Sweet Memories of You (Beach View Boarding House) Read Online Free Page A

house provided her with fresh vegetables, but the cold weather seemed to have affected the chickens, for they weren’t laying as well, and there wasn’t an ounce of meat in the house. It would have to be vegetable stew again tonight, she thought wearily. There simply wasn’t time to stand in an endless queue for the few scraps of scrag-end that Alf the butcher was able to sell her.
    She glanced up at the clock on the mantelpiece, shifted the porridge off the hotplate and was about to go up to check on Cordelia and wake the girls when Sarah came into the kitchen, dressed and ready for her day’s work in the office at Cliffe estate for the Women’s Timber Corps.
    Despite the rather mannish jodhpurs, stout shoes and unflattering green sweater, Sarah’s elegant, fair beauty was not diminished. At just twenty-one, her blue eyes were bright, her figure slender, and her skin was fresh with dewy youth, making Peggy feel rather old and dowdy by contrast.
    ‘Good morning, Aunt Peg,’ she said as she grimaced at the rain slanting across the back garden. ‘Not that it looks very inviting out there. I hope Jane remembered to wrap up properly. She’ll get soaked through on her milk round.’
    Peggy ladled the thin porridge into a bowl and set it on the table. ‘Jane’s sensible enough to dress properly, but I don’t like the thought of you making that long walk across the hills in such dreadful weather,’ she said. ‘It’s a great pity your Captain Hammond can’t organise a lift for you through the winter months.’
    Sarah dipped her chin, but couldn’t hide the blush that coloured her cheeks. ‘He’s not
my
Captain Hammond, Auntie Peg, and it’s not his responsibility to organise lifts for me. Besides, he has other more pressing things to concern him at the moment.’
    Peggy had always been suspicious about Sarah’s so-called friendship with the very handsome Texan, but as the girl had always strenuously denied any intimate attachment, she had to accept that Sarah was still in love with her fiancé, Philip, who she’d had to leave behind in Singapore. There was a complete blackout of any news coming from there since it had fallen to the Japanese, but Sarah seemed determined to remain hopeful that they would be together again once this blasted war was over.
    Peggy sat down and poured out the tea as Sarah ate her porridge. Due to the shortages, and the fact the leaves had been used at least three times, the tea was the colour of dishwater, but it was wet and warm and very welcome on this gloomy day. ‘I don’t see how Hammond can have anything pressing to worry about,’ she said with a touch of asperity. ‘After all, he and his men have been lounging about on the Cliffe estate doing nothing useful for months.’
    ‘Oh, Auntie Peg, that’s not fair. Troops come and go all the time, and he’s in charge of their training, so of course he has to stay.’ Sarah sipped some tea and the cup rattled in the saucer as she set it down. ‘Anyway,’ she said quietly, ‘you can stop worrying about him and me. He’s leaving tomorrow with his latest batch of GIs.’
    Peggy eyed her sharply, for she’d heard the tremor in the girl’s voice and noticed how she’d paled. ‘Where’s he going?’
    Sarah shrugged and mindlessly stirred her spoon round and round in the remains of her porridge. ‘I couldn’t tell you even if I knew,’ she murmured. ‘But it won’t be in England, that’s for sure.’
    Peggy reached for her hand and stilled the endless stirring of that spoon. ‘You’re going to really miss him, aren’t you?’ she said softly.
    Sarah nodded, her eyes suspiciously bright as she refused to look at Peggy. ‘Of course I will. He’s been a good friend.’
    Peggy squeezed her fingers in sympathy as all her suspicions clamoured and a teardrop escaped from Sarah’s eyes to glisten on her lashes. ‘He’ll be all right, love, you’ll see. And you can still be pen pals.’
    The teardrop fell to be replaced