Eighteen.  Nick

Nick’s heart banged against his chest, his stomach felt hollow; how was he going to explain this to his father? Mr King looked from Nick to Elly and then back at Nick, he was smiling but his eyes betrayed his fury.
“What are you two up to then?” he asked.
“I needed to speak to someone about a bus-pass, we might be moving and I want to still go to Ellingham High School. Mum wanted to know how much it was going to cost before she made up her mind,” said Elly.
“Hhm, you need to ask at reception, they’ll give you a booklet,” he paused and looked at Nick, “why were you using the lift? They’re for staff and official visitors only.”
“I needed…” said Elly.
“I’m asking my son, not you. Well, I’m waiting, why were you and your little girl-friend here running around the Council offices?”

Nick swallowed and tried to ignore the look of pure terror on Elly’s face, luckily his father’s attention was on him not her. Some other people were waiting to use the lift and moving out of their way bought Nick a few precious moments to think of an excuse.
“Elly needed the toilet, I thought there might be some staff toilets on the first floor she could use, I didn’t think anyone would mind.”
“These offices are private, you should have asked permission at reception… well, I suppose no harms been done. You need to get home anyway, your mother is coming home today; I don’t want her coming back to an empty house, understand?”
Nick nodded, relief flooding through him, they’d got away with it!
Mr King gave them both another searching look and then, at last, walked into the lift. He stabbed at the button for his floor and the door closed.
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Nick said goodbye to Elly at the bus-stop back in Ellingham and made his way home. The house was empty when he got there, his mother still wasn’t home. Taking advantage of the fact he was on his own Nick switched on his lap-top and typed ‘Lady’s Slipper’ into Google.

A huge range of different web-sites appeared, offering everything from custom-made shoes to ballet classes. Nick scrolled down, searching for anything that remotely tied in with forests or planning permission. At last on the third page of results he saw something that looked promising. He clicked on it and after a second or two the page loaded; the title read “The Lady’s Slipper Orchid- Britain’s rarest flower.”

Nick felt a jolt of excitement in the pit of his stomach, this was it, it had to be. Quickly he read the rest of the page:
“The beautiful and extremely rare flower – The Lady’s Slipper Orchid – is now believed to grow in only one location in Britain. This location is kept secret and heavily guarded to protect the last remaining orchids from being damaged or destroyed. A programme of artificial propagation is underway at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 1500 seedlings have germinated but survival rates are not high and the seedlings will take more than ten years to reach maturity.”
Nick did a bit more research and found out that if the orchid was growing in Ellingham forest there was no way that Clifford could tear it down, “How on earth did he get planning permission?” he said aloud, “and how are we going to stop him?” Nick moved his mouse and clicked on ‘print’.

While it was printing out the document Nick phoned Elly and told her what he had found out, they agreed to meet in the forest in half an hour to discuss what to do next.
                                                                      *
When he got there Elly was already waiting, she was sitting under the Green Man oak tree with her eyes closed. Nick stood for a moment watching her, he realised that she was very pretty, in her own way and he wondered why he had ever thought she was odd. She opened her eyes and blinked in the sunlight, “How long have you been here?” she asked, standing up and brushing herself down.
“I just got here, look, read this and tell me what you think.” He handed her the printout and she read through it quickly.
“I think you just saved Ellingham forest,” she said smiling, “but what do we do now?”
“I thought your mother could do something, she was leading the protest wasn’t she? I saw her on the news the other day.”
“She’s been warned off by Clifford, I don’t want her getting involved; it could turn nasty. No, it’s down to us, we have got to find this orchid and get some evidence of it being here and then…well, I’ll think about that later. Now how do we find one orchid in a forest this size?”

“Oi moight be able to ‘elp with that, so long as you can keep a secret, mind.” Tink hobbled out from behind a tree looking as ragged and unkempt as usual, a mouse appeared to have taken up residence in one of his coat pockets and he looked in need of a decent meal. But his brown eyes were twinkling and he was smiling at them from behind his beard. “You too ready to learn the secrets of the forest then?” he asked, Nick looked at Elly who nodded slightly, he turned back to Tink, “Yes,” he said. “Yes, we are.”
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