Read The Hills and the Valley for Free Online Page A

the gas lamp and drifted towards the corners of the room.
    â€˜Drat!’ Amy pulled the kettle off the hob and went to open a window.
    â€˜What’s for dinner? I’m starving!’ Maureen dumped her satchel on a chair.
    â€˜Cold pie and salad,’ Amy said pouring water into the teapot. ‘It’s Mrs Milsom’s day off.’
    â€˜I don’t like salad.’
    â€˜If this war comes and they start food rationing you’ll think, yourself lucky to eat what you can get,’ Amy said tartly. ‘And put your satchel away. I don’t want it cluttering up the kitchen.’
    Maureen picked her satchel up again. ‘I only put it there for the minute. I’m taking it upstairs to do my homework now.’ She tossed her head so that a thick braid of hair, a duller gold than Barbara’s, fell across her slightly flushed face. ‘And anyway, Babs doesn’t like salad either, do you Barbara?’
    There was no reply from Barbara and glancing at her Amy saw that she had not been listening. There was an anxious expression on her usually sunny, open face and Amy’s earlier impression was reinforced. Something was worrying Barbara.
    â€˜What’s wrong, Babs?’ she asked.
    Cornflower-blue eyes flipped up to meet hers and the guilt was clearly visible in them before they flipped away again.
    â€˜Nothing.’
    â€˜Are you sure?’
    â€˜Oh, leave me alone, Mum.’
    Amy sighed. Sixteen was not an easy age to be, though Barbara seemed to weather it with less difficulty than some of her friends, if the stories she heard from their mothers was anything to go by. Oh well, let Barbara be for the moment. She’d find out later what it was. Just some confrontation with one of the nuns probably over a piece of skipped homework. Barbara was not a scholar and never would be, and Amy could feel some sympathy with her. She had never seen the sense of learning for learning’s sake, either. Yet when she had met the real world head on she had knuckled down and made a success of it.
    â€˜Do you two want a cup of tea?’ she asked.
    â€˜Not especially. I’d rather have Mrs Milsom’s lemonade if there’s any left,’ Maureen said.
    â€˜There isn’t.’
    â€˜Salad and tea. How boring. Well, I’m going to do my homework. Coming, Babs?’
    The two girls left the room and Amy took two cups over to the table where Ralph had settled into one of the large old kitchen chairs. As she put them down he caught her wrist pulling her towards him.
    â€˜Good day?’
    â€˜Not bad.’ She relaxed against his shoulder; it felt good and solid. ‘How about you?’
    â€˜The usual. All the war talk is causing a bit of panic. I must say I’m particularly worried about the Swedish end if it comes.’
    Ralph had interests in a Swedish timber company which had extended the Hillsbridge business through a depot in the port of Gloucester.
    â€˜Sweden won’t get involved will it?’ Amy asked.
    With one arm still around her waist Ralph reached for his tea.
    â€˜Everybody is going to be involved this time whether they like it or not. Warfare has changed in the last twenty years, Amy. And leaving everything else aside, shipping is sure to be difficult, if not well nigh impossible. I’m stockpiling all I can, of course. The price is certain to go sky high. But I can’t pretend that I think the future is anything but bleak for any of us.’
    â€˜Oh, it’s so unfair!’ Amy exploded. ‘Just when the girls are getting to an age when the world should be their, oyster, it looks as though everything is going to have to go into cold storage again. And Huw. I can’t help worrying about him, Ralph. I keep thinking of what happened to Jack – and Jack was lucky.’ She shivered, levered herself away from Ralph and reached for her own tea with an angry movement. ‘Wouldn’t you think the powers that