Bluebirds Read Online Free

no proper mattresses either, only three square pads that were well-named biscuits. Gloria had prodded hers disdainfully with a long, red fingernail.
    â€˜Cripes, I’m not sleepin’ on them things. They’ve got stains on.’
    Anne turned over restlessly and the biscuits shifted beneath her like ice floes. She tugged them back into place and pummelled at the bolster. Kit hadn’t warned her about any of these things, but maybe it was different if you were training as an officer in the Army. She thought about Kit and about the summer’s night in June, only a few months ago, when they had sat out on the terrace at home and talked. The dance given for their eighteenth birthday had ended, the last guest gone, and when their parents had gone to bed they had both stayed up to watch the dawn. They had drunk the left-over champagne and she had kicked off her new silver party shoes and lounged in the swing-seat, the skirts of her blue tulle frock billowing softly as she pushed the seat backwards and forwards with one stockinged foot. Kit had been a bit squiffy. He had perched on the edge of the stone balustrade, legs dangling, white tie undone, a glass in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. They had talked about lots of things, including the future, which had seemed quite different then.
    â€˜Lucky you,’ she had told him. ‘Going up to Oxford. I’ve gone and messed things up as usual.’
    â€˜You were a chump to get sacked from school. You’ve got a perfectly good brain, if only you’d use it – to stay out of trouble, for one thing. You could easily have got to Oxford if you’d tried.’
    â€˜Don’t give me a lecture. I couldn’t stick that ghastlyschool . . . all those stupid rules and bitchy girls. It was loathsome.’
    â€˜You’re still a chump. Well, what’re you going to do now?’
    She had stretched and yawned. It hadn’t seemed to matter much then. ‘Don’t know really. Life’s a bit of a bore at the moment. Mummy keeps going on about me going to some finishing school in Switzerland. Honestly, I can’t imagine anything more deadly, can you? Flower arranging and French cooking and all that sort of stuff. And girls just like the ones at St Mary’s, probably worse. Luckily, Daddy says “No,” because of all this scare about there being a war. I’d’ve refused to go anyway. I’ve had enough of school. She’s still trying to make me do the Season next year, though.’
    â€˜So you can bag a husband?’
    â€˜That’s her idea, anyway. Preferably one with a title.’
    â€˜And frightfully rich.’
    â€˜And frightfully boring. That’s why you’re so lucky to be going up to Oxford. You’ll meet all sorts of interesting people. Bound to.’
    â€˜Matter of fact, I doubt if I’ll ever get there.’
    â€˜Don’t talk rot. You’ll get in easily. You’ll probably be utterly sickening and get a scholarship.’
    He had shaken his head. ‘Didn’t mean that. The thing is, we’re bound to declare war on Germany soon. There won’t
be
any Season next year, so you needn’t worry about it.’
    â€˜I don’t believe there’s going to be a war. Chamberlain signed that thing to stop it.’
    â€˜A piece of paper! What’s the use of that? Hitler will just tear it up whenever it suits him. He took over Czechoslovakia and Austria. Now he’s got his nasty little eye on Poland. And we’ve given Poland our guarantee to go to her aid, so that’ll be that. War!
Ipso facto
. No getting out of it. Most of the beaks at school say so.’
    Anne had been silent for a moment, pushing the swing seat to and fro with her foot. Talk of a war had spoiledall the fun of the evening. She was sick of people going on all about it. Sick of all the talk of trenches and shelters and gasmasks. It was all such a