26th, 2021