Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

It was strange seeing the castle like this, in silence, the two of us the only
people there apart from the odd gardener in the distance. Instead of gazing at the
tourists, being distracted by their accents and their alien lives, I found myself
looking at the castle for perhaps the first time, beginning to absorb some of its
history. Its flinted walls had stood there for more than 800 years. People had
been born and died there, hearts filled and broken. Now, in the silence, you could
almost hear their voices, their own footsteps on the path.
‘Okay, confession time,’ I said. ‘Did you ever walk around here and pretend
secretly that you were some kind of warrior prince?’
Will looked sideways at me. ‘Honestly?’
‘Of course.’
‘Yes. I even borrowed one of the swords off the walls of the Great Hall once.
It weighed a ton. I remember being petrified that I wouldn’t be able to lift it back
on to its stand.’
We had reached the swell of the hill, and from here, at the front of the moat,
we could look down the long sweep of grass to the ruined wall that had marked
the boundary. Beyond it lay the town, the neon signs and queues of traffic, the
bustle that marked the small town’s rush hour. Up here it was silent apart from
the birds and the soft hum of Will’s chair.
He stopped the chair briefly and swivelled it so that we looked down at the
grounds. ‘I’m surprised we never met each other,’ he said. ‘When I was growing
up, I mean. Our paths must have crossed.’
‘Why would they? We didn’t exactly move in the same circles. And I would
just have been the baby you passed in the pram, while swinging your sword.’
‘Ah. I forgot – I am positively ancient compared to you.’
‘Eight years would definitely have qualified you as an “older man”,’ I said.
‘Even when I was a teenager my dad would never have let me go out with an
older man.’
‘Not even if he had his own castle?’
‘Well, that would change things, obviously.’
The sweet smell of the grass rose up around us as we walked, Will’s wheels
hissing through the clear puddles on the path. I felt relieved. Our conversation
wasn’t quite as it had been, but perhaps that was only to be expected. Mrs
Traynor had been right – it would always be hard for Will to watch other people