‘Planes,’ Bobby confirmed.
‘There’s so many of them.’ Daisy felt a wave of fear. The throbbing of their engines shook the trees and made the ground tremble beneath her feet. ‘Are they going to drop bombs on us?’
‘Don’t know.’ Bobby grabbed Daisy’s hand and dragged her into the wood. He pulled her through thickets of scratchy bushes until they came to a toppled tree. Together they scrambled underneath its bare, brittle branches. Daisy clapped her hands over her ears and buried her face against the damp ground. Would a bomb fall and kill them?
‘Keep still,’ Bobby shouted as he thew himself on top of her.
Daisy was too terrified to move. Even her skin was shaking. She could feel Bobby’s body protecting her.
Gradually the ear-shattering noise began to subside. ‘Have they gone?’ she whispered as Bobby climbed off her, staring up at the sky.
‘Don’t worry. They were ours after all.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I spotted the round circles on their wings. Spitfires, I think. They were amazing.’
Daisy scrambled beside him. ’Where are they going?’
‘London, perhaps.’
Daisy felt a great miss of home. ‘Pops read from the newspaper every day. We always knew what was going on. Here we don’t know anything.’
Bobby looked at her and grinned. ‘Now I understand why Matt wants to enlist in the airforce. Did you hear them? Did you feel their power? I want to fly too. I’m going to enlist when I’m old enough.’
‘Bobby, don’t say that.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t want you to go away.’ Daisy tried not to cry. It seemed she had been on the brink of tears all day. She forced back her sob. ‘Anyway, you’re only eleven.’
Bobby smiled. ‘Remember that ship you wanted to catch?’
‘I’ve changed my mind.’ Daisy blushed as they walked to the lane. She wished she hadn’t told Bobby about her silly, childish dreams. ‘I just want us all to stay together. And war to go away. And Matt to come home and marry Amelia. And I could look after their babies.’
Bobby burst into laughter.
Daisy sulked a little. She didn’t care for being laughed at. But then again, Bobby had protected her in the wood. He must think a great deal of her even though he sometimes pretended not to. ’Shall we tell Aunt Pat and Grandma that we saw our old house?’
Bobby shook his head. ‘Don’t think so. Don’t want to upset them.’
Daisy smiled at her brother. Even though he was a boy he was really quite nice.
CHAPTER 26
‘DID you see our planes fly over?’ said Aunt Pat that evening as they ate their pie and mash.
Daisy nodded but Bobby looked down at his plate.
‘Britain is gearing up for war,’ continued Aunt Pat. ‘Especially after the terrible news of the Royal Oak.’
Bobby dropped his fork with a clatter. ‘What happened?’
‘It was on the wireless,’ said Grandma, helping Daisy to a second serving of mash. It was mash with every dinner yet Daisy didn’t like to refuse.
’Our greatest battleship was sunk by a torpedo at Scarpa Flow,’ explained Aunt Pat.
‘Where’s Scarpa Flow?’ asked Daisy.
‘Scotland, where that foreign plane was shot down.’
‘What plane?’ demanded Bobby, his jaw falling open even more.
‘A Nazi warplane landed in a Scottish moor.’
‘Did the pilot parachute out?’ Bobby’s eyes were wide with sudden interest.
‘Couldn’t say,’ Aunt Pat shrugged. ‘What about a game of Ludo before bed?’
‘I’m a bit tired.’ fibbed Bobby.
‘That’s not like you.’
‘I was just thinking,’ said Daisy quickly, ‘about Christmas.’
‘Don’t speak with your mouth full, dear.’ Grandma waved her hand.
Daisy swallowed quickly. ‘Christmas is soon, isn’t it?’
‘Not long,’ agreed Aunt Pat. ‘Perhaps we could read the fortune cards tonight. I know you like them, Daisy.’
Daisy wasn’t at all certain she did like the fortune cards. They reminded her of Peter Brady and the Birch and how she might have brought the awful punishment down on his head. Predicting the future wasn’t such a good thing after all. If she’d been told when they moved to London that her old home would become a burned out wreck and had to be torn down, she would have been very unhappy indeed.
‘I’m tired, Aunt Pat,’ she said. ‘I did too much walking.’
Aunt Pat and Grandma glanced at each other. ‘Yes, enough excitement for one day,’ decided Grandma and began to clear the dishes.
Alone in their room, Daisy voiced her suspicions. ‘I think Aunt Pat and Grandma guessed where we went today.’
Bobby nodded slowly.
‘Why don’t they want to talk about it?’
‘People have other things to think about.’ Bobby climbed under his floral cover.
Daisy shivered under the cold sheet. She knew Bobby wanted to forget about what they saw today. ’I miss Mother and Pops and Matt,’ she yawned. ‘Wattcombe’s not the same as it was.’
Bobby drew the cover over his head. ‘Go to sleep, Daisy.’
She closed her eyes and listened to his soft breathing. Her thoughts drifted to London and the family and Sally whom she missed dreadfully. Pops only ever sent telegrams. Mother had written, but short letters that were rather boring. It wasn’t as if Daisy hadn’t written herself. She had composed all of three long letters and described almost everything that had happened in detail.
All except going to the old house.
That was too big a disaster to write in a letter.
‘M erry Christmas, you two!’ Mother and Pops stood at the open door on Christmas Eve.
Daisy couldn’t believe her eyes. She had been down in the dumps. Every dreary day since coming to Wattcombe was like a heavy winter’s coat that she could never take off. It just got heavier and heavier, weighing down on her shoulders. They had been evacuated and as Grandma would say, “that was that!” Was she dreaming as she gazed into the faces of the two people she missed most in all the world?
‘Aren’t you going to ask us in?’ grinned Pops. ‘This isn’t the welcome we expected.’
Daisy was overcome with joy as Bobby flung himself into their arms. The next moment she joined him. Tears spilled as they hugged and kissed.
‘Gracious me,’
