A Different World by Mary Nichols Read Free Book Online Page A

welcome Polish pilots,’ Witold told him one day just before Christmas. ‘I’ve applied.’
    ‘To go to England?’
    ‘Yes. Do you want to come?
    ‘Anything’s better than sitting on our arses here, doing nothing. Yes, put me down.’
     
    As Christmas approached, the children grew more and more excited, speculating on what they would find in their Christmas stockings. Some of them were going home to their mothers for the holiday, but most were going to stay with their foster families in Cottlesham and the adults set about trying to make it as festive as possible. Most of the presents would be second-hand or home-made. There were knitted stuffed toys, model aeroplanes carved from oddments of wood, second-hand dolls with repainted faces and new clothes made from scraps. Adult trousers made shorts for the boys. Jenny pulled out an old jumper, skeined the wool and washed and dried it before rolling it tightly into a ball to take out the wrinkles. Then she knitted it into a pixie hood and mittens for Beattie. Louise wondered whether to give presents to Tommy and Beattie, but knew that they were already branded as teacher’s pets and suffered at school because of it. It would be worse if they were to boast they had been given presents by Miss.
    Stan spent much of his spare time down in the cellar where they could hear him banging and sawing and whistling to himself. The cellar, containing as it did his beer barrels and bottles of wine and spirits, was forbidden to the children unless there was an air raid and they were supervised, but Tommy was curious to know what he was doing. He took to watching for Stan to leave andwould then go and try the door but Stan never forgot to lock it. Jenny caught him once and, laughing, turned him round and gave him a push towards the kitchen.
    ‘Now you know you can’t go down there, young man. Away with you.’
    ‘What’s Uncle Stan making?’
    ‘Never you mind.’
    There was another entrance to the cellar from outside, a trapdoor and a ramp down which the barrels were offloaded from the brewer’s dray. The horses were big carthorses but Tommy had overcome his nervousness early on in his stay at the Pheasant and loved to stroke the noses of these gentle giants. He watched for the next delivery and went out as usual with a couple of wrinkled apples for the horses; when the trapdoor was opened, he stepped forward to peer down into the cellar but he could see nothing but beer barrels and racks of bottles. He was getting under the feet of the draymen and they shooed him away. Disappointed he gave up.
    In class Louise pointed out to the children that Christmas was as much about giving as receiving and set the girls to work making cross-stitched mats and handkerchiefs, embroidering the corners with initials. The boys made wooden bookends and letter racks under the supervision of Mr Langford. Tommy decided he was going to make a doll’s cot for Beattie out of a wooden box, an ambitious project which was only completed after more than one display of temper. Louise helped him by making bedding for it, which did not break her rule of not giving presents to her pupils; after all, the gift was from Tommy to Beattie.
    She knew Stan had made a doll’s house for Beattie and a sledge for Tommy, but did not stay to see them opening their presents because she felt duty-bound to go home to Edgware, escorting the children who were going home for Christmas. The festival at thevicarage was austere and consisted of going to church three times and having a roast chicken and a small glass of sherry for lunch. They each produced a simple gift for the other two: handkerchiefs, a prayer book, a bookmark or an edifying story with a moral. Louise was pleased to see her mother, but glad to escape her father’s constant preaching and return to Cottlesham and a job she loved.
     
    January heralded one of the severest winters the country had had for a long time. Pipes froze, coal and coke ran short and potatoes