Lights Out Liverpool by Maureen Lee

Author:Maureen Lee [Lee, Maureen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409138815
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2011-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

‘But you can’t take her!’ Vivien Waterton stared with horror at the tubby man in a black gabardine mackintosh who was standing in the middle of the room twiddling his bowler hat in his hands. She’d asked him to sit down, but he’d taken no notice.

‘I’m sorry, Madam, but I must. I have orders to return Freda Tutty to her mother.’

‘I don’t want to go back to me mother!’ Freda clung to Vivien’s arm. ‘She doesn’t want me. She doesn’t care if I’m there or not.’

‘It would appear she does.’ The man looked uncomfortable. He was sweating visibly in the over-heated room. ‘We have a letter from Mrs Tutty requesting your return.’

‘What d’yer mean, a letter?’ snarled Freda. ‘Me mam can’t write. She got the woman next door to do it.’

‘That may be, but it makes no difference,’ the man said stubbornly. ‘Now, if you’d like to pack a bag?’

‘You’ve no right just to turn up without notice,’ cried Vivien, close to tears. ‘Why didn’t you let us know you were coming?’

The man didn’t answer, but proceeded to twiddle further with his hat. This was the second case they’d had of a couple refusing to return their evacuee. In the first, due notice had been given that the child was to be removed on a certain day, only to find when they turned up that the boy had been whisked down south to relatives and had still not been located. The Billeting Office had no intention of making that mistake again. He felt sorry for the girl, though she looked a right little madam, and for the little, doll-like woman who wanted to keep her, but his main sympathy was with the mother, whom he had not yet met.

‘I’d like to ring my husband.’ The little woman reached for the telephone on the coffee table beside her. Clive wouldn’t let them take Freda away. ‘He’ll come straight home.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t wait, Madam.’

‘I won’t let you take me. You’ll have to drag me out,’ the girl threatened.

‘I hope that won’t be necessary, Miss, but if so, I have a constable waiting outside in the car.’

‘You can’t do this! You can’t!’ Vivien leaped to her feet, catching her knee on the coffee table. There was a sharp crack as bone touched wood and she felt her heart thud crazily in her chest. As she reached down to rub her knee, she was overcome with dizziness and would have fallen if Freda hadn’t flung her arms around her and begun to sob.

‘Oh, God!’ muttered the man, in agonies of embarrassment.

‘This isn’t the end, darling,’ said Vivien, still dizzy, and unaccountably breathless. ‘Clive will sort it out.’

‘I don’t want to leave, Vivien. I never want to leave.’

‘I know, darling.’ Vivien pushed the heaving form away. For the first time, staring at the strangely blurred little face convulsed with misery, she felt the stirrings of genuine, maternal love and with it came the realisation that Freda wasn’t her little sister, a playmate, but a child who needed her protection.

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