Page 53 of Hope and Happiness in Bluebell Wood
We’ve made it to the top of the hill, and now the ground in front of us stretches out for quite a way at an even level. There are a few trees, plants and mainly tall weeds in front of us, but the planting is nowhere near as dense as where we’ve just come from. In the middle of all this quite clearly are the remnants of what must once have been a rather large, and likely quite grand, house.
All that remains is the skeleton of the home it once was.There are a few exterior walls still intact, but most of them have long since fallen. I can just make out where the many windows might once have been in the front of the building, and also how many floors the house would have had from some of the fragments of them jutting across the interior walls.
‘I had no idea this was here,’ I tell Callum. ‘We’ve never come as far out as this.’
Merlin is already galloping across the uneven ground in front of us towards the house.
‘We’d better follow him,’ Callum says. ‘He might know more than we do.’
As best we can, we chase Merlin through the long grass, eventually arriving outside the ruins of the house.
‘Where did he go?’ I ask Callum, looking wildly around me. ‘Did you see?’
‘Through here, I think,’ Callum says, clambering over a few large bricks covered in moss and lichen.
I follow him, entering the derelict house under a huge archway that I’m sure must once have welcomed visitors looking a lot more elegant than we did right now.
‘Merlin!’ I call.
‘Robin!’ Callum shouts. ‘Are you here?’
I hear a bark. ‘Merlin!’ I call again, following the sound. ‘Where are you?’
Merlin barks again, and I see the end of his tail wagging from behind a pile of bricks. I rush over to him and see a quite content Merlin having his chin stroked by a slightly bedraggled, but delightedly happy-looking little boy.
‘Robin!’ I cry, then I lower my voice. I don’t want to startle him. ‘Robin, are you all right?’
Robin looks up at me and nods. ‘I’m dry,’ he says, pointingto a small arch of bricks above his head, and I realise he must be sheltering under the remains of a large fireplace.
‘I’m glad you’re dry,’ I say, crouching down next to him as Callum arrives. ‘But are you hurt at all?’
Robin shakes his head. ‘No. I like your dog.’
‘Yes, I know,’ I say. ‘I think he likes you too.’
‘That’s why he found me,’ Robin says. ‘Because he wanted to see me. I told Mum that he did, but she wouldn’t listen. So I came and found him myself.’
‘I’ll ring Linnet,’ Callum says.
‘Here.’ I unlock my phone and pass it to him.
‘Thanks,’ he says, moving away from us to make the call.
‘Why did you come here, though?’ I ask Robin. ‘You could have come to my cottage?’
‘I thought you lived here,’ Robin says.
‘In this ruined house?’
‘No, in the wood. I heard you say to someone the other day you lived in the wood.’
‘Did I?’ I try to think what he could mean. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yeah, you definitely said it. I came to the wood to look for your house, but this was the only one I found. So I waited for you to come home, and you did.’
‘You must be very cold?’ I ask, keen to get him out of here and back home to Linnet. ‘Do you think perhaps we should go and find your mum? She’ll be very worried about you.’
Robin thinks about this. ‘Can’t Mum come to your house and see us?’
