Strong arms tightened round her, along with a smell she would never forget. Inhaling the damp gabardine and cigarettes of the coat, Daisy shed tears of joy.
CHAPTER 53
’POPS, IS IT REALLY YOU?’ she whispered as he hugged her. She hung on so fiercely that he had to prize her away.
‘Hey, what’s all this, treasure?’ His deep, calm voice made her feel as though they had never spent a day apart.
She grasped his fingers with all the strength she had. ‘Have you come to take me home?’
‘Oh, Daisy, where has my brave girl gone?’ He sat on the chair beside the bed and looked into her eyes.
‘I’m not brave, Pops,’ Daisy insisted, still terrified by the thought he would leave her again. ‘I just pretended to be. Instead, I’m frightened all the time.’
‘You’ve come back from a very dark place; it’s quite normal to be frightened. If a bomb had exploded close to me, I would be frightened too.’
‘I missed you,’ she mumbled. ‘But I know you had something important to do.’
‘Ah, how hearing you say that hurts even more,’ he sighed and Daisy saw the pain in his face. A face which was, now she studied him, much thinner and paler than before.
‘You are the bravest girl in the world,’ he continued, returning the pressure of her fingers. ‘I’m proud of you. You’ve been in your very own war. If it doesn’t upset you, tell me what happened.’
It was as if a dam had burst as the words gushed out; how she and Mother and Bobby had slept every night in the shelter and tried to keep the house and themselves clean and how she hated to return to the dark and cramped space that they had tried to make homely for their nightly vigils. And how on that day in October, they had left the shelter one morning and returned to the house where in the kitchen, a terrible event awaited them.
‘If only I’d been with you,’ Pops groaned. ‘Can you imagine how badly I feel, not being there to protect my family?’
‘What you do is important.’
‘But not nearly as important as you.’
‘I had stitches in my head,’ Daisy elaborated, ‘and then I went to sleep.’
‘So the nurse told me. But like Sleeping Beauty, you woke, thank heavens. Now let me see, what’s this?’ Pops dug into his pocket and brought out a paper bag.
Daisy gasped ‘Saturday Assortment!’
‘I know how much you like them.’
Daisy put the bag on her locker. She didn’t want sweets. She only wanted to hold tightly to Pops.
‘I saw Mother and Bobby this morning at Aunt Minnie’s,’ he told her. ‘They have been discharged from hospital and are missing you dreadfully. Here is a letter from Mother.’
‘I’ll read it after you’ve gone.’ She placed the envelope by her sweets. ‘When can we go home to Poplar Park Row?’
‘That, Daisy, is a question I can’t answer. I’ve not been back to see our house, but I understand Mr Cook thinks the damage is extensive.’
‘Like our old house in Wattcombe, you mean?’
He frowned. ‘Why do you ask that?’
‘Bobby and me went there. Oh, Pops, will we never have a home of our own?’
He touched her cheek. ‘Of course we will. But this is wartime and we must all do the best we can.’ He saw the disappointment in her eyes and said mysteriously, ‘Can you keep a secret?’
Daisy wanted to say that she had kept many secrets but decided against it.
’You see … ’ he hesitated and lowered his voice. ‘You remember our happy days in the laboratory?’
Daisy nodded, this time smiling at the memory.
‘Well, Uncle Ed and I invented something there that will help us to fight and win this war.’
Daisy’s eyes flew wide. ‘What is it?’
‘You won’t understand exactly, but the country’s secret weapon is to be powered by valves, to be precise, thermionic valves of the type we created in our lab at the factory.’ He placed a finger to his lips. ‘Uncle Ed and I are using our highly accurate electrical apparatus to aid something - well, something very special.’
‘Pops, you’re so clever.’
‘No, treasure. There are lots of people much cleverer.’
‘Are these people in Milton Keynes, too?’
Pops sat upright. ‘What makes you ask that?’
‘Aunt Betty discovered it,’ Daisy whispered. ‘There was a code in Uncle Ed’s letter.’
Pops looked astonished. ’You must never tell anyone, not a soul. Do you understand now why I have to work away?’
Daisy nodded and would have nodded harder but her head hurt with every move.
‘We all have to do our part in keeping our country safe.’ He tenderly traced his fingertips over the bumpy scar on her forehead. ‘This wound is your badge of honour, Daisy. Be proud to wear it.’
Once again she was in his arms until Nurse Gwen appeared and told them it was time to part.
That evening, Daisy walked unaided to the underground ward. Although she trembled and stumbled several times, she wore her badge of honour proudly. When she was given a place to rest, she opened Mother’s letter. Though it was short, her words of love and affection filled Daisy with hope. Bobby had signed with kisses too and Will had scrawled his initials, hidden under a large blob of ink. Although Daisy missed her family dearly, she remembered Pops’s words. From now on, she would be brave, and, even when the planes flew over.
CHAPTER 54
SEVERAL DAYS LATER, a letter from Matt arrived. A few lines to tell her how sorry he was to hear of her injuries. He explained he had earned his wings and that he’d visited Amelia who had evacuated with her family to Swansea in Wales. After scrawling numerous kisses, he added a post script.
“I’ve put in for special leave for early next year, so that Amelia and I can travel to London to be with you. Keep it under your hat, but there’s a surprise in store!
