The Victory Garden(18)

As the train took her away from home, she felt an absurd sense of elation. For the first time, she’d be free. This opinion changed within half an hour of reporting in at the railway station in Tavistock, where a bus was waiting to transport the women to the training centre. There were eleven other women of various ages. They assessed each other shyly while murmuring polite how-do-you-dos as their names were called. An Irish girl with bright red hair looked around the group. “Well, don’t look so gloomy, all of you,” she said, laughing. “It’s not a funeral we’re going to, you know.”

There were grins as they boarded a waiting bus. Emily sat next to a girl who looked ridiculously young. She sat hunched over, staring down at her hands as the bus revved up and drove off.

“I’m Emily,” she said. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Daisy, miss.” The voice was scarcely loud enough to be heard.

“You don’t have to call me miss. We’re all the same now, you know.”

“Sorry, miss, but I’ve been in service all my life, and you’re clearly from a good family, so it wouldn’t seem right.”

“All your life?” Emily chuckled. “You don’t look much more than twelve.”

“I’ve just turned twenty, miss. That’s the youngest you can be to join up. But I’ve been in service since I was twelve. And my mother before me with the same family. She was head parlourmaid, and then she married the groom. I was born above the stables, and when I was twelve, I went to work in the big house.”

“Where was that, Daisy?”

“Moorland Hall, up near Okehampton.”

“Did your parents mind you going away from home?”

“My mother died a couple of years ago.” Daisy looked up now. She had a soft, sweet face surrounded by wispy, light brown hair. “And my dad, well, he doesn’t care. He’s hardly ever noticed I exist. He’s a little too fond of the drink, if you must know the truth, miss. But the family keeps him on because he’s so good with the horses.”

“I see.” Emily looked at her with pity. “And the family didn’t mind?”

“It wasn’t up to them, was it?” Daisy said, for the first time sounding defiant. “They couldn’t stop me, although the housekeeper did say she couldn’t guarantee there would be a place for me when I came back.” She looked down at her hands again, encased in black cotton gloves. “I saw how hard my mum worked all her life, and I made up my mind that I wanted something better for myself. So when I heard that they were looking for land girls, I thought I’d take my chance.” She looked up at Emily, studying her with interest. “But how about you, miss? You surely didn’t have to be a land girl. You could have got yourself a proper job in the town if you’d wanted to work.”

“I could have, but I heard how desperately they needed women to work in the fields, and frankly, I wanted to escape from my home. My mother is desperate to marry me off. And she’s forbidden me to see the young man I like again. He’s in the naval hospital in Plymouth—not too far on my day off. So this suits me splendidly.”

Daisy actually laughed. “You’re quite a card, miss.”

“Do call me Emily, please.”

“All right. Emily then. So why doesn’t she approve of your young man?”

“He’s Australian, for one thing. He doesn’t know the right way to behave in our sort of society. He thinks it’s silly that you can’t speak to someone unless you’ve been introduced. You must know how it is. Who sits next to whom at a table. Which fork to use.”

“I know all those little things are important to your kind of people. I’ve had to polish the silver—all those knives and forks. And I had it drummed into me that I must never be seen by the family when I light the fires.”

“You had to light the fires?” Emily asked.

Daisy nodded. “I had to be up at five. Get the copper started to heat the bathwater, then take the coal up to all the bedrooms and get the fires going before anyone wakes up.”

“Goodness,” Emily said. “No wonder you were so anxious to escape.”

“Those coal scuttles were ever so heavy, miss. I’m thinking carrying sacks of potatoes will be no trouble at all for me.”

The remark made Emily pause. Would she be required to carry sacks of potatoes? What if she was not strong enough for the tasks? What if they sent her home because she failed to measure up to their requirements? Well, she decided. She’d just have to make sure that she didn’t fail!





CHAPTER EIGHT

The bus had left the town behind and now drove through country lanes with hedges on both sides. Contented-looking cream-coloured cows looked up from their grazing as they passed. Then they turned in between granite gateposts and pulled up outside a square, grey stone farmhouse. Emily climbed down from the bus, conscious of the mud beneath her feet. She hoped the uniform included shoes, or hers would soon be ruined.

When the last girl had alighted from the bus, a woman came out of the farmhouse and brought them to order with a blast of her whistle. She was dressed in a khaki uniform jacket and skirt with a green armband attached and a badge on her rather ample chest. She reminded Emily instantly of her least favourite teacher at school.