I\u2019m sorry for the lengthy delay in blog posting, but I\u2019ve been caught up in a flurry of self-publishing tasks (SO MUCH TO DO). Anyway, on with the reading.<\/p>\n
Chapter X: High Diving<\/strong><\/p>\n The Sprog is not doing well at the whole learning-to-hunt thing, so Patrick loses his temper and says they must abandon the sweet little merlin to the wild, even though he \u201cprobably wouldn\u2019t survive the winter\u201d. Nicola is horrified and offers to take over all his care, but Patrick refuses:<\/p>\n \u201cJael was dead, Regina had abandoned him, and The Sprog (regarded as a hawk) was useless. He didn\u2019t want him hanging round, a reminder of better things, and, in an unhappy, dog-in-the-mangerish sort of way, he didn\u2019t want Nicola to have him either.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So they leave poor Sprog in a field \u2013 but he flies after Nicola and lands on her shoulder! So she is going to look after him through the rest of the holidays and then take him with her to school. Awww! I like Sprog. Even though I\u2019m not really sure how keeping a hawk at school is going to work.<\/p>\n The rest of the chapter is about the family at the beach doing various sea-related activities, in their own unique Marlow ways. Nicola, for once, is merely a spectator. Lawrie forgets her swimming cap, comes spectacularly last in Beginners’ Swimming, cries about it, has to be coaxed into her diving event, performs creditably, throws a tantrum when Peter steals her wishbone at lunch, then goes off happily to her tea party with the actress-judge. As Peter astutely observes, Lawrie \u201cmight be two years younger than Nick sometimes, instead of only two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowan effortlessly wins her swimming and diving events. Ginty, also a good diver although she lost her last school competition, didn\u2019t even want to come to the beach, but was forced along by the family. She decides to disappear after lunch, so she can be all special and sorrowful in solitude. She is, at least, aware that her \u2018friend\u2019 Unity is ridiculous and that it\u2019s all posturing. I do have some sympathy for Ginty in this chapter, because if you can\u2019t be a bit emo when you\u2019re a fifteen-year-old girl, then when can you? Unfortunately, she hasn\u2019t told anyone where she\u2019s gone, which worries Karen and prompts Ann to walk all the way to Trennels and back in the heat, searching for her. Mrs Marlow is the most annoyed she\u2019s been so far when she finds out about this, snapping: \u201cAnother time, if someone wants you to do something you don\u2019t want to do, say so.\u201d Except Ginty DID say so, and no one paid any attention to her! She was forced to enter the events and forced to come along! Anyway, she does end the chapter resolving to drop Unity, so that\u2019s one good thing.<\/p>\n Apart from spending hours looking for Ginty, poor Ann has to put up with constant condescension from her siblings. Peter and Nicola are so blatantly rude that Rowan tells them off for being unkind, which shocks Nicola. But even then Rowan is patronising, saying \u201cthose sweetly pretty thoughts [Ann] gets are quite genuine\u201d and \u201cshe\u2019s a kind girl, after her fashion\u201d and that Ann just can\u2019t help being \u201csloppy\u201d. If I were Ann, I\u2019d leave home as soon as I possibly could. She could train as a nurse and then go off to work in Africa or somewhere else that’s far, far away from her family.<\/p>\n However, this chapter is mostly about Peter\u2019s holiday finally improving. He wins his sailing race by ten lengths and his father is observed looking \u201csurprised but very pleased\u201d (for once). Mind you, Peter\u2019s a Dartmouth cadet and a Marlow, so he\u2019s had far more experience and training than any of his competitors. Nicola cheers loudly when he wins and is instantly hushed because even though Marlows are expected to win everything, one mustn\u2019t ever celebrate<\/em> that in public. Then there\u2019s a long, tense high-diving contest between Peter and Patrick, in which Peter has to battle his fear of heights:<\/p>\n \u201cHe started up the ladder, thinking, as he had so often thought before, that once he\u2019d done this, he\u2019d find himself on the other side of fear, like jumping through a paper hoop. And then he knew he wouldn\u2019t. There would always be more paper hoops.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Anyway, he triumphs. But then, when Patrick goes to congratulate him, Peter snubs him! And then<\/em> Patrick apologises for calling Peter a lily-livered loon and a murderer and Peter oh-so-graciously deigns to forgive Patrick! Can I just point out that Peter has NEVER apologised for putting Patrick\u2019s life in danger on the cliffs or thanked Patrick for holding him safely in place till their rescue or said sorry for killing Jael. If anyone deserves to feel injured, it\u2019s Patrick! <\/p>\n Right, that\u2019s it, I\u2019ve had it with Peter. He\u2019s so awful, he makes Patrick look good.<\/p>\n Next, Chapter XI: The Jump-Off<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m sorry for the lengthy delay in blog posting, but I\u2019ve been caught up in a flurry of self-publishing tasks (SO MUCH TO DO). Anyway, on with the reading. Chapter X: High Diving The Sprog is not doing well at the whole learning-to-hunt thing, so Patrick loses his temper and says they must abandon the … Continue reading \u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Seven<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-5410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-antonia-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5412,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions\/5412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}