The Loose Thread: A gripping WW2 saga (Three Sisters) by Liz Harris

Author:Liz Harris [Harris, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heywood Press
Published: 2024-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

A few days later, she continued after a brief pause in which they’d eaten the apple and cheese that Rose had brought with her, she’d been heading for the shop in St Helier when she’d seen Kathleen with the same officer. They’d been standing in front of the Caesarea pub in Cattle Street, close to some German soldiers and a group of Jersey girls who were dressed to the nines and flirting madly with the soldiers.

There hadn’t been room to slide a rasher of bacon between Kathleen and the blond officer, she told Tom.

And that had got her really alarmed.

It could only be a matter of time before the German soldier accompanied Kathleen back to the farmhouse, she said. She was pretty sure that up to that point, he hadn’t done so, but if a serious friendship developed between them, he was almost certain to see her home before too long.

Apart from the reputation Kathleen would get if she continued to carry on in such a way with a German, there were other risks.

Soldiers were now being billeted to houses where there were empty rooms, and the number of rooms needed was increasing as more German troops were arriving all the time. Unsurprisingly, the island was fast filling up.

The size of the farmhouse, and the extent of their outbuildings, could only be guessed at by anyone standing outside. But if Kathleen’s officer came into the building, or even just into the yard, he’d know at once that several Germans could be billeted there.

And if Germans were lodged there, it wouldn’t be long before they discovered how many pigs and chickens they had. And they might notice that William, like many of their farming friends, wasn’t being entirely honest in recording how much wheat and oats they’d harvested, and how many eggs they’d had.

Kathleen’s friendship with the German was a situation fraught with danger, she concluded, and she didn’t know if she should tell William and Annie.

Rose finished her account and looked hopefully at Tom for advice.

‘I’ll have to talk to her,’ he said at once. ‘She must stop hanging around the German soldiers. It would be horrendous if they started dropping by. You’re right about the risks to us. Apart from the fact that we could be given a harsh punishment, such as prison, for altering the produce figures, people might think we were keeping food back for our own use. But you know the opposite is true. We’re giving food to neighbours who haven’t got farms, now that rationing’s really starting to bite. I’ll definitely speak to Kathleen.’

‘Thanks, Tom. You’ll have to be really careful what you say, though,’ she said, anxiously. ‘I heard Mrs Le Feu tell your mother yesterday that the Germans had taken away several men of military age. If she was right, and if Kathleen was angry at you, you don’t know how she’d react.’

Tom shook his head. ‘I can’t believe she’d ever turn me in.’

She put her arm around him. ‘I hate saying it,

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