The wagon wasn’t large enough for thirty children, so the oldest ones followed behind with their teacher while Audrey rode on the seat beside the driver. The novelty of country life proved a huge distraction for the older boys, and rather than keeping up with the wagon, they climbed trees and scampered over fences, scaring a flock of sheep and stampeding the dozing cattle. Audrey had no idea how to restore order. She decided to leave the wandering ones to their teacher and attend to a crying toddler in the wagon behind her. Audrey pulled the girl onto her lap, making shushing noises to soothe her. “We’re nearly there, little one. It’s just a short ride, now. Goodness, you must be hungry.” Would there be enough food to feed thirty children? And where would they all sleep?
The child on her lap continued to fuss in spite of Audrey’s efforts, crying in a steady, high-pitched whine that scraped Audrey’s nerves. She couldn’t bring herself to use her own handkerchief to wipe the girl’s running nose. She smelled as though she needed a bath and had grains of rice in her greasy hair. One of the grains hopped.
Head lice!
It required all of Audrey’s willpower not to toss the girl off the wagon. She shivered with dread for the rest of the journey, her skin crawling as the girl perched awkwardly on her lap. “Drive around to the back of Wellingford Hall, please,” she told Mr. Grayson. If only his horse would gallop down the lane instead of this slow, leisurely plodding.
Audrey scrambled down from the seat as soon as the wagon halted and set the infested child on the ground. The other children jumped down as well, hooting with delight as they scattered in all directions across the estate. Mrs. Smith and two chambermaids came out to welcome them, and they looked appalled as they viewed the invasion. Audrey hurried over to them. “We have to bathe these children and douse them for lice. We can’t allow them inside until we do.”
“There are so many!” Mrs. Smith said. “How will we manage?”
“This isn’t even all of them. The rest are following on foot.” Audrey fought to control the panic clogging her throat. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She had imagined a few clean, orderly children boarding in her beautiful home, not this rabble. “Send one of the maids into the village for soap and . . . and for whatever else the chemist recommends. Their clothing will be contaminated, as well. And probably everything in their satchels.”
“But the laundresses don’t come until next week, Miss Audrey.”
“Will you beg them to come sooner? I’ll pay whatever they ask.”
“What will the children wear in the meantime?”
Audrey didn’t reply. She had no idea. Would it be horrid to billet the children in the carriage house? She felt selfish and spoiled to even entertain the idea, but she wanted all of these children to go away!
By now the stragglers had caught up to the wagon and were chasing each other through the vegetable patch. The gardener ran out of the shed, brandishing a rake and threatening to brain them with it. The boys laughed as they danced around him, treating it as a game. “Can’t you control them?” Audrey asked their teacher.
Miss Bristol was still panting from the long walk and didn’t reply. She was a stern-looking woman, probably in her fifties, with a thick waist, thick cotton stockings, and shoes like a pair of bricks. Her trek from the village had exhausted her, and it was clear that the children were beyond her control.
Suddenly Audrey’s father emerged from the house with his hunting rifle. “Get off my property!” he bellowed. “Now!” He fired a shot into the air and the boys ran from the garden and crouched beneath the wagon to hide. The smallest children began to wail.
Audrey hurried over to him. “They’re here by government order, Father. Housing them isn’t voluntary.”
“We’ll see about that!” He stormed back into the house, muttering about calling his MP and maybe even Neville Chamberlain himself. Audrey imagined the boys running wild through Wellingford Hall the same way they’d run through the garden, and hoped her father succeeded in ringing up the prime minister. She resisted the urge to follow Father inside and bolt all the doors. She asked herself what Eve would do.
Eve would take control. She wouldn’t let these children run wild. Audrey summoned all her courage and shouted, “Quiet! All of you!” She was amazed when they obeyed. “This is my home and you will either respect it and obey my rules or you’ll get off my property!” She saw one of the bigger boys mocking her in pantomime but she ignored him. “Anyone who doesn’t obey doesn’t eat. Anyone who doesn’t behave inside my home will sleep in the carriage house or out in the woods with the other animals. Do you understand?”