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you’ll need it in the end, for food and things. You’d better hang on to it.’
    â€˜
We’d
better, you mean. We’re going to stick together, aren’t we?’
    â€˜If you like,’ I said loftily, pretending I was doing her a favour. ‘But before I take any of your money, I think you ought to tell me how you got it, and why you ran away, and all about you.’
    â€˜You let me pay for breakfast without asking,’ she said.
    I was stung. ‘All right, don’t tell me,’ I said. ‘I don’t need you, I’m all right by myself. Hope you make out all right. Cheerio.’
    She looked frightened again, as she had when she first saw me following her. ‘I’ll tell you, Bill, only don’t go off and leave me,’ she said. ‘Please.’
    We sat down on a bench, under the plane trees, a little way down from Cleopatra’s Needle. ‘I was on that ship,’ she said.
    â€˜What ship?’
    â€˜The one that was torpedoed.’
    â€˜What one that was …?’
    â€˜Goodness, don’t you read the papers?’
    â€˜I haven’t had money to throw around on papers,’ I said.
    â€˜Well, you know lots of children were being sent to Canada, and one of the shiploads of them was torpedoed in the middle of the Atlantic …’
    â€˜You were on that? What was it like?’
    â€˜Not so much fun as it sounds. It was only a sort of thump, and the alarm bell ringing. Then we all went up on deck, and stood in rows, just like they’d showed us in port, and then we climbed down ladders into lifeboats, and they rowed us across to the other ships that were with us, destroyers and things. Then the ships took us back to Southampton.’
    â€˜So you ran away because you didn’t want to go on another ship?’
    â€˜Well, not exactly.’
    â€˜Were you afraid?’
    â€˜No, no, it wasn’t that.’ (I wished it had been, somehow.) ‘It was just that most of the others went home; their parents took them home again for a few days, until the next ship went, and mine didn’t want to see me again, so I was left with a few others in this horrid hostel place, and I didn’t like it, so I walked out.’
    â€˜Why didn’t they want to see you again?’ I asked.
    She flinched. ‘My father rang up, and said, “Now then, my girl, I’m sure you don’t want to put your mother through all that performance again, do you?” So then I couldn’t very well say yes, yes I did, could I?’
    â€˜What performance?’ I asked, deeply puzzled by her account.
    â€˜You aren’t exactly quick on the uptake, are you?’ she said. ‘Saying goodbye, of course.’
    â€˜What about the money?’ I said, trying to change the subject a bit.
    â€˜It was for Canada. You aren’t allowed to send money over there, so it was for looking after me there for quite a time.’
    â€˜Are you going to find them?’
    â€˜Mummy and Daddy you mean? Can’t. Daddy’s in the army, and might be anywhere, and when I got here, last night, there wasn’t anyone here, either. I don’t know where they are.’
    â€˜Did you live in London then?’
    â€˜No. It was my aunt’s house. I thought my mother would be with my aunt. I haven’t been to London for ages and ages, and as soon as we’ve found some blankets, I want to go and see Big Ben, and Nelson’s column. Do you know the way?’
    â€˜Of
course
I do!’ I laughed. ‘Let’s go now.’
    â€˜Blankets first,’ she said, firmly.
    â€˜Are you sure the money is yours, all right for you to spend?’
    â€˜Quite sure. You’re a bit fussed about money, aren’t you? Are you poor?’
    â€˜No,’ I said, taken aback. ‘No, I don’t think so. My aunt was always on about money, but we always had enough of things, and warm clothes, and Dad bought my