November

The more French she speaks to Henri, the more Henri speaks English. On the last day of November, he comes over to Lola's for their usual homework session. They finished their arithmetic assignment and they have been in Lola's room playing Go Fish for the last hour. Lola was worried she would have to spend a good full moon explaining the game to Henri in a mixture of basic French and broken English but it turns out Henri knows the game well. Kit said playing games is a good way for both of them to learn each other's language.

Kit had them make a deal a few weeks ago when Lola and Henri found him in the library knee-deep in foreign poetry. When they play their games, Henri can only speak in English and Lola can only speak in French.

To Lola's ever growing annoyance, Henri is winning at Go Fish and his grin only gets wider each time he gets a card off Lola.

"Pearl!" Lola calls and she comes bounding into the bedroom, her tail wagging like always. She stares at Lola with those big, brown eyes and Lola can't help but give her a cuddle. "Sit," she commands. "You're my good luck charm."

Pearl does as she's told and settles next to Lola, watching their game with interest.

"This is very easy," Henri says in his heavy Austrian accent. Honestly, it's like music to Lola's ears every time Henri speaks English.

"Tais-toi." Lola glares at him. Be quiet. Shut up.

Henri laughs and Lola grins. She should have learnt French sooner.

They are on their third round of Go Fish with Henri still in the lead when Emmett barges into his bedroom.

"What the — can you knock?" Lola frowns up at Emmett. "c'est grossier."

"Qui? Ton frère?" Henri says. Who? Your brother?

Lola gives Henri a look and Henri rolls his eyes like he always does when Lola reminds him to speak English. "Who are you...naming..." he winces, probably thinking it's not the right word, "...rude?"

He nods behind him, "Henri, your cousin is here to take you home."

Henri springs up off the bed, "ah, perfect." He looks at Lola, "I...I think I win the....scheiße, ich habe das wort vergessen—"

"The game?" Lola provides.

Henri snaps his fingers, "yes! The game, I win, yes?"

It hurts her to admit but her grandfather is raising her to be a girl of honour. "Oui," Lola concedes with a deep sigh.

Henri cheers and heads out of the room. When he's out of earshot, Emmett closes the door and walks over to Lola's bed.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me about Narin?" Emmett hisses, sitting down at the edge of the bed.

Lola stops shuffling the cards back together and looks at him. "What are you on about?"

"Narin," Emmett says, "your little Australian—"

"Austrian," Lola bites out. Emmett says Australian just to annoy her at this point.

"Yeah, yeah," Emmett waves a hand dismissively in the air, "Narin, your little Austrian's cousin, why didn't you tell me about her?"

It turns out Henri's mother works as a translator for Cambridge University Press. They send her books upon books they want translating from or into Latin or German and a few other languages. 

Narin helps her with the translations, mostly Turkish since it's not Mrs. Rosen's strongest language. Whenever Lola goes to Henri's house she often passes by Narin in Mrs. Rosen's study surrounded by piles of books and paper writing and rewriting. It seems the whole Rosen family have a talent for the languages while some, if not all the people in Rainford can barely speak English. Lola has only spoken to Narin a handful a times. She's always sat across from Mrs. Rosen in the oak-laden study with  her head always buried in a thick book. Always furiously scribbling away. Narin and Kit would get on like a house on fire.

"What is there to say?" Lola throws him a confused glance, "I've only met her a couple of times." He shrugs, "she's seems like a lovely girl."

"How old is she?" Emmett asks, "she doesn't go to our school, I would have noticed her."

Lola wraps a rubber band around the deck of cards as she says, "I don't know? She's not much older than you I don't think."

"What does she do?"

"She helps Henri's Mummy translate boring books for Cambridge University," Lola says, a little confused by Emmett's sudden interest in Narin.

Emmett leans forward. "So, she's not in school? Is she married?"

"No," she looks at him then, "why are you so— oh."

She recognises the spark in Emmett's hazel eyes now. She's seen it before when Emmett spent the last two summers pining over Elsie Bouchard, the mill owner's eldest daughter. She was beautiful with bouncing ringlets of auburn hair and a laugh that enchanted half the suitors in the county but she had a soft spot for Emmett. It's no surprise, everyone in Rainford has a soft spot for him.

He worked himself to the bone to impress her family and show her he could provide a good life on their cherry farm, at one point he was sleeping two to three hours a night as he struggled to juggle the three jobs he had picked up. It had worked until a wealthy Scot had swept into town and asked for her hand. Emmett didn't know she had accepted his proposal until he found her with her bags packed at the train station. She'd whispered a goodbye that collapsed Emmett's heart and gone to live her new life in Scotland.

Emmett spent a good month in bed, mournful for a love lost and paralysed by the heartbreak. It took Lola, Mummy and Granddad another month to coax him out of bed and another month again to bring him back to his old self.

The loss of love can hurt, Granddad had said when Lola asked if Emmett was ill, but there are different kinds of love and most can heal.

The yearning look in Emmett's eyes makes Lola nervous. She doesn't want to watch Emmett wither away as the heartbreak consumes him. Elsie showed Lola that Emmett doesn't just fall in love, he dives in head first, eyes closed and arms spread wide.

"Are you..." Lola starts, "are you interested in Narin?"

"What? No, no, no," Emmett tells her, leaning back on his hands. He scratches his cheek, "why? Do you think she's interested in me?"

Lola sighs.

December

Lola turns fifteen on the fourth. It's a Wednesday, meaning she has school but she won't let that get her down. She wakes up to heavy snowfall outside and Mummy skipping into her small bedroom to pepper kisses all over her face.

"Happy birthday, pet!" Mummy gushes as she squeezes his cheeks. "Fifteen! My god, you're growing up fast!"

"Mummy, quiet, please," Emmett groans from across the hall, "some of us are forced to go to school."

The force in that sentence is their mother, who is convinced a full and long education is the best chance the children have going far in life..

"Mummy," Lola turns her head, "I'm not a baby."

Mummy hums and stands up, "if you're not a baby then you won't want the cherry pie I made for your birthday will you?"

Lola throws her covers off and leaps out of bed. "Really?" She grins.

Mummy only laughs. Lola runs out of the room and slides down the banister. Pearl rushes out of the living room to greet her at the bottom of the stairs. Lola pets her head and she barks in excitement.

She chuckles, "is that you wishing me happy birthday?" Pearl barks again and Lola kneels down to hug her. She smiles, "thanks, P, you're my favourite, y'know."

Lola stands up and heads into the kitchen. She gasps when she sees a freshly-made cherry pie sitting on the windowsill. Her mouth waters. The steam coming off the cherry pie tells Lola it was only taken out of the oven moments ago. Mummy's the best baker in Rainford and anyone who says otherwise is a dirty liar. Her famous cherry pies have won the top prize at the village's annual spring fêtes for the last five years. She only makes it on special occasions like birthdays or holidays and sometimes after church if Emmett and Lola have behaved well enough throughout the week.

"Ah, the birthday girl makes her debut," Granddad says, folding the large newspaper in his hands and setting it down on the round wooden table.

Lola spreads her arms apart, "if you would like to shower me with praise you can." She grins, "you have been blessed with another a year of my presence."

"Or cursed," Emmett grumbles, trudging into the kitchen as he rubs his eyes.

Mummy smacks the back of Emmett's head. "No cheeky comments from you on your little sister's birthday."

Mummy follows behind him, smiling with her hands clasped together. She must have forced Emmett out of bed so they could all have breakfast as a family on Lola's birthday. She already set the table with a jug of fresh orange juice and an assortment of fruit, scrambled eggs, fried mushrooms and beans in little dishes.

Lola's grin widens as she pulls a chair out and sits down next to Granddad. "Exactly," she says, "you treat the birthday girl with the respect she deserves."

Emmett snorts and joins them at the table. He rests his head in the palm of his hand and lets out a loud yawn. Mummy puts on the oven gloves and picks up the steaming pie off the windowsill. Lola, Emmett and Granddad's wide eyes follow Mummy as she places it in the middle of the table. She takes off the gloves and hangs them on the back of Emmett's chair. She takes the seat between Lola and Emmett.

"Before you all inhale the pie in ten seconds," Mummy says with a raised finger, "let's say grace."

Everyone groans but they concede and take each other's hands.

*

Lola offers to help Mummy clear up when they finish eating but she shoos her out of the kitchen and tells her to get dressed for school. Lola hugs her, giving her cheek a quick kiss as she washes the dishes before she heads upstairs.

"Lola," Emmett calls her as she's passes his bedroom.

She turns back around and pauses in his doorway. H

"Be quick," he whispers as buttons up his white shirt.

She leans her head into the room, whispers back, "why are we whispering?"

"Because we're not going to school."

Lola's eyebrows perk up. "We're not? Is it shut because of the snow?"

Hard to be believe. There could be an avalanche and Rainford Hill would still be open.

"No, we're going to Danecroft," he tells her.

Lola gasps. "Really?"

"Really, it's your birthday present," Emmett says and steps closer to Lola, "but, listen, you can't say a word to Mummy."

Lola grins as she fights the urge to jump and down. She has to act calm. Emmett could change his mind any minute. "When are we going?"

"Yeah, by the time school ends it'll be dark, it's better to go now. We should be back by lunch time."

"But the school will tell Mummy if we're not in."

"I've already sorted that."

"How?"

Emmett starts putting on his tie. "They may or may not think we're going off to our distant relative's christening."

Lola laughs, "you are a bloody genius."

Emmett grins back, "I keep telling you to thank Sun Tzu."

"Alright," Lola says, "thanks Sun Tzu!"

When they have finished getting dressed, they head downstairs. Mummy hugs them both, holding onto Lola a little longer to wish her a happy birthday and decorate her forehead with kisses once more.

It's stopped snowing when Lola and Emmett step outside but everything has been covered in white. Lola pulls on her gloves and stuffs her hands into her coat pockets as Emmett pushes the small wooden gate at the bottom of the garden path open. Lola can't stop smiling. She's wanted to go to Danecroft Castle since she was eight and Emmett came back home and told hiherm about how grand and menacing it was.

"We might go to Idun's Tree too," Emmett says as they walk up the hill with the snow crunching under their feet, "but we'll play it by ear."

Idun's tree or the Tree Stuck in Time is a great pink cherry blossom tree deep in the forest. It blooms all year round, always shedding and raining the forest with blossoms, never losing any blossoms. No matter the weather or the season it always bloomed. There's an old legend in Rainford that on her out of the Underworld, Idun fell asleep against the tree once and it never stopped blooming. If you lay down under the tree Idun Kit bless you with health and peace. You will find a few of the villagers napping under Idun's Tree all spring and summer.

"Have I told you you're my favourite brother?" Lola says, her cheeks hurting from how much he's grinning now.

Emmett smirks, his breath comes out in white puffs, "I'm your only brother."

"Even better!"

Emmett laughs as they walk on.