Free The Postcard by Leah Fleming

instilling discipline and common sense here.’
    Primrose’s mother stepped forward. ‘We sent Primmy here because we knew you prime girls to think for themselves and take risks. These two did something risky and daring, as they saw
it, where we, as parents, could see only danger. I think they are still a little young to recognize the difference, but I also think they’ve learned their lesson.’ She turned to Phoebe.
‘What do you think, Miss Faye, since it was your niece leading the way?’
    ‘No, Mummy, Callie made me leave. She looked after me. We both planned it together.’ Primrose was in tears. ‘It’s not all her fault.’
    ‘I think you have an answer there, Miss Corcoran.’ Phoebe felt bold to reply. ‘Two silly girls trying to do something daring and then finding that danger has its own price, I
suspect. I don’t know what else to say in their favour.’
    ‘We can’t let this go unpunished. It sets a bad example, however well-meaning and immature. I shall have to think of something suitable as a correction. Thank you, that is all for
now. Girls, you will have the whole vacation to dwell of how this foolishness can be amended . . .’
    With that they were all dismissed. Phoebe was just relieved Caroline wasn’t expelled on the spot. ‘What on earth were you thinking of?’ she whispered, wanting to shake the
girl.
    Primrose and Caroline, white-faced, stood huddled together looking up at their banner. ‘It’s still up there. We did it. Who’ll take it down?’
    ‘That’s enough from you two toe-rags,’ Betty McAllister smiled. ‘I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes next term.’
    ‘If there is a next term,’ Phoebe said heavily.
    ‘Oh, don’t worry, I know Dorothy. She’ll be secretly impressed with their escapade. Here are two of her charges who won’t ever flinch when danger comes calling.
Trailblazers, indeed . . . I bet she doesn’t use that word again in a hurry. Come on, let’s see if there’s any tea left.’
    Phoebe watched Primrose’s parents stroll down the path arm in arm. It’s all right for you, she thought. There are two of you to keep a check on your wild child. I have to do it all
alone. Yet the panic she felt at the thought she might have lost her daughter was something she would never forget. As for the blazer, it was just an expensive piece of cloth, easily replaced,
nothing like the loss of her child.
    As they walked down towards the tea marquee in silence, she put her arms round Caroline. ‘Don’t you ever scare me like that again, young lady!’
    July 1933
    Dear Marthe
    Thank you for the invitation to your wedding. I can’t come as I am going camping with the Guides in the Cairngorms. Primmy and me are Patrol Leaders and going for our senior badges.
     I hope you and André will be very happy. Aunt Phee is sending you a present from us. It has been a horrible summer. Cullein ate something bad and had to be put to sleep. He is buried
     in the walled garden. I’ll miss him very much. Me and Primmy are staying in London until the holiday.
    Love Callie

7
    August
    ‘If there’s a war, I’d want to be doing something important, wouldn’t you?’ said Callie, staring down at a picture of her aunt in a uniform.
‘Not prancing around in make-up, pretending to be someone else.’
    Callie was so glad she had Primmy’s company that summer. From their very first terrifying day at St Maggie’s she’d found a friend in Primrose, who’d stood in the new
girls’ queue looking as scared as she was. They’d stuck together like limpets, listening and saying little. They were allotted the same dorm.
    Primrose was such a funny name for a girl with the brightest orange hair Callie had ever seen. It stuck out in a frizz in the damp sea air, coiling into the tightest curls and impossible to
plait, so she was given permission to have it bobbed short into a halo round her head. She had the greenest eyes and freckles, was hopeless at games but a wizard in maths