The Victory Garden(63)

“I won’t need much in the way of cooking things,” Emily said. “I’m planning on taking my midday meals up at the big house, so I’ll only need breakfast and supper here. And supper can be bread and cheese, can’t it? And breakfast can be toast or a boiled egg if we can get eggs.”

Alice frowned. “You’ll need to be eating properly,” she said. “You’re eating for two now, remember.” As she spoke, she took down the saucepans from the shelf and filled the biggest one with water.

“Alice?” Emily asked. “You and Bill didn’t have any children then?”

Alice stopped what she was doing. “We had a little girl,” she said, almost in a whisper. “My little Rosie. Sweet little thing, she was. Good as gold. Hardly ever cried. And when she was just turned one, she caught diphtheria and died. And we weren’t blessed with another one.”

“I’m so sorry.” Emily felt her own eyes welling with tears. “We’ve all lost so much. Why is life so full of suffering?”

“The blokes at church would tell us it’s so we appreciate heaven more one day, I suppose,” Alice said with a bitter laugh. “I don’t think there’s any answer myself. You’re either lucky or you’re not. And right now, most of us are ruddy unlucky. And we just have to make the best of it. Come on. Hand me the plates from that dresser and let’s rinse them off or you’ll be eating dust.”

Emily looked out of the back window. “Oh, here comes Simpson with the firewood now. We can get the stove and a fire going.”

“Here we are, little missy,” Simpson said, setting the firewood down. “I’ll be back with more wood and coal, too. Do you want me to get the fire going for you?”

“It’s all right,” Alice said. “I can show her. I’ve lit enough fires in my life.”

“Well, that’s good then. I’ll leave you to it,” he replied.

Between them, they got the fire and then the stove going. Then Emily swept while Alice scrubbed. They were red-faced and panting after an hour’s work.

“I wonder if it’s time for your dinner,” Alice asked. “You need a clock here, don’t you?”

“I brought my watch with me from home. It’s in my suitcase. But I don’t think it’s wound,” Emily said.

“A watch. How fancy,” Alice said. “I wish you’d shoved a couple of nice rugs and a few cushions and pictures in that suitcase when you left home.”

“I had to leave so many nice things,” Emily said. “I could only carry the bare minimum without arousing suspicion. And so much of my clothes would be useless to me now.”

“Here, don’t let that fire go out now,” Alice said. “Bring in some more wood and I’ll show you how to bank it up. You’ll need to do that at night so that the embers are still good in the morning.”

At that moment, the church clock chimed twelve.

“There’s your answer to the time, Alice,” Emily said. “I won’t go up to lunch until one. In fact, I’m not sure I should go up there at all today, since Mrs Trelawney wasn’t expecting me. She wasn’t at all pleased to see me, so I don’t want to annoy her more than necessary.”

“Then you come down to the Red Lion with me today, love,” Alice said. “Nell Lacey’s made a stew that’s big enough for all of us.”

Emily needed no second urging. After the meal, Alice and Nell helped her make a list of groceries she would need. The list soon became awfully long, as they kept thinking of more and more items. “And flour. And baking powder, currants and sultanas if you’re ever going to make a cake. Not that you’ll find what you need these days at the shop, with everything being in such short supply,” Nell warned.

“Hold on a minute.” Emily held up her hand. “I don’t even know how many minutes it takes to boil an egg. I can’t visualize myself baking a cake for a long while yet.”

“Didn’t your mum teach you how to cook then?” Nell looked concerned.

Emily blushed. “We had a cook at home. My mother didn’t know how to cook either.”

“My word,” Nell said. “So you came from a real swanky type of house then? What on earth are you doing here?”

Emily took a deep breath. “My parents and I didn’t see eye to eye about the man I wanted to marry,” she said.

“I see. He wasn’t good enough, is that it?”

“He was Australian. He didn’t operate by their rules—polite etiquette and all that. But there was nothing wrong with him. He was a wonderful man.”

She turned away, not wanting Nell to see her stricken face. Nell put a hand on her shoulder. “Sorry, my dearie. I should never have brought it up. Of course it brings you pain just to think of him. Half the women in this village are in your boat. No, half the women in England.”

“I know,” Emily said. “But that doesn’t make it any easier.”

She left them then, and went to the village shop with her grocery list in hand. They had whittled it down to the bare essentials, but she got a shock when she read out her needs to Mrs Upton.

“I don’t stock milk, madam,” the shopkeeper said.

“Is there a milk delivery route then?” Emily asked.