Free The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

she would come to the cinema in St. Agnes.
    â€œDaley says I can go but I have to take someone with me. The bus times don’t fit, so we have to walk, but it’s only an hour and there’s a matinee.”
    They were sitting on Julia’s bed, and from the way she spoke Tally realized that this was no ordinary visit to the cinema. She looked at the photograph on Julia’s bedside table and her heart sank.
    â€œIs it a film with Gloria Grantley in it? ” she asked.
    â€œYes, it is. It’s called I’ll Always Be Yours . It’s got an ‘A’ certificate but one of the maids will go with us and then go and sit with her boyfriend.” As Tally hesitated Julia went on. “Please, I’d rather it was you. The others tease me.”
    â€œYes, of course I’ll come. Is she a good actress? I mean, I can see she’s beautiful, but can she act? ”
    Julia flushed. “She’s an absolutely marvelous actress.”
    Later Tally thought how different her life would have been if she had refused to accompany her friend—so much happened as a result of that visit to the cinema. But she did not go back on her word, and the following Saturday they set off to walk to St. Agnes. The cinema was in the market square and already there was a queue of people waiting for the doors to open at two thirty.
    â€œHer films are always terribly popular,” said Julia.
    They decided to go for the good seats, which cost six pence, and settled down to enjoy themselves.
    The newsreel came first. The queen had launched a big aircraft carrier, releasing a champagne bottle to swing on to the hull, only it didn’t smash the first time and had to be swung back again. The little princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, looked worried, but the second time the bottle smashed properly and the ship slid safely into the water.
    After that came some pictures of Hitler and his followers yelling, “Sieg Heil!” and goose-stepping in jackboots. Hitler said Germany needed more room for the German nation and he wanted Danzig, which really belonged to him and not to the Poles, and if they didn’t give it to him he would take it by force. And an American had invented a new kind of bath plug.
    Tally had hoped that there would be a cartoon: The Three Little Pigs perhaps . . . but what came next was a travelogue about a country called Bergania.
    Bergania was in the news because the king of Bergania had just refused to allow Hitler’s troops to march through his country if there was a war, and this was brave because it was a tiny kingdom, one of the smallest in Europe, and everybody feared the worst.
    Though she was disappointed about the cartoon, Tally enjoyed the travelogue very much indeed. Bergania might be small, but it seemed to have everything one could want. A ridge of high mountains with everlasting snow, wide valleys planted with orchards and vineyards, and meadows where children herded goats like in Heidi . The capital of the country, which was also called Bergania, was a pretty town on the banks of a river, and overlooking it on a hill was the royal palace, guarded by soldiers in splendid uniforms.
    The last part of the film showed the king on horseback at the head of a procession making its way toward the cathedral, where they were celebrating the birthday of Bergania’s patron saint, a brave woman called Aurelia who had been beheaded by the Romans because she wouldn’t renounce her faith.
    Obviously St. Aurelia was important to the Berganians. They had draped their balconies with flags and decorated the streets with flowers and the procession was very grand. Behind the king rode courtiers and soldiers in splendid uniforms—and beside him, on a spirited pony, rode the crown prince, who was only a boy.
    Tally was staring at him, wondering how it felt to be a prince so young, when the ancient projector gave a hiccup and the image on the screen stayed frozen. But though