The Girl with the Yellow Star: An absolutely gripping and heartbreaking WW2 historical novel by Natalie Meg Evans

Author:Natalie Meg Evans [Evans, Natalie Meg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786810588
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2022-10-27T16:00:00+00:00

27

LOTTI

She liked this cow who swished her tail in time to the spritz of the milk into the pail.

The old gentleman, who called her ‘little maid’, had pointed at this one and said, ‘You take her to be going on with.’ Lotti had seen him bringing the herd into the yard and had gone to help, because it needed two to do the milking and Aunt Gwenna was still fast asleep.

‘You got your stool?’ Ezra had smiled, showing his funny teeth. ‘We oughta make a little stool for Mr Bear to sit on, alongside ’ee.’ He’d asked her if she understood and she had said, ‘Yes, sir.’

‘I’m Ezra Jago, Uncle Ezra if you prefer.’ It had taken time to learn his way of speaking, as he talked sort of growly, not in the least like Aunt Gwenna. To Lotti’s ears, his English was worse even than Max’s.

Lotti called this cow Uma, after one of Papa’s very old aunts who had been soft with cuddles and who had died when Lotti was quite little. She had gone to kindergarten one day, kissing the old lady in her chair, and when she came home, the chair was empty. It was some time before Lotti had realised what a grown-up meant when they said somebody had been ‘gathered to her rest’. It didn’t mean the person was on holiday.

When Lotti had peered round the bedroom door, Aunt Gwenna had been lying on her front, her face in her pillow. For a moment, Lotti had thought she wasn’t breathing and had opened her mouth to scream. And then she saw a little thread on the collar of Aunt Gwenna’s nightdress, rising and falling, and Lotti had felt her world come down to rest again, like an egg on an egg cup. She had got dressed and gone outside on her own to find the day being born, sparkling and smelling of coconut ice.

Lotti liked all of the cows with their pushy, cold noses and eyes of liquid kindness. The calves were just lovely, and Lotti did not know why some of them would have to leave the farm. Aunt Gwenna said the boy calves had to go, but why? There were lots of fields and some were empty. Uma, cow-Uma, had a scar on her udder where Lotti’s eye rested when she was milking. The old gentleman had said it was because she’d been bitten once by a nasty fly, and it left a lump.

On the kitchen table, Lotti had noticed a piece of paper, with a name and address on it. Verity Linley, Cathedral Row, T/O. She’d thought T/O might mean ‘turn over’ but the page had been blank on the back.

Poor Aunt Gwenna had wanted Lotti to speak for ages and ages, but Lotti hadn’t said a word because she’d kept her promise to Mutti who had told her after they ran across the railway tracks, ‘If anybody speaks to you, Lottchen, say nothing, because if you do, they will know we are German and they will hurt us.

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