The canter cleared my head, albeit only for a little while.

It didn't take long for all thoughts about the evacuation plans and Dad's role in it to come flooding back. When I closed my eyes at night, all I could see was Dad's face and the image of that telegram coming to the door with the announcement that Dad had either been killed or was classified as missing. I waited for that inevitable moment that the notice would arrive, for my worst fear to be realised and I'm away from Mum in a time when we would need each other. With Dad away and officially on deployment, I wanted to be with Mum more than anything.

Two days after Alec had had the genius idea for us to work on a treehouse, reports started to come in the newspaper and radio that the evacuation at Dunkirk had begun. Naval and civilian ships were being sent off across the Atlantic Ocean in the hopes of returning with some of the men fighting in France. Some ships had already returned, but many were being bombed out to sea. I waited for news of Dad and Anthony, good or bad.

Alec tried his best to try and distract me from it once the reports started to come in. I knew he was probably trying to distract himself too since his brothers were being called into action as members of the RAF. We worked to distract each other from the shadows of war that had started to creep closer towards us with every passing day.

"This is going to be a great treehouse if we can pull it off," Alec said, showing me the plans he had created.

"Emphasis on the if. It's going to take a while," I said.

"We have plenty of time. It's the end of May and the weather should hold up until at least mid-September. Loads of time."

"Three and a half months."

"Exactly, plenty of time." He smiled. "I think we can get it done in less time than that, though. Given how fast you were at finishing that sign, this should be a walk in the park for both of us."

"The sign was easy, you're talking about a huge treehouse that's going to involve a lot of wood and nails."

"Don't be such a pessimist, Syb. It's just a treehouse."

It wasn't just a treehouse. It would be the biggest project I had ever attempted without Dad or even Jonathan by my side to help. We would be doing this alone and that scared me more than anything, especially with Alec's track record of hammering his own thumb. If we managed to complete the treehouse by mid-September, it would be a miracle. Time, supplies, and even our own farm chores would work against us when it came to getting it completed in the limited time span Alec had thought up.

Still, we had a plan to work from and plenty of time to do it. Even if we didn't get it completed by mid-September, we would have made decent headway with it and progress would be better than nothing. That, and we both had a pretty good distraction from everything that had started to unfold around us. Jonathan might not think it a good idea for me to pretend like nothing was happening, but what was the alternative? I couldn't spend all my time worrying and the treehouse was a welcomed distraction.

With the plans drawn up, Alec and I had decided to start construction on the treehouse as soon as possible. We had a limited amount of time to complete it and the less we waited around, the better. It had taken me longer than usual to complete my morning chores around the farm and Alec had turned up right before lunch, meaning we only had the afternoon to start on the treehouse. This ended up being delayed even further by Barbara.

"Are you sure it's a good idea for these two to be left alone with a set of tools?" she asked as I grabbed my coat from the strand. Despite Summer approaching, it could still be quite cold.

"They'll be fine. Ron will be around if anything happens and it's only a treehouse."

"Climbing trees can be dangerous."

"Sybil was up on the stable roof a few months ago, a tree is nothing. I trust the pair of them to make the right decisions with this task. I've seen the plans and it's all pretty standard. There isn't much that can go wrong."

"We'll be fine, Mrs G. I'll look after Sybil," Alec said.

"I'll be the one looking after you if you're not careful," I muttered. "He's right, though. We'll be fine. It's just a treehouse."

Barbara sighed, no doubt annoyed that we were so adamant about the whole idea. "Alright, fine. But one injury and the whole treehouse escapade comes to an end. Understood?"

"Loud and clear."

"Off you go then before I change my mind."

Even Barbara couldn't fight the slight smile on her face as Alec and I bolted from the room. Outside, there was a slight chill in the air but we both knew we would warm up rather quickly with all the work we would be doing. The two of us followed the path down the stables where Alec helped me to tack up Jigsaw, Duchess complaining nearby. Once he was tacked up, I climbed into the saddle as Alec untied Duchess from the railing of the paddock.

Together, we set off away from the farm and through the trees towards the Thompson farm. Since we would be working on Alec's property, we had decided to use the tools already there to save me having to bring my own from one place to another. I had only been able to use my own tools a few times since we had finished the repairs by the time I received them, but I liked to use them when I could.

We arrived at the Thompson farm a little while later. Mr Thompson stood in the sheep pen checking on the lambs and offered us a small wave as we tied up the horses close to a water trough. Alec led me back towards the farm's boundary where the tree we would be building in was.

Large branches tangled together, the tree seeming to go on forever from the ground. Green leaves covered most of the branches and offered a large amount of shade on the ground below, perfect conditions for building.

"It's huge," I said, staring up through the branches to try and see blue sky peeking through, but the branches and leaves were too thick to see anything.

"It'll work. Dad said we can cut down branches and use them for wood as well. He helped me measure branch length and everything so all the dimensions are right, or I hope they are," Alec said.

"That's reassuring."

Alec laughed. "This is going to be fun, you'll see. I don't think we have time to cut any branches down today, but we can probably start to cut up the planks of wood for the structure. Most of it is old fence wood or scraps, but it should hold up alright."

"What is it with you and sounding really uncertain about everything?" I asked.

"It makes life that much more exciting." He grinned. "Come on, the wood is just in the shed.

Alec led me away from the tree and down a different track to an old, rickety shed full of discarded pieces of wood. Most of them were fine, no sign of serious damage or rot but they were on the small side and I could see why they had been discarded. Still, they would work the way we needed them but it would be a case of fitting it all together and seeing what worked or what didn't. This project would be a trial and error situation, testing to see which pieces of wood would work best and hoping for the best.

We carried a few of the pieces of wood back down to the tree and started to lay them on the ground in a shape to try and decide which planks would be better for the base of the structure. If we didn't have a good enough base, then the whole treehouse would collapse in on itself and we wouldn't get anywhere with it. By laying it all out, we were able to move pieces around to figure out the best fit. Any pieces that didn't work were put into a pile to look at another day for another part of the treehouse.

"Aren't those supposed to be in the tree?" Mr Thompson asked, standing beside us and looking down at the planks of wood.

"They will be. Eventually," Alec said.

"Don't make me change my mind about this whole thing." Mr Thompson smiled a little.

"We need to trim the branches back before we can do anything else. Consider this the second phase after planning. A secondary plan, if you will."

"That sounds stupid," I said.

"It makes sense, though."

"Does it? Does it really."

Alec walked towards me and placed his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look him directly in the eye. A jolt travelled through me. "Yes."

"I'll let you get on with your secondary planning," Mr Thompson said. "If you need anything, I'll be down with the pigs."

"We'll be fine. We're professionals."

"No, you're not."

"Not yet."

Mr Thompson sighed and shook his head, turning away and heading towards the farmhouse and in the direction of the pigpen. Alec released my shoulders and moved back towards the wood to continue on with what he called 'secondary planning'. I stood still for a few seconds watching him, furrowing my eyebrows.

I didn't understand what had caused that odd jolt when Alec touched my shoulders, the slight butterflies that appeared in the pit of my stomach. It reminded me of our trip to the creak, that feeling in my stomach that I got when he grabbed me. I had pushed that memory to the back of my mind, fought to ignore it as other things took priority, yet there it was, lurking just behind the surface.

Once again, and like I did with all of my emotions, I pushed it back and shook myself out of my reverie to join him in reordering the wood. I didn't want to think about what it might have meant and instead continued to blame Eva for putting the insane notion in my mind to begin with. If she hadn't mentioned Alec potentially liking me, the feelings in my stomach never would have appeared. Of course, I would never tell her the truth because I knew I would never hear the end of it. That and she had other things to worry about.

Maybe if I just ignored it, it would go away.

Maybe.

We spent most of the afternoon laying out the pieces of wood, the two of us losing track of time completely due to sunset being later than it had been. It wasn't until the church bell started to ring that I realised just how late it had become.

"Barbara is going to kill me," I said, counting the chimes.

"She never gave you a time to be home, I'm sure you'll be fine. Besides, it's still light." Alec picked at his fingers, scraping at the skin of his fingertip.

"What are you doing?"

"Splinter. I'm trying to get it out."

"You'll get an infection if you do that, here." I reached into the pocket of my slacks and pulled out a pair of tweezers.

"Why do you have tweezers in your pocket?"

"Barbara's idea. She thought that if I were to be handling so much wood with the fence repairs, then I needed a more hygienic way to get rid of splinters."

"Clever." He took the tweezers from me and I watched him dig around his finger, cringing a little, until he pulled out a small, almost invisible sliver of wood. "Ah-ha!"

"I should go, or I will be in trouble."

Alec handed me the tweezers. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow?"

I nodded. "I'll ride down after my chores and we can start to strip back these branches."

"Sounds like a plan." He smiled that stupid lop-sided smile. "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

I shoved the tweezers into my pocket and turned away from him, heading down to the paddock where Jigsaw stood with his nose still in the trough. After scrambling onto the saddle, I rode off towards the farm, pushing all thoughts of Alec out of my head.

Or so I thought.

~~~

A/N - We are back with Chapter Thirty-Nine! I'm pleased to report that I have now finished this story offline and we have about 18 chapters left to go! I'll be starting work on the sequel in the new year!

Questions! Do you think the treehouse will be a success?

Comment below!

First Published - December 8th, 2021