She was feeling so angry she almost didn’t read her mother’s letter either, but in the end she ripped it open and peered inside. The two sheets of paper filled with Ena’s tightly cramped handwriting made Vera think of her mother’s lips when they clamped together to form a distinct thin line of disapproval, but for once she was drawn to read them.
There was no return address, no greeting at the top, the letter went straight into, I’m sorry to have to upset you but you can’t say I didn’t warn you. It seems your Bob has been playing around. Vera caught her breath and she read the words again. They were penned so boldly there was no question that they might have been written in error. According to Ena, and a bit of detective work, Bob had been seen seen, caught in the act, kissing a girl called Dolly at a bus stop in town. He must have thought a lot of her … Ena wrote. Not that it matters, but I have since found out that he took her to the Regal cinema and then they had fish and chips on the way home. I don’t remember him treating you so generously!
It was at that point that the words started to swim and Vera had to stop reading, her mind in turmoil. It was no wonder Bob hadn’t written to her lately. Who was this girl called Dolly? How could Bob betray her like that? Vera was heartbroken. She looked at the words again in case she had made some mistake but when she saw how her mother had ended the letter she knew there was no room for misunderstandings.
He obviously had no intentions of marrying you so there’s no point in getting too upset over him. You can forget the ring and the so-called engagement. He’s a rotter and there’s an end to it. By the way, don’t be surprised if you hear from Eric – you remember Eric Bowdon? He still talks of you very fondly and I thought you might want to consider giving him another chance. I happen to know he’s very keen. At that, Vera began to sob. How could her mother do that to her? Didn’t Ena know how Vera would feel about losing Bob? Or did she really not care? Vera scrunched the letter into her pocket and curled her body into a tight ball.
And that was how Lily found her, her arm curved protectively over her head, her face almost lost in the hay.
‘Vera?’ Lily touched her friend tentatively and at first Vera didn’t move. ‘Vera, what’s up?’ Lily said. Then she paused before calling again, ‘Vera!’ and this time her tone changed when Vera didn’t stir, for now she was getting concerned. But then suddenly Vera sat up and Lily could see that her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks streaked with grimed ruts of dried tears. ‘Vera, are you all right? What’s happened? Is there anything I can do?’ She put her hand gently on Vera’s shoulder. ‘You’ve missed supper, you know. But here, I wrapped up a little bit of meat into a sandwich for you.’
‘That’s very kind but I’m not hungry,’ Vera said.
‘We’ve all been worried. Even Mr Grayling commented,’ Lily said. ‘But what are you doing here?’
Vera stared at Lily, as if not really seeing her, then reached into the pocket of her dungarees and pulled out Ena’s two handwritten pages.
‘What’s this?’ Lily said, not sure whether she should touch the flimsy looking paper.
‘Read it. Then you’ll know as much as I do,’ Vera invited.
Lily picked up the letter and began to scan it, gasping as she read the opening few lines.
‘Oh Vera, I’m so sorry,’ Lily said. ‘You had no idea?’
‘None. Why would I?’
Lily thought for a moment. ‘Things often have a funny way of working out. Do you think this could possibly be for the best?’ she asked.
‘What makes you say that?’ Vera snapped.
‘Only that Bob never did get you that ring. Is it possible that he’s not the one? Maybe you need someone stronger, someone who can stand up to your mother.’
Vera began to sob again. ‘You’re dead right that she’s the cause of all the problems,’ Vera cried. ‘If only she’d left us alone we’d have been perfectly happy and I’d never have had to go all this way to get away from her.’
Lily didn’t say any more. She’d only been trying to help but there was a certain logic to what Vera said and she could see her friend was upset. She passed a clean piece of cotton material across to Vera to use as a handkerchief and Vera blew her nose loudly.
‘I can’t even tell Pietro what’s happened,’ she said and began to sob once more. ‘He might have been able to help me to understand what made Bob do it. After all, he’s got his own fiancée. I wonder if he’s ever wanted to cheat on her?’ Vera paused and, after a moment, looked at Lily seriously. ‘I tell you what, if you really want to help, why don’t you go to the rabbit hutches at the old tennis courts.’
Lily looked surprised. ‘What do you mean? What for?’
‘Pietro and I, we have an arrangement and that’s where I leave him parcels of extra food each night. We don’t actually meet because we’re not allowed to, but he’ll worry if there’s no food there and I don’t feel in a fit state to go there tonight. But you could go and leave this.’ She picked up the sandwich Lily had brought for her. ‘He’ll like that and at least he won’t worry.’
‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’ Lily looked doubtful.
‘I’ve been dropping stuff off there almost every night since we were banned from seeing each other after the party and nobody has found us out, so you should be all right. No one will even suspect anything if it’s you dropping the stuff off,’ Vera said. ‘Will you do it?’
Lily giggled. ‘Yes, of course I will.’
‘And if you should bump into him and have a chance to say anything, tell him about Bob and ask him what he thinks I should do.’
‘Do?’ Lily looked alarmed. ‘What can you do?’
Vera shrugged. ‘Should I write to Bob, tell him how he’s broken my heart? Or should I ignore him and forget he ever existed?’
Lily put her hand over Vera’s and looked into her friend’s sad eyes. ‘If we’re being realistic, it’s unlikely that I’ll see Pietro,’ she said, ‘but if I do I’ll ask him.’
At that moment Margaret and Jenny burst into the barn, astonished when they saw Vera. ‘What’s up? Where on earth have you been?’ They spoke almost in unison but Vera didn’t answer. It was Lily who said, ‘I’m just going out and I’ll leave Vera to explain where I’m off to and why.’
Chapter 32
It seemed to Bob like a long time since he’d been to the Rovers Return in Weatherfield; it felt strange entering the pub’s trademark green doors without Vera and he was not looking forward to facing her mother there on his own. He had no idea why she had asked him to come, or why he’d felt so compelled to jump at her command when she’d offered no explanation. Her note had been curt, spelling out the time and the place where she wished to meet with him, but there had been nothing in the way of niceties and he’d realized, on reflection, that it wasn’t so much a request as a summons.
It was late when he arrived after completing his fire watching duties for the night and the main bar was unusually crowded. He glanced around and he couldn’t see Ena, but the landlady spoke to him from behind the bar.
‘If you’re here to see Mrs Sharples,’ Annie Walker said, ‘she’s in the snug, through there.’ He was surprised she had recognized him. Nodding his thanks he ordered a pint to take with him for courage and he followed the direction of her pointing finger. The snug too was crowded and he didn’t immediately see Ena. The first person he did see was Elsie Tanner, sitting with one of her American airmen friends. She waved to him as he stood by the door and he waved back, then she indicated a table behind her where he could see Ena sitting with Martha Longhurst.
‘So, you thought you could hide your little bit on the side.’
He was rocked by the loudness and directness of Ena’s immediate attack as he stepped towards her. Nevertheless he couldn’t find the voice to respond immediately and he put his pint down while he took a moment to reply.
‘Don’t pretend with me, lad. If there’s one thing you should have learned about me by now it’s that I can see right through y
ou and there’s nothing that you can put past me, even if you can pull the wool over my poor Vera’s eyes. Fancy, you’ve been seeing someone else all the while you’re supposed to be engaged to my daughter! That’s what I call cheating.’ She shook her head. ‘Vera’s far too trusting for her own good. I’ve always had to look out for her and probably always will.’
Bob had removed his fire watcher’s helmet and now he held it awkwardly, shifting it from one hand to the other. ‘I think there’s been some grave misunderstanding here, Mrs Sharples,’ he said eventually. ‘I don’t know what you’ve told her or where you’ve got your information from but when I explain the truth to Vera I know she’ll understand.’
‘Pah!’ Ena said in disgust. ‘You can forget all your fancy stories and explanations.’ She waved her hand dismissively. ‘I’ve had a letter from her only this morning, saying that she’s heartbroken. In fact, she’s so upset she never wants to see you again.’ Ena stared at him directly so that she could see the force of her lies hit the mark. ‘Besides, there’s someone else in the running now and when she comes back to Weatherfield, I fully expect them to announce their engagement,’ she continued, trying to put the final boot in while she was ahead. ‘Unlike you, he really wants to marry her and he has a ring already lined up and waiting.’
Bob was still standing awkwardly at Ena’s table; he hadn’t been invited to sit down, and he could see out of the corner of his eye that Elsie and her friend were preparing to leave. They came over to Ena’s table and Elsie stood back and regarded her adversary.
‘I must say I feel sorry for you and Vera, Bob. I know that we’ve each got to fight our own battles, but this is one battle that you shouldn’t have to be fighting.’ She turned to Ena. ‘I don’t know why, for once in your life, you can’t belt up and stop interfering in other people’s lives, especially that of your own daughter.’
Ena gave an almost manic laugh. ‘Sounds a bit like pots and kettles to me,’ Ena said, ‘butting your nose in where it’s not wanted, Elsie Tanner.’
Elsie laughed but otherwise ignored Ena’s comment. She pulled Bob away and whispered in his ear, ‘You don’t want to be believing everything she tells you. The best thing you can do to prove this one wrong, lad,’ and she jerked her thumb in Ena’s direction, ‘is to stick with Vera. Give her what she wants and find a way out of this mess.’
Bob looked at her quizzically.
‘Never mind Ena trying to get you replaced by some dozy devil Vera can’t bear, you show Vera you’re man enough to stand up to her mother and give her what she really wants.’
Bob still looked puzzled. ‘How do you mean?’ he asked.
‘She’s made it quite clear in the past that what she wants is you, lad. Am I right? You and a proper ring so that you can announce your engagement.’
Bob looked confused. ‘But Vera’s said …’
‘And I’m telling you that’s all lies,’ Elsie said. ‘I’ve also heard from Vera – and my advice to you is to give her a ring for her finger and set the wedding date. That’ll stop this one,’ she pointed at Ena again, ‘trying to ruin your life because she’ll have nothing left to batter you with.’
With that, Elsie squeezed his shoulder and walked out of the snug, leaving Ena with nothing to glare at but her back. Bob too stared after her but there was nothing but admiration on his face.
‘Well!’ Ena said when Elsie had gone. ‘It’s no wonder she’s got the reputation she has round here.’ But Bob had been bolstered up by Elsie’s words. They gave him the confidence to see through Ena’s bluster. He could never admit it but he did feel mean for having cheated on Vera, no matter how briefly, although now he believed he could write to Vera to explain. Elsie had given him new heart.
Chapter 33
Vera felt as if the heart had been punched out of her. She hated that she had heard the news from her mother and she wished that Bob had had the courage to tell her himself, but even as she longed for some sort of explanation, as time went on she gave up hope of hearing from him. There were times when she wondered how she would manage to keep going, but fortunately on most days she was able to get lost in her work.
She never ceased to be amazed at how much there was to do on a farm in order to keep the animals healthy and to make sure the plants in the gardens and the crops in the fields were in their best possible shape. At least the hard physical work kept her so busy during the day that she had no difficulty sleeping at night. There were hidden benefits also from working with the animals who relied on her for their food and wellbeing. She found herself talking to them, particularly the dogs and the horses. She had begun to tell them her troubles since she and Pietro were forbidden to meet and she told them how much she missed him. Now she told them about her heartbreak over Bob and they didn’t seem to mind if she made their noses wet with her tears. Sometimes she could swear the shire horses were pricking up their ears and nodding their heads in sympathy as if they understood.
Margaret and Jenny, as well as Lily, were sympathetic to her situation and they all offered to help in any way they could.
‘I’m afraid there’s nothing much you can do, thanks all the same.’ Vera appreciated their offer. ‘It’s something I’ve got to get through,’
‘And be thankful you weren’t actually married,’ Jenny said. ‘I imagine that could have been ten times worse.’
‘Listen to Job’s comforter,’ Margaret mocked. ‘Don’t mind her, Vera. But we are here if you need us to deliver food to Pietro or something, or to get a message to him,’ she added. ‘At least that’s something practical we can do.’
Vera’s and Bob’s personal problems quickly receded in importance after what came to be known as ‘the day of the bomb’. No one ever knew whether it was dropped by accident by a lost straggler plane or if it had been deliberate, an attack on a farm that would hinder food supplies, for it fell when they were least expecting it and did more damage than it might have done as it caught them all by surprise. They were used to planes flying back and forth in daylight and, unless the air-raid siren sounded, no one looked up every time there was a plane in the sky, so on that morning, when the major concern was for everyone to make it on time for breakfast, no one was immediately aware of any imminent danger.
Lily, almost at the house, noticed a problem of a different nature when she saw Tucker crouching behind the water pump on the other side of the courtyard, being sick. Her first reaction was one of shock as it reminded her of the last time she herself had been so sick in the early morning, during her brief pregnancy. She was shaken, thinking back to the night of the party and what she now thought of as her narrow escape. She wondered if the young maidservant had been smart enough to take precautions or whether she might indeed be in the same predicament Lily had once been in.
She was pondering whether she should let Tucker know that she had seen her, but she had no time to dwell on the question as, within seconds, she became aware of a high-pitched whining sound, followed by several moments of eerie silence. Then came the tremor of the ground she was walking on, the way she imagined an earthquake might feel, and the sound of an explosion at the same time. Lily was knocked off her feet and she noticed Tucker had been too. She only paused long enough to see Tucker pick herself up and then they both ran as fast as they could to the kitchen.
Vera, halfway across the yard, heard the explosion before she saw anything and then she was suddenly aware of the sound of smashing glass as windows were shattered in most of the buildings near to her and she saw clouds of black smoke coming from the direction of the barn and stable block. She knew she had been the last person to leave the barn, so her first thought was for the horses penned up in the stables, as she knew they were terrified of fire. Somehow she managed to remain on her feet and, guided through the smoke by the pitiful neighing, she made her way as quickly as she could back across the courtyard. She shouted to Margaret, who was already on the scene, that she should move the rabbits and round up as many chickens as possible as they ha
d scattered about the old tennis courts while she put her best efforts into rescuing the horses.
What happened next remained mostly a blur. She remembered running into the stables where the horses were rearing and kicking, doing their best to knock down the walls of their individual stalls. Vera screamed for help to the men who had begun to run out of the Summer Wing, yelling to them to fetch water buckets and hoses, then she quickly opened up the horses’ stalls and, throwing blankets over their heads, something Pietro had told her should be done when confronted by fire, she spoke to them softly as she began to lead them to safety.
At one point she was convinced that Pietro had appeared at her side and that he was helping her round up the horses. She remembered thinking that she would like to hug him, knowing he cared about them as much as she did and she remembered moving towards him, but in the mist and smoke she couldn’t be sure that it was actually him. It all seemed like a bad dream. Suddenly she looked up and when she saw one of the roof timbers catch alight and shift its position she knew that it was really happening. She screamed with whatever air was left in her lungs and, with all her strength, tried to push Pietro out of harm’s way although she couldn’t be sure in the billowing smoke that she had succeeded.
Somehow the horses were dragged clear of the stable yard and Vera managed to lead them through the archway and onto the lawns in front of the house where she removed the blankets that had acted as blindfolds. There Ken Abbott was loosely lassoing them together and tethering them to makeshift poles. Much later, when her prompt actions were commended and she was praised for her bravery in saving the horses’ lives, Vera realized that she had acted instinctively. She couldn’t remember much of what she had done, even as Mrs Temple dressed the minor wounds on her arms, but she knew that it was mainly thanks to the help of Pietro and several other of the POWs that she had been able to manage so well.
Wartime on Coronation Street Page 22