Crystal's Song by Millie Gray Read Free Book Online Page A

day,” Patsy emphasised. “So let me tell you that the bairns are going to be evacuated.”
    “But why has that to be, Mammy?”
    “Because in the first raid there were no civilian casualties but the second one in August last year when the mine was dropped in Leith …”
    “When we forgot to sound the sirens yet again. But then that time did they no come when we were haeing our tea and no our supper?” mocked Dinah.
    “Okay. But there were civilian casualties that time.” Patsy shook her head. “Still think o’ that wee laddie delivering his night papers in Largo Place – blown to smithereens he was and that’s the reason your bairns are off next week to Linlithgow. And before you start, that’s what their faither wanted – wanted them safe.”
    “All of them?” Mary asked, gazing at her five grandchildren.
    “Well, naturally no Phyllis; and I’m letting Tess stay to help with her. So only Johnny, Senga and Elsie will go.”
    “ You’re letting Tess stay? Big deal!” jeered Dinah. “Whose bairns are they, yours or mine?”
    “Your Mammy’s quite right, Dinah,” said Mary. “My Tam did want them evacuated. Dead scared he was for them after the first raid. And I always wonder if he knew about the one in August last year? Just said that the Jerries had carried out a raid somewhere in the East of Scotland – but since the mine that was dropped blew parts o’ Leith to smithereens we knew it was us.”
    “So you think Tam’s still alive do you, Mary?” asked Patsy, shaking her head.
    “I know he is.”
    “You do?” Dinah exclaimed. “How?”
    “Well, last week did I no go doon to a séance at the Spiritualist Church in Bath Street at Portobello?”
    “Are you saying he got a message through to you from the spirit world?”
    “No, Patsy,” said Mary with a shake of the head. “I didnae get a message and that’s how I ken he’s still alive.” Dinah and Patsy looked askance while Mary continued, “Honestly, the medium was awfy guid, so she was. Explained to me, she did, that you can only get a message through if the person you want a message from is really in the spirit world!”
    * * *
    “Right, missus,” the conductress called out as the driver brought the bus to a shuddering halt.
    “Oh, is this it?” asked Patsy, signalling to the children to get up, gather up their luggage and follow her off the bus.
    Once everyone was safely out, the conductress leant over and pointed to the old stone bridge over the Union Canal. “Just cross over the bridge there and follow the road. First you’ll come to the wee Home Farm, and then,” she hesitated, looked at little Elsie before adding, “it’s a good stretch of the legs till you come to the Big Hoose. Cannae miss it. Naw, you just cannae miss it.”
    Patsy nodded her thanks before she and her three grandchildren, Johnny, Senga and Elsie, began their trek to Andrew Craig’s ancestral home.
    They had trudged for twenty minutes before the house loomed into view. Patsy was so awestruck by its size and splendour that she dropped Elsie, to whom she had been giving a colly-buckie. “You’ll need to walk by yourself from here,” she whispered.
    “But why?” moaned Elsie, who was very small and delicate for her years.
    “Because you don’t want the folk to think you’re a baby.”
    “But, Granny, she is just a baby,” Senga emphasised.
    Patsy shook her head, grabbed Elsie’s hand and began dragging her towards the house. The nearer they came to the building, the more Patsy thought the most remarkable thing about it, apart from its size, was the large and intimidating metal-studded wooden door which stood ajar, as if to offer a somewhat intimidating welcome.
    Johnny had just raised his hand to bang on the knocker when the inner half-glazed door opened and a smiling woman, possibly in her mid-thirties, came forward with an outstretched hand to Patsy. “I’m Mrs Stoddard, one of the two teachers here. And you must be Mrs Glass.”
    This