Free Come Home Soon by Emily Sharratt Page B

the young lads all loved him. She thought of him laughing outside The Dog and Duck with his best friend Stephen Chase. She thought of him calling out to his fiancée Molly that he’d be back for a Christmas wedding. Poor Molly.
    â€œThat’s awful. . .” she managed.
    â€œIndeed it is, indeed it is. I had it from Miss Webb and Ethel heard it from Mr Berry in the post office, didn’t you, dear?”
    â€œI did.”
    â€œDid Mr Berry tell you what had happened to the him?” Ellie asked.
    Looking glad to have finally been given the floor, Mrs Dorling tutted. “No, of course not. The telegrams just say ‘sympathy and regret’ from the army council, that sort of thing. But it’s a terrible shame.”
    â€œIt’s a tragedy!”
    â€œIt is.”
    â€œI just hope no more of our lads follow behind him.”
    â€œIndeed. But they’ve had so little training, especially the young ones. And it seems the Germans are much better soldiers than we were led to believe.”
    â€œQuite so, my dear.”
    â€œExcuse me, ladies,” an ashen Mrs Scott gasped, stumbling out from behind the counter. “I must just go and—” She staggered from the shop without finishing her sentence. Ellie watched her go knowing she was thinking of Will. Anna looked equally shaken. Ellie took a deep breath.
    Suddenly the fact that she hadn’t heard from her father seemed ten times worse. If only the two sisters would stop wittering on!
    â€œMrs Baxter!” Ellie exclaimed, causing the two ladies to look round in alarm. “Mrs Dorling! Would you . . . erm . . . would you like to see Charlie’s new socks?”
    The ladies looked taken aback for a moment, but then bent over the pram. “Well, they’re very nice, dear,” said Mrs Baxter hesitantly. “Did you make them?”
    â€œOh, no.” Ellie laughed, perhaps a little too gaily, for the sisters looked startled once more. “No, I’m a hopeless knitter, as Anna will tell you. No, my Aunt Frances sent them from Brighton.”
    â€œOh, yes, of course,” said Mrs Baxter. “They’re a lovely shade of yellow, aren’t they, Ethel?”
    Charlie chose this moment to pull one of the socks from his foot and throw it to the floor.
    â€œLovely,” Mrs Dorling agreed, puffing a little as she stooped to pick it up. “You know, I always say yellow is so cheering. . .”
    Anna gave Ellie a grateful smile but both girls could see that the other was shaken. As Mrs Baxter and Mrs Dorling cooed over Charlie, Ellie thought of her father.
    Please , she said silently, without really knowing who she was speaking to. Please let him be safe. Please let him come home.
    She couldn’t bear this feeling of powerlessness. When she managed to drag her mind away from her father it drifted to Billie’s fiancée, Molly. Who had told her the news? One of Billie’s family, she supposed. What must she be feeling now? Ellie’s mind recoiled from the thought.
    When the sisters had finally collected their groceries and left the shop, Ellie bid Anna goodbye and set off once again with the pram.
    I want to do something.
    Before she was even aware of her intention, she found herself steering the pram towards her father’s surgery.
    And why not? she thought. It had made her feel better to be useful there before; maybe it would again today.
    But when she reached the surgery, it was closed up and dark. There was no sign of Thomas.
    With nowhere else to go, she turned the pram up the lane towards home. Charlie began to grizzle and grumble, and distractedly she soothed him, but her mind was elsewhere.
    Reversing through the front door with a bump, Ellie stowed the pram under the stairs and released a complaining Charlie to toddle away towards his toys.
    Pushing open the kitchen door with a slam, she startled her mother and Thomas, whose heads were bent