Free Orphans of War by Leah Fleming

Gregory.
    ‘Who are those?’ she asked, her heart pounding at the implication. ‘Gregory?’
    ‘Dunno, miss. The girl brought them with her off the train. We couldn’t leave them,’ he said.
    ‘Madeleine, who are they?’ Plum was trying to keep the panic out of her voice.
    ‘Their mother put them on the train and told me to look after them. I couldn’t find their teacher. No one came to collect them so we brought them to you,’ she said, and Plum could hear the others giggling at her refined accent.
    ‘’Er don’t half talk posh, miss,’ said Enid.
    ‘No, I don’t,’ the girl snapped. ‘Did I do wrong, Aunt Plum?’
    More guffaws as they heard her nickname.
    ‘Shush! Have you found out their names?’
    ‘The lady called them Glory and Sidney, but she says she’s Gloria Conley and they don’t go to school, and it was six stops before Leeds when they got on…Manchester, I think. I’m sorry but I didn’t know what to do,’ whispered her niece. ‘Oh, the lady said there was a letter in her pocket and “she don’t read”.’
    ‘Well done, darling, you did what any of us would’ve done. Just check her pocket but don’t wake her yet,’ Plum whispered.
    ‘Shall I pull the cord and stop the train?’ offered Peggy.
    ‘No!’ Plum snapped, the panic rising within her. What if someone was searching the station for them?What if worried relatives had called out the police? Oh, why had Miss Blunt not come with her?
    ‘Here, miss, in her pocket, a letter…’ Gregory leaned over and shoved a paper into Plum’s hand. The note was written in pencil on the back half of a torn envelope.
    To whom it concerns.
    I am sending them away for good. My fella got killed and I can’t take no more. I have no proper home for them and am going away so don’t come looking. Tell them they is better off. You can call them what ever name but they will answer to Gloria Beryl and Sidney Leonard. She is ten but don’t look it and he is five. I cannot take them with me but they will be ever in my heart. Tell them they deserve better than me.
     
    Plum went cold when she read the contents of the note. In desperation the poor mother had just thrown them on the train to the mercy of strangers. How grief-stricken and depressed must she have been to have done such a wicked thing? She must be traced and found, and made to face her responsibilities, but first they would have to take these children to Sowerthwaite for the night, inform the police and authorities and find a home for the mites.
    How was she going to explain all this to Matron, and what would Pleasance make of her granddaughter? At least she showed initiative, and Gregory had sneakedthem on behind her back. He was a natural leader and they were going to have to watch him.
    Perhaps sometimes things just happened and you had to respond as best you could. She had wanted a challenge and, by God, she’d got one now.
    Maddy could see Aunt Plum was upset as she read the letter over and over again. It was all her fault but the lady had told her to look after them and for once she’d been obedient. Now she would be in trouble for letting them get on this train, but Gloria was still sticking like gum to her side. The other girls were staring at her now with interest ’cos she’d done something naughty in their eyes.
    ‘Child snatcher!’ whispered the biggest one. ‘You’ll be for it!’
    ‘Shut up, stick insect,’ said Gregory in her defence. ‘She done what she had to do. She’s been bombed out.’
    ‘What’s it like? Did you see any stiffs?’ asked another of the boys.
    ‘It was horrid and my dog ran away,’ Maddy answered.
    ‘We had to have ours put down. Uncle said as we couldn’t feed it proper and the cat too. He put them in a sack and threw them in the dock.’
    ‘I know a lad as put his kittens through the mangle,’ boasted the fat boy with the bandage.
    ‘That’s enough,’ said Aunt Plum, in such a sharp voice that everyone listened. ‘We’re