The Soldier's Daughter by Rosie Goodwin

already and he can have our leftovers so he won’t cost much to keep. I’m just about to find a box for him to sleep in.’
    Lois gulped as she eyed the new family member. She had no doubt that it would break the children’s hearts if she made them give him up now, but then cats were known for wandering, weren’t they? So perhaps it would be best to keep quiet and let him out when the children had gone to school. He’d no doubt wander off back to where he’d come from, with any luck.
    ‘All right then, he can stay for the moment,’ she said reluctantly and Briony heaved a silent sigh of relief.
    ‘And I’m going to change from now on,’ Lois added as she walked unsteadily towards the sink to tackle the pile of dirty pots. ‘There will be a nice hot dinner on the table for you when you get in from work tomorrow, you just wait and see.’
    Briony grinned ruefully. It was hard to stay angry with her mother for long because she didn’t really mean any harm and the girl knew that she loved them all. It was just that Lois had not been brought up to put other people first. Perhaps this will be a turning point, she thought to herself as she settled down in the chair in front of the fire to read the paper. But she wouldn’t hold her breath.
    Over the next few days Lois did make an effort. Briony came home to find a meal of sorts ready, and although the children complained about the lumpy mash and burnt offerings, Briony praised her. ‘You’ll get better at cooking,’ she said warmly. Lois had even tackled the ironing, although she had put almost as many creases in to the clothes as she had taken out of them, but still, at least she was trying. She appeared to be laying off the alcohol too, for which Briony was truly thankful, and she had resumed meeting the children from school as well.
    The kitten remained, despite Lois’s best efforts to shoo it outside each day, and the children had named him Tigger, which suited him somehow. So all in all, Briony was daring to feel a little better about things. Even Mr Trimble had stopped scolding her at work now that she wasn’t so tired, and she had gone back to being the efficient worker he had known.
    And then everything suddenly went pear-shaped again when she returned home from work one evening to find her mother in floods of tears, clutching a letter.
    ‘It’s from your father,’ she told Briony on a sob. ‘He says how much he is missing us all but he doesn’t say when he might be able to come home on leave again, and what’s more, there are rumours that they might be shipped out somewhere.’
    ‘Does he have any idea where they might be sent?’ Briony asked gravely, but Lois could only shake her head.
    ‘No. None of them know, apparently, and they’d not be allowed to say, I expect – but what if he gets sent into the firing line? I won’t be able to bear it if anything happens to him.’
    Briony didn’t think she would be able to bear it either, but she was wise enough not to say that to her mother. Instead she said stoically, ‘Well, we’ve just got to get on with things here, Mum. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.’
    She then set about preparing a meal and while she was busy peeling potatoes, her mother slipped out. Briony had a sinking feeling that she might have gone to the local off-licence, and her fears were confirmed when Lois returned with a brown paper bag with two bottles in it.
    ‘It’s only something to get me through this evening,’ Lois told her shamefacedly. ‘I don’t think I shall be able to sleep if I don’t have a little drink.’
    Briony sighed. They were back to square one.

Chapter Seven
    On 9 April 1940 news reached England of the German invasion of Norway and Sweden. On 10 May Hitler’s troops then also invaded Belgium and Holland. The newspapers were full of stories about the hardships that had been inflicted on the people there.
    ‘I’ve got an awful feelin’ that we’ll be in the line o’ fire soon,’ Mrs