Chapter 28
‘Redcaps!’ Bobby hurried to the window as fast as her large frame and sore ankles would allow her.
Lilian was right. There were four military policemen on the doorstep, all wearing grim, set expressions. The sergeant at the front gave another urgent rap.
‘What do we do?’ Lilian whispered.
‘We have to open up, don’t we?’ Bobby whispered back. ‘Otherwise they might break the door down or something.’
‘What can they want with you and Charlie?’
‘I have a hunch,’ Bobby muttered darkly. ‘Just follow my lead, all right?’
Hastily she chucked Jake’s bedding roll and kitbag into the bedroom, then went to answer the door.
Bobby tried to make sure she looked good and pregnant before opening up. The fact there were only two women here, one of them in the most vulnerable of conditions, meant the men would be less likely to force entry.
‘About time,’ the sergeant at the door said gruffly. But his scowl lifted when he saw who had opened it. ‘Oh. Sorry, Miss.’ He whipped off his cap.
‘It’s Mrs, as I thought would have been obvious,’ Bobby said coldly, one hand on her stomach.
‘Yes, well, you never know these days. No offence meant, Miss— er, madam.’
‘It’s Mrs Atherton. This is my sister, Mrs Scott.’
‘May I speak with the man of the house?’
‘He isn’t at home,’ Lilian said. ‘Can we help you, Sergeant?’
The sergeant looked irritated that he would have to deal with a woman, as if he thought he might have to speak extra slowly. If Bobby hadn’t been so keen to get rid of him, she would have made him repeat himself a few times just to teach him a lesson.
‘Either of you ladies know a Private Jake Bancroft of the Royal Engineers?’ he asked. ‘We were told he had family at this address.’
‘He’s our brother.’ Bobby tried to adopt a surprised expression. ‘Oh goodness, he isn’t in any trouble, is he?’
‘I’m afraid to say he is. Can we come in and look round?’
‘I’d rather you didn’t, if you don’t mind. Our husbands are away from home, as I said. There’s only me and my sister in the house.’
‘Not that we’re suggesting anything improper, Sergeant,’ Lilian said, with the arch smile that had always won her admirers in her spinster days.
‘It’s only that my husband can be rather jealous.
I wouldn’t want it to get back to him that I’d been seen entertaining four handsome soldiers the minute he left me alone. ’
The flirting seemed to pacify the sergeant a little. His mouth almost moved, although it would be a stretch of the imagination to call it a smile.
‘Well, I wouldn’t want to upset a lady as is expecting,’ he said, with a glance at Bobby’s stomach. ‘Can you tell me when you last saw your brother?’
‘Not since last summer,’ Lilian said, exuding guilelessness. Bobby was glad Lil was here. Her twin was much better at this sort of thing.
‘Any letters giving his current whereabouts?’
‘We haven’t had a letter in weeks,’ Bobby said, glad that this question, at least, she could answer truthfully. ‘Why, what is it he’s done, Sergeant?’
‘I don’t suppose you girls know what being absent without leave means, do you?’
Bobby tried not to let her annoyance show. Aside from the fact she had been in the WAAF for six months and Lilian had spent nearly a year in the Wrens, who nowadays didn’t know what ‘absent without leave’ meant? This was someone who patronised women simply because he could.
‘We’re familiar with the term, yes,’ she said coolly.
‘All right, then I can tell you that your brother had a late leave pass Thursday night after the expiration of which he failed to return to barracks. That makes him officially AWL as of 2 a.m. Friday morning.’
Bobby and Lilian both tried to look shocked.
‘Our Jake wouldn’t do that,’ Lilian said. ‘He’s always been a good lad.’
‘Well, he did,’ the sergeant told her shortly. He narrowed one eye. ‘You’re certain he hasn’t been here?’
‘Absolutely positive,’ Lilian said, with so much conviction that even Bobby half believed her.
‘Hmm. Any other family in the neighbourhood?’
‘There’s only our father, but he and Jake are estranged so there’s no chance he’d go there,’ Bobby said, significantly overstating the difficulties in her father and Jake’s relationship.
‘He might go to our sister-in-law in Bradford – that’s our other brother Raymond’s wife. He’s fighting in North Africa.’
She was hoping this might get rid of them.
If Jake were to turn up while the men were here they would haul him away, still unmarried, and probably lock him up for a few months as punishment.
There would be no guarantee he’d make it out in time to legitimise his baby.
The sergeant was still eyeing them narrowly, however.
‘All right,’ he said at last. ‘We’ll be going now.
But I ought to tell you, madam, that if your brother hasn’t returned to his barracks within seven days of going AWL, it’s likely steps will be taken to have him classified a deserter.
That’ll mean a court martial and up to two years in the nick.
You might pass that on, if he does turn up. ’
‘I will. Thank you.’
‘What happens if he does return within seven days?’ Lilian asked.
‘Loss of privileges and maybe a spell in the glasshouse, but nothing more serious.’ The sergeant fixed her with a knowing look. ‘Best thing you can do is persuade him to get back as soon as he can and hope his CO deals lightly with him for a first offence. That’s if you hear from him, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Lilian said sweetly. ‘But I doubt we will. Goodbye, Sergeant.’
The policemen departed, and Bobby leaned against the door.
‘I think he knew we were hiding something,’ Lilian said.
‘I’m sure he did, but he seemed to be telling us he was leaving it in our hands. Is he still out there?’
Lilian went to the window and flicked aside the curtain.
‘No, they’re walking up the road,’ she told Bobby. ‘There’s an army Tilly parked at the top. It looks like they’re really going.’
‘We’d better hope they don’t run into Jake on the way.’ Bobby shook her head. ‘Honestly, wait till he gets back. I’ll bloody kill him!’
‘What could he have been thinking?’
‘I suppose he was hoping to get the wedding over with and back to his camp before they classed him as a deserter.’
‘Wedding? What wedding?’
Bobby sighed. ‘You’d better sit down. There’s been… a development.’
‘Oh, the poor lad,’ Lilian said feelingly when Bobby had filled her in. ‘I suppose the army wouldn’t give him leave so he took matters into his own hands. His CO’s bound to be lenient when he knows the circumstances.’
‘Let’s hope so, but we need to get him married and back there first,’ Bobby said. ‘I hope Charlie was able to arrange it. I really don’t think Jake will go back to his barracks until he’s married. He and Kathleen are worried to death the baby’s going to be born illegitimate.’
‘No wonder you look tired,’ Lilian said, with a concerned look. ‘Tell you what, let me take Kathleen tonight, then you and Charlie can have your bed. We’ve got a spare room, and I’d like to get to know her. I know how scary it is to find yourself in that position.’
‘She might appreciate that. She seems an isolated little soul, with her family all back in Ireland.’
‘How old is she?’
‘Twenty-one, I think, same as Jake. She’s ever so sweet.’
‘Tony’s going out to some Home Guard thing so it’ll be just me, her and Annie. And if our Jake kips on your settee, that keeps things respectable until they’re married, doesn’t it?’
‘If you really wouldn’t mind,’ Bobby said. The idea of having no one in her bed tonight but Charlie was very appealing.
‘Of course not. Let me pick Annie up from Mary and get the nursery room ready, then you can send her over. I’ve not got much food in though.’
‘I’ll feed her. I was able to buy enough to make a good tea. Then I can ask Charlie to walk her round to yours.’
Lilian grimaced. ‘One of us needs to tell Dad about this.’
‘Yes,’ Bobby said, sighing. ‘I wonder how he’ll take it. I remember what a row we had when I told him you were expecting Tony’s baby.’
‘That was as much about Tony as the baby though.’
‘True. He ought to warm to Kathleen. She’s a gentle little thing.’
‘Fathers are never as protective over sons’ virtues as daughters’,’ Lil observed. ‘Besides, Dad’s mellowed since he took up with the new Mrs Bancroft.’
‘Things have always been awkward between him and Jake though.’
‘I’ll break it to him gently. I can walk over with Annie in a bit. If he takes it well, Maimie might invite the pair of them to dinner tomorrow.’
Now that the combined ranks of the Atherton-Scott-Parry clan had grown beyond what could be accommodated by Mary’s kitchen, Sunday dinner worked on a rota, with Bobby and Charlie alternating between their respective families.
Tomorrow they were to join Rob and his new wife, along with Lilian, Annie and Tony.
‘Thanks, Lil. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’ Bobby gave her sister a hug. ‘And I’m sorry for telling you off before. I was worried, that’s all.’
‘You were right. I ought to have known better,’ Lilian said with a sigh. ‘I can try to justify it to myself this way and that way, but I know Tony would never see it like that. I just… couldn’t help it.’
‘I’d hate to see you hurt,’ Bobby said softly. ‘If I sounded stern, that’s the reason. There’s no happy way it could end for you, Lil.’
‘I know. I was foolish to give in to it.’
They were interrupted by the arrival of Charlie and the young couple.
‘Well?’ Bobby demanded, getting to her feet with difficulty. ‘Are they married?’
‘No,’ Charlie said. ‘But they will be soon. I sorted out the special licence and the registrar has got an opening first thing in the morning. He took one look at Kathleen and took pity on them.’
‘Oh, thank goodness.’
Jake threw himself down on the settee next to Lilian. ‘Heyup, Lil. What’re you doing here?’
Lil turned to glare at him. ‘Don’t give me “Heyup, Lil”, you little sod. Give me a hug, then after that I’ve a good mind to box your ears, big lad though you are.’
‘That’s if I don’t box them first.’ Bobby turned to Charlie. ‘We saw off four Redcaps not less than an hour ago.’
Charlie blinked. ‘What, here?’
‘Redcaps?’ Kathleen said, looking worried. ‘You mean, policemen?’
‘That’s right,’ Bobby told her. ‘Your young man there is absent without leave. And if he doesn’t get back to his barracks by Thursday, he could be looking at two years inside for desertion.’
‘Two years?’ Kathleen turned to glare at Jake. ‘You told me you had four days’ leave!’
‘I did it for you, Kath,’ Jake said, looking at her with pleading in his eyes. ‘I won’t have my baby being born without a dad. I mean I am his dad, but I want it to be legal and everything.’
‘A dad’s no good to our baby in jail, Jake. You ought to have told me. I’d never have let you break the law.’
‘I know you wouldn’t,’ he said with a weak smile. ‘Why d’you think I didn’t tell you?’
Kathleen continued to glare. Jake looked like a cornered rabbit as he faced stern looks from two sisters and one fiancée. He turned to Charlie, who unlike the women only looked rather bewildered.
‘It weren’t my fault,’ Jake said. ‘The buggers wouldn’t let me have the leave. I had to do summat, didn’t I? What if the baby came before they let me out long enough to get married?’
‘OK, let’s all calm down,’ Charlie said, taking control of the situation. ‘It’s not ideal, admittedly, but it isn’t the end of the world. I’m with Jake. This is for the best.’
Bobby shook her head. ‘You’re not taking his side? He could get into serious trouble for this, Charlie. So could Lil and I, since we lied ourselves blue for him to those Redcaps.’
‘I’m sure the army won’t punish him too harshly once they know why he did it,’ Charlie said. ‘A few weeks confined to barracks, perhaps, as long as he goes straight back after.’
‘You are going straight back, aren’t you?’ Lilian demanded of Jake.
‘Said I was, didn’t I?’ he said. ‘We’ll go soon as we’ve got the certificate.’