Storm Clouds Over Broombank by Freda Lightfoot

Author:Freda Lightfoot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Freda Lightfoot Limited
Published: 2013-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

Meg could scarce believe the pain she felt. A great gaping hole was left where once joy had been. She lay sleepless at night, tossing and turning in the great empty bed, her mind and her body crying out for Tam. She thought she would never get over the pain of losing him.

Nothing she had ever felt before could possibly have prepared her for this. It was as if a part of her were missing.

She wrote to him every day and lived for his letters, which were never often enough for her liking. She tried to fill her days with work but she seemed to have lost interest and became listless, without her usual energy. Every morning she had to drag herself downstairs and couldn’t face the breakfast Effie tried to make her eat.

‘It’ll be all right in the end,’ Effie consoled her. ‘He feels he has to do his bit, that’s all. As you have to do yours. When this topsy-turvy world rights itself again, he’ll be back.’

Meg’s grey eyes turned upon her friend, begging for it to be true. ‘I can’t cope without him, Effie. There seems no point in anything any more without Tam here beside me. Was I wrong? Should I have married him, even though I couldn’t end it properly with Jack?’

Effie’s face turned blank. ‘Don’t get me into that one. I’m a kid, remember. Anyroad, that’s your decision. No one else’s.’

‘I was afraid too, Effie. Afraid that if I married Tam, committed myself to him, it would hurt more if he ever left and didn’t come back.’ She gave a hard little laugh with no humour in it. ‘I can see now that can’t be true. With or without a piece of paper, I’m committed. I couldn’t possibly hurt more than I do at this moment.’

‘Course you’re committed, and he is to you. Don’t worry. He understands.’

‘Does he?’ Meg remembered the harsh words between them and wished she could feel as certain as Effie. She glanced about the breakfast table and wondered what right she had to complain. They were all safe and well. Lissa happily playing with the ever patient Rust. Effie healthy and fit, growing into a lovely young woman, reading the papers which recently had been full of what were being dubbed the Baedeker Raids.

From May through into June, while the foliage thickened, the cold earth softened and the spotted coats of the new deer calves could be sometimes glimpsed in Brockbarrow Wood, many of England’s most famous historical cities had been under attack. Meg wept to hear of the terrible consequences of these attacks. They were at least safe here.

This morning there was at least the joy of a letter from Charlie. She held the crisp blue envelope in her hand now, savouring the anticipation of opening it.

‘Families are trekking out of the cities each night and sleeping in the fields to keep safe,’ read Effie. ‘I don’t blame them. They won’t get bombed there.’

Meg glanced at the picture Effie showed her.

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