A Christmas Miracle for the Railway Girls by Maisie Thomas

Author:Maisie Thomas [Thomas, Maisie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529158250
Publisher: Cornerstone

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Cordelia was thoughtful as she and Miss Brown left the US Army base, where the colonel who had been assigned to entertain them had invited them to tea to discuss the proposed Christmas dance and there had been polite jokes about a Yank offering tea to two English ladies. As they’d talked about possible arrangements, Cordelia couldn’t help letting her mind wander for a moment. Would Colette be well enough, strong enough, to attend? Surely yes. It was weeks away, plenty of time for Colette to … to what, exactly? How did one recover from a breakdown? And it must have been a severe one. It had started before last Christmas and it had been July before Tony had brought her home.

Cordelia and Miss Brown had spoken sympathetically about the soldiers who would spend the festive season so far from home.

‘It’s good of you to think of going to all this trouble,’ said the colonel. ‘I know from experience how hard it can be to be away from loved ones at special times.’

Miss Brown asked about his family and he produced snapshots of a pretty woman and three gap-toothed youngsters. Cordelia’s heart went out to the whole family. It had been hard enough for her when Emily was away at boarding school, but this family was separated by an ocean and for an unspecified length of time.

‘We must do for your boys what we would dearly like to do for our own,’ said Cordelia.

‘Everyone is being most hospitable to us,’ said the colonel. ‘Our boys sure love dancing with the local girls.’

As Cordelia and Miss Brown left in a taxi, Miss Brown said, ‘You appear preoccupied, Mrs Masters. One might even say, troubled.’

‘Not troubled,’ said Cordelia, ‘but I can’t help wondering about this dance. I know that holding it at Darley Court will make it special, but will it be special enough? These boys go out dancing all the time.’

‘So I gather,’ Miss Brown said drily, ‘and my land girls are more than happy to partner them. One of the girls has set her sights on becoming Mrs Hank Wainwright the Third, would you believe? And all of them are mad about jitterbugging.’

‘What’s that?’ asked Cordelia.

‘I took the precaution of ascertaining that it happens on the dance floor and not in the bedroom. But I digress. You suggested our Christmas Eve dance might not be enough of a special occasion.’

‘I do apologise,’ Cordelia said sincerely. ‘I don’t mean to sound ungrateful when you’ve been so obliging.’

‘Yes, yes, let’s take that as read, shall we? Kindly come to the point, Mrs Masters.’

‘I’m sure the dance will be a splendid affair, but ideally I’d like to make it even more of an event. Seeing the pictures of the colonel’s family made me think of the married servicemen, but what can we do for them?’

‘If they’re missing their own little ones, maybe we can supply some children.’

Cordelia caught on at once. ‘A children’s party, with an invitation to our American friends to join us if they care to.

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