“Edie?” Aunt Roberta touched her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” But Edie shrugged her off.
“I’m tired,” she whispered again, and she lay still under the hot heavy blankets until she heard Aunt Roberta leave the room.
As soon as she was gone, Edie threw back the covers. She got out of bed and flung open the window. She breathed in great gulps of fresh air. It had been a bad day. First Gus had got upset, although she still couldn’t understand why. And now this with Aunt Roberta – was that how she really felt? That Fliss should never have had a baby at all?
“I don’t care,” said Edie, flopping back on to the bed. “I don’t care what anyone thinks.”
But she wished more than ever that she could see Fliss and be wrapped in a tight hug by her mother.
Chapter Sixteen
A Happy Birthday
By the next day, Edie felt a little better. The last of her aches and pains had gone and her spirits had lifted too. Neither she nor Aunt Roberta mentioned their conversation again.
“Just take one day at a time, and don’t overdo things,” Aunt Roberta said, kissing her warmly before she went to work.
“Yes, nurse!” Edie frowned thoughtfully, wondering if she’d got it all wrong. How could someone so kind and caring disapprove of something so much that they would fall out with their own sister?
“And not too much rich food for a while, either,” said Aunt Roberta, climbing on to her bicycle.
Edie was soon allowed out and about again though, and by the time the morning of her birthday came around, she had almost forgotten she had been poorly at all.
She remembered how Fliss had begged her not to get her hopes up for a visit this time, so she decided that is exactly what she would do.
“If I don’t have high hopes, they can’t be dashed,” she explained to Perky, who had come up early that morning to deliver the post to Three Chimneys.
Edie was sure she had seen more than one letter in his hand when he came through the door, but when she looked down at the kitchen table, there was only one of Uncle Peter’s big brown envelopes with MOST SECRET written across the top.
She took a deep breath and battled with herself not to be disappointed – although she had been sure Fliss would have sent a card at least. It seemed everyone had forgotten it was her birthday. Uncle Peter was out in the vegetable patch, and Aunt Roberta was clattering around in the larder. Even Greta seemed to be busy with something outside, and Gus was making a pan of boiled eggs on the range.
Secretly, Edie had hoped there might be some sort of special birthday breakfast. It wasn’t that she wanted a big fuss… Again she tried to fight down the rising feeling of disappointment. It was bound to be tricky to do anything much with the war on. Everyone was so busy and everything was in such short supply. Although they could grow their own food here, rations had to be shared fairly with people in the cities and towns.
Even so, she couldn’t help thinking of the glorious birthday feasts she and Fliss used to have before the war broke out. They always went to Patisserie Valerie in Soho, a little cafe just around the corner from the flat. Fliss ordered coffee and Edie strawberry-flavoured milk and they both devoured huge slices of gooey Belgian chocolate cake with cream. This morning it looked as if she would have to make do with a boiled egg.
“Come on. Let’s go for a walk,” cried Perky, pulling her chair away as she tried to sit down.
“Now?” asked Edie in surprise. It looked as if she wasn’t going to get any breakfast at all. He was practically dragging her to the door.
“Good idea,” said Gus. “I’d come too, but I’ve got a Latin paper to do.”
“Really?” Edie was amazed. Neither she nor Gus had been given any homework for ages. They’d barely even had a lesson for weeks – Aunt Roberta was busier than ever at the hospital and Uncle Peter was out digging in the garden from dawn to dusk, making the most of the good weather.
“It’s time to start pulling my socks up and working hard, if I’m going back to school in September,” said Gus.
“Fine.” Edie gave in with a sigh. If that’s how he felt, she’d leave him to it. She might as well go for a walk with Perky after all. “Save me a hard-boiled egg for later. I’ll eat it cold,” she said. Some birthday this had turned out to be.
Even Greta didn’t bother to say good morning. Edie saw her scuttling away with a little basket behind the hen house as they ran off across the meadow.
“Shall we go and have a gander at where they’re mending the line after the plane crash?” asked Perky.
“All right,” agreed Edie. She had thought she wouldn’t ever want to go anywhere near the place where they’d had to save the train, but she found she was curious to see it.
As they came to the top of the bank and looked down, she saw a large group of men working with shovels and picks on the rails. They were singing a loud, throaty song as they mended the line.
“Italians!” said Perky knowledgeably.
“Italians?” echoed Edie. Under Mussolini’s rule, they were Britain’s enemies, fighting alongside Hitler. “What are they doing here in Yorkshire?”
“Prisoners of war,” said Perky. “Didn’t you know? There’s a big POW camp on the old racecourse outside Maidbridge. The government gets them to do work like this while our men are away fighting.”
Edie watched as the prisoners shifted earth with their shovels and shored up the tracks. They were still singing with all their hearts and laughing too, even though Edie now noticed there was a guard with a rifle overseeing them. He was smiling and nodding his head as
