Page 4 (1/2)
Charlotte rolled her eyes What difference did it o home at the end of all this and she could not Didn’t that prove Papa loved him better? Didn’t it show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the world was his and not hers? Shouldn’t that h?
She gave up “All right, Bran I bow to your authority,one hand out to the side like she iton did “You have the helm What shall we do with our last hour and fifteen minutes of freedom?”
“I like the bowing,” Branwell said brightly “Though you oughtn’t do it like a ht to at least try to mean it”
“Can we go to Mrs Reed’s shop?” asked Anne, who, though very sad for her sisters, had distinctly heard her aunt pro to that hard toffee all the way along The toffee would fix her up The toffee would ht
“No, we can not,” answered Bran iht to just sit under a tree with his sisters and do a lot of hugging and blubbering and quoting dreadful soggy old poe, but he couldn’t help it The train was so close He could al a andnone of us has done before, so that will ain! We are going to see the train!”
Branwell had iazine illustration of a train station: full of bustle and industry andhats, all running to catch the 7:15 or the 9:20 or waiting virtuously, all talking loudly at the sas But Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine only ever printed pictures of Piccadilly or Waverley Station This was Keighley, and the three of the
Branwell felt utterly cheated
Though it had only just got built, sole, rather shabby sign announcing KEIGHLEY STATION swung in the unhappy January wind A fewthe roofed platfor without purpose, without that energy, without that ied for There was one with a shis teeth A Lady leaned on his arht dead in, patting at her hair, as though anything could be done for her at this point A great, round, dingy, white clock ticked down at theh the clo
ck couldn’t have been more than a year old, Branwell could already see a fa undisturbed and undusted in the shadow of the numeral 6
The grubby old stationlared at them from his booth with deep suspicion
“I don’t knohat you expected, Bran,” sniffed Charlotte “It’s only freight in Keighley Though Blackwood’s says that Liverpool is getting passenger service soon The train’s probably been and gone already”
Charlotte didn’t think she’d ever hated anyone as hley just then Look at it! Just squatting in theit over all the other nearby towns just because it had a train station and they did not Trains only did one thing They took you away Ever so e, and you couldn’t even turn around if you changed your ?
No! Branwell simply would not accept it He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists against this extreh clenched teeth: “What if sohley for a false one and all the handsoroomed up to look like people and”
Anne skipped along ahead and turned round so that she could practice walking backhile talking and not looking behind her once “AND the newspaper shop for a monster who looks just like a newspaper shop and the bricks in the platforold only painted to look like bricks, and”
E si away, across the platform and towhere? Nowhere, of course Her stomach twisted over itself and threatened to bolt, but she couldn’t help taking up the gabird costumes and the moors for a patchwork quilt and the winter for summer and the sun for the moon and, andand”