Better Days Will Come Read Online Free PDF

did it matter?
    Mrs Smythe hesitated for a second before taking a yellow folder from the drawer. ‘Tell me, Miss Rogers, would you be willing to travel abroad?’
    Bonnie blinked. It took a second or two to let the idea sink in. ‘Abroad?’
    Could she really go abroad without George to lead the way? Rationing was still being enforced in Britain but in other parts of the world they said people had plenty of everything. She tried to imagine herself as nanny to an Italian prince, or an American film star or perhaps nanny to the child of someone in the diplomatic service. ‘Abroad,’ she said again, this time with more than a hint of interest in her voice. Yes … abroad would be exciting. ‘Yes, I might consider that.’
    Mrs Smythe laid the yellow folder on her desk. ‘I have a post here for Africa.’
    Africa!
Bonnie was startled. This was too much of a coincidence. The very continent where she and George had been planning to set up a new life and here was Mrs Smythe offering Bonnie a post there.
    ‘Kenya,’ Mrs Smythe went on.
    Bonnie relaxed into her chair. Not South Africa but Kenya. Yet somehow it sounded just as wonderful. Kenya. She’d heard that it was a beautiful place. Didn’t they grow tea and coffee for export and exotic things like ginger, and sugar cane, and pineapples? What would it be like to eat food like that every day!
    Mrs Smythe was refreshing her memory by reading the papers in the yellow folder. ‘I’m instructed to send you by taxi to meet the grandmother.’
    Silently, Bonnie took a deep breath. They must be very rich. She’d never ridden in a taxi before.
    ‘In actual fact,’ Mrs Smythe went on, ‘the family are already out there. You would be required to escort their son from this country to his father’s house in Kenya. Do you think you could undertake that, Miss Rogers?’
    Don’t be ridiculous, Bonnie told herself. How can you possibly go all that way on your own? You’ve no experience of being abroad. You’ve never even been as far as London before. And what about the baby? How on earth would you manage with a baby out in the wilds of Africa? But her mouth said something totally different.
    ‘Oh yes,’ said Bonnie, ‘I’m sure I could.’
     
    ‘Any news, dear?’
    Elsie Dawson poked her head over the back wall that divided their houses. Grace took the peg out of her mouth and shook her head. Though the sun was weak at this time of year, it was a fine morning and she had decided to peg out some washing. At least hanging it for a while in the fresh air made it smell sweeter. Grace was glad she lived across the road and away from the railway line. Poor old Alice Chamberlain who used to live opposite was always complaining that she could never hang her stuff outside. The trains roaring by every few minutes left sooty deposits on everything.
    ‘Is there anything I can do?’
    Grace knew Elsie was fishing for more information but there was nothing to say. Her daughter had upped and left without so much as a by-your-leave. ‘Nothing, thank you Elsie, but thanks for the offer. Pop round for a cup of tea, if you’ve got a minute.’ Grace smiled to herself. Elsie wasn’t likely to turn down that sort of invitation. She’d be round like a shot.
    There was a bang on the front door. Grace threw a tea towel back into the washing basket and hurried indoors. Manny Hart was walking away as she opened it.
    He turned around with a sheepish look on his face and raised his hat. ‘Oh, I thought you’d be out,’ he said carefully.
    ‘Come in, come in,’ she said. ‘I’ll put the kettle on.’
    He looked down and, following his gaze, she saw a newspaper parcel on the doorstep. ‘Just a couple of eggs I thought you might like,’ he said.
    ‘Thanks, Manny,’ she said, bending to pick them up, ‘it’s kind of you.’
    ‘I’m really sorry about the other day, Grace,’ said Manny. ‘I would have let you through but those men from the government …’
    Grace put up her hand to