Georgia Read Online Free PDF Page A

spared.
    ‘Protect and keep her Lord,’ she whispered. ‘And give me the strength to deal with Sister Agnes.’

Chapter 2
    September 1956
    ‘Drop me off here Daddy!’ Georgia’s voice had a tremor of apprehension as they turned into Kidbrooke Lane and the playing fields of the comprehensive school loomed in front of them.
    It was a hot sunny morning, vivid splashes of colour in the suburban gardens, dahlias at their best as if trying to outdo one another in their brilliance.
    ‘Don’t you want me to come in with you?’ Brian Anderson pulled up, turning towards Georgia in his seat.
    ‘I’ll look like a baby if you do.’
    ‘You are our baby,’ Brian chuckled. ‘But I know what you mean. Some things are better tackled alone.’
    ‘Were you scared on your first day at a big school?’ Georgia leaned against his shoulder for a moment, drawing strength from the smell of starched shirt and aftershave.
    ‘Terrified,’ he admitted, patting her small hand with his big one. ‘But it wasn’t as bad as I expected, nothing ever is.’
    ‘I’d better go now,’ she straightened up, then leaned closer to kiss his smooth cheek. ‘Do I really look all right?’
    ‘All right! You look perfect,’ he smiled, wishing he could cuddle her one more time and banish that worried frown. ‘Off you go now, and don’t worry about anything, there will be hundreds of other new girls, just like you.’
    Brian Anderson watched as she crossed the road and walked along the railings to the gate. Scores of other girls were filling the tree-lined avenue, peace halted now the new term had started. But Brian Anderson hardly noticed the other girls, his eyes were just on Georgia.
    In two years she had changed almost beyond recognition. She was taller, her stick-like limbs had filled out with good food, the once cropped hair allowed to curl on her shoulders and her skin had lost that yellowy tinge.
    The navy-blue pleated skirt swung beneath a smart new blazer and she wore her beret at a jaunty angle. Yet the sight of her childish brown legs in long grey socks and the stiff, shiny satchel on her shoulder brought an unexpected lump to his throat.
    ‘Make them accept you Georgia,’ he said softly as he put his car into gear and pulled away. ‘Just the way you did me.’
    Brian Anderson knew better than anyone how it felt to be different. Brought up alone with his widowed mother in the big house on Blackheath where he still lived, he understood a child’s need to be just like everyone else.
    His mother had meant well keeping him away from other children. She wanted to protect him from harm, wrap him in a cocoon of devotion. A small, select private school where rough games were frowned on, evenings spent reading with her by the fire, or long walks in the summer. He had allowed himself to be nudged into banking as a career. Girls, dancing, drinking or sport were things that men did who weren’t gentlemen. Brian didn’t consider himself weak at bowing to his mother’s wishes. He was merely a loner who didn’t need change, new experiences or even challenge. But sometimes he would have preferred to have had a more outgoing life.
    As Brian drove down towards Lewisham across the heath he caught a glimpse of himself in the driving mirror. Sandy thinning hair, neatly combed to one side, a round, plump fresh face which had barely changed from his teens. Pale blue eyes with gingery lashes and eyebrows. A straight small nose and the kind of even white teeth which owed much to his mother’s care and attention. Not a handsome man, but as his mother had always pointed out, ‘Clothes maketh a man.’ His suits were all hand-tailored, navy blue with a feint pin stripe for the bank, light grey for social occasions and a navy blazer for weekends and holidays.
    His shirts always went to the laundry, he liked his collars stiff and starchy, his ties subdued. He had four pairs of identical black leather lace-up shoes which he rotated daily.
    He looked what he