Chapter 23
Bobby felt solemn after her conversation with Reg. She had known what answer he would give, but still she had harboured a hope she might change his mind. Now she had to accept that her association with the magazine she loved was really, finally coming to an end.
There was a loud hum of chatter from the kitchen when she and Reg emerged into the hall.
It sounded as though the Parry-Scott-Atherton clan had at last absorbed the happy news that their ranks were about to swell by two brides and a baby.
Bobby could make out the excited voices of Jess and Florrie, subjecting Charlie to a barrage of questions.
‘And will the baby like drawings?’ Florrie was asking.
‘I should think so,’ Charlie answered.
‘And hens?’ Jess demanded.
‘Tell you what, Jess. Make me a list and I’ll wire the stork asking him to make sure we get one that meets all your requirements, all right?’ Charlie said with a laugh. Bobby smiled.
Reg pressed her arm kindly. ‘Try not to take it too hard, lass. You’ve got better things in your life now than my daft old magazine. Come and celebrate with your family. I’ll send Scott to the pub for a jug or two of summat for us.’
‘Yes.’ Bobby roused herself. ‘In a moment. I told my dad I’d meet him over the way.’
‘Don’t be long, eh? And bring Rob back with you. Hard to celebrate when we’re missing a groom.’
In the cow house, Bobby found her father sitting by the unlit fire with a duster, polishing something. He slipped it into his pocket when she came in and looked up to smile at her.
‘Pull up a chair, if you can battle your way through t’ babby’s bits,’ he said. ‘Don’t suppose your sister will miss me once she’s got an extra room to dry her washing in.’
Bobby moved one of the clothes horses aside and sat on the settee by him.
‘It’ll certainly be a big change.’ She paused. ‘I suppose… you have talked to Mrs Hobbes?’
‘Better get used to calling her summat else. She’ll be Mrs Bancroft in three week.’
Bobby blinked. The new name sounded strange.
‘So she will,’ she said. ‘I suppose I ought to call her Maimie, as Topsy does. That’s going to take time to adjust to.’
‘What is it you want me to talk to her about, then?’
Bobby hesitated. Her dad’s struggle with shell-shock wasn’t an easy subject to broach.
She thought of the years she and Lilian had been responsible for him, after their mam had become ill.
At only fourteen they had been forced to step into their mother’s shoes, caring not only for their two younger brothers but their father, whose mind had never recovered from the horrific things he had seen in the trenches.
Bobby remembered all the times they had soothed him after a nightmare with soft words and strong drink.
And she remembered that dreadful day two years ago, when, reeling from the loss of his job, her dad had attempted to take his own life.
He was a lot better now, but still, Bobby would want his new wife to be aware of everything she needed to be aware of if she was to share a home with Robert Bancroft.
‘I only wondered if she knew that you… slept badly at times,’ Bobby said, trying to phrase her worries in the way he would find least humiliating.
‘Does the poor mare know what she’s let herssen in for, you mean?’ her dad said, with a small smile. ‘Aye, Maim knows. She had a husband in the last lot. Knows how us old soldiers can be.’
This was about as frank as Bobby had ever heard her father when it came to an acknowledgement of his mental state. She wondered if it was Mrs Hobbes – or Maimie, as she ought to get used to calling her – who had encouraged him to open up.
‘I’m glad of that,’ she said, pressing his hand. ‘Have to make sure you’ll be looked after, don’t I?’
‘Me and Maim understand one another. Just a pair o’ lonely old folk with bairns grown, who’ve found we’d rather have each other’s company as not. We’re not sentimental, but I think we’ll make each other happy.’
‘I’m pleased for you, Dad,’ Bobby said softly. ‘Mam would be as well. She wouldn’t want you to be alone.’
‘Aye.’ Her dad turned away as he struggled with emotion. ‘She were always big-hearted, were my Nell.’
‘What was it you wanted to give me? There’s a bit of a party at the house. Tony’s going out to fetch something to drink. I was told by Reg to make sure I returned with one bridegroom ready to have his health thoroughly toasted.’
‘Two things actually.’ Her dad took a fat envelope from his pocket.
‘First is this. There’s one for each of the four of ye, but I’ll keep Jake’s while he’s settled.
He’ll only waste it on that bike of his if I give it him now.
Happen those of you with families have got more important things to do wi’ it. ’
Bobby peeped into the envelope and stared at the contents.
It was filled with money. Five-pound notes, a whole stack of them! Even one would have been unimagined riches.
‘Bloody hell, Dad!’
‘All right, young lady, language.’
‘Sorry. But where on earth did you get this?’ She frowned. ‘You haven’t been messing about with Pete Dixon again, have you?’
‘Nay, nowt like that. Sold our house, di’n’t I?’
‘Gosh.’ Bobby peeped again into the envelope. ‘How much is here?’
‘Little over thirty-five quid each. I got four hundred for the place. After paying my share for our cottage and putting a little into the pot me and Maim are saving for old age, there were a hundred and fifty left to share among you bairns.’
‘Dad, that’s… I don’t know what to say.’ Bobby gave him a hug. ‘You’ve got no idea how much this is going to help. Charlie and I have barely got ten pounds left in our savings.’
‘Aye, it’s come at a good time.’ He fixed her with an earnest look.
‘And now I’m going to tell thee same as I told thy sister, and it’s no reflection on young Charlie so don’t take it that way.
I’ve always liked the lad. But if you’ll take my advice, you’ll keep a tenner to buy stuff for t’ babby and squirrel the other twenty-five away for a rainy day. ’
She blinked. ‘You mean, not tell Charlie about it?’
‘Up to you but I’d think on if I were you. Women don’t have the temptations us lads do when it comes to unspent money. In fact, I’ll tell thee a story, our Bobby.’
‘A story?’
‘Aye, of me and your mam. When we’d been married nobbut a year, Nell told me she’d been left summat in an old aunt’s will.
Ten pound, she told me. Well, that were a heck of a lot in them days.
It came in right handy – especially when Nell’s doctor told us we’d be getting two babbies for the price of one.
When you and Lil were about two year old and your mam getting ready to have our Ray, I got laid off.
I thought it’d be the end o’ t’ world when that happened.
The ten pound were long gone by then, o’ course.
We’d barely a few bob in savings, and I had no idea how I was going to support three little ’uns till I was back in work.
That was when Nell – God bless her, just days from giving birth – pulled up the mattress and presented me with an old tea tin, tied wi’ string. ’
‘What was in it?’
‘I’ll tell thee. A little under forty pound. That were a small fortune to a working man in the twenties – nigh on five months’ wages. Turned out, the ten quid were just a little bit of what your mam had been left. She’d put the rest aside in case the family ever fell on hard times.’
‘Blimey! Weren’t you angry she hadn’t told you?’
‘Happen I were grieved at first, but I soon saw sense. She’d kept it safe for nigh on three year.
If I’d known about it, can’t say as I wouldn’t have ended up dipping in for one thing or another until there were nowt left when we needed it.
Women are better at saving, I reckon. They’ve got that instinct, feathering nests.
’ He patted her hand. ‘Like I said, up to you, but your Charlie will be happy enough if it gets him out of a spot.’
‘I suppose so,’ Bobby said vaguely, thinking of her plan to keep a little pot of earnings from her writing work. Perhaps that was what had been in her mind: holding back a few feathers in case her little nest were ever to need them. ‘Shall we go and join the celebrations?’
‘Got summat else for thee first. Had to hunt around a bit for it, mind.’
From his pocket, Rob took the thing he’d been polishing.
Bobby had thought it was a coin, but now he put it in her hands, she could see it was a silver medal on a faded red, white and blue ribbon.
It bore the image of the old king, George V, and when she turned it over, she found the king’s crest above the words For bravery in the field.
‘Dad, this isn’t…’
‘Aye,’ he said, blushing deeply. ‘Long time since I last looked at that old thing. Thought it’d be half rust, but it’s polished up all right.’
‘Your Military Medal,’ Bobby said wonderingly. ‘Mam told me you’d been awarded one. I’d started to think she must’ve dreamt it. Why did you never show us before?’
‘I wasn’t ready,’ her dad said simply. ‘Wasn’t ready to think about what I got it for.’ He shuddered. ‘Hellish time that were: the Somme. Like world’s end or worse. I’ve not had it out in nigh on quarter of a century. But now… I think I’m ready to make my peace with it.’
‘Why are you giving it to me?’ Bobby said, rubbing her thumb over the laurel wreath on the back.
‘I aren’t; I’m giving it into your care. It’s as much your brothers’ and sister’s as yours, but happen it might bring thee luck with a babby on t’ way.’ He smiled. ‘Besides, I don’t trust Tony not to pawn the thing if I leave it with our Lil.’
‘I’ll take care of it, I promise.’ She looked up at him. ‘Mam told me what you did. Those men whose lives you saved. That was incredibly brave of you, Dad.’
‘Brave.’ He cast a blank look at the medal. ‘Aye, folk use words like that. Don’t feel much like that when you’re in t’ thick of it though.’
‘How does it feel?’