War Orphans by Lizzie Lane Page A

something? Or had he only felt that he heard something? Perhaps just the rain.
    Narrowing his eyes he took a longer look at his shed. He and Grace had laughed themselves stupid when together they’d built it from odd bits of wood and a window they’d found abandoned on the side of the road.
    ‘A good wind and it’ll be blown to bits,’ she’d said, laughing as they stood side by side admiring their handiwork.
    For a moment it seemed as though she was yet again standing beside him, her laughter ringing in his ears.
    ‘There’s nobody there,’ he muttered, shrugging his shoulders against the rain. It was just the creaking of old wood and second-hand nails slowly falling apart.
    Over a period of days Joanna cleared away the spiders’ webs from the solitary window so she could see a bit better. She also used an old broom she found to sweep the floor and brought a shabby rug from home. The rug had lain curled up behind the back door for ages and was in need of a good beating. Once she was sure nobody was around, Joanna bashed it against the outside of the shed until it was as clean as she could get it. Unable to take the solitary torch from the house without Elspeth noticing, she found her father’s old bicycle lamp. The light came on when she flicked the switch. Thankfully the battery was still charged. She’d have some light to see better in the shed.
    At the same time as sneaking things that would not be missed from home, she brought food. She’d taken to saving some of her supper from the night before. The bits of bone and bread soaked in gravy formed Harry’s breakfast. Things saved from her school dinner was his evening meal, plus a third of the pint of milk she was given at school just before morning break. Unused milk was left in a crate outside the kitchen door. When she could Joanna had taken one of these, making sure she wore her coat at breaktime so she could hide it in her pocket.
    Harry was becoming more and more confident, and had started to bark the moment he heard her coming, which was beginning to worry her.
    ‘Shh! Harry, you’ve got to be quiet,’ she said to him, softening her voice in the hope he would understand her tone if not the words she was speaking.
    Harry, full of youthful energy, bounced around in response, his stumpy tail wagging happily, pink tongue lolling and eyes bright with mischief.
    Joanna smiled. She didn’t have it in her heart to scold Harry. Having her very own puppy had made such a difference to the emptiness of her life and the coldness of the house that was supposed to be home.
    Harry loved her because she was the first human to be kind to him. She loved him because she had nobody else. And he was so very cute and affectionate
    Food played a part in Harry’s affection. He was filling out and getting bigger thanks to the food she scraped from her school dinner. His coat was shiny, his body rounder than it had been and to her great delight, his coat was a coppery brown. So far he hadn’t gone outside, but once he did she was sure his coat would shine like gold in the sun.
    When she turned on the bicycle lamp Harry attempted to catch the circular beam it threw on the floor, patting it with his paws, dancing from one leg to the other when she moved the lamp and the beam moved too.
    Joanna laughed at his antics. She laughed here in this shed more than she had ever laughed at home, more even than she had ever laughed at school.
    Once he’d eaten his fill and finished playing, Joanna settled him down among the dry sacks in the seed box. When she’d first placed him here he’d fallen asleep quite quickly, but he was getting older now, and his energy increasing accordingly.
    Joanna looked up at the window. She’d had the foresight to cover it with yet another old sack just as everyone was doingbecause of the blackout. In her case it wasn’t so much about German bombers seeing her. Occasionally a man might come down to inspect his allotment following a hard day at work