Chapter 43
The matron was waiting for them back at the hospital, looking stern.
She proceeded to give both Topsy and Charlie a dressing down on the subject of smuggling in lovers on the pretence of showing them door plaques.
Charlie flashed Bobby something like his old schoolboy grin while he was being told off, and she smiled back.
For the first time since leaving for the WAAF, she felt a lightness of heart.
Charlie was here, and he loved her, still.
Yes, there was pain alongside the joy. He was injured in a way that was going to affect both their lives, in his mind as well as his body.
Bobby could sense the mental anguish that came from feeling as though everything that made him a man had been stripped from him.
No doubt many challenges lay ahead that were undreamed of in the days before the war had touched their lives.
Still, he was hers. They would make it all right, somehow, the two of them.
Topsy escorted her from the hospital and walked with her as far as the path.
‘Did he tell you about his injuries?’ she asked.
Bobby nodded. ‘He was embarrassed to give details, but I gathered he’d been hurt in the groin. That he won’t be able to… that married life might look a little different than we’d expected.’
‘And you’re going ahead, still?’
‘He wanted me to take time to think about it, but I don’t need to. I love him, Topsy. Of course I’m going ahead.’
Topsy beamed at her. ‘Oh, you are the most heavenly creature. I knew you would. I felt guilty going behind his back, but I couldn’t let that foolish boy grieve his life away knowing you hadn’t the faintest idea he was here and wounded.
It reminded me of how close Teddy and I came to losing each other, all for his silly man’s stubbornness. ’
‘Has Charlie been dreadfully depressed?’ Bobby asked quietly.
Topsy bowed her head. ‘Very much so. He refused to let me speak with his family, even though the RAF sent him here to convalesce so he could be close to them. I felt entirely helpless trying to cope with his moods. Honestly, I’d started to be really afraid for him, he seemed so low.
That was why I confided in Ernie. I knew he could get you here, and you’d be able to help Charlie better than anyone else. ’
Bobby smiled at her. ‘You’re an angel to help.’
‘You did the same for me, once,’ Topsy said shyly. ‘I had better go back to work. You’ll want to see your family. Perhaps you oughtn’t to say anything to the Athertons about Charlie though. I think he’ll want to write to Reg and Mary himself, now he’s seen you.’
‘Yes, you’re right. But it doesn’t matter, I’m not going home. I’m going straight back to Ryland Moor.’
Topsy frowned. ‘I thought you were going to visit your father and sister.’
‘Not today.’ Bobby took her arm. ‘Topsy, I need your help. If I write some notes and leave them at the cottage, can you make sure they’re delivered to the people they’re addressed to just as soon as everyone at Moorside knows what the state of affairs is here?’
Topsy blinked. ‘Well, yes, of course. What are they for?’
‘There’ll be one for you too. Everything will be explained.’
‘Any message for Charlie?’
‘No, but there is one thing you can do for me at the hospital.’
‘What is it?’
‘Just tell me this – is there an RAF chaplain on site?’
Bobby bumped into Carol back at camp, walking between the Waafery recreation hut and the ablutions block.
‘Bobsy,’ she said in surprise. ‘I thought you weren’t coming back until this evening.’
‘There’s been a change of plans.’ Bobby grabbed the other woman’s hands and spun her around. ‘I’m getting married, Car.’
Carol blinked. ‘You what?’
‘You heard me. I’m getting married.’
‘Hey, where are you going?’ Carol called after Bobby as she hurried away.
‘To see Stewpot,’ Bobby called back. ‘I need to arrange some urgent leave.’
‘Why urgent?’
‘I’ll explain later. Tell the others, will you? I’m really getting married!’
Mulligan listened with a rather shell-shocked expression as Bobby explained everything that had happened – that her fiancé had been injured, was now in an RAF hospital not ten miles away and that she would like to take the marriage leave she had requested for the 2nd and 3rd of May after all.
The commandant granted her request without objection, however.
The following Saturday, Bobby Bancroft was walking once again down the track to Sumner House – this time with no intention of ever going back up it under that name.
Mary was the first to greet her when she knocked on the door of Topsy’s cottage. She looked tired, but beamed when she saw Bobby.
‘Oh, you’re a sight for sore eyes,’ Mary said as she threw her arms around her.
‘Topsy gave you my note?’ Bobby asked.
‘Yes. Reg is up at the house now, making his brother presentable. Topsy and everyone else are inside.’
‘And Charlie doesn’t know?’
‘Hasn’t a clue. Now come inside and let me dress you. The girls are desperate to help turn you into a bride.’
‘Wait.’ Bobby put a hand on her friend’s shoulder and lowered her voice. ‘Before we see everyone. How is he, Mary? How are you?’
Mary sighed. ‘It was a shock, I must admit. As far as we knew, he was in Binbrook, thriving and healthy. I’d never dreamed he was so close to home, and in such a state. He’s lost so much weight.’
‘I know. It shocked me too.’
‘The sooner they let me take him home and tend to him as only someone who’s loved him as a mother can, the better it will be.’ She smiled. ‘But he full grinned when I mentioned you. I knew when I saw that smile that he was still our Charlie, just as long as he had you to lead him out of the dark.’
Bobby smiled even as she let slip a tear.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
‘Now, come inside. We’ve got the whole family here, all dying to see you.’
Mary led her in, and Bobby beamed to see her little family crowded into Topsy’s parlour.
Her dad was in his best Sunday suit, his remaining hair combed and slicked.
Tony and Lilian, her sister now roughly the size of a house, stood beside him.
Jessie and Florrie were in their best dresses, petal-filled baskets over their arms and bouncing with excitement.
Teddy, Topsy and Mrs Hobbes smiled at her.
Even Norman seemed to smile as he sat with his goose family.
‘Oh, I am glad to see you all.’ Bobby embraced each of them in turn. ‘Even you, Tony.’
‘Huh,’ her brother-in-law grunted. ‘Ta very much.’
‘You’re sure you’re ready to do this, lass?’ her dad asked quietly when she hugged him.
‘I am if you are. You’ll give me away?’
‘With a song in my heart, if it’s to a man who’ll make you happy.’
‘It is.’ She kissed his cheek. ‘Thanks, Dad. I love you.’
‘Aye, well. Same to you, eh?’ he said, rubbing his cheek.
‘There’ll be time for hugging and kissing after,’ Mary said in businesslike fashion.
‘Bobby, come into Topsy’s room. Lilian, Jess, Florrie, you can help.
And mind, girls, when you see your Uncle Charlie remember you’re not to jump all over him.
Don’t forget he’s hurt his leg. It’ll likely be a while before he can laik as he used to. ’
‘Yes, Mary,’ the pair chanted dutifully.
‘Do Reg and Mary know?’ Bobby murmured to Topsy as she followed her into the bedroom. ‘The extent of his injuries?’
‘No,’ Topsy whispered back. ‘He only told them he’d been wounded in the leg. I don’t suppose he’d want them to know.’
When they entered Topsy’s room, Mary took a dress from the cupboard. ‘Here we are.’
Bobby smiled. ‘My Cinderella ballgown.’
‘I always had intended it for a bride. I’ve trimmed it up with new lace, and the girls have picked fresh flowers to ornament it.’
‘I thought you’d rather have some of our hothouse roses, but Mary was sure you’d prefer wild flowers from the hedgerow,’ Topsy said.
‘Mary was right,’ Bobby said, smiling at her friend.
‘Now, get into your dress and we’ll set this pair of troublemakers on your hair,’ Mary said. ‘How will you wear it, Bobby?’
‘Loose, I think,’ Bobby said, rather dreamily. ‘I know it isn’t the fashion, but it feels right. Just brushed over my shoulders, with a garland of flowers. And no rouge, please. Only a little powder.’
Mary smiled. ‘Aye, he’ll like that. All right, ladies, let’s go to work. We don’t have long.’
‘Let me take down your hair,’ Lilian said, leading Bobby to the chair at Topsy’s dressing table. She took off her sister’s WAAF cap and began removing hairpins.
‘A wedding day at last,’ she said softly. ‘I don’t suppose this is how you pictured it.’
‘It’s exactly how I pictured it, Lil. I never did picture a wedding the way you always could. I only saw Charlie.’
‘Yes, I suppose you did. Well, perhaps you had it right after all.’
‘This is the third wedding in our little circle this year, and every one different from the others,’ Bobby said. ‘You and Tony. Topsy and Teddy. And now Charlie and me.’
‘They say things are lucky that come in threes,’ Lilian said. ‘I hope for all our sakes that they’re right.’
Once Bobby was dressed, she went to present herself to the folk in the parlour. Her dad actually had a tear in his eye as he took in her loose, flowing hair and the simple but elegant white dress Mary had fashioned from odds and ends of material.
‘By, but you look like your mam,’ he said quietly.
‘Bobby, you are quite beautiful,’ Teddy said.
Mrs Hobbes nodded. ‘And so say all of us.’
‘Even I have to admit you don’t scrub up too bad,’ Tony said, and Bobby laughed.
‘Well, come on then,’ her dad said. ‘If I’m to give a daughter away today, I want to get it over with.’
Bobby smiled and took the arm he offered.
‘Matron’s been recruited into our cabal, along with the chaplain, of course,’ Topsy told them as they set off for Sumner House. ‘She’s going to unlock the back door to the orangery – that’s what we use as the chapel – and we can wait at the pulpit for Reg to lure Charlie to us.’