She was leaving them now and, although for months she had been dominated by insatiable restlessness, now that she was actually going, she was unable to leave without sadness. She smiled ruefully to herself at all the things she saw; there would be no need for any of them now, she thought, and turned away quickly lest she start to cry. She must write a note for her mother and father; they would be bound to worry but perhaps she could ease their fears a little. She picked up a pen and paper but the words she searched for did not come; how could she express what she felt and explain why she was going away? She sat wrestling with the sentences and then suddenly, from nowhere, they came and seemed to write themselves. The words were the words of poetry, gentle magic words filled with awe and beauty so that when her parents later found the note pinned on to the front of the dressing table they were glad, even in their sorrow at losing Beth, for there was no doubt in their minds but that she was safe and happy and would always be. They knew, for they were of the Eldron.
When the note was finished she opened the drawer of the dressing table and out sprang her clothes. She selected three tee-shirts; green, red and black, and three jerseys, starting with a fairly closely knit cardigan and ending with the enormous chunky polo neck sweater which she had bought this winter; it was a dark muddy green colour and had a red and white patterned band around the chest. When she had put these on, she got a large brown corduroy jacket from the wardrobe which stood at the side of the dressing table and finally, over everything, she put on the dark brown tweed cape with the lion’s head fastening which had been her grandmother’s. Beth had been given it on her tenth birthday after admiring it constantly every time she had gone for a visit. It was perfect, she thought. Apart from the purely practical point that it was the only thing that would go over the top of all these layers of clothing and that it was wonderfully warm, she felt that it was the right sort of thing to be wearing for walking over moonlit fields; she had always had a feeling that there was something special about it, an aura of mystery and magic, and for that reason she had never worn it before, preferring to wait until an occasion which would warrant it. She placed the heavy cape over her shoulders, pulled the fastening chain across from the lion’s head on one side to the metal tongue behind the head on the other and slipped it over. The cape fell around her and lay, draped in heavy folds, all the way down to the carpet on the floor. She buried her hands amongst the rest of the clothes in the drawer, found the fawn coloured woolly hat she had been looking for and, when she had put it on, pulled the hood of the cloak up and was ready.
She took a last look in the mirror and then turned away to go towards the door. The pretty little red dress that her mother had ironed for her ready for the dance lay over the back of a chair on the other side of the room; it’s funny, she thought, how only half an hour ago everything had been so normal and ordinary. The dress looked lost and forlorn lying there waiting to be put on and Beth too felt sad even in her excitement. Then she suddenly remembered the Christmas presents and she reached under the bed, where they had been hidden, and laid them out on top. Luckily she had wrapped them last night and put on little cards with names. There was a pewter bracelet for her mother and a pen for her father; a record for her elder brother and for the little baby James she had bought a big brown teddy bear. Both grandmothers had been given the same to stop possible accusations of favouritism, a wildlife calendar, and both grandfathers had been given socks. The sight of all these presents laid out in a row in their gay Christmas paper and the thought of giving them out around the tree tomorrow morning was almost too much for her and tears began to run down her cheeks.
She had to go now, without thinking any more about anything. Resolutely she made for the door, opened it and walked out without once looking back. Silently she walked down the stairs and went over to the cupboard opposite the back door where she kept her Wellington boots. There was a pair of thick white woolly socks pushed down one of them and she put these on before she pulled the wellingtons over her jeans. Then she heard, with a stab of pain, the familiar miaow of Meg and felt the black furry body of the cat rubbing up against her leg. She bent down and picked her up and Meg closed her eyes and began to purr loudly. Beth held the cat closely to her and then lifted her up so that they were face to face.
‘Look after yourself, little friend,’ she said softly. I'll never, ever forget you, ’ and she gently put the cat down on the floor where she sat upright looking at Beth. ‘I’ll have to go now,’ she said, and without daring to look at Meg again, she put her hand on the back door knob and turned it. The door creaked as it opened slowly.
‘Is that you, Beth?’ her mother called from the kitchen.
‘I’m just going out to get some coal for the fire,’ she shouted back, her heart thumping with the fear of being discovered. How would she explain all the clothes she was wearing?
‘Well don’t be long, dear; your father will be home soon.’
As she stepped outside, the icy air of the freezing winter night hit her and she shivered involuntarily. Then she slowly shut the door and it was only when she removed her hand from the knob that she realized the full impact of what she had done. She put her hand back on it as if to make sure of an escape route if things went wrong and looked frantically in the dark shadows under the window for the boy. ‘No, it was all a dream,’ she thought, and suddenly felt very stupid. But then, as she was about to go back inside, she saw him stand up and move nervously towards her. At the sight of him all her doubts and fears instantly vanished; this was her world now and he, whoever he was and whatever he did, was her life. He stopped unsure of himself, and she began to walk slowly towards him. When she was just a pace away she smiled and then with a sudden rush of emotion she flew to him and flung her arms around his neck. Tightly she clung to him and the more she held him the more she found that all the restlessness and the anxieties she had suffered since she first met him flowed away. While holding him like this, she was also able to forget her worries and her deep sadness at leaving home and leaving all the people she loved. This was the only way they could communicate; through her body she was trying to transmit all these emotions and fears to him and, along with the fears, the great joy and happiness she felt at seeing him again and being with him. It was as if a dam, against which water had been building up for three years, had suddenly burst and all the water was gushing out.
Nab, who when the girl had first put her arms around him had been unable to understand what she was doing and had grown even more tense and afraid than he already was, now began to relax and respond by slowly lifting his arms and closing them around her. Like all animals his senses were very highly attuned to emotions and he understood what she was trying to tell him, so that he equally, in the only way he could, tried to reassure her and comfort her in her uncertainty and sadness. Beth, when she felt his body relax and his arms around her, could have cried for joy and relief. For the first time since she had been very young she felt totally at peace with herself; the cold night air that she breathed went to her head, and the trees in the back garden which stood stark and winter-bare silhouetted against the dark sky, their twigs like the long bony fingers of an old wizard, seemed to be her friends and guardians.
They stood like that for a long time in the shadows at the back of the house, each trying to reassure and comfort the other; so lost in their own world that nothing mattered except the moment which was timeless. Then suddenly their world was shattered by two great beams of light that cut away the darkness on their left then moved across to catch them in its glare for a moment and finally vanish inside the garage to the right of the cottage.
