Chapter 17
Tilly was fully occupied in her independent life as a nurse, expanding her social life and fulfilling her ambition of learning how to drive.
She was happy to keep stringing Jonathan Burrows along.
He was useful to her in as much as he had a car and he was happy to teach her how to drive.
Fliss warned her that she was on dangerous ground.
That he would have expectations. ‘Just avoid getting in the back seat with him,’ Fliss warned.
‘I thought you said there was no back seat in an MG. There is in his new Wolseley, though. I’ll bear it in mind,’ Tilly replied, winking.
The family were scattered, but they were bonded together with one thought. What is this going to mean for us? Jim Truscott, the grandfather of the family, immediately thought of the son he’d lost in the Great War. He couldn’t contain the horror he felt.
‘My God,’ he said. ‘Please tell me this isn’t happening again! Have we not learned from the last war?’
He squeezed his eyes tightly shut, trying to obliterate the image of Fred in his uniform.
It was as if he had walked through the garden gate just yesterday and yet Fred’s face was not clear.
The grainy image faded and another face was transposed onto his body, that of his grandson, Ronnie.
He thought too of his other son, Henry, now a father himself.
Henry had been only three years old when the First World War had broken out, but now both Henry and Ronnie would be eligible for call-up when the time came.
Kate and Albert both immediately thought of Ronnie too. Albert had served in the first war with Germany and, at fifty, would now probably be considered too old for conscription, but Ronnie was just twenty. Kate’s thoughts surged back in time to the outbreak of the first war in 1914.
‘I was just a girl at the outbreak of the last war,’ she said, tears in her eyes. ‘I was working as a children’s nursemaid with the Winton family in Andover. It was my first time living away from home.’
She kept the rest of the story quiet as thoughts of Philip came back to her.
Against all the social rules of the time, she’d been in love with the eldest son of the household.
She pictured Philip on the night he’d come to her to say he was joining up.
He’d been drunk on strong beer and intoxicated with the promise of heroism.
They had made love and Ronnie was their resulting lovechild, the now deceased son Philip had never met.
Now, here she was, twenty years later, wondering how she could bear watching her son being swallowed up by the weapons and violence of war too.
This was out of her control, a beast that would gain in momentum and strength.
It would sweep a generation before it, as if they were just so much fuel to the fires of war.
She’d been here before and she didn’t want to face it all again.
The twins, listening open-mouthed, with a bewildered look upon their faces, were just entering an adult world. That was confusing and challenging enough without the impending threat of war. They couldn’t comprehend what all this might mean.
‘Uncle Fred was killed in the Great War, wasn’t he?’ Rose asked.
Albert nodded in response, his voice quavering. ‘He was, Rose, and I can’t believe that this can all be happening again.’
‘Will you have to go to war?’ Annie asked. ‘And Ronnie too?’
‘I think your dad will be too old, thank God,’ Kate said, reaching for Albert’s hand.
‘As will Granddad, but Ronnie, yes, unfortunately there is every chance he might get called up.’
Kate realised that the girls were innocent and naive, but that would not shelter them. She could not protect them from the fear and pain that was to come.
Sarah held Anthony close to her on her knee and wrapped her arms around him.
He wriggled. At five years old she knew he didn’t like to be cuddled, but could tell he sensed something important was going on, everyone looking unhappy as they listened to the wireless.
Sarah let him down to play with his toys and wondered what Ronnie was thinking at this moment.
Would this mean that they couldn’t get married?
The plan was that Sarah should stay with Ronnie’s parents until she was free to marry him.
The divorce had been granted, but this announcement was going to change all that now.
Ronnie’s job was an important one. Working in the shipyards and knowing about seaplanes was going to be an essential job during a war.
Perhaps that would mean he would not see active service?
She hoped and prayed that would be the case.
* * *
After the declaration of war, there were a series of announcements about closures of places of entertainment and instructions for air-raid sirens. Tilly and Fliss, listening in Ryde, stared at each other.
‘What?’ Fliss exclaimed. ‘The Royalty Cinema has only just released its programme for the next few weeks and they’re showing Goodbye Mr Chips.
I really wanted to see that and Vivien Leigh is making a new film, Gone with the Wind.
It’s supposed to be out later this year. That’s knocked that on the head, then.’
‘Really, Fliss!’ Tilly replied. ‘Is that all you can think about? We’ve just heard what is probably the most important broadcast of our entire lives and you’re worried about missing a few films?
I despair of you sometimes. You’ve got to live in the real world and this war is real.
We will be needed even more than ever as nurses.
We might even be asked to volunteer to serve abroad. ’
* * *
In the schoolhouse in East Cowes, Amelia Clarence turned the radio off and she, Dot and Ronnie sat in silence, completely stunned, for a while.
‘I can’t believe this is really happening,’ Dot said. ‘I thought the Munich agreement had averted war. Our Prime Minister assured us . . .’
‘You heard what Mr Chamberlain said,’ Amelia replied. ‘“A state of war exists between us” were his words. The German government is not prepared to withdraw troops from Poland. He’s done his best to negotiate a peace, but Hitler is not prepared to accept our terms.’
Dot’s thoughts turned to William. Would he enlist and fight for his country when the time came?
It would be his choice, but then he might be conscripted and then he would have to go.
She glanced at Ronnie, who would be of age too if the call-up came.
Ronnie gazed blankly into the unknown. The plans he had were in tatters.
The world had tilted on its axis and nothing would be the same again.