Turn Left at the Daffodils by Elizabeth Elgin

Author:Elizabeth Elgin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007285525
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Carrie smiled at the conductress who opened the door of the bus for her, then heaved her kitbag onto her shoulder. She had brought very little with her. Shirts, collars and underwear to be washed, her toilet bag and dressing gown. Not really enough to fill a kitbag, so she had pushed in her Army-issue respirator, too. One item less to bother with in the struggle to find a seat on an already-crowded train. Strictly not done, of course. Respirators must be worn on the person at all times, but who was there to notice, she had thought lightheadedly. She was going on her first-ever leave and determined to walk the length of the village with the very unfeminine kitbag over her shoulder, so those who twitched their curtains at the sound of the bus to see who got off it should see her in all her khaki glory.

Mischief on her part was it, or an act of defiance? She wasn’t sure but it didn’t matter because it was almost dark and curtains would be drawn, now, against the blackout, so there could be never one twitch to let out even the smallest gleam of light. The blackout was sacrosanct, so no one would see her, she was bound to admit as she walked carefully to Jackmans Cottage, remembering where the kerb dipped and the position of the two iron lamp posts, waiting unlit and unseen to break spectacles and bruise faces.

‘Walked into a lamp post did you?’ was almost as hackneyed a phrase as ‘Get that light out!’ or ‘Got your identity card?’ or even ‘Don’t you know there’s a war on?’

She squinted in the darkness to make out the dim outline of the sycamore tree where the wood pigeon nested. Almost home, now. She would use the back door as they always did, because Jackmans stood end-on to the road – the only one in Nether Hutton to do so. A few more steps to the wide, squat door. Was the tingling inside her one of pleasure or apprehension? She would only know when she saw her mother’s face.

She blanked her mother from her mind and thought instead of Nan, who should be back from leave, now, maybe even sitting at her teleprinter in the signals office at Heronflete and wondering how seven days could have passed so quickly and how wonderful they had been. Dear Nan. So happily in love.

Carrie reached out for the gatepost she knew to be ahead of her, walked down four steps and she was there, hand on the door sneck, calling, ‘Hi! It’s me!’ closing the door quickly behind her, making for the snug little room they always used when the nights drew in and the weather became colder.

‘Caroline!’ The door of the snug opened. ‘I’ve been on edge all day, waiting. You never said when -’

‘Never mind. I’m here now!’ Carrie gathered her mother to her, hugging her tightly, kissing her cheek. ‘Oh, it’s good to be home.’

‘It’s good to have you,’ Janet Tiptree said huskily, ‘but darling, do take off that uniform.

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