Is it possible for a ten-year-old girl to fall in
love? Jenny Mercer thought so. Evacuated to Lincolnshire
from the East End of London at the outbreak of war, she
is frightened of the wide open spaces and the huge
skies. At first, she is treated badly by the two
spinsters with whom she is billeted. But the kindly
Thornton family soon makes her feel welcome. And no one
more so than Georgie, the handsome RAF fighter pilot,
who is caught up in the battle for Britain's survival.
When Georgie is posted missing, presumed killed, Jenny
is devastated and there is more heartbreak when her
mother demands that she return home to the dangerous
city streets now under almost daily attack from enemy
bombers. Dot never hides the fact that her daughter's
birth was a mistake and kindness and care towards Jenny
comes, not from her mother, but from their neighbours
across the street, the Hutton family. The only other
person to show concern for Jenny is, strangely, Dot's
'fancy man', Arthur Osborne, who moves into the terraced
house. But is Arthur only interested in the girl because
she can be useful to him? No one will suspect a
ten-year-old of being involved with the Black
Market.When the law comes a little too close for
Arthur's comfort, the family flees in the night under
the protection of the blackout, heading north out of the
city. But to Jenny's disappointment, it is not back to
Lincolnshire but into the hills and dales of Derbyshire
where they are always on the move, always on the run.
There, Jenny is caught up in a life of deception,
obliged to do whatever her mother and Arthur demand of
her, when all she really wants is to go back to
Lincolnshire. For Jenny has never given up hope that one
day, Georgie will come back... |
|