House of spies door Griselda Gifford

House of Spies
By Griselda Gifford
2005

Setting
England during WW2

Characters
Mum - The Mother of Pippa.
Pippa - Thirteen year old girl who was sent from London to the countryside with her Mum.
Dad - He is in the Royal Air Force and away at war
Harry - Girl that Pippa stays with
Nurse Robin(son) - The neighbor of Pippa
Mrs Jarvis - The pub keeper
Mrs Seddon - Harry’s Mother
Dick Seddon - Harry’s Father
Max - Eleven year old boy from London who lives with a mysterious old couple.
Benny - An evacuee from London

Spike - Local boy who fights with Harry
Don - Canadian soldier
Hans and Ulla Schmidt - Couple that the towns people think are German spies.

Chapter One

Pippa and her Mum have recently moved to Grandma’s cottage on the coast of England from London. It should be safer there from the German air raids. However there are still air raids and one night Pippa is woken by her mother and they flee to the village pub. Pippa takes her pet mice with her. An unexploded bomb has fallen near their cottage. The next morning Pippa goes back to the cottage to take care of her cat, Thomasina, but is told by a soldier to leave because the unexploded bomb is dangerous. On her way back to the pub she meets a boy, Harry, on a pony. He is searching for his family’s escaped goat and he agrees to help Pippa find her cat later that night.

Chapter Two

Pippa and her Mum are staying with Mrs. Jarvis, the pub keeper, along with their neighbor Nurse Robinson. The bomb is supposed to be defused tomorrow. Pippa goes to the shop and buys some candy. They are still staying at the pub and Pippa is wearing old clothes from Mrs. Jarvis’s son. She sneaks out that night to meet Harry. They creep past some soldiers and find both the cat and the goat in her yard. A soldier sees them and chases them, and as they are running away there is a huge explosion closeby that knocks Pippa to the ground.


Chapter Three

Pippa records in her diary that everyone thinks they made the bomb go off but she swears it isn’t her fault. Her Mum is quite angry at her. The bomb damaged both their house and the house of Nurse Robin. Pippa is relieved to have her cat with her in her room at the pub. While looking through their damaged house Pippa sees Harry. Harry’s Mum is also there and it turns out that Harry is a girl. Mrs Seddon offers to let them stay with her because she feels that it’s partially Harry’s fault for making the bomb go off. Dick, Harry’s father, is home from the war and was wounded in battle. He has been in a bad mood since he came back. Mel, Harry’s older sister, is a Quaker and doesn’t believe in fighting but still works at a nurse. Dick doesn’t like that. Pippa and her mother stay in Mel’s room. Pippa helps Harry do chores around the farm and then they ride horses. Harry thinks someone tried to steal their goat the night of the bombing. They hear a nearby gunshot and soon come across a house with a rifle poking out of one of the windows.

Chapter Four

They see a boy come out and unleash a dog and go off with it. Harry says that that’s the boy who unhooked her goat and goes after him, saying not to worry about the rifle because they probably were just shooting a fox. She catches the boy and he admits to freeing the goat because he doesn’t like seeing animals chained up and wanted it for company but it got away from him. His name is Max and he claims that the people in the house, the Smiths, are really German spies and that their real names are Hans and Ulla Schmidt. His Dad is away at war, his Mum is in hospital, and his Grandma was killed by a German bomb. He hates the Germans and wishes he was old enough to go to war and kill them. Harry and Pippa agree to help hide him because he doesn’t want to go back to the Smiths. They help him flee with his dog, Winston, and Harry takes him to a little shack where Mel used to go to watch birds. They promise to bring him some supplies.

Chapter Five

After lunch back at the farm Harry and Pippa try to gather as much food as they can. Pippa’s cat runs away and she worries about it all day. Pippa also brings Max some money to get back to London, but when they get there they hear Max Crying about his Mum. It turns out she is probably dead because they never found her body in the rubble of the house, but Max hopes that she is in hospital somewhere and no one knows who she is. He wants to go back and look for her but he can’t because someone will find him and just send him back to the Smiths. Pippa wishes he wouldn’t talk about Mum’s dying because it makes her feel like nothing is safe anymore. Back home that night they get a visit from Nurse Robin and she confirms the rumor that the Smiths are really the Schmidts.

Chapter Six

Pippa and Harry go into town to get some food from the shops. Both shops they visit people mention that a boy has run away from the Smiths, but everyone distrusts the Smiths. Harry tells Pippa of a motorcycle accident she saw and Pippa doesn’t feel well because death isn’t just for old people anymore. Later a policeman comes by the farm to ask them if they’ve seen Max, but Dick just talks about war and death. The postman then brings a letter from Dad and confirms that the Smiths really are the Schmidts. Their son, Martin, is the local gamekeeper. He mostly keeps to himself in the woods and the postman reckons that’s because he’s ashamed of his parents being German. The letter from Dad says that his leave has been canceled and that’s he’s fallen in love with another woman, Netta. Pippa wishes that his plane would get shot down and she goes off with Harry on the horses in tears.

Chapter Seven

Pippa is terribly angry with her father. They reach Max’s hiding place, only to discover that he’s been found by two other boys, Spike and Benny, and been tied up. They threaten to tell people that they have Max unless they give them money, but there is an air raid again. They lie low to the ground and can see the crosses on the German planes as they pass. The planes drop some more bombs and as soon as they are gone Harry goes off to find of the horses that spooked and ran off. Pippa stays with Benny, who has hurt his leg in a fall from the horse.


Chapter Eight

Pippa has some Red Cross training so she wraps up Benny’s swollen ankle. They head back to the shack but Max and Winston are gone. Benny needs to see a doctor and one of the horses is still missing. Harry comes back and they all go back together. They are met by Mum, Mrs Seddon, Spike’s father, and a young soldier named Don. Nurse Robin comes to tend to Benny’s twisted ankle and her and Dick agree that the Schmidts may be telling the Germans where to bomb and that they should be put in prison. Harry and Pippa walk to Pippa’s damaged home. They find both Winston and Thomasina, the cat there, as well as Max.

Chapter Nine

Max says he is afraid of the other boys and is hiding from them. Harry and Pippa tell him he must leave and find evidence that the Schmidts are spies. Spike shows up, looking for ‘that German boy” and when he is in the house a piece of roof falls on him. They leave him and convince Max that the old man is sending messages from a radio in the attic and that the woman is stealing government secrets from the manor where she works as a cleaning lady. They find their missing horse. Pippa says she will go with Max to the Schmidts and say she found him lost in the woods and is bringing him home.

Chapter Ten

Pippa brings Max home during a thunderstorm and says he was lost in the woods. Ulla hugs him. Ulla says that Hans fought for the British during WW1 and was made ill by the nerve gas and shell shock. Pippa hears another shot and runs for it back up the path to Harry. Pippa doesn’t think they are spies anymore after hearing Ulla’s story but Harry wants to prove to her Dad how brave she is by catching a spy. Mum comes home late on Don’s bike and has started to arrange for their house to be fixed. Pippa overhears Dick saying again how the Schmidts should be in prison and Pippa worries where Max would go.

Chapter Eleven

Harry wakes Pippa up early to help prepare goods for the market. Spike and his dad come to help with the pigs and Benny is with them. He tells that people are plotting to drive the Schmidts out. Mum is still very sad about Dad leaving her. The postman comes by and tells them that the Schmidts may go to an internment camp and Max would be billeted somewhere else. Pippas house is started to be fixed and she tries to catch her cat again, who is staying at the house now. The builder says it’s a shame that the Schmidts are telling the German parachuters where to land. Harry and Pippa say they must talk to Max and see what he has found out. Mum says that Dad wants a divorce.

Chapter Twelve

Late at night Harry and Pippa sneak out to meet with Max. Max tells them that he found no radio and that the manor where Ulla works has a lot of security and she couldn’t just steal documents. Pippa tells Max to warn the Schmidts that the villagers are planning something. The Seddon’s pig is having a difficult labour when Pippa and Mum go to church. Mum explains to Pippa that she still has hope for her marriage because Dad has had girlfriends before but he always comes back to her. After church people talk about the Schmidts and are angry and demand that something be done. Pippa decides that she and Harry have to help the Schmidts.


Chapter Thirteen

Harry and Pippa discuss how to help the Schmidts because Mrs. Jarvis said they may be arrested next week. Pippa doesn’t want to tell her Mum because it would just give her one more thing to worry about. Pippa finds Mels diary and reads about how Mel struggles with being a peaceful person versus what she would do if her home was invaded by Germans.

Chapter Fourteen

Nurse Robin comes by to attend to Dick and says that there will be a meeting that night about the Schmidts at the pub. Pippa and Harry lie to Mrs Jarvis and say that they are looking for her mother’s fountain pen but instead they eavesdrop on the meeting. The men are all angry and are plotting to get the authority to get rid of the Schmidts. Pippa and Harry get a ride home with Don, who them takes Mum out for a ride on his motorcycle. Harry and Pippa decide they need to warn the Schmidts and will do so tomorrow. A telegram comes and says that Dad is missing and presumed dead. Pippa feels guilty for wishing him dead.

Chapter Fifteen

Pippa thinks about her Dad dying but realizes she has to do something about the Schmidts. Her and Harry go to their house to speak with them but Max and Ulla tell them to go. The police had called and it had upset Hans. Before they can argue it there is another air raid. The girls and Max go and hide in the woods but Ulla goes back in to get Hans. A bomb hits the house and it is on fire. Hans is trapped up in the attic and Pippa feels that to make up for wishing her father dead she needs to rescue Hans, so she climbs up a ladder to get to him. Soon all the men from the village come and tell her to get off the ladder. Dick goes into the house. There is fire and smoke and confusion.

Chapter Sixteen

The village men bring a limp body out of the house. Mum and Mrs Seddon come. Max is crying and upset and says that the Germans got his great uncle Hans. Nurse Seddon attends to Dick, who refused to go the hospital. It is the beginning of the Blitz. The villagers no longer think that the Schmidts are spies and offer Ulla and Max a place to stay. They are staying with the Seddons. Don called Mum but Pippa doesn’t know what it’s about.

Chapter Seventeen

The kids are all waiting for a bus to go to school. It’s the new term. Dad isn’t dead but is in a prisoner of war camp. Pippa and Mum aren’t sure they want him back though. They go to school with their gasmasks because the war is still on. Pippa wonders if peaceful people like the Quakers will ever stop the wars. Lots of children have lost their parents and homes.


Thoughts

The constant air raid and threat of invasion had made the people very nervous. They are especially suspicious of outsiders, which they wouldn’t be in peace time. War affects everyone it touches, whether it kills you or maims you or even if you just witness these things. It makes people act differently than in peace time. Dick and Hans are both proof that even long after a war you can still be affected by it and it can change your life in a very bad way. Most of Max’s family is killed by the Germans and it makes Pippa realize that nothing is safe during war and that mother and fathers can be killed without warning.