There were giggles and shouts from the class and Daisy clapped her hands. ‘Be quiet, everyone.’
But very few listened. The new children were unruly and urged the others to disobey everything Daisy said.
‘I want me mum,’ wailed a little girl of about five.
‘I do too,’ cried another.
‘I wanna go ‘ome.’
‘I’ve wet meself.’
By twelve o’clock, Daisy had spent more time taking the children to the cloakroom and making sure they left the toilets clean and tidy, than in class. When the bell rang, the children all ran out, refusing to form an orderly line.
‘Is it four o’clock?’ Mrs Gardiner asked when she woke up.
‘Not yet, Mrs Gardiner.’ Daisy wished it was.
‘Where are they?’
‘In the playground, Mrs Gardiner.’
‘Then you’d better go after them.’
Before Daisy had reached the door, the elderly lady was snoozing again. Daisy wished with all her heart that Pops could be here to witness this depressing state of affairs.
The next day there were light showers of snow and though the countryside looked very pretty, the complaints came in thick and fast from the evacuees. Many had no heavy coats or warm scarves. They came from homes where clothes were handed down from an older brother or sister and were very thin and patched. As for walking to school, they were frightened of this new world that surrounded them. Some had never seen cows or bulls before. Others liked to make a show of throwing stones or chasing any animal that appeared. As the snow melted to wet footprints, muddy patches streaked the corridor. Daisy was never without a broom or mop close to hand. Since there were icy patches on which the younger children fell over, there were always scratches and bruises to wash clean.
’Wrap up well,’ Grandma warned one morning before they left for school. ‘I’ve never felt so cold.’ Shivering, she huddled under her shawl.
‘The children will freeze in the classroom,’ said Daisy as she put on her coat.
‘So will we, if the coal merchant doesn’t deliver.’ Aunt Pat shook the empty scuttle.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ dismissed Grandma. ‘We’ll manage.’
But when Daisy and Bobby got home from school that day, the house was freezing.
‘Where’s Grandma?’ they asked.
’She went to bed.’ Aunt Pat was in a fluster.
‘Did the coal merchant come?’
‘He called to tell us there’s none available. Even worse, the stove broke down.’
‘What’s wrong with it?’ Daisy asked.
Aunt Pat shrugged. ’It just stopped working.’
They all shivered their way through supper. ‘What are we to do if it’s just as cold tomorrow?’ Aunt Pat asked. ‘Oh, dear, I fear we’ll all freeze.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Bobby at once. ‘At first light, Daisy and me will take the barrow and search for wood.’
Daisy watched Aunt Pat as she went to the kitchen. Without Grandma, she seemed lost.
‘I’m going to bed,’ Bobby said, yawning. ‘Tomorrow we’ll get up early.’
When Daisy went to say goodnight to Aunt Pat, she found her in the kitchen, struggling to light the paraffin stove. ‘I want to make Grandma a hot cocoa, but the match keeps going out.’
‘Let me help.’ Daisy’s fingers were more agile and seconds later the wick was alight.
‘This is all very vexing,’ complained Aunt Pat. ’I can’t seem to think straight. Mother doesn’t look well - and nothing works! ‘ She flopped into a chair. ‘Oh, Daisy, I’m all at twos and threes.’
Daisy turned off the whistling kettle and sat beside her aunt.
‘I’m sure Grandma is asleep by now.’
‘I don’t know what I would do without her.’
‘Grandma is strong, Aunt Pat. She’ll soon be well.’
Aunt Pat took out her hanky. ‘I remember the last time we had a storm - it was when …when I was just seventeen.’
‘Was it as icy as this?’
‘Oh yes, very. The winter of 1916 was very, very cold.’ She took a deep breath and burst out, ‘I shall never forget that winter. My sweetheart was fighting in the trenches of the Somme.’
Daisy gasped. ‘You had a sweetheart?’
‘His name was Lloyd and he was a year older than me.’
Daisy thought she knew all the family stories off by heart; she had listened to so many. But she had never heard of Lloyd before.
Aunt Pat bowed her head. ‘We did something - something very wrong.’ She wiped a tear from her eye. ‘In those days it was a terrible disgrace to love a man before marriage. We didn’t mean it to happen, you see. B … but we were young and we only had a few days together before Lloyd joined his unit.’
Daisy realised Aunt Pat was confiding something very intimate to her. She sat quietly waiting, as a deep sadness filled her aunt’s eyes.
‘Your grandfather was alive then. He was very angry. I was sent away to a special home for girls in trouble. It was there my baby was born.’
Daisy frowned. ‘You had a baby, Aunt Pat?’
‘I caused my parents a dreadful shame. Grandma I believe, has never recovered.’ A tear ran down her aunt’s cheek. ‘Little Lloyd died in my arms soon after he was born. Oh, Daisy, he was so beautiful.’
Daisy could not imagine that her spinster aunt whose entire life revolved around Grandma, had once given birth to a beautiful baby boy. Tears sprang to her own eyes. It seemed that here in this freezing kitchen where she had only ever known warmth and companionship, lingered a deep unhappiness that remained with Aunt Pat all these years.
‘My sweetheart perished in the trenches,’ continued her aunt. ‘He never knew of our boy. When I came home to Wattcombe Father had let it be known that I had worked for a short time in service for a wealthy family.’
‘That’s very sad, Aunt Pat.’
‘I don’t know what’s come over me to burden you with my secret.’
If only she could tell Aunt Pat, that nearly everyone she knew had secrets. Like Aunt Betty and Mr Calder and Elsie Shiner and Micky Wolf, and even Bobby who had vowed to join up to the airforce, which if Mother knew, might break
