A Sister's War by Molly Green (the reading strategies book txt) 📕

was reading and fell asleep. Then I must’ve turned over and somehow knocked it. Or it could have been the boat rocking … I don’t know.’ She began to sob.

‘Dear Lord.’ Jessica rushed to the bed and put an arm around her. ‘It’s a wonder the whole boat didn’t go up in flames with all this wood. But thank goodness you’re safe. No harm done.’

‘Only the shelf,’ Ronnie muttered.

‘Let me look.’ Jessica took the torch and shone it onto the burnt patch. ‘It’s nothing so terrible. Keep your book over it and no one will be any the wiser.’

‘I just don’t want Dora to find out,’ Ronnie sniffed. ‘I know it was inexcusable to be so careless but I don’t want to be sent home.’

‘You won’t be,’ May said. ‘We won’t let you. What are friends for if they can’t stick together?’

‘Especially against that old bat,’ Jessica grinned. ‘We won’t even let the other girls know about it.’

‘Least said, soonest mended, is what I always say,’ May added.

Ronnie looked up at the two girls, so very different to one another, but making a vow to keep her secret. It reminded her of Raine and Suzy. Ever since they were children the three of them had made a special pact never to keep secrets from one another, but also never to spill them to Maman or anyone else. She realised how much she missed the camaraderie of her sisters, but to her relief it looked as though May and Jessica wanted to be friends.

‘Thank you for standing by me,’ she said.

‘You didn’t think nothing different, did you?’ May said.

Ronnie shook her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

‘Here, blow your nose.’ Jessica handed her an immaculate white handkerchief embroidered with a ‘J’.

‘It’s too nice to use.’

‘Don’t be daft. Things can always be washed.’

‘Shall I make some cocoa?’ May said.

‘What’s the time?’ Ronnie asked.

‘Coming up to midnight.’

‘Perfect time,’ Jessica laughed. ‘Be like boarding school when we used to have midnight feasts. I might just have a ciggie.’ She glanced at May. ‘Would you like one?’

‘I’ve given up.’

‘Since when?’

‘Since just now,’ May said, picking up the water can. ‘The stink of smoke in the pub made me feel queasy. And sitting next to Dora with that disgusting pipe didn’t help. But all this talk of midnight feasts’ – she paused to fill the kettle – ‘course I wouldn’t know about them. I never went to no posh school. Left at fourteen, I did, to look after three screaming little horrors – but talking of feasts is making me hungry.’ She took a half loaf from the bread bin. ‘Anyone want a cheese sandwich?’

‘Yes, please,’ Ronnie and Jessica chorused.

May nodded and cut three thick slices. She looked up, a sly smile hovering over the pretty mouth. ‘You know, I’ve just thought of something. This smell won’t be gone in just a few hours and guess who’ll be the first to show their ugly mug?’ She jerked her head towards the hatch. ‘Dora, that’s who. So tomorrow morning, who’s up first must get the stove lit, then put a couple of slices of bread on the top and leave it on too long so it burns. That will really make it smoke. Then when she comes in and smells burning we can show it to her. It’ll put her right off the scent,’ she chortled.

‘Excellent idea, May,’ Jessica laughed, springing up. ‘Come on, Ronnie. Up the table for May’s midnight buffet.’

Ronnie sat down. ‘I don’t mind admitting I burnt the toast.’

‘Be a lot easier than explaining how Penelope came to be a burnt-out shell,’ Jessica teased as she carefully fixed her cigarette into a long ebony holder. She flicked her lighter, lit the end, drew a deep breath, rounded her mouth and proceeded to huff out a string of smoke rings. Ronnie watched, awestruck. Jessica was so sophisticated. She’d never met anyone like her before. She wondered if Raine would get on with her. Mmm, she might. But she’d be too much for Suzy, that was certain.

‘Just be careful with that fag, Miss Hamilton-Bard,’ May said, putting the mugs of cocoa on the table, ‘or you could be the one doing the explaining.’

But it wasn’t Dora who woke them, it was Angela. And all of them were fast asleep when she shouted through the hatch, ‘Anybody up? It’s six o’clock. Dora says we have to leave at seven latest.’

Ronnie awoke with a jerk. She’d lain awake next to Jessica for at least an hour after they’d all gone to bed, worrying about the candle damage. Thankfully, Jessica hadn’t been so restless and finally Ronnie had drifted off, but she’d been in a deep sleep and Angela’s loud tone had scared her half to death.

She scrambled out of bed.

‘I can smell something,’ Angela called down, and to Ronnie’s horror the girl dropped heavily into the cabin. ‘What is it?’ She looked accusingly at Ronnie, who was furious with herself that she’d overslept and had nothing to offer as an explanation.

‘Oh, I …’

‘I had a ciggie in the early hours.’ Jessica sat up in bed. ‘It must be that. But it was too cold to open the hatch.’

Angela’s eyes narrowed. ‘I know cigarette smell,’ she said. ‘It isn’t that. Something’s burning – or has already burnt.’ She looked round and her eyes fell on the candle, now back in the candlestick. ‘Did you light a candle when you came in last night, Jessica?’

‘No,’ Ronnie cut in. ‘It was me. I was hungry when the others came in last night and fancied some toast. I burnt it, that’s all.’

‘I don’t believe it.’ Angela scanned the small space, then her gaze went back to the candle.

Before Ronnie realised what Angela was about to do, the girl snatched up her book and gave a gasp as she saw the damage. ‘What’s been going on here?’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Ronnie said.

‘This is new,’ Angela said triumphantly as she fingered the burn. ‘And the wick has