A Presumption of Death Read Online Free PDF

sure.’
    ‘Splendid, both of you. Thank you.’
    ‘I’ve got quite a few folding chairs,’ someone offered. ‘And some card tables. We used to have a bridge club days gone by.’
    ‘I’ll get in a first-aid kit,’ offered Harriet. ‘Dr Jellyfield will advise me what to put in it. And how about a shelf of books? I’m sure we could contribute to that.’
    ‘Thank you, Lady Peter.’
    ‘See here, missus,’ said Mrs Hodge. ‘We got three rooms here. We could have a quiet room with bunks for people to sleep in, and a room with cards and that for them as can’t sleep, and a room for the kiddies.’
    ‘And I think I could offer, on behalf of the Women’s Institute, to get in emergency supplies: candles, and biscuits and tea . . .’
    ‘Jes’ like a picnic!’ said Mrs Baker. ‘The kiddies will be in the seventh heaven.’
    But the kiddies were not enjoying it much now. Bredon, Harriet was glad to see, was quietly playing in a corner with his cousin Charlie, and young Sam Bateson. They were making an airfield in the dust of the floor and landing their toy aeroplanes on it.
    They were not making whirring and roaring sounds to go with it.
    ‘It’s very quiet, Mummy,’ Bredon offered, ‘because it’s flying secret missions.’
    ‘Good,’ said Harriet. ‘Good boys.’ Paul had fallen asleep on her lap.
    But few of the village children were asleep. They were over-excited, and getting cold and fretful. Trying to sleep on the floor with only the odd blanket that had been brought with them was not easy, but the sound of children wailing quickly gets on one’s nerves. And those adults who had come straight from the dance in the hall had not even got a blanket. They were left standing, or sitting on the bare floor. The practice appeared to be going on far longer than anyone had expected.
    ‘This is all a bit previous, if you ask me,’ Roger Datchett observed. He farmed on the opposite side of the village, and had furthest to come. ‘It’s like having those pesky London children all over the place. I mean, it’s not as if there has been any bombing yet.’
    ‘There was a Heinkel shot down not so far from here, last week,’ said Constable Baker.
    ‘And plenty more where that come from,’ added the landlord.
    ‘Anyone heard that all-clear yet?’ asked Mr Puffett.
    Nobody had.
    ‘Only I thought tonight’s effort were just to see how quick we could all get down here,’ Mr Puffett said. ‘Not to keep us here all blooming night. I haven’t brought me pipe.’
    ‘You can’t smoke a pipe down here, Tom Puffett, even being as if you had remembered it,’ said Mrs Ruddle. ‘Them pipes smells something horrible, and it won’t be safe along of paraffin heaters.’
    ‘Won’t be any more dangerous than candles, you silly besom,’ retorted Mr Puffett.
    Once again the chairman of the Women’s Institute came to the rescue. ‘That’s a good point you are making,’ she said, beaming at the two of them. ‘We’d better see if there’s room in one of these side-caves for a smoking-room. And we’d better see if there’s some kind of lantern that works without a naked flame.’
    ‘Davy lamps,’ said Constable Baker. ‘They use them down mines. Against fire-damp,’ he added.
    ‘I wonder where we’d get them?’ said the chairman, making notes.
    ‘Isn’t that all-clear ever going to go?’ asked one of the land-girls. ‘I’m just busting for a pee . . .’
    ‘You mind your language, my girl!’ cried Mrs Hodge. ‘There’s decent people down here.’
    ‘Well, how are we going to manage in that regard?’ asked the vicar. ‘I mean, if it were a real air-raid, it might be prolonged beyond what flesh and blood can bear . . .’
    ‘Buckets of earth, vicar,’ said someone sitting near the wall. ‘Buckets of earth, and a spade. It’s what we used behind the front line at Mons. Quite wholesome as long as you shovel a bit of earth in after yourself.’
    ‘I think I’m going to put my head