Heartwarming and emotional story of one girl's courage in WW2 by Fenella Miller (top 10 ebook reader txt) 📗

must be my mother’s missing family. I’m not sure if I told you that she comes from an aristocratic lot who disowned her when she married my dad.’ She was so engrossed in these she forgot the reason the suitcase was on the floor in the first place.

‘Pass me the envelope, Ellie, I’ve decided I want to read it after all. You can look at your relations later.’

‘Just a minute, I can’t leave all this on the floor in case Dad comes up.’ The brown envelope was lurking under some letters tied with a ribbon. She tossed it onto the bed without getting up.

She placed the interesting photographs and letters to one side and then scooped up all the rest and dumped it back in the case. She snapped it shut again and heaved it on top of the wardrobe.

‘Are you sure you’re all right, Jack? I must get on with making our supper.’ There was no answer and for a horrible moment she thought he’d passed out again.

She spun round. He was holding a single sheet of paper in his hand. From his expression whatever was written there was far worse than he’d imagined.

‘Can I see?’

He shook his head. ‘Holy shit! No – you can’t read this. I wish that I hadn’t. There are some things you just don’t want to know about your family.’

‘Fair enough. Do you want me to return it to the suitcase?’

‘Not much point now – like Pandora’s box, the information’s out and can’t be put back.’

She left him to his thoughts, not sure that his analogy was correct. He was the only person who knew what was on that sheet of paper so, as far as she was concerned, not much had changed.

*

The remainder of the evening she was so busy she didn’t have time to think about either the mysterious sheet of paper or the bundle of letters and photographs. Dad seemed his usual cheerful self and was pleased she’d had the initiative to employ a housekeeper.

‘I like Mrs B, good sort of woman. Maybe she’d like to live in? She could have the two rooms that your grandma used to use when she couldn’t get up the stairs anymore.’

‘Does that mean Mum isn’t coming back?’

‘I’m afraid it does, love. We agreed it was for the best. I’m going to set her up with her own bank account and she can live wherever she likes and mix with the toffee-nosed lot she seems to prefer to us ordinary folk.’

‘How did you meet? I’ve always wondered.’

He smiled sadly. ‘At the races. A friend of mine had a runner in the same race as her father. We met in the owner’s paddock. It was just before the last war.’ He seemed lost in thought and she didn’t like to interrupt. Perhaps if he remembered the reasons he’d fallen in love with her all those years ago he might make more of a push to get her back.

‘Your ma got a bit tiddly and I had to step in when one of her lot tried to take advantage. You get your rebellious streak from her – because her pa was so against us courting it just made her more determined. In the end we eloped. She was overage so there was no difficulty getting married and my parents, your grandad and grandma were still alive then.’

‘You must have been very much in love with each other. It’s such a shame it has to end like this.’

‘To tell you the truth, Ellie, I don’t reckon your ma realised what would happen. She thought her family would accept me because my family had plenty of money even if they didn’t flash it about like they did. When they rejected her she wasn’t too bothered, as she expected me to buy her a big house so she could mix with all the snooty folk in the neighbourhood.’

‘Why didn’t you? This house isn’t big enough for two families. I certainly wouldn’t want to share a kitchen with my mother-in-law.’

‘I was young, didn’t think about things like that at the time. When I did, it was too late, Neil was on the way. Then I volunteered and Charlotte had to stay here without me. I didn’t expect to be gone for four years.’

Ellie seemed to recall that she’d been told her grandfather had died just after her dad had returned. Of course, he could hardly move away and abandon Grandma then. George had been born the following year and she had followed three years after that.

‘Will Mum stay in touch with us? I do love her even though sometimes it seems as if I don’t.’ Something occurred to her. ‘Is she so against alcohol now because of the way you met?’

‘Probably – I never asked her. We jogged along all right until she moved into another room. It’s been like living with a stranger ever since. I don’t want to speak ill of your mum, love, but she’s never been happy here. I reckon she regretted her impulsive decision within a few weeks of being married. She’ll be better off, and so will we.’

‘I suppose I’d better let Neil and George know what’s going on. Might be a bit awkward if one of them turns up and finds Jack living here and Mum moved out.’

‘I’m going to bed; will you lock up? Don’t forget the chickens.’ They didn’t embrace; her family had never been physically affectionate with each other.

She made herself a cup of cocoa after she’d completed her evening tasks. This was a nightly ritual regardless of the weather. There was sufficient for two mugs so she made one for Jack as well. She put some biscuits on a plate with the cocoa, switched off the lights and carried the tray upstairs.

There were five bedrooms in the farmhouse – four upstairs and one, the one that Mrs B might move into, next to the kitchen. There had always been a bathroom and lavatory upstairs in her lifetime and there