‘What’s a bad boys’ home?’
‘Dad says it’s like a prison, but for kids. The boys are thrashed until their bums bleed. They take the birch to ‘em.’
‘What’s the birch?’
‘Blimey, Daisy, you don’t know much for a posh kid.’ Sally sighed impatiently. ‘It’s like lots of sharp wood used as a whip. The poor sods almost bleed to death.’
Daisy shuddered. ‘That’s dreadful.’
‘It’s the only way to knock any sense in their heads.’
Daisy digested this frightful snippet as they sung the school hymn, All People That On Earth do Dwell. Could it really be true that Peter would be tortured in such a way? He might be the school bully and hated by just about everyone, but such a fate was far worse even than the flu or painful boils and red spots.
Miss Bailey welcomed the school back but Daisy couldn’t concentrate. She wanted to ask Bobby if he’d heard about Peter. Or could it be that Mr Watson had been falsely informed?
At break time, she met Bobby in the playground. ’Have you heard about Peter?’
‘Everyone has.’
‘Is it true?’
‘I’ve a feeling he’ll show up.’
‘Oh, no he won’t,’ Daisy blurted, ‘because Aunt Pat said - ‘ She stopped, remembering that Bobby disapproved of the fortune cards, pronouncing them weird. She’d have to make do with telling Sally whose mother read the tea leaves.
Bobby frowned suspiciously. ‘What’s Aunt Pat got to do with this? And it’s not called a bad boys’ home,’ he corrected. ‘It’s a reformatory.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘How many more questions have you got?’ He stuck his hands in his pockets. ‘See you at four.’
Daisy knew she should be relieved at Peter’s absence but couldn’t forget Sally’s vivid descriptions of the Birch.
‘Bet your brother’s pleased about Peter,’ said Sally when she joined Daisy. ‘Thought you’d have a big smile on your face.’
Daisy glanced round to make sure they were alone. ‘My Aunt Pat reads the cards. They predicted a big thing was about to happen.’
Sally gasped. ‘Never!’
Daisy had a stab of conscience. ‘But I didn’t wish The Birch on Peter. Just the flu or boils. You don’t think I made it come true, do you?’
‘Don’t be daft.’
‘Perhaps it’s not right to know the future.’
‘Why not? The leaves are never wrong for my mum.’ Sally narrowed her eyes. ‘Did the cards say anything about me?’
Daisy considered tweaking the message to include Sally, just to please her friend, but decided against it. A tweaking might do something even more terrible to the already alarming events the cards had rightly predicted.
F or the month of February Daisy enjoyed her new freedom. The boys at school who had lost their leader were kept in line by the teachers and she and Sally played skipping or hop scotch without interruption. Even Bobby returned to his good-humoured self.
Though Daisy felt one of the predictions had come true, the second was still missing. A new old friend had not appeared. Daisy wasn’t disappointed. She felt she had tempted fate and still had guilty pangs. Was Peter’s bloody birching her doing? After all, she had wished him ill - and with vengeance.
It was on a soft spring day in early March when Matt delivered his shocking news.
‘The RAF take delivery of more than four hundred aircraft each month,’ he informed the family at breakfast.
‘Rightly so,’ agreed Pops, ‘since Germany already has almost five thousand up its sleeve.’
‘Our airforce is the best in the world,’ agreed Matt glancing warily at Mother. ’They are asking for reserve and volunteer flyers. Chaps like me who are the right age and want to sign up.’
‘The airforce can ask all they like,’ replied Mother harshly, and Daisy watched her face tighten. ‘Your responsibilities are here at the factory, Matt.’
‘Mother, my heart is set on flying,’ Matt insisted. ‘I’m determined to fly.’
Daisy stared at her older brother and saw the determination in his eyes.
’Son, with the best will in the world, I applaud your decision,’ coaxed Pops, ‘but there will be a right time to enlist. No hurry just yet.’
‘Pops, there is no getting out of this war,’ said Matt firmly. ‘Hitler has entered Prague. Who is next to fall?’
Daisy jumped as Mother quickly left the table.
‘Will there really be a war?’ Bobby asked quietly.
‘There is every chance of it, brother,’ Matt affirmed.
Daisy studied her father. His gaze was downcast. Tiny lines ran out from his eyes and disappeared into his whiskers. Was there now a scattering of grey in those delicate little hairs?
‘I’d better go to your mother,’ he said and left the table too. Daisy saw his breakfast was untouched. The question of war hung in the air, as real and immovable as if the war had already started.
CHAPTER 16
‘GOOD MORNING.’ Miss Bailey stood at the podium in the assembly hall. ‘I have an announcement to make. It concerns each and every one of us, for after today, our lives might never be quite the same again. Your teachers and I want you to know how proud we are of you. We know that you will support your family and friends through whatever might befall our country in the days ahead.’
To Daisy it seemed impossible that even the news of Peter Brady leaving school had been overshadowed by unimaginable worldwide events. Pops had read from his newspaper each morning. Britain, France and Poland, so Pops explained, were planning to sign a pact together to form an alliance.
At school, Miss Bailey had pinned a map of the world to the wall in the assembly hall. Mr Gulliver had pinned little flags on the countries concerned; green for the pact allies, red for the enemy. Each week the red flags seemed to be getting closer to the British Isles.
Daisy felt Sally wriggle beside her. ‘Me dad reckons we won’t be at school much longer,’ she whispered. ‘All the kids are being evacuated.’
Daisy glanced at her friend doubtfully.
‘It’s Hitler, ain’t it?’ persisted Sally. ‘He’s joining up with this Italian bloke
