CHAPTER 4
That evening their Aunt said it was too hot to eat inside, so she took a large tablecloth and set it outside in the orchard. They sat on the ground under the apple trees and ate a huge slice of quiche lorraine and a dollop of potato salad and coleslaw each. Their Aunty drank red wine and gave the children a little sip, but they thought it was revolting and so had bottled water instead. They stayed outside eating peaches until the moon came up. Once again the stars came out and Aunty Izzy told Jenny that the constellation that looks like a big arrow is called Orion and that the arrow is only part of it. Jenny felt it was pointing the way to something and must have been very important to ancient sailors who probably used it to guide their boats home.
“Very many cultures have found Orion important, Jenny. The ancient Egyptians are said to have used the stars as a sort of map and built their pyramids in the same pattern. You can see those three stars in a line up there,” she said pointing to Orion’s belt, “as the three main pyramids at Gizeh just outside Cairo.”
“I would love to see the pyramids one day, Aunt Izzy,” answered Jenny.
“Come on you two,” called Aunt Izzy to the twins who had been racing about the orchard not noticing the stars.
At 10pm they went inside. The windmill painting was now fully blocked in and had begun to dominate the room. The painting was very large and showed the lighthouse in an alignment with the windmill. The buildings began to look quite small compared to the expanse of sea and sand but it was still obviously Uncle Bernard’s lighthouse. The children told Izzy all about their escapades and about their neighbours Thierry, Aliénor, Bernard and Blanca the dog. Aunty Izzy said they could invite the French children and Uncle Bernard over any time they wished, if fact why didn’t they invite them over for a meal some evening next week. “I’ll let you make the arrangement, cherubs, but do give your old Aunt a bit of notice so I can pop to the shops. They’re not just around the corner here, you know!”
Aunty Izzy had made them each a mug of hot chocolate with real grated chocolate on top to take up to bed with them. As they kissed her goodnight she said,” my goodness, you all look as if you caught the sun today. Even you look more freckly than usual, Jenny my pet. Now, off to bed and don’t forget to clean those teeth. If we’re lucky there could be a storm tonight. There usually is after such a hot day. We get real whoppers here, so make sure you get up to watch if it hits! Oh, and here, you had better take some candles. The electricity usually cuts out in a storm. See you in the morning my three jolly tars!” Aunty Izzy handed Jennifer some candles and matches and went back to her studio to survey her day’s work at the canvas. Could she really mean that the children could light candles? At home in London candles were strictly forbidden to children! Jennifer was beginning to feel very grown up indeed.
The thought of a storm was very exciting but they didn’t want anything to stop them going to the lighthouse the next day. The twins were sitting drinking their chocolate in Claire’s room when they heard a roar.
“That sounds like the sea,” said Jack.
“I think it was the wind,” replied Claire.
At first it didn’t seem like much, but after a few minutes the wind seemed to be prowling around the house like a wolf that was determined to get in and eat up children under ten years old.
“LET’S GO TO JEN’S ROOM!“ they screamed in unison.
Jack picked up his torch and led the way to the floor above. The storm was quite spectacular, illuminating the whole attic space with lightning. It looked very eerie indeed as the old abandoned furniture began to take on the shapes of ghostly spectres and the rumbles of thunder shook the old wooden shutters making the children jump with fright! The twins ran across the large space aiming for the tiny door at the end and safety.
Jenny lay on her bed looking up at the tapestry on the wall. It looked like a medieval painting with a charming maiden sitting in a walled garden that was full of flowers. A wonderful pure white unicorn had its head in her lap. Beyond the walled garden there was a scene of the local countryside. It was odd because the scene with the maiden was obviously in the daytime but the scene outside was at night because the stars were visible yet it was still possible to see the scene quite clearly. There was a flat landscape that could have been pastureland or sea; the colours had faded so it was difficult to tell. At the centre of the landscape was a large house or Château that had decorative turret-like roofing with blue tiles. In alignment with the Château was another building too faint to decipher and beyond that, lined up with the other two, was a mill. This was obvious as it had sails and the minute embroidered peasants seemed to be carrying bags of flour to the Château. In other parts of the tapestry were hunters with dogs and knights in shining armour rescuing distressed damsels. There were fields of corn, little fenced paddocks full of furry animals probably sheep, and rolling across the hill, field upon field of vines. As Jenny gazed at the scene she felt that she knew the place. “Ridiculous,” she thought, “this scene was obviously hundreds of years old!” She had begun to drift off to sleep thinking how nice it would be to own a unicorn, but was woken with a start. There was a frantic banging on her door and the twins burst in and almost fell on her bed.
“Jen, have you heard? There’s a hurricane blowing outside,” they both yelled as they shook her awake.
Jennifer remember what it was like to be nine, old enough to feel grown up but still needing comfort when you were scared. And an electrical storm that showed just how powerful nature could be, was a time when it was good to be in the company of a much older person.
Jenny opened her shutters so they could watch the storm together. The electricity was still on so her little chandelier provided enough light to see her room, but it had started flickering. Each time there was a flash of lightning the chandelier momentarily went out, then came back on as the thunder rolled overhead. They decided to switch off the light that would soon cut out anyway. The sky was very bright as the storm got closer and closer so they didn’t need it anyway. Each flash of sheet lightning lit up the room and the sea in the distance for a few seconds and then they were plunged into velvety blackness until the next flash. Sheet lightning alternated with the forked variety, thunder clattered about the house and the shutters and windows rattled. The church bell had started to ring but it was muffled by the howling of the wind and sounded as if it came from miles and miles away. It created a hollow tolling sound like the children had heard sometimes when there had been a funeral at their local church. During one of the moments when the sky was pitch black, before the next flash of lightening, the children realised that they could see the light from the lighthouse as it threw its beam in a regular pulse, out across the sea every minute, like a clock counting the seconds until the next erratic flash of light from the heavens. After half an hour or so, the thunder and lightning moved away and all that was left was the howling wind and the rain. The twins were obviously tired so Jenny decided to light a candle and take them back to their own beds. She tucked them both in, said, “Goodnight, sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite! See you in the morning”
When she got back to her own room Jenny placed the candle beside the bed and stared up at the tapestry. She felt sure she could just make out a little boat shape. So it was the sea after all. But there was still something odd about the whole scene and she was far too tired to figure it out tonight. She blew out the candle and stared into the dark space outside the balcony. The lighthouse beam had a hypnotic effect on her and eventually she fell asleep counting sheep, the sheep in the tapestry, woolly and strange looking.