A Kestrel for a Knave Read Online Free Page A

He glanced up at the clock, It was twenty-five to six.
    ‘What’s up wi’ thee, shit t’bed?’
    ‘I’m off out, nesting; wi’ Tibby and Mac.’
    He whooshed the curtains open and switched the light off. The morning light came in as clean as water, making them both look towards the window. The sun had not yet risen, but already the air was warm, and above the roof line of the house opposite, the chimney stack was silhouetted against a cloudless sky.
    ‘It’s a smashing morning again.’
    ‘Tha wouldn’t be saying that if tha’ wa’ goin’ where I’m goin’.’
    He poured himself another pot of tea. Billy watched the last dribbles leaving the spout, then put a match to the gas. The kettle began to rumble immediately.
    ‘Just think, when we’re goin’ up to t’woods, tha’ll be goin’ down in t’cage.’
    ‘Ar, just think; an’ next year tha’ll be coming down wi’ me.’
    ‘I’ll not.’
    ‘Won’t tha?’
    ‘No, ’cos I’m not goin’ to work down t’pit.’
    ‘Where are tha goin’ to work, then?’
    Billy poured the boiling water on to the stained leaves in the pot.
    ‘I don’t know; but I’m not goin’ to work down t’pit.’
    ‘No, and have I to tell thi why?…’
    He walked into the kitchen and came back carrying his jacket.
    ‘… For one thing, tha’s to be able to read and write before they’ll set thi on. And for another, they wouldn’t have a weedy little twat like thee.’
    He put his jacket on and went out. Billy poured himself a cup of tea. Jud’s snap was still on the table, wrapped up in a cut bread wrapper. Billy turned it round and round with his fingers, sipping his tea. He poured himself another cup, then unwrapped the package and started on the sandwiches.
    The kitchen door banged open and Jud rushed through, panting.
    ‘I’ve forgot my snap.’
    He looked at the unwrapped package, and then at Billy, who was holding the ragged half of a sandwich. Billy bolted it into his mouth, slid off his chair and turned it over as Jud came for him. Jud ran into the chair and sprawled full length across it. Billy ran past him, out into the garden and over the fence into the field. A few seconds later, Jud emerged, wrapping up the remainder of his snap. He used it to point at Billy.
    ‘I’ll bloody murder thee when I get home!’
    Then he pushed it into his jacket pocket and hurried off round the house end. Billy climbed on to the fence and looked round at the sky.
    By the time he had crossed the estate and reached Tibby’s house, the sun was rising behind a band of cloud,low in the East. High in the sky the moon was still visible, flimsy, and fading as the sun climbed steadily, illuminating the cloud. Until finally the sun appeared, burning the cloud golden, and the moon disappeared in the lightening and warming of the whole sky.
    Billy walked round the house, looking up at the drawn curtains. He tried the kitchen door, then stepped back and whispered loudly up at the bedroom window.
    ‘Tibby. Tibby.’
    The curtains remained closed. He searched about on the concrete, then picked up a clod of earth from the garden. The crust was damp from the dew, but when he crushed it, the inside was dry and crumbly, and dust puffed up from his palm. He stepped close to the house and lobbed it underhand at the bedroom window. The soil smattered the panes, then fell to the sill, which threw it back to the concrete in a wide arc, like a projection half-way down a waterfall. Down into Billy’s face. He ducked his head, spitting and wiping his mouth, then looked up and opened his eyes. The right eye blink-blinked and began to water. He rubbed it with his knuckles but it only reddened the white, and the eye still watered. So he tweezed the lashes between his finger and thumb and drew the lid down, blinking underneath it and looking up at the window with his other eye. The curtains remained closed. He released his eyelid. It blinked once, twice; then stayed up.
    At Mac’s he used tiny