The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

I shrugged. Miss Smith persisted. “If you have to tell lies, or you think you
have to, to keep yourself safe—I don’t think that makes you a liar. Liars tell
lies when they don’t need to, to make themselves look special or important.
That’s what I thought you were doing yesterday. I was wrong.”
I didn’t want to talk about it. “Why is Maggie going away for school?” I
asked instead. “Why doesn’t she go to school where Jamie does?”
“Rich people educate their children at boarding schools,” Miss Smith
replied. “Margaret won’t have to leave school at fourteen to work, like most
children do. She’ll stay at school until she’s sixteen or seventeen. If the war’s
over by then she’ll probably go to finishing school. She might even go to
university.”
“What kind of school did you go to?” I asked.
“A boarding school,” she said. “Not because my family was rich—they
weren’t. I was bright and my father is a clergyman, and some schools offer
scholarships to the bright daughters of clergymen.”
“What’s a clergyman?”
“You know—a vicar. A man who runs a church.”
The “you know” kept me from asking more. “Churches are where the bells
are.”
“Yes,” said Miss Smith. “Only they aren’t going to be allowed to ring the
bells anymore. Only in case of invasion, to warn us.”
I smoothed the pants with my hand. Tomorrow I’d wear them. The left
boot too.
“Ada?” Miss Smith said. “I wish I’d believed you.”
I darted a quick glance at her and shrugged again.