Erin took the blow heavily. Emma was surprised at how bad. Sure she had been extremely upset when her father had died, but every day the pain grew a little easier. But with Erin, she just seemed to get worse and worse. And that affected the fsmily around her, making them sad to see her so depressed.
"Erin, could you help me with the dishes please?" Olivia asked, as she helped Emma carry over the plates.
"Sorry mama, I'm too tired." Erin pushed away her not so empty plate and trailed upstairs.
Grandpa frowned. "Not like her not to eat."
"Should I talk to her, Liv?" John glanced between where his daughter had disappeared and his wife.
Olivia sighed. "The loss of a loved one is hard, no matter who they are. Maybe leave her be, John. It will take many a day to heal that broken heart."
The summer months passed quickly, and soon Elizabeth, Erin and Jim Bob were back in school as usual. Erin was still quite sad most of the time, but being around her family cheered her up slightly. Ben and Emma walked down the street in Richmond, hand in hand. Butterflies swarmed in Ben's stomach as he glanced over at Emma. Should he ask her? No...Emma watched him from the corner of her eye. He was obviously nervous about something, but she couldn't put her finger on what. "Are you all right?"
Ben swallowed. "Yeah!"
"Okay... what did you want to talk about?" She asked as they sat down on a bench.
"Well, do you want to be my girlfriend?" Ben said bluntly, his face growing red.
Emma stared at him, wide eyed, before kissing him happily. "Oh yes! Of course!"
Now that everyone knew that they were dating, teasing came at every angle. John Boy, who was leaving the next week, had been the culprit behind most of it.
"Will you two stop kissing?" Jim Bob groaned from the couch.
Ben glared at him. "Well sorry you're fifteen and single."
"Oo!" Elizabeth laughed, poking Jim Bob.
"Listen up everyone!" Grandpa called, and everyone gathered around the radio.
"I am speaking to you from the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.
You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more, or anything different, that I could have done and that would have been more successful. Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between Germany and Poland. But Hitler would not have it. He had evidently made up his mind to attack Poland whatever happened, and although he now says he put forward reasonable proposals which were rejected by the Poles, that is not a true statement. The proposals were never shown to the Poles, nor to us, and though they were announced in the German broadcast on Thursday night, Hitler did not wait to hear comments on them, but ordered his troops to cross the Polish frontier the next morning.
His action shows convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.
We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. But the situation in which no word given by Germany's ruler could be trusted, and no people or country could feel itself safe, had become intolerable. And now that we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will all play your part with calmness and courage