Evie’s Choice. Terri Nixon

of seats were free of people now. I looked helplessly around, realising a twelve-year-old girl would be almost impossible to spot. Then I had an idea, and climbed over the back of the rear-most seats onto the ones in front, scanning the crowds as I went. From my vantage point I saw Will, helping a hobbling woman to a seat, and judged by the way she half-rose and then settled down, that he’d convinced her of the relative safety of staying where she was.

      Taking my cue from his common sense, I climbed back down and began speaking to the people nearest me.

      ‘The fire’s out! It’s safe here, don’t push! Just sit down and wait, and you’ll get out quicker, and without injury! Sit down, just wait…’

      Gradually the word seemed to filter through, and the shoving eased off. I began to ask people if they’d seen a twelve-year-old girl in a green dress but noone had. Just when I was starting to despair of ever finding her, and assumed she must have made her way outside after all, I saw a crumpled form near the edge of the stage. It was dressed in green. I scrambled back over the seats, my skirts held high, not caring who was watching, and yelled to Will, pointing with my free hand. We reached her at the same time, and I laid my hand on her back.

      She jerked upright, gasping and terrified, and I could see blood matting her dark fringe.

      ‘Hush, Helen, it’s all right,’ I soothed.

      She stared at me. ‘How do you know my name?’

      ‘Your sister has been looking for you,’ I said. ‘Sit still a moment, let’s make sure you’re fit to move.’

      Will and I helped her to a sitting position, and I looked her over carefully. ‘Did you faint at all?’

      ‘I was hit on the head by something, but I didnae faint. I was a’scairt the rest of the scenery would come down on me, so I stayed curled up.’ The little girl had a lilting accent just like her sister’s, and would grow into a similar beauty one day. For now though she was tear-streaked and frightened, and hiccupped her way through a list of her bumps and bruises. None of them seemed serious, but Will asked her if she’d mind if he carried her anyway, just to be sure. She looked at him in awe and shook her head, and he scooped her up, carrying her easily and carefully through the thinning crowd.

      I found the elder sister where I’d left her, and she swooped down on Helen with a cry of relief as Will lowered her carefully to the floor. ‘There y’are ya wee rascal! What did I tell ye about staying close?’

      ‘She was hit by some falling scenery,’ Will said, and the reproach in his voice halted the girl’s harangue. ‘I’m sure she’s fine, but you should get a doctor to look at her, she’s cut her head.’

      ‘I’m all right,’ Helen said in a small voice, and smiled shyly up at Will. I looked at him too, seeing him through her eyes, and felt a stirring of hero-worship myself. I met his embarrassed eyes and gave him a little smile.

      ‘We have a train to catch,’ I said. The two girls thanked us profusely, and as we left we could hear them talking excitedly about what had happened, and heard the older girl make Helen promise not to tell their parents what had happened.

      Will grinned down at me and took my hand. ‘How about you, Florence Nightingale, are you all right?’

      ‘I’m better than that,’ I told him, ‘I’m a little bit more in love with you than I was before, if that’s possible.’

      He laughed and waved a dismissive hand, but I was serious. I’d seen another side to him today: a courage that balanced the fun-loving side, and a calm strength that settled him just a little deeper into my heart. Walking beside him back towards the station I wanted everyone to know the bone-deep beauty of this man, and what he was capable of. I wanted people to look at me and envy me, and I wanted him to know how unutterably proud of him I was.

      But if the day had shown me a new Will Davies, it had also shown me a new Evie Creswell, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about her. On the train, sitting close to him, I broached the question that had been bothering me. ‘Will, am I different?’

      ‘Different?’

      ‘To what I was. To the way you saw me.’

      ‘I don’t understand.’

      ‘It’s just, today…’ I hesitated, wondering if I was courting trouble even putting the thought in his head. ‘I mean, all this time you’ve told me you admired me for my beliefs, and principles, and the way I could make you believe things too. Lizzy was the same. But now, after what happened, I feel as if…how could I let something like this shake those beliefs? But it has.’

      He twisted in his seat and took my hands. ‘Evie, listen to me. We’re still growing into what we will eventually become. If everyone waited until they believed they were fully formed before deciding they loved someone, the human race would die out. We’re never “finished”, so of course our ideals will change, we’ll change.’

      ‘But do you think we’ll change too much?’

      ‘Do you mean will I stop loving you? Tell me this, will you stop loving me if I change?’

      ‘No!’

      ‘And nothing will ever make me think you’re not worth my whole life, Evie. I will never, ever give up on you, and I want you to promise the same.’

      I looked at him, I saw the earnest truth in his face, and I spoke from the heart, not suspecting how the weight of the words would return one day to reshape our lives. ‘I pledge my life on it.’