wonder if I should wait for Kate, but I’m not sure where she is. ‘Does Sophie want to come too?’ I ask.
‘I think she’s with the other little girl.’
‘Ruby.’
His eyelashes are a deep beetle-black, much darker than Jack’s.
‘Let’s go, then?’
It’s a question and the only reply I can give is to start walking. We go across the gravel of the drive, the stones wincing my feet. I don’t let it show, though. And anyway, the grass is only a few steps away.
‘I’ll show you the barn first,’ I finally say. ‘It’s where you’ll probably be working.’
‘Mum didn’t say anything about working,’ Ellis says.
‘Everyone works here.’ How can he expect otherwise? ‘It’s good work. Jack loves it.’
Ellis glances at me. ‘Who’s Jack?’
‘One of us.’ The grass is dry between my toes. ‘You’ll meet him now, I should think.’
I’m feeling a bit annoyed and I don’t know why. Suddenly, I’m not so sure I want these new people here. I know I shouldn’t feel like this, because Papa S says we must welcome them. And I should willingly let them share in the beauty of Seed. But just this second, I don’t feel like it. I want us all to be left alone.
So I don’t say another word and then we’re pushing through the big, rusting doors, into the banging and clattering of the work barn.
‘Impressive,’ Ellis says as he looks around him, and I warm to him once more.
Instantly, I see Jack. He’s looking at a green car’s engine with Kindred John, pointing something out to him. The bonnet of the car is hooked open above their heads.
‘Come on,’ I say to Ellis and he follows me, past the chaos and tables of oily springs and machine parts.
‘Hi, Jack,’ I have to say as he hasn’t even noticed us. His eyes are so focused on the ticking metal in front of him. He looks up and sees Ellis, and for a second he seems confused. ‘This is Ellis. The boy who’s come to live here.’
‘Oh, hello.’ Jack reaches out to shake Ellis’s hand, but must realise that his skin is dirty from the work and so he just shrugs lightly and smiles. ‘I’m glad you’re here.’ If he is unsure about this boy from the Outside, he doesn’t show it.
‘And this is Kindred John,’ I say.
Kindred John wipes his hands on an old cloth slung over his shoulder. ‘Welcome,’ he says, as he shakes hands with Ellis. ‘Do you want to join us?’
‘I’m showing him around,’ I say too quickly.
‘Yeah, I think I’ll put off working as long as possible.’ Ellis laughs. But none of us do. We know that laziness disintegrates the soul.
Who are these people who Kindred Smith has brought into our home? And why do I not want to walk away? I can feel the air of Outside trickling off Ellis and yet I stay, standing by him.
‘We won’t be long,’ I say to Kindred John, but he’s already turned back to the engine.
‘See you later,’ Jack says, and something passes between them that tells me they will be friends.
It’s quieter when we leave the barn. The whirr and knocking of the machines is behind us as we start to walk through the meadow. I glance at Ellis’s T-shirt, at his clothes from the Outside. They look so wrong. And they confuse me because somehow I want to touch them. They make me have questions I cannot ask.
‘It’s nice here,’ Ellis says.
The long grass brushes against my legs and I’m so proud to show him our home. ‘It’s the most beautiful place in the world,’ I say.
‘Have you travelled?’
‘No,’ I say. ‘I just know it is.’ He’s unsettled me again and I don’t know why.
‘Well, I’ve lived in enough places,’ Ellis says. ‘And here is definitely one of the most beautiful.’ He smiles at me and then looks up at the huge arc of sky above us. ‘It’s certainly better than where we’ve just come from.’
‘You’re lucky. Papa S rarely lets people from the Outside into Seed.’
‘Mum was desperate to come here after she bumped into that Smith guy, but he didn’t think we’d be allowed. It took him a while to persuade your leader.’ Ellis laughs lightly. ‘I think because my mum and Smith knew each other when they were young, you know, it kind of convinced him.’
The thought of Kindred Smith actually living on the Outside feels so wrong. I try to imagine him as a boy, but my mind won’t let me.
‘When she met him again, it was the first time I’d seen her happy in years.’ Ellis drifts his hand through the top of the long grass.
Kate is calling to us. We stop as she walks across the meadow. She doesn’t run.
‘You went without me,’ she says when she reaches us, but she’s smiling.
‘I didn’t know where you’d got to,’ I say.
‘Where are we going?’ she asks.
‘The lake?’ I suggest.
‘It’ll be perfect today.’
‘Lead the way then,’ Ellis says. So we do.
We walk through the strawberry field, rather than around it, carefully stepping in a line over the rows of squat plants. The straw is scratchy on my feet and I tread carefully, not wanting rotten strawberries to squelch between my toes.
Kate stops and touches Ellis’s elbow. ‘Here,’ she says, bending down and reaching under the soft leaves. She passes him a perfectly ripe strawberry. ‘Try this. I bet you’ve never tasted one like it.’
Ellis puts it whole into his mouth and we watch as his jaw moves. He’s smiling as he eats. He swallows and wipes the juice from his lips. ‘I think you might be right,’ he says.
We keep walking and take him through the vegetable garden. Elizabeth is picking some runner beans.
‘Elizabeth,’ I say, rushing over to her. ‘This is Ellis. He’s come to live with us.’ I’m speaking too quickly, dizzy in the sunny air.
She smiles at me, then kisses her palm and reaches out to touch Ellis’s chest. ‘You are very welcome,’ she says.
‘Thank you,’ Ellis replies. I wonder if he thinks she looks like me. Maybe I’ll ask him later.
‘We’re going to show him the lake,’ Kate says, picking a green bean and crunching it raw into her mouth.
‘Hey,’ Elizabeth laughs, gently slapping her hand
