No Peace for Amelia Read Online Free PDF Page B

isn’t it. Like me and your grandmother of an afternoon.’
    Amelia looked bewildered.
    â€˜Nooks and crannies, Amelia. Gosh, you’re so slow on the uptake sometimes! It’s a joke. Anyway, them things were absolute murder to polish. Lucky for you it’s nearlydone, or I’d have had you at it as well as meself. But at this stage there’s no point in the two of us getting covered in black-leading, so if you want to play cooks and grannies too, you can fill the kettle.’
    Amelia did so, and then sat down to tell the news about Frederick to Mary Ann.
    Mary Ann didn’t say much. She just put away the cleaning things and then used a skewer to pick black-leading out from under her fingernails and grimaced at Amelia’s story.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ she said at last. ‘I thought you people didn’t believe in warfare.’
    â€˜Mmm,’ said Amelia, reluctantly. She had known all along that this was a problem, but she didn’t want to face it. She didn’t want to let Frederick down.
    â€˜Well, then, it should be against Master Goodbody’s religion to go to war.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Amelia lamely. ‘I suppose it is.’
    â€˜Then he shouldn’t go, should he?’
    â€˜No, I suppose he shouldn’t,’ agreed Amelia, deflated. ‘But perhaps,’ she went on, making it up as she went along, ‘perhaps he feels so strongly about this war that he is prepared to set his pacifist principles aside on this occasion.’
    Even as she said it, Amelia knew it didn’t ring true. In truth, she didn’t really understand Frederick’s motives, and though the idea excited her, it also confused and worried her.
    â€˜Feels strongly about this war!’ Mary Ann sniffed. ‘How could anyone feel strongly about this war? What’s it about, can you tell me that?’
    â€˜Oh yes,’ began Amelia confidently. ‘It’s about – well, it’s about putting the Kaiser in his place.’
    â€˜Putting the Kaiser in his place, is that it? I see,’ said Mary Ann. ‘In other words, it’s about the English being in charge of Europe, not the Germans.’
    â€˜Well, yes, I mean, after all …’ 
    â€˜Oh, I see. So you think the English should be in charge of Europe, do you?’
    â€˜Not exactly, no. But I think the Germans shouldn’t be either.’ Amelia had a sudden flash of inspiration: ‘We should all be in charge of our own countries.’
    â€˜Aha! Like the Irish. In charge of Ireland, like?’
    â€˜Certainly.’
    â€˜So it’s a nationalist you are now, Amelia Pim. Well, I never would have thought it!’ Mary Ann sounded both amused and triumphant.
    â€˜A nationalist, am I?’ said Amelia wonderingly. She was sure there was something wrong with this assertion. ‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘I seem to remember you being very pleased when this war started, Mary Ann Maloney.’
    â€˜Ah yes, but that’s because England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity,’ said Mary Ann cryptically, throwing aside her skewer and coming to sit at the table opposite Amelia.
    Amelia hadn’t the smallest idea what that wassupposed to mean, but she was sure it wasn’t anything very nice, so she gave a disapproving little sniff. Mary Ann misinterpreted the sniff.
    â€˜Poor Amelia,’ she said, with sudden sympathy. ‘You’ll miss your beau, won’t you?’
    Amelia had been so busy convincing herself what a fine thing it was for Frederick to be going off to fight in this terribly important war that she hadn’t allowed herself to think this perfectly simple thought at all. She had considered the idea of his being hurt or killed, and she had set that thought firmly aside. But now that Mary Ann put it so simply, she realised that she would indeed miss her beau, very much. She plonked her elbows on the kitchen