Twelve Days
by Charles Lacey
Chapter 9
Saturday 21st December
It was still very cold. Mamma did not believe in having fires in bedrooms (except, of course, in case of illness) and as our room was at the back of the house, with three outside walls, it was apt to be chilly. Actually the warmest rooms were those where the servants slept, since all of the warm air from downstairs rose to the top of the house! Tracy and I, having drunk the tea that Rose had brought us, slid reluctantly out of bed and huddled on our dressing gowns as rapidly as possible, before making our way to the W. C. This necessary piece of household furniture was contained in its own long, narrow room off the landing, next to the bathroom. At the doorway I paused, indicating 'you first' to Tracy – I was confident of being able to last a couple of minutes more while he was clearly in a state of some urgency. To my surprise, he gave me a little push through the doorway – and then, to my astonishment, followed me in, closing the door behind him and dropping the latch.
We stood on either side of the pan, lifted our nightshirts and released our streams. Well, I had seen plenty of boys doing just this at school, so what was now on view was nothing new. But, unlike similar experiences at school, I found my stream becoming more difficult to control, and Tracy seemed to be having the same problem. However, we managed not to make a mess, and returned to our bedroom. Jane had left a can of hot water on the wash-stand for us – the girls and Mamma tended to monopolize the bathroom in the mornings – and we performed our ablutions as briskly as possible before dressing. Tracy had now been with us for five days, and was already looking much more healthy. He was filling out a little, and was a better colour.
Mamma and I took Tracy to get him some clothes. Though he was an inch or so taller than I, he was still desperately thin. We bought items that were the right length but a little on the baggy side so that he would grow into them. White linen shirts, stiff collars, woollen drawers and undervests – Mamma was very keen on the idea of 'wool next the skin', even in summer! – grey flannel trousers for school wear, a Norfolk jacket and breeches, even half a dozen cotton handkerchiefs. Three nightshirts and a warm Jaeger dressing gown completed the outfit. The assistants in the drapers' and tailors' shops promised to send 'the boy' with them directly. Since Mamma, feeling a little out of sorts after such a busy morning, decided upon our taking luncheon in a tea-shop, the parcels were actually home before we were.
That afternoon we put away our purchases in the wardrobe which we now shared, and then Tracy took a short rest on the bed. The privations he had suffered had taken a toll on his health and he tired easily. But after an hour's sleep he was full of life again.
The fire had been lit in the Drawing Room, and afternoon tea was brought in as usual. At that time Tracy was experiencing real problems over food. He was still very much under-weight and in need of feeding. He was restrained only by good manners from gobbling food. But his stomach had shrunk and he was unable to eat as much as he needed at one sitting. Mamma, bless her, understood this and so both morning coffee and afternoon tea were accompanied by scones, sandwiches and cake as well as the usual biscuit. To spare his blushes, I took more than I wanted, ate a small amount and then passed the remains to Tracy with the excuse that I was 'not hungry'. The ruse worked well, with Mamma's connivance, and it was a real satisfaction to all of us to see him gradually putting flesh on his bones and colour in his cheeks.
Our tea eaten, we wandered over to the window and looked out. It was nearly dark, but in the lamplight from the window we could see snowflakes twirling their way down from the sky. Tracy was enchanted – as was I, of course. "Do you think it will settle, Aunt Maria?" he asked.
"Christopher, look at the barometer, please" she replied. I went over and tapped the instrument delicately. The pointer still indicated 'Fair'.
"I don't think so", I said. "But let us hope it will."
"Oh yes," said Tracy. "I'd love to make a snowman. I was never…"
And he stopped short. I looked at him enquiringly.
"No. I was never allowed to do anything like that at… at my father's house."
"Right!" I said, robustly. "As soon as there's enough snow on the ground, we will make a snowman which will be the envy of all Kensington. And we will go to the Gardens and throw snowballs, and…"
Mamma drew the curtains. She disdained to summon a servant from the kitchen to carry out trivial tasks of that kind. The girls, who were nearly as excited as we were at seeing the snow, joined us at the table and we played a four-handed game of Ludo. It amused me to see Tracy, who was really much the best player, do his best to let one of the girls win! But he was like that. He had the kindest heart possible. Mamma sat by the fire with some embroidery that she was working on, and presently we heard Papa come in.
"How is my family?" he asked in his usual jolly way, sitting down in his chair by the fire. The girls and I answered, but I saw Tracy's head go down and a momentary sadness on his face. I caught Papa's eye and glanced towards Tracy. Papa, shrewdest of men, took my meaning immediately. "I mean all of my family!" he said, "my dear wife, my two girls and my two boys."
The look of joy on Tracy's face then would have outshone the sun. I took his hand and squeezed it in mine. I wished for a moment that we were both still small enough to have sat on Papa's lap.
The weather, having become rather milder over the last couple of days, was definitely getting chilly again. When we got to our room I saw that someone (probably Rose, who always thought of that kind of thing) had put an extra blanket on the bed. But it was lovely, sleeping curled up with Tracy. We kept one another warm all night.
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