Moving on

Leonora did not want to move. She hoped this was all a bad dream and that she was going to wake up soon.

She wriggled around slightly to make herself less uncomfortable, as much as anyone can on a stony cliff path, and leaned against Leonard's solid chest. For once she was grateful that there was a lot of him and decided he was rather nice to curl up next to. She shut her eyes in an attempt to blank out the whole horrible experience.

Leonard looked down at her puzzled. The last thing he had ever expected was to have Leonora lying peacefully against him. Many years ago he would have done pretty much anything to achieve that, although preferably not on a stony path.

He had had a soft spot for Leonora for quite some time when he was younger, and could never understand why she always laughed at him and treated him like dirt. In the end he had convinced himself it was a front, and that she probably did like him after all but was too shy or embarrassed to let him know.

So he wrote a couple of letters, telling her about his feelings for her. He never got a reply to either of them. Not even a sarcastic one. She had never mentioned the letters at all to him. He wondered what she had done with them. Laughed at them and probably ripped them into tiny pieces and chucked them in the bin, he supposed. It was as though they had never existed and even Leonard had sometimes asked himself if he had really written them, or if they were just in his imagination.

He hadn't thought about the letters for ages, and probably wouldn't have done had circumstances that morning not brought the two of them so physically close together. And being a practical man, he consigned them neatly back to the past where they belonged, and brought himself quickly into the present.

Leonora still had her eyes shut and was whimpering rather like Tata did in her sleep. Leonard noticed a couple of tears on her cheek and wiped them off. Poor girl, she must be in some pain, he thought. He stroked her head, like he would with Tata, and then rested his arm gently round her.

"Come on Leonora, we can't stay here for ever," he said quietly. She ignored him. As usual.

"Leonora," he said, in his normal bossy style. "Wake up girl, we need to move."

"Don't want," she mumbled.

"Don't tell me that you have suddenly become so fond of me that you are enjoying lying here with me," he said, in an attempt to animate her spirits.

"Any fat person would do," she answered, still not attempting to move. "Anyway, I don't understand why you can't move."

"Because I've twisted my ankle too," he said.

At that, Leonora lifted her head up and looked at him.

"What, the one on the broken leg?"

"No, the other one." Leonard sighed.

And Leonora burst out laughing in spite of the pain.

"Oh, that is too funny for words," she said and laughed again.

Leonard did not think it was funny at all. He glared at her.

"Would you like me to take your boot off and have a look at your ankle?" he said, vindictively.

"Noooooooooo," wailed Leonora, no longer laughing.

"Right, so don't laugh at me. Tata and Mrs Leonard obviously haven't been able to find anyone to help, so we need to try and move," said Leonard. Although he had no idea how he was going to move with a still weak broken leg, and now a twisted ankle.

"You need to get up onto your good leg using me as a support, and then lean on the little crutches. They will take you up the path. Just take your time and go carefully." Not that you managed very well before, he thought to himself.

The little crutches murmured their agreement with the plan. They were happy to help Leonora who weighed at least five stone less than Leonard, so figured it would be pretty easy to get her safely to the top.

"Can't I just try and crawl?" said Leonora petulantly, in her typical spoilt brat fashion.

"No. Don't be ridiculous. You will probably find once the little crutches are taking most of your weight that you can put your right leg down enough to limp along," he added.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me. When you get to the top, give Mrs Leonard the little crutches and ask her to come down to help me.

"And if you see anyone else while you are waiting for us, ask them to come down and help. Particularly if they are big strapping men. Fourteen-year-old schoolgirls won't be much help."

"Not even big strapping ones?" she asked.

"Leonora, just get moving."

So she did as she was told, for once, although accompanied by much moaning and screwing up of her face. And as she set off on the slow hobble and limp up the path, Leonard pulled himself around to sit back against the cliff. And tried not to think about Leonora leaning against him, and the two letters from the past.