Octavia's War Read Online Free Page A

her mind. ‘You will need my address.’
    She strolled back into the sunlit garden feeling undeniably pleased with herself. From the ease and affluence of her life here with Pa, she was going to do something positive, to help people who needed help, to make a difference. It was right and proper and she was buoyed up with the satisfaction of it.
    â€˜There you are, Pa,’ she said when she reached his chair. ‘I’m going to do something useful with my life.’
    â€˜Which of course you’ve never done up to now,’ her father laughed. ‘What particular good work is it this time?’
    She sat down beside him and gave him a smile. ‘Taking some of the wind out of Hitler’s obnoxious sails,’ she said. ‘You remember what Mr Dimond was saying at the dinner party, about the committee – the people who are trying to evacuate the Jews from Germany – well, he put me on to the secretary and she’s just rung and asked me if I will take some of her refugees in, and I’ve said yes.’
    â€˜How many?’ Emmeline said, and her voice was ominous.
    Octavia was too caught up in happy altruism to notice. ‘Two, three, four, it depends,’ she said.
    â€˜And how long would we have to have them?’
    â€˜Two or three days,’ Octavia said. ‘Until they’ve foundsomewhere permanent for them to go to. Not long.’
    â€˜So when are all these people coming?’ Emmeline asked, and this time the tone of her voice was unmistakable.
    â€˜Well, actually, it’s next Tuesday,’ Octavia admitted, and now she was worried because her cousin looked cross. ‘But that shouldn’t be a problem, should it? I mean we’ve got the room and the beds. It will only be a matter of making them up.’
    Emmeline shuddered. ‘Only!’ she cried. ‘Only! Oh, Tavy, for heaven’s sake! You double the number of people in the house and you tell me it’ll only be a matter of making up a few beds. Have you any idea how much work this will make? They’ll need feeding and looking after and sheets washing – you think what it’ll be like if the children wet the bed and ten to one they will – and dirty clothes every five minutes and dirty nappies I shouldn’t wonder, and double the shopping every day – and I have quite enough shopping to do without that – and clearing up after them and I don’t know what all. I can’t do it, Tavy. It’s too much.’
    Octavia tried to reassure her, ‘We’ll help you, Em…’ but her words were waved away as if they were flies.
    â€˜Oh, don’t talk such rubbish , Tavy. You won’t help me. You won’t be here. You’ll be at school all day and Johnnie’ll be at work and you can’t ask Uncle to make beds and fetch and carry – not at his age. And don’t say you’ll help when you’re at home. That’s no earthly good at all. The work’s all been done by the time you get back.’
    â€˜There’s Mrs Benson,’ Octavia pointed out.
    But that only provoked a snort. ‘Mrs Benson,’ Emmeline said sternly, ‘only comes in twice a week for two hours. She’s a help, I’ll grant you that, but four hours will be a drop in the ocean if we’re going to have the place crawling with foreigners.Oh no, I shall bear the brunt of it. That’s who it’ll be. Me. On my own. And I’ve got enough on my plate without taking on a lot of refugees. Why can’t they stay where they are?’ She was hot with distress, her cheeks flushed and her untidy grey hair escaping from its pins.
    â€˜Because they’ll get sent to a concentration camp if they do,’ Octavia said. ‘Come on, Em, we can’t have that.’
    Emmeline was truculent. ‘I don’t see why not.’ She was very near tears and she knew she was being unreasonable but, really, this was all too