“Funny… ” he said, scratching his chin. “If you’ve been up to nowt, how come you all look so guilty?”
“Guilty?” Gus’s ears were burning bright red. Greta was jiggling up and down as if she needed a wee. Edie gave her a hard stare. She wasn’t sure the little girl was going to be able to keep their secret for more than two minutes. Gus had wanted to threaten Mr Churchill and the Twiglets with all sorts of terrible things if she said a word, but Edie hadn’t been convinced that would do any good. Instead, she made Greta promise not to mention Karl by name or say the words “German airman” out loud. If she wanted to talk about him at all, she had to pretend she was discussing a fox…
“We just went on a picnic, that’s all,” said Edie, showing Perky the empty basket. “We felt a bit guilty because you were stuck at work.”
“How the other half live, eh.” Perky sighed but he seemed satisfied with their answer at last.
“We definitely didn’t see a fox, did we, Mr Churchill?” Greta blurted out and then started giggling uncontrollably.
“What’s this about a fox?” said Perky.
“Just ignore her,” said Gus.
“The truth is,” said Edie, thinking quickly, “we didn’t want to tell you we’d gone on the picnic, because … well, because we were going to save you a slice of birthday cake and in the end we ate it all.”
“You scoffed the lot!” Now Perky really was indignant. He chased them back across the meadow roaring like a wild bear. “You ate my cake!”
Greta squealed with laughter. “We didn’t eat it,” she whooped. “It was the fox!”
Gus and Edie exchanged glances as they ran. Perhaps Gus was right – it would have been safer just to threaten the Twiglets if Greta betrayed Karl, rather than dreaming up the whole charade of the fox.
“So,” said Perky, when they had stopped running at last and were lying on their backs in the long grass at the bottom of the meadow. “Shall we go to HQ tomorrow morning? We haven’t spied on those sneaky Snigsons for a while.”
“Er… No,” said Gus. “Not in the morning. I think I’ve got to do … er … Latin.”
“How about this afternoon then?” asked Perky. “I’ll ask Aunty Patsy if I can swap shifts.”
“Erm… I might have history then,” said Gus weakly.
“Really?” Perky looked amazed. “I thought you lucky beggars hardly ever did any lessons. Now it’s starting to sound like real school.”
“I’ll tell you what,” said Edie quickly. “I’ve got a much better idea than going to HQ. You know how you said there was an old signal box down the line in the other direction, Perky? Well, I’d love to see it.”
“You would?” Perky raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said it sounded like a lot of dusty old levers and that the dining carriage was much a more exciting place to be.”
“Did I?” Edie shrugged. “I don’t remember.” Although she knew perfectly well that is exactly what she had said. “I’m much more mature now. I’ve had a birthday, you know… Being so grown up, I’ve become interested in … well, in signal boxes and things. I want to know how the railways work. It’s all very well, waving to the Green Dragon and picking daisies on the bank, but it’s the nuts and bolts and… ”
“Levers?” prompted Gus.
“Exactly!” said Edie. “It’s the nuts and bolts and levers, I should really know about.” She wondered if she’d overdone it a bit.
But Perky nodded. “Fair dos. I’ll meet you at the station tomorrow and we’ll head on down to the signal box. Say two o’clock?”
“Two o’clock it is,” said Edie.
That gave them the whole morning to see to Karl.
They woke next day to beautiful sunshine.
“Like spring has finally kicked off her shoes and wiggled her toes,” as Uncle Peter said. It seemed he was having one of his good days, and the sun had lifted his spirits.
Aunt Roberta had already left for work. It didn’t take much to persuade Uncle Peter to let them skip lessons once more.
“Why not? Make the most of these sunny skies,” he said. “Perhaps we should admit defeat and say it is officially the summer holidays anyway. September will be here soon enough, and you’ll be at the mercy of those Maidbridge school teachers … a far stricter bunch than I will ever be.”
“Thank you, Uncle Peter. You are a darling.” Edie kissed his cheek, wishing she didn’t feel quite so guilty about the bottle of his favourite pale ale she had sneaked out of the larder or the extra chunk of precious goat’s cheese and the slice of ham hidden in the bottom of the picnic basket. She just hoped he wouldn’t notice anything until tomorrow. By then, Colonel Crowther would be home and she could hand Karl over. She had decided it would be far better if she did that part alone. She was going to do everything she could to keep Gus and Greta out of it.
“I lay awake thinking all night,” she explained to them both, as they hurried along the edge of the tracks towards the old dining carriage. “If I say I found Karl by myself, and I report that to Colonel Crowther, nobody will think too much of it. I’m just a girl who stumbled across a hidden airman. If either of you get involved, they might discover your father is German. They’ll accuse you of hiding an enemy. They’ll say you are spies – especially you, Gus, because you’re older.”
“I don’t want to talk to Colonel Crowther anyway,” said Greta. “He’s scary.”
“No he’s not,” scoffed Gus. “But Edie might be right.” He looked over at her. “I just don’t want you to get into trouble all by yourself.”
“I won’t get
