Safe Harbour by Marita Conlon-Mckenna Read Free Book Online Page B

the air. It was crowded in the Ladies, with a long queue for the toilets. The basins were filthy, and there was so much water on the floor that it seeped through the sole of Sophie’s shoe.
    She made Hugh pull off his stained jumper and she rinsed out the grotty, disgusting hanky. She dabbed at the yellowish stains on his shirt and on the knees of his trousers. Hugh was too ill to protest.
    ‘Throw water on your face!’ she said bossily. ‘Take a mouthful of water, and rinse out your mouth!’
    She pulled down the grubby length of the roller towel, searching for a dry, clean bit, but it was no use. Finally they abandoned the hubbub of ladies and escaped outside.
    Mr Cox was standing in the lounge, his squirrel-like brown eyes searching for them. Taking in Hugh’s state in an instant, the steward pulled a spare label from his pocket, wrote Hugh’s name again and pinned it anew to the small boy’s shirt.
    ‘Spring tides, that’s what does it,’ he told them. ‘It’s been like this all week, every crossing.’
    Sophie nodded.
    ‘I think you and your brother would be best out on deck. You go and get a place and I’ll be back to you both in a few ticks.’
    Two old men were sitting, chatting, and did not want tomake space for two children, but Sophie ignored their frosty glances and shoved in near them. Poor Hugh felt too awful to care about anything.
    Mr Cox came back with a loose, throw-over rug, which he tucked around Hugh. He also had a glass of fizzy water, and he handed it to the sick little boy. ‘It’s soda water – best thing to settle the stomach, young man!’
    He held out a shiny metal bowl to Sophie in case of emergencies, and tossed her a tiny packet of dry biscuits. ‘Just nibble those, they’re meant to be good for nausea,’ he said kindly.
    ‘Thank you, Mr Cox,’ said Sophie, but he had already headed off towards another passenger.
    Hugh closed his eyes. Sophie knew that he was pretending to be someplace else – it was a game they played when they were scared or sick or bored. From the way he was pointing his fingers, she knew he was a cowboy, this time. Maybe riding a horse, and galloping across the prairies. She shut her own eyes, but nothing happened. Sometimes, she would be a beautiful princess in a castle, or a Hollywood movie star. But right now she couldn’t imagine anything nice. Maybe she was getting too old for the game.
    She was too conscious of the sea, and the ship and all the things that were taking her away from England, from Mum, and from her friends and neighbours and even her old school. The war – that was the cause of it all, and that Adolf Hitler wanting to run the whole of Europe! They’d all said it wouldn’t last long. But the Germans were spreading bit bybit into every country. What was to stop them invading Britain? Mr Churchill said that they would fight them everywhere – on the beaches, in the skies. She liked Mr Churchill. She trusted him.
    Every night her mother would listen to the BBC, shushing herself and Hugh. She should have paid more attention to what was going on, realised how important it all was. Now she would have to try and make sense of it. This horrible, horrible war.
    Hugh dozed, and Sophie tiptoed to the rail, staring into the churning waves below. The ship had to zig-zag, and change course, in case of any mines or u-boats in the shipping lane. It gave her goosebumps to think of a lumpy bit of metal bobbing under the water, just waiting …
    Hugh moaned, and tossed and sat up, grabbing at the metal bowl. Oh no! Not again!
    The rest of the journey seemed to take an age. Hugh kept asking, ‘Are we near land yet?’ his voice anxious. ‘Do you think there are any mines?’
    Sophie did her best to banish thoughts of danger from his mind. ‘Almost there! I wonder what it will be like? Aunt Jessie said Grandfather lives by the sea …’ She kept on trying to calm him, to get him to think of something other than this boat and the sea, rising and