Bombs on Aunt Dainty by Judith Kerr

perfectly well! Anna dear, could you possibly …?”
    Anna set off obediently in search of a lemon. The flat was large and rambling, with the dust-sheets everywhere making it more confusing, and she got lost several times before she found the kitchen. There she discovered half a lemon in the huge refrigerator and by the time she had ransacked all the drawers for a knife and cut the lemon into slices, which she was sure were much too thick, she feared Aunt Louise must have lost all interest in her tea.
    She decided to try a different way back and after going down a passage and through a little ante-room foundherself in the Professor’s study. The blinds had been drawn against the sun, so that you could only guess at the medical books which lined the walls. Her feet sank into the deep carpet and it was almost spookily silent.
    Suddenly she heard Papa’s voice.
    “How long does it take to act?” he asked, and Professor Rosenberg’s voice answered, “Only a few seconds. I’ve got the same for myself and Louise.”
    Then she rounded a bookcase and discovered Papa and the Professor on the other side. Papa was putting something into his pocket and the Professor was saying, “Let’s hope none of us will ever need it.” Then he saw Anna and said, “Hullo – you’re growing up. You’ll be as tall as me soon!” This was a joke, for the Professor was short and round.
    Anna smiled half-heartedly. She felt uneasy in this room, in the half-darkness, at finding Papa and the Professor so close together and talking about – what?
    The Professor looked at her with his sad black eyes which were like a monkey’s and said to Papa, “If things get bad in London send the girl to us. All right?” he added to Anna.
    “All right,” said Anna out of politeness, but she thought that even if things did get bad she would rather stay with Mama and Papa. Then she took the lemon to Aunt Louise and they all had some tea.
    When it was time to leave Aunt Louise handed Mama a parcel of clothes which she had packed up for her. (At the rate people were leaving London, thought Anna, she andMama would soon have a vast wardrobe.) She hugged Mama several times and even the Professor embraced Papa and came down to the bus stop with them.
    Back at the Hotel Continental Mama opened her parcel and found that it contained three dresses and an envelope. In the envelope was a note which said, “To help you through the next difficult weeks,” and twenty pounds.
    “Oh God!” cried Mama. “It’s like a miracle! Anna, this will pay your hotel bills until you get a job!”
    Anna thought Papa might say that they shouldn’t accept the money or at least treat it as a loan, but he didn’t. He just stood by the window as though he hadn’t heard. It was very strange. He was staring out at the evening sky and fingering, fingering something in his pocket.
    She felt suddenly very frightened.
    “What is it?” she cried, although she really knew. “Papa! What did the Professor give you in his study?”
    Papa tore his gaze away from the sky and looked at Mama, who stared back at him. At last he said slowly, “Something I had asked him to give me – for use in an emergency.”
    And Mama threw her arms round Anna as though never to let her go.
    “Only in an emergency!” she cried. “Darling, darling, I promise you – only in an emergency!”

Chapter Seven
    Three days later the French signed an armistice with the Germans and the only people left to fight Hitler were the English.
    London was curiously empty. All the children had gone, and so had many of the old people. There were air-raid warnings almost every day. The first few times everyone rushed for shelter as soon as the sirens started. At the secretarial school they filed into the cellar of the building which was damp and smelled of mice. At the Hotel Continental they went into the basement which was also the kitchen and stood about awkwardly among the pots and pans. But nothing happened, no