Whistling in the Dark by Shirley Hughes Page B

made no move towards her. He simply stood there and politely removed his cap, so that she could see him clearly.
    “Please,” he said, “do not be frightened. I mean no harm. I only want to speak a word to you.”
    Joan paused, eyeing the distance between him and the gate.
    “What do you want?” she asked at last. “I warn you, my mum’s in there, and she’ll hear me if I scream.”
    “I only wish to tell you who I am. I am Lukasz – Lukasz Topolski. I am Ania’s uncle.”
    There was a long silence. At first, Joan was too surprised to speak. Then she asked, “Have you been around here before?”
    “Yes, I have been here. Many times, to back of your house. I think maybe once, twice, you see me. But I have no wish to frighten you like this. The Polish ladies at the Royal Hotel often speak of your mother − what a kind lady she is. I thought perhaps you help me talk to Ania. But I cannot come here in daytime. Only when dark. Because … because I fear maybe you have … visitor? Someone who would see me. Because … I cannot risk to be seen. But I wish to thank you now. You, your mother, your family. With all my heart. For your kindness to Ania.”
    “Well, she’s a friend,” said Joan. “She’s in my class at school, and she didn’t know anybody when she came, so I asked her to tea. Look, I’d better go indoors and fetch Mum—”
    “No – no! Cannot be seen. It is not safe. Just please to tell Ania that I am alive – that her Uncle Lukasz is here, near to her. And that I hope to meet with her one day soon, perhaps.”
    Before Joan could reply, he pulled on his cap and slipped silently back into the shadows. She heard his footsteps receding softly.
    Joan ran indoors.
    Judy was already in bed, and she found Mum alone in the back room, drinking a cup of tea.
    “Hello, darling,” she said. “How did the school dance go?”
    Joan brushed aside her question and told her about the unexpected encounter she had just had. “Shall I pass the message onto Ania, then?” Joan asked. She was bursting to tell Ania the wonderful news that her Uncle Lukasz was right here, so close to her. “Just think what this will mean to her, Mum!”
    But Mum was more cautious.
    “We have no idea whether this man’s genuine or not, Joanie,” she said. “No proof at all. From what you say, it seems as though he’s the man who has been hanging around here recently. But that doesn’t make him Ania’s uncle. There’s only one person who can prove that for certain, and that’s Ania.
    “But we don’t want to put her at risk by going searching for this man – just in case he isn’t who he says he is. And if he is her uncle, then we must be very careful because as a deserter he could end up in a military prison. So just for the moment, until I can arrange a safe meeting between them here without the Military Police finding out, it might be better if you don’t mention this to anyone.Not even Brian or Audrey.”
    And certainly not to Captain Ronnie Harper Jones, thought Joan to herself.



CHAPTER 17
    “T hat’s all we need!” said Ross bitterly. “A kids’ party! We’re doing the salvage collection, aren’t we? Surely that’s enough without being expected to spend all Saturday afternoon playing daft games with a whole lot of snotty-nosed kids from Liverpool.”
    “There’ll be a tea, I suppose,” said Derek, but he sounded equally gloomy.
    Joan was expected to go too, of course. Miss Buckley, the head of the local WVS, had said it was obligatory that she turn up to help, and there was no getting out of it. So, at three o’clock, they trudged down the promenade, without their handcart, expecting the worst.
    The local WVS ladies had done their best to decorate what had once been the Royal Hotel dining room. They had made paper chains to hang along the walls and laid out the tea on trestle tables. The children were already assembled, the little ones rampaging up and down the room, impatient for the party games to