"I suppose it wouldn't help if I told you that this isn't a dream?"

"No," I said, and for the first time since I awoke, I laughed. "Nobody in my dreams thought that I was dreaming."

21. A Princess of Fischen

"I do have a talent for getting into strange situations," I admitted.

"I can see that!" Cakey replied, shaking the bars of my cage. "But don't worry. In the morning, as soon as the three of us are awake, I'm busting you guys out."

Farah and I went to bed that night wondering if we would find ourselves back in 1944 again. In spite of the first couple of times I had time-slipped, since then it seemed it was the bed that had acted as my “Tardis” to wartime.

‘Well, I guess he’s always thought I was a bit girly,’ I confided; ‘but he was never mean about it–unlike a lot of other boys.’

Mom froze. "Marcie Auburn?" she repeated cautiously. "Is there something you want to tell me, Marcie? You're not planning on eloping, are you? You're too young to get married... in fact, even if you were old enough, I don't think you could get married."

Charlotte’s Tale.
by Angharad.
Part 16.

"You know," Wiggy told me, "the way Robinson Crusoe realized he wasn't alone was that he found a footprint in the sand."

"That's kind of creepy," I said, looking around us.

"There might be a man on the island," Mirina said quietly.

"A good-looking man?" Cakey laughed.

"I'm starving!" Donkey shouted. "Boogers, what does this haggis stuff taste like, anyway?"

"I don't know," the cook replied, "but we'll find out soon!"

Mrs Johnson finished her tea and I followed her into the kitchen with my dirty cup. She rinsed them both out and popped them in the washer. “Right, young lady,” she said drying her hands, “let’s go and bath the baby.”

We waited... and waited... and waited. Then, at nearly the same moment, the longboat appeared at the end of the cove, and a red flare shot up into the sky from behind the hill.

"What does that mean?" Cakey asked.

"I'm not going to put cooking oil on my head," Donkey said. "I'll break out in a thousand zits and smell like french fries."

"The boys will love that," Ding-Dong joked. "They'll all be sniffing after you."

Wiggy growled in anger and frustration, "Arrgh! ARRGH! I am going to KILL Belle Dubois! I'm going to kill her! I swear!"

"Remember, girls, what I told you when you first came onboard. If we're all going to get through this, we've got to stick together, help one another, and you've got do what you're told. If you want to ask questions or discuss things, or if think you've got a better idea, leave it till tomorrow. We've got to move fast."

We waved them goodbye as Mrs Rose drove off and then returned to the house where Farah and I went back up to my room. Everything had been left neat and tidy.

‘I hope everything goes okay for Bryony at the doctor’s,’ I said. ‘It’s not going to be easy for her having to pretend to be a boy at school and only being a girl at home and the weekends.’

"It's not a joke," Cakey said, and there was enough alarm in her tone that Wiggy and I ran to the rail to see. I could see Cakey's entire body under the water, but no sign of Ding-Dong. Cakey looked scared. "She's been under a long time. She said she wanted to touch the bottom."

We finished our pud and were clearing the dirty crocks to the kitchen when the ’phone rang. ‘I’ll get it, Auntie,’ I said, putting the pudding bowls on the counter above the dishwasher. I hurried to the ’phone and lifted the handset.

‘Gaby? This is B-Bryony. I’ve t-told Mummy and we’re g-going to see D-Dr MacNeish after tea.’

Donkey put in, "What is the poop deck, anyway? I mean, really?"