She quickly pulled Abigail from Lizzie’s arms. ‘Come along now, dear. You’re going to be a good girl, aren’t you? I’m not going to have any trouble with you, am I?’
Abigail looked grief-stricken. Panicking, she pulled her hand straight out of the woman’s and ran back towards Lizzie.
‘Now that’s not being a good girl, is it? Come along,’ the woman barked, gruffly.
Lizzie didn’t know what to do. But she had no choice.
Before she could do anything, the woman had already grabbed Abigail and pulled her towards the group on the platform, Abigail let out a howl, and the woman shouted, ‘We’ll have none of that, young lady. Now you get yourself into line.’
Lizzie raced to rescue her, and the woman pushed her back. She was a large woman and held Lizzy by the shoulders. ‘She is not your concern. She is a ward of the government. You, my dear, need to control your emotions.’
Lizzie suddenly realized she could tackle this woman and grab Abigail, but what would that serve? Abigail was already so upset, and the woman was right, so she spared her energy and instead shouted over to her, ‘Abigail, it’s going to be fine, I promise you. I’m going to come and see you really soon.’ Even though she couldn’t be sure that was the case.
Lizzie continued to shout encouraging things to her. ‘Don’t forget the letter and don’t forget to write to me. There’ll be lots of lovely children who you’re going to meet. You’re going to have so many adventures.’
A kinder young woman came up to work out what the fuss was. She looked at Lizzie and assessed the situation straight away. Coming to Abigail’s side, she put her arm around her and spoke gently to her, and Lizzie was so grateful. ‘She’ll be all right with me,’ said the woman as she gave the other woman a stern look. ‘I’ll take good care of her.’
She took Abigail’s hand and led her to the group of children. If only Lizzie was married, if only Jack wasn’t dead, If only… Before she knew it, Abigail was herded onto the train, and Lizzie searched frantically through the train teeming with children, but couldn’t locate her anywhere. When she realized she wasn’t doing any good to Abigail or herself crying her eyes out, she moved quickly through the station, tears now streaming down her face.
It was as Lizzie was halfway down the road that the siren sounded, and she started to look frantically for shelter. Had Abigail’s train left? She didn’t know whether to run back. Would the children be taken to a shelter there? She felt the acute loss, and she almost went back, but it was too far. Hopefully, Abigail’s train had already left. She ran into an underground shelter as the first bomb hit, very close to where she was, and as she raced down the stairs they were all thrust forward with the impact of the blast.
The group, in a panic, moved as fast as they could. An elderly lady had fallen. Lizzie helped her to her feet. Another bomb sounded close by. The impact sent them wheeling onto the platform. It was a hard, swift bombing campaign, but after thirty minutes, the all-clear was sounded.
Quickly, she hurried up the stairs out of the underground station and looked towards the train station. Her heart leapt to her throat. It had taken a direct hit. Firefighters were already there on the scene, their hoses spraying long streams of freezing water from every direction.
As she got to the entrance, injured people were being helped out of the building. An older man who was holding people back from going inside spotted her.
‘Can’t go in there, young lady, it’s dangerous.’
‘My daughter’s in there,’ she pleaded with him, and the warden, seeing the absolute panic on her face, nodded and directed her to a side entrance.
‘Don’t tell anybody I let you in.’
She shook her head and raced inside. But nothing could prepare her for what she saw. She had just been here, and now it was like a building site: rubble, smoke, fire, heat from the flames streaming up from the very place she’d been with Abigail. She raced down the stairs to the platform.
People were shocked and dazed and making their way out, being helped by the services. When Lizzie got down there, her worst fear was realized. Abigail’s train was still there, and scattered about the platform were piles of tiny belongings: teddy bears, scarves, caps, small suitcases.