Chapter 4
Bobby knelt motionless by the fire, her sister’s letter in her hand. A spark jumped out and set light to the corner, bringing her back to life. She blew it out before the whole thing went up in flames.
She could hardly believe it! Her brain, so full of her own worries moments before, was whirling now with thoughts of her sister.
Her pretty, lively, fun-loving sister, courted by every lad she’d ever met, engaged to Tony!
Tony Scott, who wouldn’t recognise a hard day’s work if it were painted blue and dancing a hornpipe.
Tony Scott, who oiled his way round the pubs of Bradford like a dog on heat.
He was so very far from everything Bobby knew her romance-loving twin had dreamed of.
But what could be done? In less than six months a baby would be coming, and Tony was that baby’s father. Lilian was right: this was the best outcome. It was the only outcome that would allow her to keep both her baby and her reputation.
Not that that made Bobby feel any jollier about it. Could Tony really make her sister happy? Could he provide for her and the baby?
Then again, he’d always been keen on the idea of matrimony, despite his flirtatious ways.
It certainly sounded as though he’d jumped on the opportunity to snag himself a wife.
How Bobby wished she could talk to the man!
There was a lot she intended to say to her old friend when she finally got her hands on him.
Could they be married already? Surely not so soon as that. Bobby was tempted to jump on a train to Bradford that very evening and try to talk her sister out of it – except she knew in her heart that there really wasn’t anything else to be done.
Her eyes flickered to the passage of Lilian’s letter where she talked about her daydream of the two of them raising the baby together, somewhere far away. If only that was possible…
Bobby started when she heard snow being knocked off boots outside. Her dad was home. Hastily she stuffed Lilian’s letter into her pocket.
‘Dad.’ She summoned a smile as he came in, and stood to give him a kiss of greeting. ‘How was work? I’m sure Topsy would have granted you a day’s holiday with the weather as bad as it is.’
‘Nay, I’ll not beg holidays from Her Ladyship for a little ice and snow. Never let it be said I’m not earning my keep in them woods, our Bobby. I’ve been salting paths since dawn.’ He frowned when he took in her appearance. ‘What’s up, lass?’
Bobby took out her handkerchief and wiped away the sooty tears that clung to her cheeks. ‘Oh, nothing to worry about. I was being foolish.’
‘No bad news? You’ve not heard from one o’ t’ lads?’
‘Nothing to do with Jake or Ray, or Charlie either.’ She went to their Bakelite wireless set to tune it to Radio éireann, the Irish station, which usually played light music at this time. It gave her an excuse to keep her face averted while she broke her news.
There was no need to tell her dad about Lilian’s engagement.
Not yet. If he found out what Tony had done, he’d have beaten the man to a bloody pulp before Lil had a chance to get him to the register office.
He’d never approved of Bobby’s friendship with ‘that nowt’, as he always called Tony.
And if he ever found out that the situation was, in some ways, because of him – that Lilian and Tony had only begun walking out because Lil felt obliged to pay Tony back for suppressing a newspaper piece about her dad’s black market activities – it could send his mental state spiralling.
Besides, Bobby was determined to speak to her sister before she went through with the wedding.
But her medical was in two days’ time, and her dad needed to be made aware.
Bobby tried to keep her tone light as she twiddled the knob on the wireless.
‘It isn’t bad news,’ she said. ‘But I am going to have to disappear on Wednesday – just for the day. I had a letter this morning summoning me to Bradford for a medical examination.’
Her dad had been about to sit in his chair by the fire. He stopped, frowning.
‘Medical examination?’ He sounded suddenly afraid. Bobby knew he was thinking of her mother, and the cancer that had taken her from them nine years earlier. ‘You badly wi’ summat then?’
‘I feel as well as I ever did. But… well, see for yourself.’
She passed him the crumpled War Office letter. Her father’s blank look told her he still didn’t understand.
‘It’s the forces, Dad.’ She went to take his coat and guided him into his chair, trying to keep her voice reassuring. ‘Women’s conscription – do you remember? They passed a new bill before Christmas. But it’s nothing to worry about. Reg found a loophole.’
‘Loophole?’ her dad said, looking dazed.
‘Yes, for hardship cases. You have to have someone to keep house for you, don’t you? If I tell them you’re a widower and I’m the only family left at home, they’re bound to see it my way.’
Her dad didn’t answer. He looked rather helpless, and smaller suddenly, hunched in his chair. His eyes darted around the room, into the shadows that filled the old barn, as if contemplating the terror of having to occupy the place alone.
Bobby approached his chair from behind. She removed his cloth cap and bent to kiss his bald crown.
‘Don’t worry, Dad,’ she said softly. ‘I’m sure they wouldn’t make me go. Even if they did, you’ve Reg and Mary just across the way, and your friends in the village, and your work for Topsy to occupy you. Mary would make sure you had everything you needed. You’d hardly even miss me.’
‘But you’ll not go? You’ll tell them you’re needed at home?’ His voice shook, and he looked up into her eyes. ‘I don’t know how I’d get on without you, our Bobby.’
The pleading note cut her right to the heart. She knew what he meant. The temptation to drink, without the steadying influence of a daughter who looked up to him, would perhaps be too great to resist.
‘I’ll do everything I can,’ she said. But something made her add, ‘Everything I think is right.’
Bobby rose earlier than usual again the next day.
Her alarm clock rang once more at five a.m., although she might as well not have bothered setting it, as she had barely slept the night before.
An uneasy rest had been interrupted by the racking sobs of her father, crying in his sleep.
Once she had brought him back from the dark place and quieted the ghosts in his head with a measure of the potato-peel spirit her friend Don Sykes got for her, Bobby had been unable to get back to the land of dreams. Her brain had been too full of her predicament, and her sister’s.
Her gaze fell on Charlie’s photograph. How she wished she could speak to him, just for a moment! Letters were so dry, and it was hard to pour her heart out as she would if she had him with her. She longed to be held, comforted, told everything was going to be all right.
There were still patches of treacherous ice about, but the thaw had set in, and Bobby was able to ride her bicycle into Silverdale without much danger. She found Gil Capstick opening up the post office.
‘Morning, Miss,’ he called out jovially. ‘You’re out and about early again. More of them Red Cross parcels to drop off?’
‘No, this is for me,’ Bobby said, panting slightly – she had pedalled like the blazes to reach the village so she wouldn’t be late for work. ‘I’ve a couple of wires to send. I’ll pay the extra shilling for priority. Can you take them down for me, Gil?’
‘Well, we’re not rightly open for quarter of an hour, but since it’s you. Come on in where it’s warmer.’
She did so, although if anything, the old stone post office felt even colder than the winter air outside. Bobby shivered as she waited for Gil to dig out his pencil and pad.
‘Now then, who’re we wiring?’ he asked.
‘Charlie first, please. RAF Ryland Moor.’
‘Still there, is he? I heard they were sending him to Lincolnshire somewhere.’
‘They are, soon, but he hasn’t gone yet.’
‘All right, what’s the message?’
Bobby hesitated. ‘Just say… “LLP tonight? Need to see you. Urgent.”’
‘That military jargon, is it?’
‘He’ll know what it means. It stands for Late Leave Pass.’
Gil frowned as he jotted the rest down. ‘“Ur…gent.” There you go. Nowt wrong, I hope, Miss?’
‘Just a bit of a family crisis.’
Bobby bit her tongue as soon as the words were out of her mouth, realising how they might be misconstrued. Gil was a lovely lad but he could gossip for England. The last thing she wanted was it being all over the village that ‘that Miss Bancroft from t’ paper is in the family way’.
‘My family, I mean – my sister,’ she clarified hastily. ‘I need Charlie’s advice.’
‘To do with your letter yesterday, is it?’
‘One of them, yes.’ Bobby changed the subject swiftly before he probed further. ‘Is that good to go, Gil?’
‘Unless you’ve owt else to add. You can have another two words for your ninepence.’
‘There’s nothing else I need to say.’ She coloured a little. ‘Actually, better add “love”. A few kisses as well.’
He smiled. ‘I should hope so. And the other?’
Bobby was glad Lilian had told her where she was staying so she knew where to direct the telegram.
Clara Soames kept a boarding house on Southampton Street in Bradford, near their old home.
Bobby gave Gil the address, praying her sister wasn’t married already.
She had no idea what she was going to do, but she knew she needed to speak to Lilian before she committed her life to a man she didn’t love.
‘What’s the message?’ Gil asked when he’d taken down the name and address.
‘Just this. “In Bradford tomorrow: 7th. Do nothing till I come. Please.”’
‘Sure you want the “please”? It’s another penny.’
‘Yes, it’s worth the extra.’
‘All right, then with the priority that’ll be two and seven.’
The bell over the door jangled as Bobby handed over the coins. Her friend Topsy Sumner-Walsh came in, a worried look on her attractive, girlish face.
‘Oh, Birdy, you’re here,’ she said, coming forward to embrace her. ‘I was going to come to you afterwards if there was any news. Is there, Gil?’
He shook his head sorrowfully. ‘Sorry, Your Ladyship. Nowt from t’ airbase.’
Bobby frowned. As usual her friend seemed to think that whatever she knew was common knowledge, but several days of bad weather had kept the folk at Moorside closeted from any village gossip.
Why would Topsy be expecting anything from an airbase, and why did she look so worried?
As far as Bobby knew, she had no family with the RAF since her cousin Archie had been invalided out.
‘Topsy, what’s happened?’ she asked.
‘Oh my darling, didn’t you hear?’ Topsy blinked wide eyes at her. ‘It’s Ernie.’
Bobby felt her stomach plummet.
‘No,’ she whispered. ‘He isn’t…’
‘Dead? No. That is to say, I don’t know. Nobody does.’
‘That’s right, Miss,’ Gil said soberly. ‘Them Canadian fellers billeted with Louisa were expecting their mate back from a sortie three day ago, but he never turned up. There’s been so much of this bad weather about, blizzards and whatnot, you can’t help fearing the worst.’
There was a Canadian aerodrome just over the border in Lancashire, and a number of the airmen based had been billeted in nearby villages.
Three of them – Chip, Ernie and Sandy – had arrived in Silverdale back in the autumn, to stay with postmistress Louisa Clough and her husband Wilf.
However, Bobby hadn’t seen Ernie since before New Year.
She turned to Topsy. ‘Surely the base would tell Chip and Sandy if anything had happened to Ernie, wouldn’t they?’
‘Chip’s waiting for news. I’ve his permission to check if I come in.’ Topsy sighed. ‘My poor boy is worried sick. Teddy and Ernie had started to become ever so pally.’
‘I do hope it isn’t bad news,’ Bobby said fervently. The handsome, grinning face of Flying Officer Ernie King, so young and full of life, had appeared in her mind’s eye. ‘I couldn’t take a bit more bad news about someone I love.’
Topsy frowned. ‘Did something happen, Birdy?’
Bobby rubbed her forehead. ‘Oh, nothing. At least, nothing compared to this. He has to be safe, doesn’t he? Otherwise it would be so… unfair.’
‘I don’t think this stinking war cares a whole lot about fair and unfair,’ Topsy said bitterly. ‘But for Ernie’s sake, I hope you’re right.’