His reading matter was also much in advance of his year group, and he found some Georgette Heyer Regency and historical novels in the school library.
He read a book entitled Masqueraders, about a young man called Robin who disguises himself as a girl after being involved in the Jacobite Rebellion. Accompanied by his sister, Prudence, disguised as a boy, and their faithful servant, disguised as a faithful servant, they proceeded to get involved with polite society, footpads, duels, highwaymen and a real confusion of identities and love affairs.
Andrew found a world in which he could lose himself, and a couple of times he caught himself changing into Amber, as he always identified with the heroines.
It was worse at night.
For the first few nights, several boys cried themselves to sleep, and this made the general atmosphere of despair hang like a black cloud over everything. As autumn was arriving and the weather was wet and windy, the grey days and miserable nights succeeded in depressing everyone.
As Andy lay in bed, he would make up adventures in his head, in which he took part and every time he was a girl. He would wait until he thought everyone was asleep, and then he’d change into Amber. Only then was he really able to relax and sleep. He was terrified at being caught as a girl, so as time progressed, he ceased this practice.
He was introduced to rugby football for the first time. They were taken to watch the first game as they practised, watching in fascination as eager thirteen year olds displayed legalised Grievous Bodily Harm to them.
As Andy was a slight boy, he was positioned on the wing. Thereby reducing the amount of physical violence he faced in any game by a fair proportion. But slowly, as the term progressed, he began to realise how badly he really wanted to be Amber.
Meanwhile, at the Gables, Jenny was turning into a nurse. Rhona was very unwell, taking nearly two hours to get dressed and downstairs in the morning, and then hardly moving from her chair. She was almost incontinent, as her control was limited now, and Jenny realised just how ill she really was.
Through it all, Rhona lived for the letters that Andy wrote every Sunday, which arrived every Tuesday morning. It was the only day of the week she was keen to get out of bed. These letters were usually three or four pages crammed with news and stories about what Andy was up to. Jenny knew that most of them were invention, but she daren’t say anything.
After a few weeks, even that enthusiasm went. By half term she was virtually permanently bedridden. Jenny went to fetch Andy for a long weekend.
The little boy was hardly in the car for more than a few seconds, when he burst into tears and sobbed in Jenny’s arms.
She drove him home with a heavy heart.
“Your Granny is not very well,” she said.
“I know,” he sniffled.
Jenny had forgotten that he was able to know what was going on without the usual constraints.
“She loves getting your letters.”
“I know. I hate having to lie.”
She looked at him. He was sitting staring straight ahead, his big amber eyes brimming with tears.
“Is it really awful?” she asked.
He nodded and a tear rolled down his cheek.
“If I was Andrew it would be fine, but I’m not. I’m Amber.”
Jenny had to pull over and stop the car, and she held the sobbing child in her arms.
It was usually a half hour drive, but it took longer.
When they arrived, Andrew was in control again, and he was a little more cheerful at being home. He went and found his grandmother still in bed. Even he was surprised as to how ill she looked. She was sitting up in bed, with a shawl over her shoulders.
Andrew sat by her bed for a long time, holding her hand and chatting happily.
Jenny cooked some lunch and brought it up for Rhona.
In the end they all ate together, and Rhona actually looked slightly better, with some colour in her cheeks.
After lunch, Rhona said she wanted a nap, so Jenny took Amber to Oxford to do some shopping and to see a movie. They went to see a cowboy film with John Wayne in it, which Amber loved. She wore a simple pale green dress and the shoes they had bought on their last trip.
Jenny hadn’t heard from Gareth, so was feeling sad about that. However, she was kept very busy with looking after Rhona, so it was rare that she had time to think about him.
She drove them home, to find Rhona awake and slightly confused.
Jenny brought the old woman some broth for supper, and then helped her have a bath.
When they said goodnight to her, she seemed almost back to her old self again.
On the Sunday, Rhona was very sleepy, and so Jenny and Amber went for a long walk by the Thames. The bright and happy little girl was the complete opposite of the sad little boy, and Jenny knew she was going to find it almost impossible to take Andrew back to school again. She watched as she threw bread for the ducks and she looked so natural.
Half term was over too quickly, and Andrew was back in uniform and hugging his Grandmother.
He was silent for most of the journey, and Jenny found herself crying.
“Don’t cry,” said Andrew.
“I’m sorry,” Jenny said, trying to control herself.
“You don’t need to. I won’t see Granny again as she is going to be with Mummy very soon.”
Jenny had to pull over again.
With tears streaming down her cheeks, she held Andrew for a long time.
Eventually she managed to stop crying.
“When?”
Andrew shrugged.
“Soon. Maybe a week, I can’t be sure, but we’ve said goodbye.”
“Oh God. You don’t deserve this,” Jenny said.
“Neither do you. We aren’t your family.”
Jenny looked at him.
“Then why do I love you as much as I do?” she asked.
This time they both cried for ages, and Andrew was almost late back to school.
Driving away was the hardest thing that Jenny had ever done in her life. She was not looking forward to the weeks ahead.
On the Monday morning Andrew was walking across to class when two boys only a year or so older barged into him and knocked him off his feet, sending him sprawling onto the concrete.
“Out of the way, maggot,” said one. (Maggot being a nickname for any new boy.)
Andrew was feeling down anyway, now he felt anger rise inside him like a red mist.
When he next became aware of his surroundings, the two boys were both in the tree next to the path, but clinging to branches a good sixteen feet up. There were no branches below them.
He looked at them for a moment, then he smiled, turned and walked calmly away.
The boys got into trouble for climbing trees, and then into even more trouble for blaming it on a new boy who couldn’t possibly have thrown them up there.
Andrew was feeling guilty and worried that he could not control his powers, or his anger. Jenny’s advice was right, as it could get him into trouble.
On Wednesday he was sitting in the library just before lunch when the headmaster’s wife came and found him.
She would never forget the scene.
She had just finished talking to his guardian Jenny Hutchins, who had telephoned to inform the school that Andrew’s grandmother had died peacefully in her sleep during the night.
She went looking for him, and predictably found him in the library. He was a very common sight there, always in the same seat.
This time he wasn’t reading. The book was in front of him on the table, but he wasn’t even looking at it.
As she approached, the boy stood up. He was the only boy in the library at this time.
“Andrew. I’m afraid I have some bad news for you,” she said.
“She’s dead!” he said. It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, how did you know?” she asked.
He shrugged.
“She wasn’t well, and the way you looked at me was enough,” he lied. He had known since 04:37, as that was when she had died.