Even with war declared, there were still jobs about the farm that needed to be done so the next morning, Mr Goodwin and I wandered down to the stable to mend the holes in the roof.

The stable sat just behind the chicken coop, down a different track and almost hidden from view but with plenty of space for the horses to be ridden around. Mr Goodwin said he had originally purchased the horses for far work like ploughing the fields and pulling carts up the hills, but thanks to Mr Thompson, they weren't used for that purpose. Instead, Mr Goodwin rode them to the village and back but they didn't get as much exercise as he wanted them to.

There were two horses in a stable built to hold at least four. One had a midnight black coat with its mane and tail the same shade and the other was a strange, almost pale gold colour with white patches across its body and a black mane and tail.

"This is Romeo and Jigsaw. Jigsaw is the patterned one, usually called a skewbald and his main colouring is a buckskin," Mr Goodwin said. "We need to get them out of the way before we can do anything with the roof. The last thing we want to do is shower them with wood where they could get a splinter."

"Right," I said, looking at the horses. I kept my distance from the horses, not wanting to get too close to the animals that were a fair bit taller than me and made strange noises. Although I had seen photographs of horses, I had never seen one close up and I hadn't expected them to be so tall.

"You don't have to be afraid of them, Romeo and Jigsaw are sweethearts and wouldn't hurt a fly. Come and say hello."

"Are you sure they won't hurt?"

"Not at all. If you can walk into a chicken coop and collect their eggs, then you can say hello to the horses. Trust me, horses are much more even-tempered than a chicken."

Mr Goodwin laughed and gestured for me to take the few steps forward so I could get closer to the horses. When I took my first step, Romeo made a strange noise and shook his head, causing me to step backwards in alarm. I glanced over to Mr Goodwin who offered me a reassuring smile and a nod that the horse wouldn't hurt me when it reacted like that. Still, I didn't like the idea of it potentially smacking me in the head with its nose or trying to bite my hand off when I went to stroke it.

Instead, I inched away from Romeo and walked towards Jigsaw who watched me rather than reacted. I reached my hand out slowly, my fingers twitching a little as they got closer to Jigsaw's nose. I could feel the horses warm breath against my fingers and paused just a short distance from his nose and I took a deep breath to try and pluck up the courage to actually touch the horse. I could deal with dogs and cats because they were small, horses were taller than me and from what I knew, could pack a mighty kick.

Before I could touch him, Jigsaw moved his nose so that my hand rested lightly against his fur. He nodded his head a few times, almost to encourage me to stroke him rather than just stand there with my hand close to his face. I slowly run my hand up and down his nose, feeling his smooth fur underneath my fingertips. Jigsaw didn't go to bite me or make any sudden movements and just let me stroke him without making even a noise.

"There you go, you're a natural!" Mr Goodwin said, stepping forward and giving Romeo a light pat on the nose. "He likes you."

"I think he wanted me to stroke him."

"Clever things, horses."

"Are they?"

"No idea." Mr Goodwin laughed. "Come on, let's get these two out of here and get to work. All you need to do is clip this onto his bridle and then you can lead him out and tie him to that post over there. There's plenty of grass for them to feed on so they should be fine."

"What if I don't tie it right?"

"You'll be fine. When it comes to dealing with animals, the best thing you can do is jump in otherwise you'll never do it."

I watched Mr Goodwin open the latch to Romeo's stall and clip a long lead onto the leather bridle that went around Romeo's nose. He then led the horse out of the stall and over to a large post next to an empty paddock. Once Romeo was tied to the post and enjoying some tufts of grass, Mr Goodwin looked at me and nodded his head. I might have been alright with striking a horse, but getting close to one the size of Jigsaw without the fence to protect me didn't sound like fun.

Still, I had to at least try. I opened the latch of the stall with shaking hands and grabbed the rope from beside the stall. Jigsaw didn't even move as I walked around to the side of him and clipped the rope to his bridle just as Mr Goodwin had. I made the same clicking noise with my tongue as he did and then led Jigsaw from the stall, tying him up beside Romeo so the two of them could enjoy the grass as we worked.

"Nice job! Jigsaw seems quite fond of you. Perhaps I could talk Alec around into giving you some riding lessons, Jigsaw could do with the additional exercise and it would give you the chance to explore a little more."

"Maybe."

Although I appreciated the offer and didn't dislike the idea of being taught how to ride a horse, I knew I wouldn't be around long enough for it to matter. I doubt a person could learn to ride a horse in four days, and I gathered that most of that time would be spent working on the farm and making sure some of the work was done so there was less for Mr Goodwin to do when I left. Still, I didn't mind the idea of learning how to ride. It would have been something new.

"Let's get started. We might be able to get this done today if we're quick enough. The stable was a fairly new build of my dads and didn't get much of a chance to fall apart other than a few holes in the roof."

"Who's going up on the roof?" I asked, glancing up to the top of the stable.

"I think it might be best if you did. Those roof pieces won't be stable for me. If that's alright with you, that is," he said.

"I guess, You'll just have to watch out for falling bolts and a wrench." I laughed.

I helped Mr Goodwin prop up a wooden ladder at the front of the stable before he handed me a toolbelt which I clipped around my waist. The belt had pockets for me to put the bolts in so I wouldn't have to hold them. There was also a loop to keep a wrench in so I wouldn't have to carry it when climbing the ladder. Heights, I could deal with but Dad always said I had butterfingers and the last thing I wanted to do was drop a wrench on Mr Goodwin's head. Someone down at the docks had died that way.

We came up with a plan where Mr Goodwin would hand me sheets of corrugated steel to replace the ones that were damaged. That meant my first job was to inspect the sheets for any holes or sign of weather damage and remove them so they could be replaced. Only one or two would need to be taken off with any luck, and the rest might just survive the winter. I had never worked with corrugated steel before and had no idea what to expect from it.

When I reached the top of the ladder, I took a step onto the corrugated steel, taking a few seconds to get my grip. The front part of the stable had a more flat roof compared to the back and it was easier for me to keep my balance when I wasn't having to fight gravity. I walked along the length of the flatter piece of roofing, noticing only one sheet of steel that had worn down and developed a small hole close to the edge of the roof.

I moved to the very top of the stable, where the two sides met and looked down at the back section of the roof which sloped down and looked a lot harder to walk across than the front part. Rather than risk walking on it, I stood at the joining point and scanned the entire section of the roof until I found the second sheet of steel that needed to be replaced. Although it didn't have a hole in it yet, it was well on its way to developing one.

"How are we looking?" Mr Goodwin asked. I looked down at him. He had one hand resting on the ladder and the other he placed over his eyes to fight against the sun and give him a better line of vision despite the fact that he was wearing a flat cap.

"It looks like there are two sheets that need replacing, one on each roof," I called down.

"Well, I did say it would be a simple job." His laughter boomed across the empty field. "Can you manage to take them off?"

"I should be able to. You might have to move the ladder around the back, though. Then I can take the bottom bolts off and not almost fall to my death."

"I like how you said you would almost fall to your death."

"Just trying to be positive." I laughed.

"Do you want to undo those top ones first, whilst I move the ladder?"

"That would be easier."

Mr Goodwin nodded and set about moving the ladder from the front of the stable to the back whilst I pulled the wrench out of its loop and started to twist the bolts on the right side of the sheet free. They had become rusted and a little hard to move after so long and from the weather so it took a little while before I was able to twist them out of the holes. By the time I had removed one, the wrench had dug into my hand and I had to shake out the pain in my fingers before I could move on.

My dad used to have a cloth wrapped around his hand whenever he worked with something like rusted bolts so he could protect his hand a little more. I should have listened to his advice. Once I removed one of the bolts, I tucked it into a separate pocket on the belt so I knew it was useless and moved onto the next one. Each sheet had two bolts at either side and three at the top and bottom and although the job was supposed to be simple, it wasn't going to be when it came to removing the plots and freeing the damaged sheets.

I managed to remove all the bolts from the right of the sheet and slowly made my way to the top of the room to remove the bolts from there before repeating the same thing on the left. Once all of those had been removed, the only thing keeping the sheet of steel on the roof were the three bolts at the very bottom. I clambered onto the ladder, which Mr Goodwin had placed just off to the side of the sheet I was removing.

We moved the ladder so it was in the centre of the sheet of steel and I climbed back up it, working to twist the final three bolts from the steel. The last one was almost just out of reach, but after balancing precariously on the edge of the ladder, I managed to stretch over and undo it. With the bolts all undone, I grabbed onto the edge of the sheet and pulled it just to the left of me and slowly dragged it down where Mr Goodwin stood waiting for it to drop.

"You could have moved the ladder, rather than stretch like that. You might have fallen," Mr Goodwin said, catching the sheet of steel before it hit the floor.

"Dad always said I was a daredevil, much to Mum's disgust. Besides, leaning was easier than moving the ladder, and faster."

"Still, I don't want to be the one responsible if you take a dive off of there."

"If I do fall, it'll be my fault, not yours."

"I doubt your mother would see it that way."

"Trust me, she'd blame me even if it had been someone else's fault."

Mr Goodwin laughed and handed me a fresh piece of steel that could replace the old one. Mum always blamed me when something happened, deciding that if I had been the one stupid enough to do the task, it was my fault regardless of how the idea came to be. I suppose it was because she had wanted what, in her view, would be a perfect daughter. Someone who would help with the cooking and cleaning, someone who never got into trouble. Unfortunately, she was stuck with me.

"If we can get this done before Barb calls us for lunch, we might be able to get you up on Jigsaw this afternoon. If you're up for it, that is."

"Definitely."

"I can see why your dad calls you a daredevil."

I laughed and started to secure the first three bolts to the newest piece of steel. It was going to be sad to leave Mr Goodwin at the end of the week.

~~

A/N - Chapter Nine is here! We're also on our brand new update day! From now on, all updates will be taking place on a Wednesday to accommodate the Rosie Grey series sequel!

Anyway, thoughts on the chapter? Do you think Sybil will take up the horse riding lessons with Alec? What about her overall character? Thoughts on future plot progression?

Comment below!

First Published - May 12th, 2021