Chapter 23 #2
‘And that was the last you saw of her?’ Dot asked.
‘Yes, she was with a badly injured soldier,’ Jed replied.
‘We told her, no heroics,’ Dot said. ‘But then she never was one to do as she was told.’
‘I can imagine,’ Jed replied. ‘She’s a strong-minded young woman.’
‘You seem to have the measure of her,’ Amelia said. ‘How did you two meet?’
‘I’m the surgeon with the Royals. Tilly brings me the soldiers to patch up and return to battle.
We are both fighting against the odds to get men fit in order for them to be cut down again on the battlefield.
It’s what you call a thankless task, I think, but someone’s got to do it.
We can’t allow Hitler to take whatever he wants and destroy everything in his path, can we?
Tilly is a good nurse and a brave woman.
She often drives through the night and under fire to get soldiers back to the field hospital.
If she does her job well, which she does, then I can do mine. ’
Dot and Amelia thanked him for making the journey from the mainland and bringing the message from Tilly, and asked if he had a place to stay for the night.
‘I need to get back. So, I will catch the late-afternoon ferry,’ Jed replied.
‘Will you see Tilly again, do you think?’ Dot asked, scanning his face to judge whether his relationship to Tilly was something more than professional.
‘When we get reassigned, there is every possibility. Anyway, I know where she lives now and she might not be able to escape me, once this war is over,’ Jed said with a grin.
‘Let’s hope that’s sooner rather than later,’ Dot replied. ‘The death toll is too high. Too many young men are not coming home.’
After he had left, Amelia and Dot both agreed that there was a distinct glow about Jed when he talked about Tilly.
‘But an American. You know what they say about them. Something in me hopes that this is just a passing phase. Wartime relationships don’t last, do they?
The future is too uncertain. When it’s over, always supposing that we all survive it, he will go back to America and she will come home to us,’ Dot said.
‘That’s not always true about wartime relationships,’ Amelia said. ‘If two people are in love, then the feeling doesn’t end with the war. Who knows if Kate would have married Philip, if he hadn’t been killed at the front?’
‘Do you really think that he would have married Kate? Would his family have allowed it? Their backgrounds were too different. Kate has told me that she often wonders if she should have told Ronnie about his real father, Amelia,’ Dot said.
‘When she found out that Ronnie had joined up, she seriously thought of telling him.’
‘You’ve never mentioned that before,’ Amelia said. ‘I don’t see what that would achieve. Albert has been a father to Ronnie and it would be hurtful to take that away from him.’
‘She just thought he had a right to know. That’s all,’ Dot replied. ‘It’s strange how what happens in families is often echoed down the generations. Ronnie wants to marry Sarah. Then he will become a father to Anthony. Does that story sound familiar to you?’
‘I’m sure he will make a much better father to Anthony than his biological father would. Sometimes things turn out for the best,’ Amelia replied. ‘We shouldn’t try to predict the future. Who knows what it might hold?’
* * *
When Tilly boarded the troop train for Cherbourg, she prayed that she would reach her destination without any encounters with the Luftwaffe.
There were many trains that were targets for the ace German air force.
The train rattled through the night and Tilly tried to get some sleep wedged between two soldiers who smelled as if they had not been near a bath for months.
She had to keep telling herself that they were all lucky to be alive and a little discomfort was nothing.
Just as dawn was breaking, she awoke to the sound of the train slowing as it entered a station.
She looked out of the window. The station sign announced they had arrived in Caen.
Still a way to go before their destination and the security of their escape route.
She knew she would not be comfortable until they were crossing the Channel and, even then, they would be a target both from the air and from the sea.
The thought of hitting a mine or being torpedoed terrified her.
They might not survive an attack from the skies if they were peppered by Messerschmitt fire.
A bomber aircraft had the capacity to blow them out of the water and an attack from the sea might totally destroy them.
She had visions of scrabbling among struggling bodies all flailing around, trying to hold on to something that would keep them afloat.
How ruthless would she be prepared to be to stay alive?
Enough to snatch a lifeline away from someone else in order to save herself?
She was still half awake when she decided to go in search of the toilets.
She knew that such a crowded train would mean using it would not be a pleasant experience, but needs must. She was walking down a corridor, her eyes still bleary with sleep, when she came face to face with a young man in flyers overalls.
She tried to squeeze past him and, in doing so, trod on his foot.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘Not really awake yet.’
The young man looked at her.
‘My God, Tilly. What are you doing here?’
It was Ronnie.
‘Ronnie. Oh, thank God, thank God! You’re alive,’ Tilly gasped. ‘It’s so wonderful to see you.’
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him over and over, covering his face with an outpouring of love and relief at seeing him here, now, safe and with her.
Ronnie hugged and kissed her back.
‘Now, now, easy, mate,’ a soldier said as he passed them. ‘I guess you two are pleased to see one another.’
Tilly and Ronnie looked at each other and laughed.
‘You’ve got it wrong, mate,’ Ronnie said. ‘This is my sister.’
‘That’s good news for the rest of us,’ the soldier said. ‘She’s a pretty girl, your sister.’
Ronnie and Tilly spent the rest of the journey telling one another what had happened over the course of the past few months.
Both stories were filled with examples of how exhausting the whole effort to stay alive was, and how the only thing sometimes that kept them going was the thought of England being invaded and the horrors that Hitler was visiting upon the people of Europe.
The troop train took them to the port of Cherbourg where they boarded the ship to take them to the shores of England and safety. The sea crossing seemed interminable. The sea was rough and Ronnie spent a good deal of time with his head over the railings trying to avoid the blow back from the wind.
‘A good thing you didn’t decide to enlist in the navy,’ Tilly joked.
Ronnie wasn’t in the mood for such quips and threw her a look that showed his disapproval.
Tilly felt the need to keep the mood between them as light-hearted as possible, when really all she could think about was the surging sea beneath them and what horrors might lay beneath.
If they hit a mine or were within the sights of a submarine or bomber aircraft, then their chances of surviving the cold waters of the Channel were slim unless they were lucky enough to get to the lifeboats in time.
So, when the shoreline of the south coast came into view, Tilly felt a huge sense of relief.
The ship docked at Portsmouth and Ronnie and Tilly disembarked.
A troop train and medical services were waiting for them, and the badly wounded were transported to the local hospitals.
Others made their way to rail connections across the country.
‘Let’s look for the next crossing to the Isle of Wight,’ Tilly said. ‘I want to get home as soon as possible. These clothes are going to walk there by themselves if they get much grubbier.’
Ronnie didn’t reply straight away and Tilly waited patiently for a response. He had a strange, preoccupied expression on his face.
‘Is there something troubling you, Ron?’ she asked. ‘I thought you’d be keen to get home too.’
‘I think I’m going to Micklewell first,’ he replied.
‘Of course. You want to see Sarah,’ Tilly said.
‘And Ma,’ Ronnie said. ‘I want to see Ma and Pa.’
Ronnie’s voice wavered and his hands shook as he took a cigarette out of his pocket. He fumbled for a match, but couldn’t find one. A soldier standing close to them offered him a light.
‘I didn’t realise you smoked, Ron,’ Tilly said.
‘Sometimes there are small comforts that help us get through,’ Ronnie replied.
‘Things happened back there in France that changed both of us,’ Tilly said. ‘Is there something that is troubling you? Something you want to talk about?’
Ronnie drew deeply on the cigarette.
‘I want to talk to Ma,’ Ronnie replied. ‘I had this strange feeling that I had some connection to the place I was hiding in and I don’t know what that could be.
Before I left for France, she mentioned a name, Philip, and I wondered if this person might have some connection to our family.
I need to ask questions, Tilly,’ he said.
‘Well, then, you must go to Micklewell,’ Tilly said, taking his hand and placing it up to her face and kissing it.
She hugged him and they parted on the dockside.
‘We both need to make contact to report our safe arrival in England. You to your flight command and me to the Royal, but they can’t begrudge us some time with our families.’
‘Don’t expect too much,’ Ronnie said. ‘They will want us back in service as soon as possible. We must make the most of our time on these shores.’
* * *
When Tilly arrived home and walked into the School House, she was met with open arms by Dot and Amelia who hung on to her and hugged her until the breath was almost squeezed out of her.
She had not been able to tell them she would be coming, and the surprise and relief on their faces brought a lump to her throat.
They competed with each other to bring her everything she needed, the first and most urgent being a cup of tea and the biggest slice of cake ever.
‘You must just want to lie in a nice warm bath and soak away all the dirt,’ Amelia said. ‘We will set out some clean clothes for you. Or perhaps you would just like to put on your nightgown and crawl into bed? You look exhausted.’
Tilly noticed that Dot said very little, but just kept looking at her with tears in her eyes. She occasionally brushed them away and blew her nose.
‘So pleased you are safe, my dear sister,’ she said. ‘Thank God that my prayers were heard. Thank God you’ve come home safely to us.’
Amelia looked at Dot with sympathetic eyes. There was clearly something Dot wanted to say and Amelia couldn’t say it for her. There was an uncomfortable silence.
‘Ronnie has gone to Micklewell, you say,’ Amelia commented.
‘Very understandable that he wanted to see Sarah and Anthony. Kate and Albert will be so relieved that he has survived. Did he explain what had happened to him?’ Then she changed her mind and added, ‘Look at me, cross-examining you as soon as you get in the door. Tell us later, when you’ve rested.
Whatever happened, he’s safe and that’s the main thing. ’
Amelia went to run Tilly a bath and it was when they were alone that Tilly felt she could try to find out why Dot was so withdrawn. Yes, she had been happy to see her, but her joy was tempered with sadness. She suspected it was something to do with William, but she asked after him anyway.
Dot’s eyes, already filled with tears, reddened.
She couldn’t stop the guttural sound that emitted from her lips.
It was as if someone had stuck a knife deep into her stomach.
She collapsed into a chair and her head hung down on her chest. Her shoulders heaved and she could hardly draw breath.
She retrieved a handkerchief from her sleeve, but it was useless to stem the flow.
Tilly leaned over her and placed her arms gently around her. ‘My poor, poor sister,’ Tilly said. ‘Your heart is breaking. What happened? Is it William?’
Dot opened her mouth to reply, but no words would come. She desperately wanted to say something, but could only manage to nod her head. After a few moments her despair lessened and she was able to answer.
‘William enlisted in the navy and left to train soon after you and Ronnie. He was on HMS Glorious when it was sunk by the Germans in the North Sea, just a few weeks ago. They never recovered his body.’
The effort of keeping back the surge of feeling that Dot felt was too much for her. She clung on to Tilly and let her grief overtake her. All Tilly could do was hold her. She couldn’t take away her pain.