Daisy's Secret Read Online Free PDF Page B

tomorrow instead. However,’ she continued with forced brightness, ‘our spirits are undimmed, are they not? We shall sleep tonight in the station waiting rooms. Boys in the gents. Girls in the ladies. Now stand in line and make your way in an orderly fashion. No pushing and shoving.’
    They were given a hot drink of Bovril, made on the station waiting room fire by the ladies in smart uniform, and a slice of bread and butter. Afterwards, blankets were handed out. Daisy, Megan and Trish huddled up together for warmth beneath one but the September night was cold, the waiting room floor hard and Trish kept sniffling and sneezing while Megan got a fit of coughing, which worried Daisy. Eventually they slept fitfully, woken with a jerk in the early hours by a cry of alarm that quickly spread, creating panic when the word ‘gas’ was heard.
    The ladies in charge acted quickly. Whipping off all the children’s’ blankets, they fled to the lavatory where they soaked them in water and then hung them at all the doors and windows for protection. The night was even colder after that and the three new friends gave up all hope of sleep though they were grateful at least for Megan and Trish’s mackintosh, their only protection against the blast of cold air that roared under the waiting room door every time a train went through.
     
    As the children stood about in a ragged group in the cold light of early morning, a trickle of local women began to appear. Daisy learned that they had come not only from the local villages, but also from nearby Penrith, a town in the northern Lakes, and she felt a burst of hope. Wasn’t it somewhere round here that Aunt Florrie had come to live? She desperately tried to remember her married surname but for the life of her couldn’t bring it to mind. All that had ever been written on the infrequent Christmas or birthday cards was: Yours, as ever, Florrie.
    Bullied by the dispersal officer, who had finally arrived, the village women made their selection, and all Daisy could do was search their faces to see if any one of them resembled her own mother. None did.
    ‘I’ll have this one.’
    ‘I’ll take her.’
    ‘I’ll have that little lad over there.’
    One woman put a hand on Trish’s collar and was about to haul her away when Megan made a grab for her, loudly protesting. ‘No! Our Trish stops with me. Me mam said we had to stay together. Daisy too,’ she added for good measure, casting a quick glance in her new friend’s direction. Daisy did not protest. The decision seemed to have been made without the need for words during the long, cold, miserable night. No matter what, they meant to stay together.
    Unfortunately this proved to be asking rather much of the good ladies of the Lakes. Many were glad to help the evacuees, some did so out of a sense of patriotism or duty, while others took the attitude that having to take one child was bad enough, two was an imposition, and three quite impossible.  
    It became alarming, and then frightening to see the other children marched off one by one, and still be left hanging about on the cold platform with a diminishing number of possible hosts, or ‘foster parents’ as they were optimistically described.
    ‘Does nobody want us, Daisy?’ Megan asked, a slight wobble to her voice.
    Trish tugged at Daisy’s skirt. ‘I feel sick.’
    ‘Don’t think about it, then you won’t be.’
    ‘Shall I be sick in me beret, only me Mam told me not to take it off.’
    ‘No, no, your mam’s right. Leave it on, love. You won’t be sick, I promise.’ And, by a miracle, she wasn’t.
    In the end, there were only the three of them left, and Green Hat came over to inspect them. ‘Really, this determination of yours to stick together isn’t very helpful. How would it be if everyone adopted such stringent rules?’
    The three stared up at her, uncomprehending. At last Daisy felt obliged to respond, since she was the eldest. ‘They’re only young, four and