The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Read Free Book Online Page B

into her room.
    She lay on her side, awake but staring at nothing. Her eyes were red and swollen. She seemed surprised to see us. “I’ve abandoned you,” she said, without moving. “I told Lady Thorton I’m not fit to care for children. I said so.”
    I set the tea on the table by her bed. “Here, miss.”
    She sat up. “You shouldn’t have to take care of me,” she said. “I’m supposed to be taking care of you.” She took a sip, and fresh tears sprang to her eyes. “You’ve sugared it,” she said.
    That was how she took it. One sugar, no milk. I’d watched. “Yes, miss,” I said, ducking a little in case she tried to smack me. “Not much, though. There’s plenty of sugar left. I didn’t take any.” Though I’d let Jamie have some.
    “I’m not going to hit you,” she said. “I wish you’d understand that. I’m neglecting you, certainly, but I won’t hit you, and I don’t care what you eat. It was thoughtful of you to sugar my tea. It was thoughtful of you to bring me tea in the first place.”
    “Yes, miss,” I said. Thoughtful: good or bad?
    She sighed. “And we haven’t heard back from your mother. Your name is Smith, though. Your last name. Until Lady Thorton told me, I was sure you were lying.”
    “Yes, miss.”
    “After that business about Hitler.”
    I turned to go. I’d had an eventful morning, and I was hungry myself, and could do with some tea.
    “It’s a common enough name, Smith,” Miss Smith said. “But still, I thought you were lying.”

    She stayed in bed even after she finished the tea. I let Jamie rummage through the cupboard and eat anything he liked, and I did too, though I was pretty sure I’d get in trouble for it later on. I let Jamie skip his bath, but I took an extra-long one, with hot water so deep my legs floated. I pulled the sheets off the bed so it wouldn’t matter that Jamie had wet them the night before, and we slept fine.
    In the morning Miss Smith got up, her frizzy hair a yellow cloud around her head. “I’ll try to do better,” she told us. “Yesterday was—about Becky. I’ll do better today.”
    I shrugged. “I can take care of Jamie.”
    “Probably,” Miss Smith said, “but somebody ought to take care of you.”

    That was the first thing. The second was that the Royal Air Force built an airfield across the road from Butter’s pasture. It went up completely in three days, landing strip, huts, everything. Jamie, fascinated, kept sneaking over to watch, until an officer marched him back to Miss Smith with his hand around Jamie’s neck. “Keep him home, ma’am,” he said. “No civilians on the airfield.”

    The third thing is that Billy White went back to London.
    Jamie’d fussed about missing Billy and his friends, but I didn’t know how to find them, and I wasn’t going to walk the countryside in a blind search. I’d gotten the hang of crutches quick, so walking was easy, but I enjoyed having Jamie to myself. We were spending our days outside. There was a building in the garden called a stable, that Becky’s horses used to live in, and sometimes we played there, but mostly we were in Butter’s field, which I loved.
    On Thursday all three of us walked into town, because we’d finally eaten up most of the food. The first thing we saw was Billy White with his mother and his sisters waiting at the station for the train.
    “Billy!” Jamie shouted. He ran up to Billy’s family and grinned at them. “Where’re you staying? I’m not far, it’s just—”
    Billy said, “Mum’s come to take us. We’re going home.”
    Jamie stared. “But what about Hitler?” he asked. “What about the bombs?”
    “Haven’t been any bombs so far,” Billy’s mother said. She had her arm around her youngest girl. When I smiled at the girl, Billy’s mother pulled her a little bit away from me, as though my bad foot might be catching. “And I can’t stand it, being away from them,” she went on. “It feels wrong. I reckon we’ll