Chapter 36
After Tony’s departure, things settled back into a happier routine in Silverdale, although there was a certain wistfulness in the air.
It didn’t exactly feel like something was missing – Tony had always felt rather wedged into their lives here, as if he didn’t quite belong.
It was more a sort of regret at the way things had turned out, even though everyone accepted it had been the best of all possible outcomes.
It meant the Parrys could stay without the captain feeling he was rubbing salt in the wound of the husband he’d wronged, and although he and Lilian cautiously limited the time they spent in each other’s company, it nevertheless freed her from the unhappiness of her marriage.
Still, she was quiet and thoughtful after the departure of her husband.
Apart from Lil, the wistfulness in the air affected Bobby most. She was the one who had been closest to Tony, other than his wife: his friend and colleague of several years.
He hadn’t always been an easy man to like, but she had felt she understood him.
She was fond of him in her way, just as he was of her.
She was glad he had gone – glad he had decided to do the right thing and answer the call of duty, and glad he had set Lilian free. But she missed him all the same.
And she was due to travel to London in two days’ time.
Bobby was still determined to see Charlie awarded his DFC but she was dreading the journey, and for one simple reason: what if the train didn’t have a lav?
If it didn’t then she had no idea what on earth she was going to do when she needed to use the privy, as she now seemed to do several times an hour.
Should she pack the jerry from under the bed, and ask Charlie to hold up one of her enormous maternity dresses as a screen whenever she felt yet another call of nature?
Suppose she needed to go in the middle of the investiture?
Ought she to put up her hand and ask the king if she might be excused?
‘Well? Did you do it?’ she demanded of Charlie as soon as he came home from work. The fact he was beaming from ear to ear seemed to suggest he did, but she wanted to hear it from him.
‘I did.’ Bobby was washing up, and Charlie spun her around to wrap her arms around his neck, suds and all.
‘My notice has been given at the bank and I am officially a vet once more. Well, I suppose it won’t really be official until we cut the ribbon on the new practice, but I’m counting it from today all the same. ’
‘Wonderful.’ Bobby gave him a big kiss. ‘I’ve got good news as well. My third Lindy story was accepted, and with no edits this time. I must be getting better. So, that’s another eight pounds for the pot.’
‘That’s my clever, hard-working wife.’ He kissed her again. ‘Hey, what do you think to investing in a second-hand gramophone and a few records? We can spare ten pounds, can’t we?’
‘We still have to be careful, Charlie. We don’t know how long it will take for the practice to start paying out, and we need to keep as much as we can aside for the baby.’
‘It’s the baby I was thinking of. Since I won’t be able to take his mother dancing for a while, I thought it would be a good idea to rectify the deficiency at home. I’m sure Marmaduke wouldn’t want the family scandalised by a divorce.’
Bobby grimaced. ‘Oh Lord, please don’t joke about that. Not after everything that happened with Lil and Tony.’
‘Sorry,’ he said in a softer voice. ‘That was tasteless. I wasn’t thinking.’
Bobby sighed. ‘I mean, I do think it’s right, them separating. I’d rather they got a divorce and we had to deal with wagging tongues than that Lil stayed with him to be unhappy. Still, the marriage deserves a certain mourning period, such as it was.’
‘You’re right. Tony leaving was the best outcome, but that doesn’t exactly make it a happy one.’
There was the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside. That in itself was unusual enough for them to frown at each other. A moment later, there was an urgent knock at the door.
‘I know that knock,’ Bobby said ominously. ‘That’s the knock of someone with a crisis they want one of us to solve for them. I’ve heard it too many times recently. I was really hoping we could be free of drama until after the baby was born.’
‘If that’s your other brother with a pregnant fiancée and the Redcaps on his tail, I’m putting him straight on a train back to wherever he came from,’ Charlie announced.
‘I don’t think the trains run as far as North Africa,’ Bobby said with a smile. ‘His wife might be rather put out as well. We’ll both go, shall we?’
She wiped her hands on her apron and went to answer the door, Charlie following. They found neither Redcaps nor AWL brothers on the doorstep, however, but Topsy Nowak, looking incredibly pale.
‘Birdy, darling, you have to come at once,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I borrowed a car from the hospital to fetch you.’ She glanced at her friend’s stomach. ‘Oh. But you’re huge.’
It had been a month since they had last seen one another, when Topsy had called round with the exciting news that she and Teddy had been approved to adopt a baby.
And while Bobby did feel as if she’d doubled in size since then, she didn’t see why everyone had to be constantly pointing it out to her. She did own a mirror.
‘I know I am,’ she said. ‘Is something wrong, Topsy? Teddy’s all right, isn’t he?’
‘Teddy’s fine. He’s at the hospital with Maimie, waiting to go in. But it’s you he’s been asking for, Birdy. Can you come? He won’t linger long, the doctor says.’
Bobby cast an alarmed glance at Charlie.
‘Who won’t?’ Charlie asked. ‘You aren’t making sense, Tops.’
Topsy ran a hand over her head. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve been so terribly out of sorts, I… it’s all come out in the wrong order.’
Bobby grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘Who, Topsy? Just tell me, who is it that’s at the hospital?’
‘It’s Ernie,’ Topsy said in a whisper. ‘Ernie King.’
Bobby swayed when Topsy delivered the news. It was only Charlie’s arm around her that stopped her from keeling over.
‘For God’s sake, Topsy,’ Charlie snapped. ‘Don’t you know she shouldn’t be given sudden shocks? Here, Bob, come and sit down.’
‘Oh, I am sorry,’ Topsy said, following them inside. ‘I… didn’t think. It’s all been so horrid, my brain’s everywhere. Birdy, can I get you some water? That was very stupid of me.’
‘No. No, I don’t want water.’ Bobby looked at Topsy, who was swimming before her eyes. ‘Tell me what happened.’
‘Don’t, Tops,’ Charlie warned. ‘She shouldn’t be upset.’
‘I have to know everything, now,’ Bobby murmured. ‘It’ll be worse not to know. Please, Charlie.’
Charlie hesitated, then nodded to Topsy to go on.
‘They brought him in this morning,’ Topsy said.
‘I wouldn’t have known anything about it now I’m not nursing, but as luck would have it I’d gone over to talk to the matron about repairs to the house and I heard them say his name.
’ She fixed her helpless eyes on Bobby’s.
‘They’ve brought him there to die, Birdy.
He told them he wanted to die at Sumner House. There’s only just time to say goodbye.’
Charlie knelt down in front of his wife. ‘Are you all right, Bob?’ he asked gently. ‘What do you need?’
Bobby felt like the room was spinning. Ernie King! Of everyone she had prayed to come through this war, other than Charlie and her brothers, she had said the most prayers for him.
He couldn’t die, could he? Not Ernie. He was so strong and young and…
and alive. He was going to be married when he finished his tour, and take his beautiful bride to Canada to run the family farm.
Bobby had only seen him a few days ago in the village, teasing her and swelling with pride as he talked about being godfather to the baby. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair…
‘Is he really dying?’ she asked Topsy in a whisper.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Topsy said. ‘His plane caught fire on impact and he was trapped inside. They don’t think he’ll live two days, if that.’
‘And he asked for me?’
‘That’s what the doctor says.’
‘Then take me to him.’
Charlie seized her hands. ‘No, Bobby. I won’t let you go. You aren’t well.’
‘I am well. It was a shock, that’s all. I want to say goodbye to my friend.’
‘It’s dangerous, darling. You’re eight months pregnant. Be sensible.’
‘Please, Charlie.’ She squeezed his hands. ‘You know how much it meant to you to say goodbye to Hynes. You called it a privilege. If I don’t do the same for Ernie when he’s asked for me, it’ll haunt me until my dying day.’
Charlie hesitated.
‘All right, then I’m coming with you,’ he said finally.
‘You don’t need to. Topsy will look after me.’
‘Rubbish. I’m going with you and that’s all there is to it.’
The matron was silent and solemn as she showed the three of them to the hall outside Ernie’s private room. Bobby found herself wondering vaguely what the room had been before, when this had been Topsy’s house. A study? A closet? The closets of Sumner House were probably larger than her bedroom.
She felt like she needed to cry, but she couldn’t. Her reflection in the glass of the portraits that lined the walls made her look like the ghost that haunted this old place, with her pale face and huge grey maternity dress. She certainly felt like a ghost.
Teddy was already waiting, with Maimie Bancroft, formerly Hobbes, in charge of his wheelchair. They both summoned weak smiles.
‘Well, here’s my stepdaughter,’ Maimie said softly. ‘I’m sorry we had to meet like this, Bobby. You had better take a seat.’
‘We are to wait until called,’ Teddy told them. ‘Ernie is sleeping now, his doctor says. You ought to go in first, Bobby. It is you Ernie particularly wished to see.’