War Orphans by Lizzie Lane Page B

and she greatly feared being discovered. She would do everything in her power to ensure that Harry did not meet the same fate of so many other animals.
    December was approaching. Twilight seemed to begin around three thirty in the afternoon and all was pitch black by five o’clock.
    Before the imposition of the blackout, streetlamps would have lit her way home, orange halos piercing the darkness. A little light would even have filtered down from the street lamps on the road running above the allotments, falling like strips of gold cloth from amber globes. Since the outbreak of war the world had turned more densely black than it had ever done before.
    Now there was only darkness and because of this and Harry’s increased exuberance she was arriving home later and later. With sudden panic she realised tonight she would be later home than ever. Hurrying was impossible. The only way she might gain more speed was if she took the bicycle lamp to light her way.
    She wasn’t sure of the time but knew this was something she had to chance. Once she’d reassured herself that Harry was asleep, she picked up the lamp, shut the door firmly behind her and hurried up the slope.
    The lamp’s flickering glow picked up the shininess of the frost-covered cobbles. Her feet slid, but she hurried towards home, her breath turning to steam before hanging like ice in the frozen air.
    Worries about Harry stayed with her all the way home. Would he be warm enough? She thought about his silky coat and the sack she’d covered him with. Hopefully he would be fine, though his water was bound to turn to ice. Never mind, she thought to herself. I can deal with that in the morning.
    She’d taken to going down to light the fire and put the kettle on half an hour earlier than usual. One advantage of this that shehad not considered was that it gave her the opportunity to grab something to eat before her stepmother came down. Not bacon or eggs, which would be instantly remarked upon, but a slice of dry bread fried in fat saved from the meal the night before. She even managed to grab herself the first cup of tea from the pot, carefully washing the teacup afterwards so the evidence wouldn’t be so obvious. Her stepmother would be drinking from the same teacup but would not know that. It was a small triumph but pleased Joanna no end.
    By the time she got to the bottom of The Vale, she knew she was in for it. Although all the shops at the bottom of the hill would be in darkness anyway, she knew by looking at the shop doors that they were closed for the night. She was very, very late!
    The hill was steep but she ran as fast as she could, her legs kicking out behind her. She was a good runner but The Vale was steep, so steep that buses refused to go up there following a fall of snow or a thick layer of ice.
    Here, where houses and hedges protected them, the pavements were less icy than the cobbles leading up from the allotments. She didn’t slip but she did get breathless.
    By the time she pushed open the front gate her breath was coming in quick, snatched gasps. The door was left on the latch as usual – few people in the street ever locked their doors, a habit they’d brought with them from the Victorian back to backs in the heart of the city.
    Elspeth was standing in front of the fireplace when she went in, her lips turning ruby red as she applied the tip of a fresh new tube of lipstick.
    ‘About bloody time,’ she shouted.
    Joanna kept the dining table between them. The dining table was square and filled the middle of the room. Two armchairs sat either side of the fireplace and a settee behind her. A nice smell wafted in from the kitchen. Had her stepmother turned over a new leaf and prepared an evening meal?
    ‘Sorry. I didn’t know it was so late.’
    It was best to be like a mouse when Elspeth was having a tantrum and she didn’t want her asking any awkward questions, get suspicious and beat the truth out of her. Not that she would ever tell. Not