"I think I know why he lied to you," Eva said. She threw a grape into her mouth and broke it in half with her teeth, showing me in grape juice.

"Go on, impart your wisdom with me. I can't wait to hear it." I rolled my eyes and wiped my nose on a handkerchief. Mum was right; a person could never have too many handkerchiefs.

"Alec likes you."

I picked up one of the grapes and threw it at her. "No way. I don't even know him!"

"Yes, he does!" She kicked me with her foot.

"You are so annoying!" I exclaimed, the words sticking in my throat.

I turned my head and coughed into the crook of my elbow, my chest and throat burning as I tried to clear whatever had settled there. Once I stopped coughing, I took a swig from the glass of water on my nightstand and then settled back against my pillow. Tears streamed down my face from the excessive coughing and my chest heaved.

Despite the ride back to the farm I had received from Mr Thompson and Alec, I ended up coming down with something just a few days later. It had started as a blocked nose and a slight headache and devolved into a sore throat and bad cough along with the other two symptoms. Barabara confined me to my room and delivered a selection of soups and fresh glasses of water to my door. After several days, it had slowly started to pass and she had allowed Eva to visit.

Eva, in all her infinite wisdom, had decided to visit with some grapes rather than the sweets I desperately craved. There were only so many days a person could go without chocolate before they started to lose their mind. I filled her in with what had happened the day I went into the village and explained the fact that Alec appeared to have lied to me. Her answer hadn't been the one I expected.

"It's not true," I said.

"Why can't it be true?"

"Because it's not!"

"That's not an answer." She pointed at me. "I've seen the two of you together. I mean, the way you were when we were all the village? You can't tell me that there wasn't something there. Not only that, but he's giving you horse riding lessons which he didn't have to do, and he took you on a ride through the area for no reason! It's all there, Syb. You're just blind to it."

"I am not. I'm not seeing it, because it's not there. We're friends. Besides, I've only known him for a little while and the first time we met, he insulted me. There's no way. No way at all."

"You're just in denial because I'm not the only one who can see it."

I plucked another grape out of the bowl and threw it at her, but she just caught it in her mouth and laughed at me. Even though she had been my best friend since before we could walk, she could be a real pain when she wanted to be. She couldn't be right about any of this and I refused to believe that Alec and I were anything other than friends, especially as I had only known him for two months.

Not only that, but everything Alec had done, everything Eva had listed, he had been asked to do by Jonathan and none of it had happened by choice. Jonathan had asked him to take me out that day and he had been the one to suggest the horse riding lessons. Our meeting in the village had been completely by chance and he had been a pain the entire time. Eva had just become wrapped up in her imagination that she invented some fabricated idea.

It wasn't true.

Eva readjusted her position on the end of my bed, taking another grape out of the bowl. She had bought them for me but had eaten most of them, not that I minded all that much. I took a grape for myself and watched as Eva started to look around my room. Her eyes were drawn to the collection of framed photographs that I had placed along the top of the chest of drawers. Mum had sent them to me several weeks before, she did so with a note about making my room with the Goodwins as homely as possible.

"You've got a good set-up here," she said. Eva had yet to see my room with the Goodwins until now.

"Really? You think so?"

She nodded. "I mean, they let you paint your room, there's a painting of a-" she tilted her head to the side "-goose? I don't know what that is."

I looked up to the painting above my bed. "It's a goose."

"Huh. Each to their own." Eva shook her head. "Anyway, you have everything you could need here."

"Enid is better off than any of us."

"Maybe, but her host family are a lot more distant than yours. You get to do the thing you love with no one judging you, that and they took the time out to figure out what colour you wanted your room to be. My host family painted mine for me and it's pink. Not only that, but Mr Goodwin is putting time aside to help you with your reading, something your mum wouldn't do. Seriously, you landed on your feet."

"It could be worse."

She gave me an 'I told you so' look and then threw a grape at me, no doubt revenge for all the ones I've thrown at her. Although I never would have agreed two months ago, or even two weeks ago, things had changed a little and reminded me that I had been lucky to end up with the Goodwins. They let me work on the farm rather than deciding I couldn't do it because I'm a girl, they had asked how I wanted my room to be and neither of them thought of me as stupid when I told them the truth about my reading.

They weren't a rich family like those Enid had ended up with and they weren't the sweet old people who took in Eva, but they had tried their hardest to make sure I was comfortable. Even Barbara, who originally hadn't been a fan of me, had warmed to me once she saw that I had a lot of uses. I could have ended up with a host family who didn't care, who were mean or unwelcoming but I hadn't. I had ended up with the Goodwins who were willing to help someone they barely knew learn how to read.

"Enough about me. What about you?"

She shrugged. "There's nothing new going on with me. Just work at the Post Office and two days a week at school. It's not the same without you, you know. I have no one to muck around with."

"I'm sure Mr Martin is enjoying his time away from me." I laughed.

"I'm not. It's odd." Eva readjusted her position on the bed. "You'd like some of the other students in our class, though. There's a girl called Alice, she's nice."

"Is she now?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Not like that!"

"You bought up Alec liking me, why can't I do the same to you?"

Eva gestured to the door which we had left slightly open. "Because someone might hear you."

I nodded, knowing better than to broach the topic any further, at least in a place where we were likely to be overheard. Other people finding out had always been one of Eva's biggest fears, although our little group knew, she didn't want anyone else to know just in case they thought anything different about her. I would never think anything differently of her, she would always be my best friend. I just wanted her to be happy.

Eva left not long after, citing that she was needed at the Post Office for something but she made an effort to drive in her thoughts about Alec before she left. I threw one last grape at her, watching it bounce off the doorframe and onto the floor. When she left I took another sip from my water and settled back against my pillows for what I hoped would be a quick nap. I always found sleep worked to clear my mind of whatever nonsense Eva had come out with.

It didn't work.

Rather than clear my mind, all I could think of was Eva's comment and I found myself reevaluating every interaction that Alec and I had had over the past few months. I didn't feel like any of them really constituted the idea that Eva had fabricated and the idea that Alec had liked me. He had insulted me the first time we met and we didn't really know all that much about each other to determine whether or not we had anything in common. I just couldn't understand where she got the idea from, especially since she had only seen us interact once.

After almost an hour of trying to sleep, I sat up and rubbed my eyes, staring across to the far side of my room. With Eva gone, there wasn't much, if anything, I could do to occupy my time. It wasn't as if I could pick up and book and read it. A knock at the door caught my attention.

"Come in," I said.

Jonathan pushed open the door and poked his head through the gap. "You have a grape on the floor."

"That's Eva's fault. She annoyed me so I threw it at her."

Jonathan furrowed his eyebrows. "But if you threw it, it's your fault."

"Definitely hers."

Jonathan laughed and stepped into the room, grabbing the grape off the floor and rolling it between his fingers. He dropped down on the end of my bed, causing the bed to rock a little from the force but he didn't seem to notice. I coughed a little, cleared my throat and then took a swig from my glass of water whilst waiting for Jonathan to say something.

"That cough sounds like it's getting better."

"Hm, slowly."

"Most kids your age would love a few days in bed, or do I have children wrong?"

"I expect most would, I just get bored. There's nothing to do."

"Well, I can't help with the boredom, but I thought you might want this."

From his pocket, Jonathan produced a chocolate bar which he handed over with a finger to his lips as a sign not to tell Barbara. I nodded and snapped a piece of the chocolate off, popped it into my mouth and then shoved the bar under my pillow. It would have to be moved elsewhere once I had been released from my confinement but for now, it could stay under there, I just had to be careful that it didn't melt all over the underside of the pillow.

The chocolate started to melt in my mouth and I savoured the taste. After several days of nothing but various vegetable soups, I welcomed the sweet taste of the chocolate and I knew it wouldn't take long until the entire bar was gone. It might not have been a way to alleviate the boredom, but it was a good distraction.

"You and Eva seemed to be enjoying yourselves, we could hear you laughing downstairs," Jonathan said.

"I was mainly laughing at her."

"Why?"

"She has this ludicrous idea about me and Alec."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"

I sighed. "She thinks he likes me. Which is definitely not true and she's just making things up."

"Is she?" The corner of Jonathan's lips turned upwards up.

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"I'm not having this conversation, I'm not doing it."

I shook my head and slid my back down my pillows so I could bury my head under the blanket. Jonathan laughed and I felt the dip in the bed lift and then listened to the sound of his footsteps recede. The door opened and then closed again. When it had clicked shut, I threw the blanket off my face and sighed, staring up at the ceiling.

Regardless of whether both Eva and Jonathan thought there was the potential for anything between myself and Alec, they were wrong. We were friends and there would always be nothing more to it than that, I just couldn't see myself viewing him in any other way. Not only that, but we weren't going to be staying in the country forever so even if it happened to be true - unlikely - then nothing would happen because I would be going back to London as soon as the opportunity appeared.

If Alec liked me the way Eva assumed he does, then I would know about it. I've always been rather good at judging characters and emotions; I knew Mark liked Enid before she did. Eva, on the other hand, had always been an awful judge of character which didn't help her case all that much.

Nothing was going on between Alec and me.

~~~

A/N - We are back! Here is Chapter Twenty for you all and I am on Chapter Forty-Four xD It's a long one, my dudes.

Questions! Do you think Eva is right? Does Alec like Sybil?

Comment below!

First Published - July 29th, 2021