Chapter 27
After the ceremony, the men of the RAF and RCAF held their sabres in an arch above the church door, looking no less gallant for the fact that a number of the wounded men were forced to support themselves with sticks.
Topsy wheeled Teddy through as the happy couple, laughing and blushing, were showered with rice and hot pennies by cheering villagers.
It felt like everyone who hadn’t been at the ceremony had come out to cheer Mrs Tadeusz Nowak, formerly Lady Honoria Sumner-Walsh, into married life.
Both bride and groom were well liked in the village.
Silverdale took a lot of pride in ‘Her Ladyship’, as Bobby knew they would always refer to Topsy in spite of changes to her name and title, who was admired for her generosity, her willingness to muck in and her absence of condescending airs.
Teddy, too, had been adopted by the village as one of their own since the night he had been carried down almost dead from Great Bowside.
Bobby had never seen such a crowd, nor heard such a racket.
There were strangers in the crowd too, and Bobby noticed as she walked to the church hall that a number of rather grand motor cars were now dotted around the village. These, she presumed, belonged to Topsy’s upper-crust friends. Certainly none of the local farmers could afford vehicles like that.
She wondered fleetingly where they were getting their petrol from.
Reg had had to take his old Wolseley off the road months ago thanks to cuts in the fuel allowance, and it had recently been announced that from July, petrol coupons for civilians would be done away with altogether.
Rationing was supposed to guarantee an equal share for all, but it did seem that when it came to the upper classes, different rules applied.
The reception was as typically Topsy as the wedding itself, in that it ignored every convention in favour of being exactly what the bride wanted.
When Bobby entered the church hall, she was expecting to find sedate rows of tables set for a meal, adorned with some of the gold-trimmed tablecloths she had spent so long stitching.
There were certainly a number of tables draped in the cloths, but these had been pushed against the walls, where they almost buckled under the weight of floral arrangements and food.
Her newly married friend Bess Jenkins’s eyes would bulge out of her head if she could see such a spread, after what she had told Bobby of her own modest wedding feast: spam sandwiches and jam tarts.
A few tables had been laid out for sitting at, but most of the floor was clear, and a dance band were seated at the front of the room.
The happy couple arrived at that moment.
Bobby watched as Piotr and Chip lifted Teddy’s wheelchair inside, with Topsy hopping up the steps beside him.
Topsy beamed as the band launched into a swing version of the wedding march.
Bobby, who was nearest the door, claimed her friend for a hug while some of the men came over to shake Teddy by the hand.
‘All the joy in the world, my love,’ Bobby said, giving her friend a squeeze.
‘Thank you, darling.’
‘The spread looks incredible. Are people to just help themselves?’
‘That’s right. I didn’t want some stuffy meal with speeches and all that rot. I wanted everyone up dancing. We had to have a few tables for the old folk, but I don’t want to see a single person under seventy sitting down today.’
‘This is more grub than these people will have seen in years,’ Bobby said, running her wondering gaze over it all. ‘All the village housewives will be running home for bigger handbags.’
She could see Jessie, Florrie and some of the other children staring pop-eyed at the sweet things, and knew they’d set upon them like locusts as soon as they were given permission to help themselves.
‘As long as everyone enjoys themselves.’ Topsy smiled at Teddy, who was being slapped on the back by Piotr. ‘But I mustn’t neglect my new husband.’
Teddy grinned when he caught her eye, and wheeled himself to her. He bowed and held out a hand. ‘A dance, Mrs Nowak?’
‘It would be my pleasure, Mr Nowak,’ Topsy said, giggling as she dropped a curtsey. Piotr took charge of the wheelchair so Teddy could lead his new bride to the dance floor.
Bobby watched as Archie entered with another young man, who she recognised as one of Topsy’s fashionable friends. She had seen him once before, at Topsy’s Christmas party. He was blinking in puzzlement.
‘I don’t get it, Sumner,’ she overheard him saying. ‘What is this place?’
‘It’s a church hall, Dolly. Don’t they have them where you are?’
‘I wouldn’t know, I’ve never looked.’ The young man known as Dolly stared at the new husband and wife moving around the floor, Piotr pushing so that Teddy could lead his bride in a waltz. ‘Why here? Why not the Dorch or somewhere, if she can’t have it at her place?’
Archie shrugged. ‘No use asking me. You might remember I resigned from the role of groom.’
‘Who are all these people?’
‘Farmers and their families mostly. They live in the village.’
‘Farmers?’ Dolly gazed blankly around the hall. ‘I don’t understand. Is it some sort of wheeze?’
‘No, it’s just Topsy,’ Archie said with a laugh.
‘What could she be thinking of, marrying a Pole? She could have had anyone. I mean, the man can’t even walk.’
‘I suppose she was thinking that she loved him,’ Archie said as he reached over to help himself to an hors d’oeuvre.
Dolly curled his lip as he watched the odd dance: Topsy clasping Teddy’s hand while he was wheeled in time to the music. ‘Look at them. It’s absurd.’
‘Tops doesn’t think so. I’ve never seen her look so proud.’ Archie spotted Bobby and smiled. ‘Excuse me, old man. There’s a young lady here I simply must ask to dance.’
He left his friend to approach her.
‘I’d love to, Arch,’ Bobby said before he could ask.
Archie grinned and took her hand to pull her on to the dance floor, where a few other couples had joined the newlyweds.
Chip had taken charge of Teddy’s wheelchair so Piotr could enjoy some time in the arms of his wife.
Their little son Tommy was now in the care of the Parry girls as they examined the tables of food, making a mental inventory so they could show off to any friends at school who hadn’t been lucky enough to be present.
Lilian had dragged Tony on to the floor as well.
He struggled to hold her close with her swollen belly between them, but nevertheless wore an expression of pride in his pretty wife and the visible evidence of his virility.
‘I was hoping I’d get the chance to give you a whirl,’ Archie said to Bobby. ‘Best part of the day. Mind you, I can’t deny I had a tear in my eye when I handed the old girl over earlier. Appropriate, what? The old groom giving her up to the new.’
‘Your friend Mr Dolly seems a little confused by it all,’ Bobby observed.
‘Topsy can have that effect on people. They’re so used to one way of doing things, you know, and then along comes Tops with her mad ideas.
But Dolly’s not a bad sort, deep down. He’s just got the hump because he thought he might have a chance with her himself.
’ Archie gestured to a handsome middle-aged woman looking down her nose at proceedings as she spoke with a high-ranking RAF officer. ‘Did you notice that Mother was here?’
Bobby glanced at Topsy’s Aunt Constance. ‘I thought she’d sworn she wouldn’t come.’
‘She did, but then she heard Topsy’s Uncle Geoffrey would be attending – that’s Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Badham to the rest of us oiks.
I think Mother has rather set her cap at him.
Having given up on marrying me off for money and status, she’s determined to do it for herself.
’ He looked approvingly at Bobby’s floral dress.
‘I say, you do look smashing. Is your chap here?’
‘No, he couldn’t get leave.’
‘And no Ernie King to share you with either. That means I can have every dance to myself.’
Bobby smiled. ‘Aren’t you worried Mother Dearest will cut you off if she sees you waltzing with the gamekeeper’s daughter?’
He laughed, flushing a little. ‘Ah, now you’re going to force me to reveal my deep, dark secret. I was hoping to save it until at least one of us was squiffy. Things never sound quite so foolish after half a bottle of wine.’
‘What is it?’
‘A job.’
‘You finally found something? What are you doing?’
He smiled. ‘That’s the embarrassing part.
I suppose you thought I was joking, after our pantomime when I said I might audition for ENSA.
Well, I thought, what the hell – why not give it a try?
Playing the fool is really the only thing I was ever any good at.
Anyhow, I suppose they must be desperate because they’ve assigned me to a troupe. ’
Bobby blinked. ‘You’re joining an ENSA troupe?’
She knew Archie had been keen to find a job that would give him some degree of independence from his mother’s tightly knotted purse strings since being invalided out of the RAF, but the idea of Bobby’s upper-class friend joining the organisation that provided entertainment for the troops – Every Night Something Awful, as wags liked to joke the initials stood for – had never occurred to her.
‘That’s right,’ Archie said. ‘Chap there lost the other half of his double act in the Blitz so he needs a new stooge. The gag is that he’s a cloth-cap-wearing salt-of-the-earth type and I’m to be the aristocratic idiot he outwits.
’ He grinned. ‘Suits me perfectly, don’t you think? I won’t even need to rehearse.’
‘You in ENSA! I didn’t expect that, I must say.’
‘I know, isn’t it madness? We’re being sent to Northumberland in a few weeks to entertain some soldiers. I hope the cook there has been saving up their egg rations. They’ll need some rotten ones when I get on stage.’