Through The Storm by Maureen Lee

Author:Maureen Lee [Lee, Maureen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409138853
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2011-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Calum Reilly stayed glued to the wireless for most of Boxing Day. The grim news was what he’d been expecting. Hong Kong had fallen to the Japanese the day before and 12,000 British troops, the entire garrison, had been taken prisoner.

‘Nice Christmas present they got,’ he muttered.

‘What’s that, luv?’ asked Sheila.

He told her what had happened. ‘And the Japs are advancing in the Philippines. Manila has just been declared an open city.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means there’ll be no more fighting because the Americans have given up. It’s a world war now, Sheil. It’s no longer just Europe and Africa. Our lads are being driven back in Malaya. I bet you a pound to a penny that Singapore will soon go the same way as Hong Kong.’

The names meant nothing to Sheila, but she was alarmed by the glum look on Calum’s face. ‘We’re not going to lose the war, are we, luv?’

‘Christ Almighty, Sheil, I hope not.’

‘You mean there’s a chance?’

Cal pulled her down onto his knee. ‘Of course not, luv.’ He couldn’t reveal to her his worst fears, but all the victories so far had been on Hitler’s side. The monster merely had to glance in the direction of a country and it was his – though the Russians were still putting up a helluva fight. Even in Africa, where the Brits had wiped the floor with the Italians, as soon as the Germans arrived under the leadership of their brilliant general, Rommel, the whole British front had collapsed. Now the Japs were on the scene with an equally efficient and ruthless fighting machine, and the same thing was happening in the Far East; defeat followed by defeat. What if the unthinkable happened and Britain lost?

That’s what it was, Cal told himself angrily, unthinkable. If you started to believe you might lose, then you might as well give up the ghost right now and save thousands, if not millions, of lives. They had to win, in order to save not just his own country, but the entire world from Fascism.

‘Conquer or die,’ Churchill had said, and whilst Cal had never believed a word that came out the mouth of a Conservative politician in the past, he believed that much. They’d conquer Germany or die in the attempt, because he himself would sooner be dead and his whole family along with him, than live under a Fascist dictatorship.

Sheila was saying something in his ear. ‘What, luv?’

‘I said, would you like to go upstairs for a while? The kids are all out and we’d soon hear if one of ’em came in.’

He grinned at her, his good humour restored. It helped to lose himself in Sheila. ‘I wouldn’t say no, but you’re wearing me out, girl. I’ll be no use for a week after I’m back on board ship.’

To his surprise, she didn’t move off his knee straight away. ‘Cal,’ she whispered shyly, ‘do you have to use one of those precaution things? I want another baby, luv, I really do.

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.