“What was wrong with Jed and Lindi, before?” said Trig. “They were being really weird. Didn’t you think so, Maggie? Didn’t you think so? Why were they being like that? Why did she push me? Why did she say all those things to you?”

“Je-ed! Je-ed! Je-ed!”

“They’re just excited,” I lied.

I’d never imagined eldests being frightened of anything, least of all going to camp. But Jed and Lindi – they were scared. Really scared.

SATURDAY
6 SEPTEMBER

CHAPTER 15

“Here.” Jed unstrapped Grandad Cruise’s watch from his wrist. “Can’t take it with me.”

He passed it to me. I held it to my ear.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Steady as you like.

“I’ll look after it,” I said. “Till you get back.”

Jed did one of his half-smiles. “Trig, you can have everything else.” He pushed open his bedroom door. “Whatever you want.”

He wasn’t allowed to take much to camp. Just a few clothes and his billy lamp. That was all.

Trig didn’t go in. He started bobbing. He’d be jogging on the spot soon.

“Treat it well, though—” Jed gave Trig a mock punch in the arm— “or you’ll be for it when I get home.” He didn’t laugh, though. Didn’t even smile.

He wasn’t coming back. Not to stay. Not for a visit. Not for anything. He wasn’t coming back any more than Mum’s sister Lil was.

I started bobbing too, just like Trig.

Got to get out of here. Got to get out.

I ran downstairs. Out of the back door, into the garden. The air was thicker than ever. The neck of my T-shirt was already soaked with sweat. Hope Elsie was right about the weather. She said it was going to change. It had to rain. It couldn’t carry on like this.

I wrapped Grandad Cruise’s watch round my wrist and did it up on the smallest fitting. It was loose, but not so loose it’d fall off. I touched its glassy face.

“Maggie?” Mum stood in the doorway. Mum, who’s been lying to me all this time. Letting me think Jed’d be coming home. “Maggie – are you all ri—”

“Leave me alone.”

“Oh, Maggie, I know how you must—”

“You lied about camp.”

She frowned. “Lied?”

“Jed’s not coming home, is he? Not ever.”

Mum’s face crumpled. “Maggie—”

“You lied about Aunt Lil.”

“We had to, Maggie. It’s part of the edict. We have to keep the war quiet. We have to look after the eldests. We have to make sure they—”

“Dad too. Both of you lied—”

“What’s going on?” Trig. He hooked himself under Mum’s arm and snugged himself in. “What’s Maggie talking about, Mum? What are you talking about, Maggie?”

Mum looked right at me. Her eyes bulged with tears.

Don’t tell Trig.

Don’t tell Trig.