Home Sweet Home by Lizzie Lane Read Free Book Online

with him. As long as the man didn’t marry her, he was all right with him. He really did not wish his remaining daughter to marry an American and move to the United States. It had already been suggested that Mary would eventually move to Canada with her husband Michael. But not yet, he counselled. He sorely wanted to see his new grandchild before that happened.
    â€˜That doesn’t mean he can just borrow a truck and a driver to take a gang of kids out for the day. He’ll have to get permission,’ Ruby pointed out.
    â€˜Of course he has to get permission. I understand that.’
    â€˜And he’ll need to work out how to get there. Maps and things.’
    â€˜That’s no problem. Frances, you can show Ruby’s friend the way, and if he’s got any common sense at all, he should be able to find his way back by himself – otherwise I fear the US Army will never find France, let alone Germany!’
    Although Frances looked forward to seeing Ada again, she had no intention of staying there. ‘I’ll show him the way back too! Ada won’t have room for me and the Gates family. Anyway, you’ll need somebody in the shop and to look after Charlie. I have to come back.’
    Stan saw the defiance in his niece’s face. His plan had backfired. He’d have preferred her to stay over with Ada for a week or two at least, just long enough to forget this madcap scheme of finding her mother. Still, a day out might do her good.
    â€˜Let’s hope your friend can arrange things,’ said Stan.
    â€˜I’m sure he will,’ said Ruby with a smile. ‘I’ll explain it all to him when I see him tonight.’
    Ruby returned to her ironing. On hearing the crack of her father’s newspaper as he prepared to read it, she knew instantly that there was something he wanted to say, but he was holding it back.
    â€˜Are you serious about this American?’ he asked suddenly.
    Ruby laughed and shook her head. ‘I knew you were going to ask me that.’
    Her father’s confident expression faltered because she’d actually read his mind. ‘There’s nothing wrong in it,’ he responded with a grumble to the edge of his voice. ‘I’m only concerned for your welfare and happiness.’
    Ruby kept on ironing. ‘I know, Dad. But we’re only friends. I’m not about to run off with him. My home is here.’
    He asked the question that had been on his mind for some time. ‘What will you do if you never hear from Johnnie? What if he never comes back?’
    She stopped ironing. Without raising her eyes from the pillowcase, she said, ‘I think of him every day, of what he might be going through – if he’s still alive, that is. I … I might marry him when he gets back.’
    She purposely didn’t use the word ‘if’. She had to believe that he would come home.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Mary Sweet was getting used to life with her husband in the flat Lincolnshire countryside.
    â€˜That’s why there are so many flying fields around here,’ Michael had told her when she’d voiced her desire to see a few hills. ‘Aircraft need flat land.’
    Mary had been amused. ‘And there was me thinking it was because Germany was a shorter flying time from here!’
    September was proving to be very mild, although a fierce gale had blown through the countryside at the end of the first week.
    Not that Mary had cared about the rain hammering against the windows or the draught creeping through the gap at the bottom of the ill-fitting front door. The seventeenth of September was a milestone in her married life: it was the day Michael came home from hospital. His bandages had been removed the day before. Up until that date, his damaged hands and torso had been bathed in a saline solution and the dressings changed regularly.
    Mary had wanted to go to the hospital and bring him home, but he’d refused, saying