Chapter 6 Nadine
Nadine
Nadine had been quietly snivelling ever since she’d got on the train, trying to hide it by pulling the brim of her hat right down and looking out of the train window.
She wasn’t a hundred percent sure why she was crying.
Staying in the countryside had just been so horrible with those two hoity-toity biddies, that god-awful mangle, and it being so dark at night it was like living in a coal mine.
She oughtn’t to have left David there with them.
He’d end up going strange or daft or worse.
She ought to have brought him back with her, bombs or no bombs.
What would Harry think? She had no idea.
She hoped he wouldn’t be cross. She hated it when he was cross.
Not for the first time, Nadine wished she didn’t love her husband so much. She had never completely understood him, which could make his reactions difficult to predict. Her brother, Tom, couldn’t stand him, that was for sure. But that was hardly surprising; Harry and Tom were like chalk and cheese.
“Thinks he’s a cut above, he does. And let me tell you for nothing, he’s not.”
But he was. Nadine had always thought so, from the very first moment she’d clapped eyes on him.
Film-star looks, a lovely smile, clever hands that could knock up a window frame or fold a piece of paper into an exotic bird in seconds flat.
Full of ideas and thoughts. Too many for her to keep up with sometimes.
Loving Harry kept Nadine constantly on edge, there was no doubt about that.
Life would be a heck of a lot easier if she’d fallen in love with someone less complicated, less charismatic, someone just altogether less, like the soldier sitting opposite her at the moment, who Nadine had seen checking out her legs when she’d crossed them.
“He’s twice your bloody age, Nadine,” Tom had said, disgusted, when she and Harry had first got together.
“He’s not,” Nadine protested, but Tom pressed on, ignoring her.
“You’ll be wiping his arse and pushing him about in a bloody bath chair before you know it.”
Harry was almost forty-three now, and a day never went by without Nadine wishing he was even older than that, so he’d escape the draft.
It would be so bloody unfair if he was ever asked to fight.
He’d done his bit in the last war; still went quiet sometimes, remembering the horror of it all.
Nadine had learnt the hard way there was no point in trying to jolly Harry out of his dark moods when he took to remembering those times.
No, she’d done the right thing, leaving David behind in Norfolk.
With him gone, she and Harry would be able to spend some quality time together before the baby was born, or, heaven forbid, they upped the age for recruits and Harry got called up, whichever came first. There’d been a time, before David came along, when Harry hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her.
They could get back there maybe. Have some early nights.
Some lazy Sunday mornings. Go out and see a show or two together.
Spend the little nest egg Harry had salted away on having a good time before .
. . well, just before. Yes, that was what they’d do.
Harry and David were so close, Nadine didn’t get a look in sometimes, and she deserved to get a look in, she really did. And so what if David got hold of some funny old-biddy ways while he was gone? They’d soon snap him out of them when he got back.
“Nadine? What the hell are you doing back here?”
“Charming, I’m sure. I get home and there’s no sign of you, and when you do finally get home, that’s all you’ve got to say to me.”
Harry came over to her, running his hand through his hair, the familiar gesture erasing her annoyance that he hadn’t been home when she’d got back.
“You know I didn’t mean it like that. You just took me by surprise, that’s all. Changed your mind, did you? Where’s the boy?”
“Well, he’s still there, isn’t he? Knew you’d throw a fit if I brought him back, so I left him. He’ll be all right. But Harry, I couldn’t stand it, not for myself. I missed you too much. Couldn’t sleep for worrying what you were doing here without me.” She reached for him, and he held her.
“But they are all right, are they? The people who’ve taken him in?”
“Yes, yes. Two spinsters. Posh. One of them’s some kind of artist. Like going back in time there, it is, but yes, David’ll be all right. Wouldn’t have left him otherwise, would I? There’s a dog. And chickens. You know how daft he is about animals.”
She pulled back, gazing up at him appealingly.
“I thought we could make the most of things while it’s just the two of us.
Go and see a show or something. Gladys says all the theatres have opened their doors again as there’s no bombs, after all.
If everyone hadn’t been in such a panic, we’d still have our Davey with us, but as it is—”
Harry moved away from her. “There’ll be bombs soon enough. You ought to have stayed in Norfolk while you had the chance with the baby on the way. It’s only a matter of time until I’m called up, you know that.”
Nadine’s upper lip wobbled. “All the more reason for us to have a bit of fun now, while we can.”
“Shows cost a lot of money, Nadine. And before you say about dipping into our savings, I’ll be popping up to Norfolk myself sometime soon; put my mind at rest that David’s all right.”
“He is all right, I told you. Besides, you’re not going to leave me here all on my own, are you?”
“I’ll only be gone for a day. You can go round to your mother’s. Anyway, it’s late. You look done in. Let’s go to bed.”