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

push against the dripping wall, allowing the boat to pull away, wincing as her knuckles scraped the slimy brick surface. Any moment the other motorboat would crash into them but she still couldn’t even make out the shape of any boat. Dear God, had they spotted Dora’s headlights?

‘Blow the horn!’ Ronnie shouted to Margaret, hoping against hope that Penelope was hugging the wall. Seconds that felt like hours passed, and finally she felt the vibration in the water from the other boat. Smoke she couldn’t even see made her cough as several voices, sounding like an entire family, shouted obscenities. Ronnie hardly dared breathe until she was sure the other motorboat must have passed by.

‘Yer silly boogers,’ bawled one of the men. ‘Where’s yer light? Yer’ve no business steerin’ somethin’ yer can’t handle with no lights.’

‘You got by, didn’t you?’ Ronnie shouted back to the bodiless voice, her temper rising.

‘You wimmen make me sick,’ came another voice. ‘Yer shouldna be allowed on the cut.’

‘We’re doing a job, same as you,’ Ronnie shouted back, her temper flaring. ‘Doing our bit for the war.’

‘Yer need ter git back home ter mummy, where yer belong,’ came the growled response.

‘It’s no good arguing,’ Margaret said, as the other boat’s voices faded. ‘They’ve gone now.’ She patted Ronnie’s arm. ‘They could easily have crashed into us but you kept your nerve.’

With Margaret’s confidence seemingly restored as a result of warning her about the other boat, Ronnie breathed a long sigh, her heart slowing to an even tempo as Penelope inched its way behind Persephone on the tow rope through the long, dank, watery passage.

‘Oh, look! Isn’t that a tiny pinprick of daylight? We must be coming to the end of the tunnel.’ Margaret’s voice rose with relief and excitement.

‘What the blazes happened to you two in the tunnel?’ Dora demanded when they were tying up.

‘Our oil lamp went out,’ Ronnie said. ‘Luckily, Margaret heard that other boat above the engine noise and warned me.’

‘What was Jess doin’?’

Ronnie’s heart sank. She might as well tell Dora the truth.

‘She was making lunch.’

‘I said she was ter watch yer,’ Dora said tersely. ‘Did yer keep away from the wall?’

‘I did feel a bump once when I was trying to get really close so the other boat could pass.’

‘I warned yer it were narrer. So more damage, I don’t doubt.’ Dora’s tone was grim.

‘I didn’t scrape anything,’ Ronnie said defensively, ‘except my hand when I pushed us away.’

‘That’s what I told yer not to do. Yer don’t seem ter listen when I’m speakin’.’

‘That’s not fair. I do.’

Ronnie watched Dora’s lips pursing in disbelief, but she didn’t care. For once, she wasn’t scared of the trainer. She’d done her best and all was well, as far as she was concerned. Even Margaret appeared to have fully recovered from her bad case of nerves.

‘It’s true, Miss Dummitt,’ Margaret said. ‘Ronnie was marvellous and kept calm. It was the men in the other boat who started shouting at us.’

‘I’m not surprised when they saw a boat comin’ towards them with no space to pass,’ Dora said, having the last word as usual.

Chapter Sixteen

‘Wouldn’t it be fun if one of us could play an instrument?’ Jessica said after supper. ‘We could have a singsong.’

She’d made a delicious macaroni cheese and taken the other trainees half the dish. To Ronnie’s relief Dora had decided to have her supper at the nearest pub.

‘I play the ukulele,’ May said unexpectedly.

‘You never said,’ Ronnie piped up.

‘You never asked,’ May chuckled. ‘I’m no professional but I’ll play a few songs if you like.’ She stood with a teacloth in her hand, ready to dry the dishes Ronnie had washed and left in the bowl.

‘It would definitely break the monotony,’ Jessica said.

‘Shouldn’t we invite the others?’ Ronnie gave the macaroni saucepan an extra scrub to remove the bits of clinging cheese and sauce.

‘Yes, we should, though it’ll be a frightful squash.’ Jessica wiped the foldaway table.

‘Do we have to invite Angela?’ Ronnie said.

‘No, we don’t have to. She’d put a real dampener on it.’ The corners of Jessica’s mouth turned down as though at the very thought.

‘We can’t ask Margaret and Sally without her,’ May said.

‘I don’t see why not,’ Jessica said.

‘Maybe she won’t come,’ May ventured.

‘I bet she will,’ Jessica said. ‘She’s the sort of person who likes to be in on everything.’

‘I’ll go and see what they’re doing,’ Ronnie said. ‘Tonight would be good as we haven’t got Deadly Dora peering at us with her disapproving look. She’s another one who’d take all the fun out of it.’

‘I’ll get the uke tuned up while you’re gone.’ May hung the wet tea towel over the range.

‘Where on earth did you hide it in such a cramped space?’ Jessica asked curiously.

‘I kept it under the cratch, but after the police finished their search that time I moved it where we keep the extra coal.’

She disappeared to the back of the boat and returned with a sack. Five minutes later Ronnie came through the hatch.

‘Margaret’s not coming,’ she said. ‘She wants an early night. I think she’s exhausted from the tunnel. You know she had a bit of a panic in there. I was quite scared for a while that she was going to be sick.’

‘Poor Margaret. I’m not sure she’s suited to this job,’ Jessica said. ‘She’s such a frail little thing.’ She paused. ‘So is it just Sally coming?’ She raised an eyebrow.

‘And Angela,’ Ronnie added with a grimace. ‘She said yes immediately.’

‘Oh, no. Oh, well, we’ll have to make the best of it.’

May tuned her ukulele, which sounded awful at first but settled into a tune Ronnie recognised.

‘Let’s try one and see how it goes,’ May said. ‘You must all know this one.’ She strummed a few bars and began to sing:

‘Cruising down the river

‘On a Sunday afternoon …’ Ronnie and Jessica joined in.

The three girls were in full voice when Sally and Angela emerged from the hatch. Sally joined in immediately, but Angela barely