Bonfire Night by Anna Bliss

Bonfire Night by Anna Bliss

Author:Anna Bliss [Bliss, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-06T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter 20

13th July, 1940

“I was going to send my children to Canada but it’s too dangerous now,” Doris’s mother said to Kate. “I wouldn’t trust the journey.”

They stood side by side, watching their daughters chase each other around the Queen’s Park swings. It was a nice park with horse chestnut trees and beautiful old elms and a lake with loads of ducks. Kate knew the other little girl’s name—Doris—but not her mother’s, even though they had been meeting in the park for months. It seemed too late to introduce themselves now.

That morning, Kate had received a packet of acceptance into the latest evacuation program: two tags to be worn by Margaret, a blank postcard to be sent by her foster parents to Kate with their address, a packing list, and a Southern Railways special ticket to Clapham Junction. Doris’s mother had received the same packet for each of her children.

“According to an RAF officer I know,” Kate offered, “the war will be over before long. Once the fighting really starts, it will be over in a few weeks. We’ll make bonfires of our gas masks.”

Doris’s mother looked skeptical. “One never knows,” she said and Kate felt foolish.

“So, you will send Doris on Tuesday?”

When war was declared the previous autumn, thousands of children had come from London to host families in Brighton. But the new threat of land invasion meant Brighton was no longer safe, either. A voluntary children’s evacuation was scheduled for the coming week.

“Yes,” Doris’s mother said. “My husband insists it’s the only sensible option.” She sighed. “It helps that all five of ours will be together. Will you send Margaret?”

Though she was ambivalent, Kate nodded because she knew it was the right response. “Yes. I would go with her,” she said, “but my sister can’t run the boardinghouse without my help. She’d have to close her doors.”

“If it weren’t for my husband, I’d not have the stomach for it. If only the government would tell us where they’re sending the children.”

“I suppose they can’t. Perhaps Doris and Margaret will be together?”

“Not likely,” Doris’s mother said with an air of wisdom. “There will be thousands of kiddies at the station on Tuesday. It will be absolute bedlam. You’ll see.”

The little girls caught each other in a running hug and Kate’s heart went to her throat. Doris wouldn’t be alone; her brothers and sisters would be with her. Strangers would look after Margaret.

“I used to never be afraid of anything, before I had Margaret,” Kate said. “Now I find I’m always frightened.”

Doris’s mother frowned and Kate understood that she had said too much. It wasn’t on to air one’s petty anxieties in public. People were making much bigger sacrifices, and she hardly knew Doris’s mother. But the sweltering heat was disorienting, it made her feel she’d run miles just standing there. And she hadn’t had a friend since Gordy.

Kate sluiced perspiration from her forehead and steered the conversation back to impersonal speculation—how will the Germans come, when and where will they come? These were more acceptable pleasantries between mothers.



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