An Island Far from Home: A completely heartbreaking WWII historical novel (Amherst Island Book 5) by Kate Hewitt

Author:Kate Hewitt [Hewitt, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800199217
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2023-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

NOVEMBER, 1943

Douglas, Isle of Man

Things did seem better in the morning, Rosie decided as she drew the blackout blinds and gazed out at a fresh new day, the sky a pale, washed blue, the sea dancing and sparkling beneath it, stretching onward. She thought she could make out the mainland, a violet blur on the horizon, but she wasn’t sure. The journey here had taken hours last night on a stormy sea, but today the water was calm, the sun shining.

Susan was already up and gone to breakfast, so Rosie had a few moments to herself before she reported downstairs. She craned her neck to inspect the street, a pleasant boulevard lined with terraced houses and hotels that faced the seafront, all behind neat iron railings, with a curved harbor visible in the distance, now filled with military craft.

Rosie knew nothing about the Isle of Man, or even where it was, besides somewhere up north, but she looked forward to finding out, along with her orders and duties. And, of course, she would write Thomas to let him know her new address as soon as possible.

Voices drifting in from the hall reminded Rosie that she needed to get downstairs sharpish, if she was going be on time to report for duty.

Breakfast was in the hotel’s small dining room—some watery porridge, toast, and coffee. It was neither worse nor better than the fare in London, and Rosie ate it gladly; the last thing she’d had to eat had been a sad-looking sandwich back in Preston.

The other CWACs were eager to share the bits of gossip they’d gleaned; in addition to the four of them from CMHQ, there were six British girls from the ATS staying at the hotel and starting training that morning, and they’d all been chatting. No one seemed to know much of anything about what they’d be doing, although they knew more than Rosie at least.

“We’ll be doing something with Morse code, I heard,” one young woman in the ATS, with the same sort of pompous air as Susan, explained. “That’s what the Royal Corps of Signals do, and they’re stationed here.”

“They do lots of things,” Elsie returned in what Rosie was discovering was a quick and slightly sharp way. “They lay telephone lines, they manage wirelesses… you can’t really know for certain that we’ll be doing anything with Morse code.”

The ATS girl tossed her head. “Well, that’s what I heard.”

“I suppose we’ll find out soon enough,” Rosie ventured placatingly. “It seems like a pleasant little town, from what I saw from my window, at least.”

“A pleasant town full of Germans,” Kathleen returned with something of a grimace.

Rosie turned to her in surprise. “Germans? What do you mean?”

“There are several internment camps here, for German residents of Great Britain,” the girl in the ATS explained. “They’ve been here for ages—since the start of the war. Back then, they rounded anyone up who was of German descent. Austrian, too, I think. There were thousands.”

Rosie had never heard about any of this.

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