The Empty Frame

“It’s on a river,” he said, “quite a big one. It looks like a tributary of the Thames. There’ll be boats I should think. It’ll be great if this hot weather keeps up. There’s a swimming pool too.”

“But what about Magnus? I don’t think he can swim.”

“He’ll be fine. We can teach him,” Sam said easily. He was the unflappable type, a good foil for Floss who tended to panic.

“What do you really feel about Magnus living here?” Floss asked him, shutting the book. She was definitely abandoning Shakespeare for the day.

Sam folded his map up, very precisely and slowly. Then he took in a deep breath and let it out, also very slowly. “I’m not sure,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t like him. I mean there’s nothing to dislike, is there? He hardly ever speaks.”

“No, but when he does it’s something he’s really thought about. Have you noticed? I think he’s rather clever.” The truth was that Floss thought Magnus quite amazingly clever. When he came out with his quick, precise observations she felt like a dinosaur plodding around in gum boots.

“Well of course he’s clever,” Sam said. “But then, his father was some kind of genius wasn’t he, in a university?”

“I think so. I wish we knew a bit more, though. I mean, I know it’s awful, how he’s been treated, but we’ve got to live with him.”

“Well, I’m not sure I’d go round telling people about my mother going to pieces, when my father had just walked out without a word, and had never come back. They sound weird. That’s when his mother started doing strange things, and ill-treating him, according to Dad.”

“But why did nobody know?”

“Well, I think she, sort of, withdrew from everybody, with Magnus. She actually went to live in another town, where no one knew her. His father had been teaching him at home, so his school wouldn’t have missed him and I suppose outsiders didn’t want to barge in. I mean, they must have been very respectable, not the kind of people social workers are asked to investigate, unless someone tells them to.”

“And nobody did?”

“No, not until it was too late, not according to Mum and Dad.”

“I wonder why the father walked out?”

“Dunno, but I don’t think he went off with someone else. Dad said he’d got very stressed-out, about his work, he said it was all that mattered to him. He was obviously an unbalanced kind of person. That’s why he pushed Magnus so hard, at his lessons. I should think it’s why he won’t always co-operate now, at school. He’s digging his heels in. Don’t blame him either.”

“He’s getting a lot better though.”

“Yes, I know.”

“But why didn’t the mother protect Magnus more? That’s what mothers do.”

“Perhaps she was frightened of the father. She can’t have been very tough, she’s had some kind of mega mental breakdown now, that’s why he can’t go to see her.”

“Poor old Mags. You do mind him being here though, don’t you, Sam? Why?”

Sam sat back on his heels. “I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t think it would matter so much. I know Dad and Mum care about us just the same but it feels different now, that’s all. It’s how I feel. I can’t help it.”

Floss said, “But Sam, he cries in the night, he really sobs. It’s awful.”

“I know.”

“The fostering person told Mum and Dad he’d been beaten, and shut in cupboards, things like that. And when she was ill his mother made him do all the housework. He was only little, it went on for ages. How could she?”

“I’ve told you, because she was sick, in her mind. They don’t keep people in hospital for nothing. They must think Magnus is better off with us, for now.”

Silence fell in the shabby, familiar sitting room. Privately, both sister and brother had minded the coming of Magnus, an eleven-year-old boy to whom these terrible things had happened, but they’d promised their parents that they’d try to make him feel welcome. And they were trying. It was hard though, with somebody so unresponsive.

“He won’t be with us for ever,” Floss said firmly.

“No.” But Sam didn’t sound very convinced. His parents had big hearts. He suspected they would hold on to Magnus, if it was humanly possible.

“Well, this holiday might help,” Floss said, perking up. She had more or less decided not to audition for Lady Macbeth and at once she felt a lot more cheerful. “Tell me where we’re going, again.”

“Why don’t you look it up for yourself?” Sam said, putting his map inside a folder labelled ABBEY in neat, square printing.

“I’ve not had time, with the play and everything. Come on.”

“Well, I’ve told you, it’s on a river,” Sam said. “Mum’s cousin sent that booklet about it, you could have read it.” But actually he quite liked telling Floss things. She was cleverer than he was, though not in the same league as Magnus. “It started as a kind of religious house, for pilgrims travelling to shrines. They used to stay there on the way.”

“Sort of – mediaeval bed and breakfast?”

“Yes. But they said prayers for you.”

“Then what happened to it?”

“Well, according to the book some monks took over, Henry the Eighth chucked them out in the end. He seems to have got quite fond of the place himself. He could sail down to it from London, on the river. Queen Elizabeth slept there too.”

Floss snorted. “Come off it. Surely you don’t believe that.”

“Why not? She slept everywhere.”

“Well, that’s what I mean. So how did Mum’s relation come to own it?”

“I’m not sure she does own it, not the whole place. There’s a man called Stickley. He’s related to her and he’s the one that seems to run it. I think it was left to them both in a will.”

“Stickley…” Floss mused. “It sounds horrible. So why did they turn it into a sports centre? It must have been gorgeous once, from that picture Mum showed us.”

“They needed money to keep it going, I suppose. At least they still live in it. Anyhow, we’ll have the run of the whole place, with luck. There’s a swimming pool, and tennis courts, and all those keep-fit machines.”

“Ugh,” said Floss.

“It might get your weight down,” Sam said slyly. “I don’t suppose Lady Macbeth went to Weight Watchers. All that wringing of hands – she was probably anorexic.”

Floss picked up the Shakespeare. This time she really would throw it at him. But then she put it down again hurriedly. Someone had crept into the room, switched on the television and was sitting in front of it, perched very neatly on a bean bag.

“Hi, Mags,” she said to the small humped figure. “Are you all packed up? The taxi’ll be here soon.”

“Yes.”

“Put in your swimming things?” Sam said. “There’s a pool and there won’t be anyone else there, with luck.”

Magnus didn’t reply but stared at the television screen on which some politicians were arguing about the dumping of nuclear waste. He was odd. He often watched the most boring programmes but if you looked closely you could see that he wasn’t watching at all but staring beyond the screen, thinking his own private thoughts.

“Come and talk to us, Mags,” Floss said gently, switching off the TV and joining him on the bean bag. As she squished down, some white pellets seeped out of a hole. Magnus picked them up and put them carefully on the mantelpiece. “It needs mending,” he said, “or it’ll get worse. I could sew it up, while your mother’s away.”