Mothers and Daughters by Leah Fleming Page A

you were sitting in your room playing music. The war was over, the Germans were defeated and everyone wanted to go home. Don’t you tell me what I should or shouldn’t’ve done then. Don’t judge when you have no idea what we went through for victory. I have fought dogs for crusts of bread …’ She shivered. ‘I can say no more. I will never talk of that time.’ Mama was sobbing now and Dr Friedmann held her hand.
    ‘She’s right. She brought you here to be safe and to have a future. She has done well for you and now you have good family, yes?’ he said.
    ‘They are not my family. It is all lies,’ Connie said, running out into the hallway. Where should she go? To Rosa in town? To Sutter’s Fold and Granny Esme … who was really Joy’s gran as much as hers?They were all Winstanleys but she didn’t feel like one of them any more.
    Suddenly the school trip crumbled before her eyes, all that scrimping and saving for nothing. Someone on the waiting list would jump into the place and share a room with Jane, and they would become best friends and come back into the new school year all pally.
    Connie had no legs to run away, but sat on the bottom step of the stairs and cried until she thought her heart would burst with anger. Then the door opened and Dr Friedmann came to sit down beside her.
    ‘I know you are disappointed but I promise you there will be other trips,’ he whispered.
    She turned her back on him. ‘How do you know?’ she sniffed, snot running down her lips. ‘I hate her. I hate you all!’
    ‘I know you do now but your mama loves you. Give her a chance to make amends. One day when you are a mother you will understand what it is to do the best for your child. One day perhaps you will go to Greece and see it for yourself through her eyes. You will see the world we grown-ups have made a mess of. We will sort out your documents. We will make it right for you somehow. You have my word,’ he said, leaning over to put his arm on her shoulder.
    Of course she knew he would honour the promise but she was too angry to give him any quarter.

    ‘She has ruined my life,’ she snapped at him.
    ‘She is your mother and she gave you life,’ he retorted. ‘It is not the end of the world. You have life and a family that love you. I have no family of my own. The Nazis saw to that in the death camps. They never got a chance of life. I have been blessed with good friends here. Don’t be angry with your mother or Esme. They thought they were doing the best by hiding the truth, but the truth has a way of coming out all on its own at the wrong time.’
    ‘But I wanted to go on the school trip, that’s all. I didn’t want all this. Why didn’t she tell me?’ Connie said, standing up and running up the stairs.
    Dr Friedmann stood in the stairwell patiently, his voice echoing into her room. ‘Perhaps just for this very reason – that when you knew, you would be ashamed of her. Have you never done something like that? Forged a signature … made promises you can’t keep? Your mama is human and run down. We all make mistakes. Think about it.’
    She burrowed under the eiderdown, not wanting to hear him. Tomorrow she was going to have to tell the world that she didn’t exist. Tomorrow she would have to let her teachers down and there was only one person to blame. How could she ever trust Mama again?
    Yet, if she were honest, somewhere hidden in the secret drawer of her mind the news had come as no surprise. She’d sensed the mystery surrounding theircoming to Grimbleton, but to be taken in under such circumstances … How many times had Granny Esme patted her curls and sighed?
    Joy was in for a big shock, that was for sure.
       
    Next morning on the bus she whispered the news to Nev and swore him to secrecy. He hardly raised his eyebrow.
    ‘Honestly, Connie, you’re such a simpleton. Did you never wonder why my mother hasn’t a good word for the Olive Oil Club?’ He paused and then whispered, ‘My