Both Alec and I were glad when we could finally return to work on the treehouse. Although he could have worked on it whilst I was off for the week, he had kept his promise and spent the week wandering around the village or riding Duchess to the clearing and back. Since we were both off for that week, it surprised me that he didn't come and annoy me earlier, although he said he didn't because he wanted to give me a chance to recover from the bruises.

To be honest, I would rather have had him around - bruises or not - just so I had someone other than Jonathan and Barbara to talk to. There were only so many conversations I could have about the weather or what we would be having for supper before I started to lose my mind. Not even the jigsaw worked as a proficient distraction from the boredom that came with not working on the treehouse.

Our first day back, we resumed our task of hammering down the floor planks which gave us a decent spot to stand when we started to construct the rest of it. We had no idea how to approach the walls since there wasn't much to attack them too, but we were determined to finish the treehouse no matter what, even if it did become a little dangerous. For Alec, anyway.

"Are you sure you don't want me to do it? You're probably better off on this side," I said, readjusting my grip on the plank so it didn't wobble.

"No, I've got this," Alec said, "you need to have more faith in me."

"It's a little hard to do that when you've almost fallen off the ladder three times and that was before you had to wield a hammer at the same time."

"It's fine. I'm the master of multitasking."

"Coming from someone who can't walk and talk at the same time and just stops in the middle of the path," I muttered, just loud enough so that Alec wouldn't be able to hear me.

"Just hold the plank straight."

"Yes, sir."

Alec snorted behind the plank of wood I had been holding, which made it a little harder to hold it straight whilst laughing. Alec didn't appear to notice and I heard him shuffling the stack of nails around until he found the one he wanted. He had always been rather particular about which nails he used; I never understood it. Then again, there were a lot of things about Alec that I never understood.

I stood there, holding onto the piece of wood with small splinters digging into the palm of my hand as I waited for Alec to find the nail he wanted to use. How he managed to do anything remained a mystery to me since speed was not something he was no for no matter the context. If he went any slower, I was more than certain that it would look like he wasn't moving at all.

After a few minutes, I heard Alec readjust himself on the ladder and hoped that he would finally be getting on with the task he should have started at least ten minutes before. I bounced on the balls of my feet to try and stop them from falling asleep. Pins and needles had already set in once when Alec was trying to find the right positions to stand in on the ladder and having pins and needles whilst standing in a tree isn't exactly helpful.

"Alright, keep still or this could go horribly wrong."

"You having a hammer in your hand can cause things to go horribly wrong."

"Shut up."

I flexed my fingers out and tried to keep the plank of wood as still as possible between the palms of my hands. On the other side of the plank, Alec took a rather large breath and then started to hammer away. The sound echoed through my ears and the plank vibrated under my fingers with the force of the hammer against the nail. It felt like the plank of wood was trying to jump out of my hands every time Alec struck the nail but I fought to keep it as straight as possible so that we wouldn't end up with a wonky wall. We both wanted the treehouse to look perfect and we would struggle to do that if part of the wall is at a jaunty angle.

It felt like Alec had been hammering away at the nail for ages before he finally came to a stop, although it still felt like my hands were vibrating. I heard him shuffle around on the other side of the plank and readjust himself on the ladder. His leg appeared around the side of the plank and before long, so did the rest of him. To stop him from falling off and putting an end to our entire project, I grabbed him around the wrist and pulled him up until he stood next to me with a big grin on his face.

"I told you I could do it," he said.

"It took you a good ten minutes before you even started!"

"It wasn't ten minutes. More like three."

I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Alright, maybe it was ten." He grinned sheepishly. "That might explain why Dad doesn't want me working on the farm."

"Definitely. You're like a snail."

"I was trying not to fall."

"Uh-huh, you keep telling yourself that." I laughed. "I doubt it's that, though. Maybe he just doesn't want you stuck with nothing but farm work to do. That's why Barbara agrees with me spending so much time with you. She says it won't do me any good to stay on the farm. You still do chores, don't you?"

He nodded. "I feed and muck out Duke and Duchess."

"That's something."

"I suppose."

Alec looked at me and I knew immediately that he didn't want to talk about it anymore and would much rather work on the treehouse. I didn't want to push my luck any more than I already had - it had been a miracle that he had even started to talk about it. At least I finally knew why Alec had been spending so much time in the village, working on the treehouse, or trying to annoy me. I hoped I had been somewhat close to the answer by suggesting that Mr Thompson didn't want him to spend the duration of the war just working on the farm, but I knew that hope could only go so far and the reality might be a little different.

We took a few minutes break, the two of us sitting side by side with our feet dangling over the edge of the tree and sharing a glass bottle full of water that we always had with us. Neither of us ever felt the need to fill the empty space with conversation so we just sat there and listened to the wind in the branches above our heads and the birds who were singing merrily nearby. These were the kind of moments I never found in London. Moments where I could just sit and listen to the noises nearby - I never found the sounds of cars or the clamour of voices to be all that relaxing. There were more opportunities for stillness in the country, for opportunities to just sit and think rather than having to be on the move all the time.

Once the break was over, Alec and I appeared to make an unspoken agreement that we would swap places. Summer had been moving at an alarming pace and taking that week off really hampered our chances of finishing in time for summer. We knew we had to work quickly and even Alec had accepted that speed was not something he was very good at. He was more of the brains behind the operation whilst I did all the practical work. We made a pretty good team.

"Have you heard from Eva about Anthony's visit yet?" Alec asked, lifting a plank of wood up to me

"Not yet. He might have been and gone for all I know," I said.

"Doesn't that bother you?" Alec scrambled up the ladder to join me in the treehouse.

I shrugged. "He's Eva's brother, not mine. Besides, I had that time with Dad and it wouldn't feel right to mussel in on their reunion.

"Makes sense."

"What about your brother's? Have you heard anything about them getting leave?"

He shook his head. "Since Dunkirk and the fall of France, they're going to be on standby for any potential invasion. Any chance of leave has been postponed for the time being. They still write, though, which is something."

"Definitely."

Alec looked up, a brief flash of alarm passing his face. "You haven't heard from your dad yet, have you?"

"Not yet. Mum hasn't either. Nothing from him and nothing from the War Office which we agree means that he's fine. If anything had happened, we'd know by now, at least that's what Mum says." I took a breath, just small enough that I hoped Alec wouldn't notice. "Shall we get on with it? I want at least one wall finished today."

"Yes, definitely."

Alec took a plank off me and I scaled down one ladder and up the other, pulling out some nails from my pocket and putting them between my teeth so I would have a reason to stay quiet if he asked me another question about Dad. We worked the plank into position and Alec held it as still as possible whilst I removed the nails from my mouth and slowly started to hammer them in to keep the plank in place.

I felt a little bad for deflecting the conversation so quickly, especially since I had been the one to mention Alec's brothers so it only made sense that it would come back around to me and Dad. Still, I didn't want to talk about Dad until Mum and I could be sure that he was safe and as I worked on the treehouse with Alec, I wasn't sure of anything. We hoped that the War Office would have told us if anything had happened, but Dad was out in the middle of the ocean. They might not know anything had happened for months.

Mum and I had to hold onto the belief that he was alive or it would have driven us mad, but even that hope plagued my mind more than anything else. What if we were hoping for nothing? What if Dad was already dead? Or Captured? There were too many unknowns for that hope to take priority and most of the time they just battled it out in my head until one of them came out as a winner and, usually, that winner wasn't the one I wanted.

So, I was determined to throw myself into work on the treehouse to give me something to do, to have that distraction from the real world. The week off had given me too much time to think, too much time to allow those thoughts to climb into my head. I couldn't allow that to happen again.

"Syb? You alright there?" Alec's voice broke through my thoughts.

"I'm good."

"You sure? You said you wanted to get this wall done today but you didn't answer me."

"I'm just tired. When I close my eyes at night, I see jigsaw pieces, it's enough to give anyone a restless night."

"We don't have to finish this today if you're too tired, we can finish the wall tomorrow."

"No, I'm good. Let's keep going."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded my head before realising he couldn't see me. "Definitely."

On the other side of the small wall, we had started to build, I heard Alec shuffling around, listening to the sound of his footsteps and the slight creak in the flooring as he moved around to grab another plank. Once I thought he was at a safe enough distance, I took a small, shaky breath and tried to compose myself a little.

No one could know how much Dad's silence had been eating me up inside.

~~~

A/N - We are back with Chapter Forty-Five and back with the treehouse! 

Questions! Do you think Sybil is right about Mr Thompson? Do you think she'll hear from her mum soon? 

Comment below!

First Published - January 19th, 2022