Common Virtue

June 21st 1941

Saturday. Courtney buried her head under her pillow. The cows were at it again and an annoying Davy was standing outside her bedroom door impersonating them. She wanted to yell at him to shut up, but that was impolite. Courtney was still trying to make a good impression.

She rolled out of bed eventually, ready for a day full of chores as usual. Running a farm took a lot of work, as Courtney quickly learnt. With Mr. Evans away, Mrs. Evans was doing a lot more work, and so were the boys, but Courtney wasn't helping very much. It had been a week and she was still terrified of most of the animals, but she was definitely doing a lot more cleaning. Dale, who had previously been in charge of cleaning, was now taking a more active role in the animal care so that Courtney didn't have to face her fears.

By the time Courtney got to the kitchen everyone had gone off to do their own days work. She wasn't too hungry, so decided to leave it for now. Instead she collected her bucket and mop from the cupboard and began cleaning the farmhouse from top to bottom. She didn't go in the bedrooms out of privacy, but every other room was scrubbed clean.

Her stomach started rumbling around half past ten, but Courtney worked through it. It would be lunch time soon,she reminded herself, and pushed on with her work.

It took her all morning to clean just the inside of the farmhouse to her own standards (which were pretty high). Mrs. Evans called her back downstairs for lunch at midday, to which Courtney eagerly awaited her stale bread sandwiches. She quickly learnt that the lunch routine was the same one everyday, while it was dinner or supper that were the best meals because Mrs. Evans usually did fully cooked dinners, the kind that Courtney hadn't really grown up with.

"Davey, take Courtney on the milk rounds with you," Mrs. Evans ordered her eldest son. Davey shot her a look when her back was turned, but Courtney just looked confused. Milk rounds?

Davey eyed Courtney up and down, making her uncomfortable. "Mum, I doubt she's going to be any help!"

"Oh, you'll find some use for her," Mrs. Evans shushed her son with a careless wave of her hand as she left the four children alone in the kitchen.

It was silent as Davey sulked, Dale ate and Duncan stared down Courtney. The young girl was looking very nervous. She didn't know what a milk round entailed, and it didn't look like Davey was too happy that she was about to find out. Duncan had a happy smirk on his face one which did nothing to settle Courtney's stomach. The only reason he'd be happy if knowing he had the upper hand over her.

"Come on then, brat," Davey muttered, getting up from his seat. He gathered his boots from the back door and Courtney followed suit. He led her down to the milk shed. The cows were out grazing, otherwise Courtney would have been running back to the farmhouse.

Davey made his way to the very back of the shed and pulled open the old refrigerator. It was where they kept all the buckets ond bottles of milk. They didn't have a lot of dairy cows so there wasn't a lot of milk.

The eldest son started pulling clear glass bottles from the fridge, all white with milk, and placing them inside a little blue wagon with a rusted handle and mud-crusted wheels. He didn't stop to ask Courtney to help him, he didn't even acknowledge her at all. She figured he must have done this a lot over the years, as Davey didn't even seem to be paying attention to what he was doing, his actions too mindless, his face too vacant.

When the fridge was empty, he turned and tugged the wagon back down to the entrance of the milk shed, whistling at Courtney as if she were a dog. Not having anyone to complain to, Courtney followed grumpily. She was not a dog.

Davey continued to not acknowledge Courtney as he walked down the muddy path that led to the gate that led to the main road. They were halfway to town before Courtney even noticed where they were heading. She had been angrily calling Davey all sorts of names in her head, not the kind of words she would ever be allowed to say out loud.

It was only a small village, not that many people around. Some kids were playing in the street, but they looked younger than Courtney so she wouldn't have bothered trying to make friends with them.

As Courtney watched the little ones, Davey stopped at the first house. He knocked on the door and an elderly woman answered shortly after. He didn't have to say anything to her, just handed her two bottles and she dropped some coins into his hand. The old lady patted him on the cheek to which he smiled, closing her front door for her as she hobbled back inside.

Courtney trailed after him to the second house where this time she watched Davey have to slightly persuade the middle-aged woman to buy the milk. In the end he grabbed onto Courtney's arm and tugged her forward.

"Please, Mrs. Jones. We're saving up to buy my evacuee sister some real clothes." Courtney looked up at Davey, wondering if he'd gone mad. His face was very convincing, however. She turned back to Mrs. Jones who was giving her a once over, making Courtney look down at her own dress. It was definitely a lot dirtier now than when it arrived. Duncan had made sure to ruin it with as much mud as possible, and it wasn't exactly easy to get out. Her stockings did have a couple of sewn up rips already, and her boots could barely be called 'new' anymore. Courtney turned her head back up to Mrs. Jones, smiling sadly, playing along with Davey's game.

The older woman rolled her eyes, grabbing the bottle of milk from Davey's hands and tossing him a couple of coins. Before he could even thank her she had shut the door on the pair, but the grin on Davey's face said he didn't care.

Courtney stared up at him curiously, and stared at him even more curiously as he pulled her to his side. "You and I, Courtney dear, are going to make a lot of money today."

And they did.

Before they'd even reached the of one side of the village square they had almost doubled their usual earnings just because persuading people that Courtney needed new clothes. Evacuees were some what coddled by some older folk, while others turned their noses up at the lot. Either way, they were making money with their sob story.

"Hey, Davey," Courtney piped up. He seemed in a good enough mood to actually talk to her now. The two had spent Courtney's entire week at the farm avoiding each other. Once Davey was done with his farm work he would usually head off to meet up with the friends of his that hadn't been drafted already. Mrs. Evans knew it wouldn't be long until Davey's birthday and he could easily sign himself up then, but until then she had taken to trying to get him to stay home as much as possible, though he wanted none of it. Courtney stayed out of the way when they argued, and Davey usually stormed off outside or to his bedroom afterwards. There hadn't really been a good time to get to know each other.

"Yes," he replied in a sing-song tone.

"Why do you want to join the army so badly?"

"I want to defend my country, Courtney!" He announced proudly, fist on his chest.

"But you could die."

"Well, yeah," he replied with a sloppy smile. "All of us could die. Wouldn't you rather die knowing that you did some good in the world?"

Courtney stopped walking for a moment, mulling it over in her head. "No. I'd rather die doing something sane."

Davey laughed, tugging her to his side again. "Come on then, oh sane one," he teased. "Let's go get you that new dress."

A/N: I thought we'd take a break from the Duncan/Courtney side for a moment and see some Davey for a change! I like Davey...I have plans for Davey ;)