Room for a Stranger (10 page)

“These things happen,” said Anne-Marie. Her laugh rang out. “You send your kid away from the bombing and she still gets buried under a pile of bricks.”

Mum had already brought out some biscuits. She offered sandwiches.

“No, no. We ate on the way here,” the sergeant assured her.

“We could open the chocolates,” suggested Doreen.

So they drank tea and ate chocolates, and the pile of lipstick-stained cigarette stubs grew in the saucer, and Anne-Marie talked about the shows she'd been in and the bombing they'd had, and Lennie took the sergeant out to the loft to look at the pigeons, and Mum remembered to get Anne-Marie to write down her address.

“Although I'll be moving again soon.” She turned to Rhoda. “I'll send you a card, love. I'm going to Aberystwyth for a month or so.”

Rhoda's face brightened. “There wouldn't be any bombing in Aberystwyth. I could visit you.”

“Oh, love, it's not worth it. My lodgings are tiny – you've no idea, Mrs Dyer, how much easier it is to get lodgings when you haven't got a kid with you. You'd be bored to death, Rhoda. And besides, I'll be back in Merseyside before Christmas. You're better off staying put. She's no trouble, is she, Mrs Dyer? People always tell me she's no trouble.”

“Of course not,” said Mum with feeling. “She's a lovely girl. You should be proud of her.”

Lennie and Sergeant Wilson came in. The sergeant glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. “Well, Annie?”

Anne-Marie got up. “Yes, we must be on our way.” She glanced in the mirror and touched her hair.

“Coming for a little drive” the sergeant asked Rhoda, “before you say goodbye?”

“Oh, yes!” Rhoda followed them out. Doreen would have gone too, but Mum held her back. “Let Rhoda be with her mother.”

The kitchen looked as if they'd had a party, littered with tea cups and chocolate wrappers and cigarette stubs. Draped over a chair was a black velvet jacket that Anne-Marie had brought for Rhoda.

“Well!” said Mum.

Doreen exploded: “She doesn't care about Rhoda! Mum, she just doesn't
care
!”

Mum put her arms round her. “Don't get upset, Doreen. There's nothing you can do about it.”

Doreen hid her face in Mum's cardigan. “But she's awful,” she said.

Lennie took three pound notes out of his pocket and gave them to Mum. “From the sergeant – towards Rhoda's keep. He said, ‘Annie won't think.'”

Mum sighed. “No more she did! And I couldn't get a word in to ask her. Never mind! Open the window, Lennie – the room's full of smoke and scent. We'll have Aunty Elsie here any minute, come to see how you girls are; I sent a message. And, Doreen, she's bringing frocks to try on. She's made two out of some fire-damaged stuff she got at the market: one for each of you. They'll do for school.”

School started on Wednesday, Doreen remembered. “We won't go to the same school,” she said, “me and Rhoda.”

“Those Catholic school kids get picked on,” said Lennie.

“She'll be all right. I'll stick up for her.”

Mum lifted Rhoda's bag. “I'll take this up –” she turned to Doreen – “shall I?”

“Yes. And we could move that screen. We won't want it now.”

Doreen and Rhoda went to bed early, on Mum's orders.

Rhoda's Bible and rosary and pictures were back in their places. Doreen looked at the photograph of Anne-Marie.

I like her better as a photograph, she thought. Perhaps Rhoda does, too.

Rhoda was holding her hairbrush awkwardly in her left hand. “I can't brush my hair.”

“I'll do it,” said Doreen. She took the brush. “Miss Kelly, I know there's a shortage of shampoo, but did you have to wash your hair in mud?”

“You're daft,” Rhoda said; there was a smile in her voice. Still with her back to Doreen, she asked, “It's all right, then, is it? You want me to stay?”

“Yes,” said Doreen.

“Till the war's over?”

“Yes.”

“It might be months.”

They laughed, and Doreen said, “It might be years.”

Books from Ann Turnbull:

Pigeon Summer
No Friend of Mine
Room for a Stranger
No Shame, No Fear
Forged in the Fire
Seeking Eden

It is 1930, the height of the Great Depression. Mary Dyer's father has left home in search of work, leaving his beloved racing pigeons in Mary's care – much to her mother's disapproval. During that long, hard summer there is barely enough money for bread, let alone pigeon feed, yet Mary clings to her dreams of racing glory, propelling her into ever deeper conflict with her mother.

Shortlisted for the 1992 Smarties Book Prize and the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award, as well as being dramatized for TV.

“A wonderfully moving story…I would recommend it to anyone”

Independent on Sunday

“Buoyant, direct and unsentimental”

Guardian

In the mining town of Culverton, workers are clashing with their bosses. Lennie's father is the Union secretary, a “troublemaker”. Ralph's father is the boss, despised by his workers. Despite their very different backgrounds, Lennie and Ralph strike up a friendship, a happy escape from their own and their families' troubles. But how strong is their alliance – really? While his dad fights injustice at the mine, Lennie finds that he too must battle prejudice, lies and betrayal, pushing his friendship with Ralph swiftly towards breaking point.

“A brilliant book which should be at the top of every 9 to 12 year old's reading list”

Sunday Telegraph

When her older sisters leave home, Doreen gets a room of her own – at last! But it's 1941, the cities are threatened by Nazi air raids and, to Doreen's dismay, Mum has decided to take in an evacuee. Rhoda Kelly is a year older than Doreen, has a boyfriend in the Army and, worse still, is a talented singer. Forced to share a room – and the limelight – tensions grow between the two girls, erupting finally into bitter conflict, with potentially tragic consequences.

“The sharply drawn wartime poverty will thrill readers of nine and up”

The Times

“A lovely book for ten year olds plus”

Sunday Telegraph

1662. England is reeling from the after-effects of civil war, with its clashes of faith and culture. Seventeen-year-old Will returns home after completing his studies, to begin an apprenticeship arranged by his wealthy father. Susanna, a young Quaker girl, leaves her family to become a servant in the same town. Theirs is a story that speaks across the centuries, telling of love and the struggle to stay true to what is most important – in spite of parents, society and even the law. But is the love between Will and Susanna strong enough to survive – no matter what?

Shortlisted for the Whitbread Book Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize

“Here is a novel that needs a trumpet to be blown for it…Exact and elegant language takes you to the heart of each character's feeling”

The Guardian

“Frequently moving and unwaveringly honest”

Carousel

London 1665–66. With the plague raging and the scent of smoke upon the wind, Will and Susanna, separated by class and distance, struggle to reunite. Will has become a Quaker and broken with his father. Leaving Susanna behind in Shropshire, he travels to London, swearing to send for her once he is settled. But Will is arrested and thrown in gaol for standing up for his beliefs. This, along with the rapidly spreading plague and a dire misunderstanding, conspire to keep the lovers apart…

1683. Inspired by William Penn's vision of a Quaker colony and hoping to be free of the persecution they suffered in England, Will and Susanna Heywood have settled in Pennsylvania. Their son Josiah has found his own freedom, and adventure, in the employment of merchant George Bainbrigg, whose daughter, Kate, he has fallen in love with. It is only when the three travel to Barbados that Josiah learns the true nature of Bainbrigg's work…and a painful struggle to uphold his beliefs begins.