and down the street, trying to figure out what to do.
As she did so, she felt fear tug at her heart. Virtually nothing was left standing in the road she was walking up and down. Wherever the child had come from obviously didn’t exist any more. She must be terrified.
An air-raid warden rushed across the road in front of them. ‘Excuse me,’ Lizzie shouted. ‘I found this little girl. What should I do?’
Barely acknowledging her, he shook his head. ‘Oh, love, I can’t stop and chat. There’s too much work to do tonight. For all we know, Jerry’ll be back later. It would be best if you took her to the Red Cross. They’ll take her off your hands.’
Lizzie felt the small person grip her even tighter, and from a head buried into her shoulder, she heard a gasped sob.
Lizzie slowly rubbed the tiny back, cooing to her. ‘It’s going to be all right. Don’t worry. You’re safe with me.’
As she held her close, Lizzie’s thoughts returned to the daughter she’d given up all those years before.
She’d have been about this age, she thought. This was what it would have felt like if she’d stayed with her. She’d have hugged Lizzie like this, her tiny little body wrapped around her with her heart fluttering ten to the dozen against Lizzie’s breast. This was what it would have been like to hold her child, to be a mum.
All at once, she fought back her own emotion. She was being sentimental. More than likely, Lizzie’s child had her own adopted mother now. Annie was living somewhere lovely, having an incredible life, she hoped. As she looked all around her at the devastation, that dream started to waver. The hope that her daughter was happy was what had kept her sane all of these years. Helped assuage her guilt. But how could Annie be safe in all of this? What if her own daughter was wandering the streets somewhere in a nightie looking for someone to take care of her? The thought was too difficult to even contemplate and Lizzie swallowed down the acidic pain that rose from her stomach and stung the back of her throat. She had never felt more determined to find Annie at all costs.
As Lizzie continued to stumble through the streets, every police officer or warden she met was busy. They didn’t have time for her, so without any other option, Lizzie decided to take the child home. At least in the warm there she could give her something to eat and drink, and she could get some sleep while Lizzie worked out what to do with her.
Walking the two miles back to Julia’s, even though she was tiny, waif-like, she grew heavier as Lizzie carried her. As she finally stumbled down Julia’s path, Lizzie hoped that Agnes wasn’t watching her through the window. She had already had one or two interactions with the older woman and could tell by the way Agnes looked down her nose at her that she didn’t approve of Julia’s friends, and Lizzie didn’t need any kind of confrontation tonight. But next door was quiet, with no twitch of the curtains as she opened Julia’s gate and it creaked on its hinges.
Inside the house, it was empty and dark; Julia must be working late. Lizzie took the little girl into the front room and, laying her down on the sofa, noticed that she had dropped off to sleep. She turned on a table lamp: in the light, Lizzie could get a really good look at the child’s face. She was cherub-like, with a small, round face, red heart-shaped lips, and strawberry blonde hair that curtained her dirt-spattered features.
All at once, the door jangled with the sound of keys, and Diana walked in behind her. Julia had given her an extra key in case she wanted to stay the night in her own room. Lizzie heard her kicking off her shoes, hanging her tin helmet up on the hook, and shaking out her dust-filled headscarf wrapped around her hair underneath.
‘Anybody in?’ she called out.
Lizzie met her in the hallway and explained the situation in hushed tones as Diana pulled off her heavy air-force coat.
Following Lizzie into the front room, Diana stared at the new arrival. ‘Look at her,’ she exclaimed in a whisper. ‘Poor thing. Someone must be looking for her. There was no one around who knew her parents?’
Lizzie shook her head. ‘It was as if she just appeared there out of thin