Bad News At Harbour House – Fenella J Miller

George spoke so forcefully Grace whimpered. ‘I’m sorry, little sister, I didn’t mean to scare you. Bad George.’ Grace giggled and everyone smiled. This was a lovely family. They’d welcomed her, treated her with respect and love, and how was she repaying them? She was deceiving Elizabeth and Jonathan and conspiring with the children, encouraging them to do something they shouldn’t.

‘Jonathan, even if I was an actual member of your family I’d still be paying my way, wouldn’t I? I love to cook but until now haven’t had the opportunity.’ The telephone jangled. Conversation stopped as everybody listened – even the baby seemed to – to see if it was for them.

It wasn’t, but the interruption was ideal as it gave her the opportunity to begin clearing the table and thus avoid any further awkward conversations. That night she joined in a lively game of Monopoly in the sitting room and was soundly trounced by George who played with a steely determination that was unusual in a child of his age. She was up Monday morning at the same time as the children and told them that they could have until the following weekend but then they had to tell their parents about the hidden guest.

She was almost certain that neither Jonathan nor Elizabeth would want Jimmy to go into an orphanage but had no idea what they’d suggest instead. ‘We thought you’d tell them today, Aunt Sarah,’ Emily said. ‘Thank you for giving us a few more days to come up with a better solution.’ ‘There might be somebody in the village who would take him in – I’m going to make discreet enquiries whilst I’m on my rounds this morning.’ George pulled a face.

‘We don’t want him with anybody else; we want him to stay with us.’ ‘I know that, but at least if he was close by you’d be able to see him every day.’ George brushed his eyes and Sammy swallowed noisily. They were ready to leave for school which was probably for the best as all of them were on the verge of tears – including her. As usual she visited her brother to collect her list of calls for the day.

Sarah Rhodes looked around her rented flat in Brushfield Street for the umpteenth time. Stan, her beloved husband, had got forty-eight hours’ leave from his base at Binbrook in Lincolnshire and would be here soon. Liverpool Street station was literally over the road; he’d only have to cross Bishopsgate and walk a few yards to her front door.

Her flat was on the top floor of this Victorian terraced house. It had a bedroom, kitchenette and sitting room but the bathroom and WC were on the floor below. Fortunately, she had a sink and cold running water so didn’t have to carry her crockery downstairs to wash it. This meant that apart from using the loo and having her weekly bath, she was self-sufficient.

Having to go downstairs was a nuisance but worth it to have the extra space. She had the whole of the attic floor to herself whereas the first floor and ground floor were divided into two much smaller flats. The tenants below her were elderly spinsters; the ground floor occupants were the landlady on one side and her daughter and children on the other.

Despite her best efforts Sarah could still see a layer of dust on every surface. There’d been another raid last night and the house opposite had taken a direct hit. No one had been hurt but the house was gone, as if it had been plucked out by a giant hand. Not even a wall standing. She prayed they wouldn’t have to throw their clothes on and rush to Liverpool Street and hide in the underground tonight. There was no point suggesting to Stan that they slept in their clothes as what they’d be doing didn’t require anything on at all.

Fortunately, as a district nurse, Sarah had been out on a call last night when old Mrs Hicks in St Mary’s Avenue had taken a tumble and needed patching up. This was one of her jobs, trying to keep minor injuries away from the hospitals so they could deal with the serious things.

She’d foregone her last time off so she could spend these precious two days with her husband. They’d married last September, spent two days in a B&B in Kent and then both returned to their vital war work. Stan had been doing his final pilot’s training. Having been studying engineering at night school whilst working as an apprentice when the war started, he’d been exempt from conscription until he’d got his qualifications.

Being a district nurse was satisfying, important, but sometimes Sarah wished she wasn’t so dedicated to her job and had agreed to move to Lincolnshire to be closer to her husband.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 48dfde8f2bf8063d
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 5,063,483 bytes (4.829 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 273
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 381.82 minutes
• Total Words: 76,364
• Total Characters: 410,259
• Average Words per Page: 279.72
• Average Characters per Page: 1502.78

Most Frequent Words

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