The War Girls by Rosie James

Author:Rosie James [James, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-11-23T17:00:00+00:00

25th June 1940

Gladys Matthews raised her head from her pillow, switched on her bedside lamp and glanced at her clock. It was eleven-forty and she’d only just started to feel sleepy when something made her stir uncomfortably. She sighed. The room was a bit stuffy, even though the window was slightly open. But it had been another warm day and the temperature didn’t seem to have dropped very much.

Leaning on one elbow, she reached for her glass of water and took a sip, just as there was a tap on the door and Eileen came in, tying the belt of her cotton dressing gown. She sat on the end of her mother’s bed.

‘Can’t you sleep either, Mother?’ Eileen said. ‘I came down for a glass of water and saw the light under your door. It’s so humid, isn’t it?’

Gladys Matthews nodded. ‘It’s not only that, I feel restless, Eileen. More so than usual, I mean. And it can’t be what we had for supper because I hardly had any, did I?’

‘No, and that might be the clue,’ Eileen said. ‘You might be hungry, so I’ll make you some warm milk and toast a slice of bread with a little Marmite. That may settle you.’

Before Mrs Matthews could reply, there was a loud rap on the front door, and they looked at each other in alarm. Who on earth could that be at this time of night?

Eileen immediately left the room to go and answer the door. Their next-door neighbour stood there, fully dressed. He spoke quietly, but urgently.

‘Get everyone up as quickly as you can,’ he said. ‘It’s just come through that enemy aircraft have been sighted coming across the Channel. It’s obviously totally unforeseen so that’s why there have been no sirens. But we need to get everyone down to the shelter – now!’

And at that very second the sirens did begin to wail. A loud, ear-splitting, menacing scream which kept coming and going in waves.

Everyone had been told exactly what they should do in such an emergency and over the weeks a considerable amount of practice had taken place in the very recently finished shelter, the children seeming to enjoy the novelty of going up and down the few earth steps into the cavernous hole beneath. But the months of peace and quiet which the country had enjoyed had given a false sense of security and it took Eileen a few seconds to take in the news. But then she sprang into action, returning swiftly to her mother and explaining everything before running up the stairs, two at a time, to wake Abigail.

But being woken by the sirens, Abigail had already clambered out of bed and had started dressing as Eileen thrust open the door.

‘We need to get to the shelter as soon as possible,’ Eileen said urgently, but before another word was spoken by either of them, Emily woke up, rubbing her eyes and starting to whimper.

‘What’s happening, Mummy? What’s that noise?’

‘Nothing for you to worry about, Emily,’ Eileen said briskly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.