The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) by T. Belshaw (the best books to read .txt) 📗

paper with him this time around and what was written on it? ‘Bugger!’ must have been a distinct possibility.

Amy’s nickname was perfectly suited. The scrawny man with the scrawny neck and the old-fashioned, turned-over collar, wouldn’t have looked out of place marching solemnly in front of a hearse.

The few whispered conversations ceased as we heard his voice over the airwaves.

I am speaking to you from the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by eleven o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.

There was a bit more, mainly relating to Hitler’s warlike mentality, but we didn’t really take that in, the first part of his statement said everything we needed to hear. We were at war with Germany again, even though we were promised that the 14-18 conflict had been the war to end all wars.

Amy pushed her empty tea cup across the table.

‘Well, the undertaker has just assigned another few million people to an early grave. There has to be better ways to advertise your business.’

No one laughed.

Barney, our foreman gave his thoughts.

‘Levity aside, Amy, this has been coming. Hitler is a nasty piece of work, and it really is high time someone stood up to him. We could have done it last year, but I understand that we weren’t ready to take him on back then. I’m not sure we are now; I think we might have to try to persuade the Americans to come in again or we could be in trouble.’

‘Thank goodness for the channel,’ said Benny Tomkiss, one of the younger workers. He pointed vaguely towards the Kent coast from which any attack would surely come.

Miriam, a non-practicing Jew, whose father had spent the majority of his life working on our farm, waited for a few seconds of silence before adding her tearful thoughts.

‘I’m so pleased we’re finally telling him he can’t just do what he wants. Last year, cousins of mine were thrown out of their businesses, their homes and their jobs, just for being Jewish. Do you all remember what they did on that bloody Kristallnacht? I’m so worried about them, I haven’t had a letter since February. The Nazis are sending Jews to work camps where they are used as slave labour. How any so-called civilized society can allow this to happen is beyond me. He has to be stopped before millions of people are slaughtered just for belonging to the wrong religion.’

No one seemed to be able to look at Miriam as she delivered her tear-filled statement. We had all heard the rumours of Jewish people being hounded out of their homes and exiled to concentration camps throughout Germany. The newsreels at the cinema had shown graphic images of Kristallnacht. The vast majority of the British population were horrified by the news reports, but there were some, even in our small town, who seemed to blame all that was wrong with the world on the Jewish race.

I turned off the radio, thinking that as head of the farm, I ought to say something. My father would no doubt have delivered a rousing speech, saying we were all in this together and it was up to each and every one of us to do our bit to ensure that Hitler was defeated. Sadly, as a nineteen-year-old mother, I wasn’t up to delivering rousing speeches.

‘Firstly, I have to say that we all knew this was coming, sad and shocking as the actual announcement was. Secondly, I’m sure the government will announce soon that the farming industry workers are in a reserved occupation. The country will still need to be fed and our troops will need their ration packs so none of you will be forced to join up if you don’t want to. I will however, understand completely if any of you feel you have to do your bit for King and country and you can go with my blessing, but please, if you can, wait until the recruiting offices are set up. We’ve still got the corn harvest to bring in before you go.’

I let out a deep sigh.

‘Damn Hitler, damn Mussolini, and damn Stalin.’

As the lads drifted out into the yard, I sat down at the kitchen table thinking about the past year.

The farm had done well. The wheat crop had been as good as it ever had been and we’d had a bumper crop of piglets and lambs too. The new milking parlour/barn had enabled us to house thirty cows through the bad weather and the extra animals meant that our milk production had quadrupled. The electric pumps meant that milking was now a one-man job and Miriam’s little butter and cheese enterprise had expanded. There had been a wedding in March when young Benny married his childhood sweetheart, Emily.

Martha was now a toddler with a mission to explore every inch of the farm. Her inquisitive nature was only matched by her temper if she was stopped from going into places she wasn’t allowed to go.

Our relationship still bordered on indifference. She put up with me if she was in the mood, but no amount of encouragement or proffered bribes could get her to spend time with me if didn’t feel like it. Her vocabulary wasn’t great yet, but Mama, one of the easiest words to say, was the word she used least.

Since January, I had been accompanying my best friend Amy to the local picture palace to watch the latest Hollywood exports. To my delight and embarrassment, my movie star lookalike, Rita Hayworth, appeared in more and more of the movies on offer. I looked like Rita; my rolling shoulder length curls made the similarities almost photographic. We were so much alike that the