by Cathy Sharp
‘Yes, we know,’ Constable Jones looked at him sadly. ‘That’s why I’m here, Danny. Your uncle will have his new council house ready in two weeks’ time. He’s signed the contract and his furniture will be moved in over the next two weekends – and then he wants you to live with him. You will be thirteen in August and you can work with him and Ron on the docks during your holidays, though you will have to go back to school in term time. However, he says he’ll take you to school and he and Beattie have had a talk and she will meet you, bring you back here, and he’ll pick you up after work. She has agreed to go on doing that until you leave school.’
‘But what about Beattie and Sister Rose’s feelings?’ Danny asked and looked at Beattie’s red eyes. ‘I love them – and Beattie teaches me to cook.’
‘They’ve talked about that too,’ Constable Jones told him. ‘At holiday times and weekends you can come here and cook with Beattie – and Ron and your uncle can come to dinner on Sundays and tea on Saturdays. Besides that, you’ll have time with Beattie after school each day before your uncle gets here.’
Danny nodded and looked at Beattie. That didn’t sound too bad to him but she was close to tears even though she was trying to smile. ‘I don’t want to leave you!’ he told her and ran to her side. She put her arms about him protectively. ‘I love you – you’re my second mum.’
‘And you’re the son I longed for and never had,’ Beattie said. She brushed away her tears. ‘That will never change, Danny – but what Constable Jones has told you about is better for you, love. If your father comes here, I can’t protect you. I can’t stop him taking you.’
‘I’ll stab him with my knife next time,’ Danny said defiantly. ‘He’s a bully and a brute – he killed my mum and deserves to die!’
‘Why do you say that?’ Constable Jones asked him sharply. ‘Did he do anything that caused her to die?’
‘He made her ill,’ Danny said. ‘It was his fault she had the baby when he knew she shouldn’t – and she told him so when she was dying.’
Constable Jones looked sad. ‘Unfortunately, that isn’t the kind of thing that we can arrest him for, unless he held a pillow to her face or hit her?’
‘No – he just cried afterwards and got drunk,’ Danny said and shrugged. ‘He was all right once.’
‘I think you have to accept that your father will try to take you again, Danny and so the best thing for you to do is live with your uncle.’
‘Yes, it is,’ Beattie told him, sadly, though having had time alone with Ted, discussing the situation, she was much more reconciled to it. And the more she saw of him, the more she liked and trusted him.
Danny nodded, looking from one to the other. ‘As long as I can come back sometimes, Mum.’
‘Yes, of course you can,’ Beattie said and smiled at him through her tears. ‘We’ve got another two weeks before you have to go, Danny – so we’ll make the most of it.’
Danny nodded. It was hard not to cry when he saw Beattie so upset. He didn’t mind living with Uncle Ted and Ron – he liked them both – but he loved Beattie and he didn’t want her to be unhappy.
‘Yes, Mum. We’ll come at the weekends and I’ll go on with my cooking lessons, and I’ll have an hour after school – I’ll run all the way home,’ he said and saw her smile. ‘When I’m older I can choose what I want to do, can’t I?’
‘Yes, when you’re twenty-one you can do whatever you like,’ Constable Jones said. ‘But your uncle cares about you and so does Ron, so you should be happy with them.’
‘Yes, I will be,’ Danny agreed. ‘And I don’t mind working on the docks with them as long as I can cook sometimes – and I want to see Beattie as much as possible, but otherwise it’s all right.’
Beattie smiled at him; her tears gone. ‘You’re a lovely boy, Danny – and you’re a good person, Constable Jones. Most would have let me find out through a letter but you took the trouble to call and see me.’
‘I wanted you both to understand and I’m sorry I didn’t manage to get your father put away for some years, Danny. Had you been eighteen when he came out, you might not have needed any help to deal with him.’
‘One day I’ll be big enough to clout him back if he hits me,’ Danny said and jutted his chin. ‘No one should use violence on others, sir – but he deserves it.’
‘I couldn’t agree more, Danny.’ Steve smiled at him. ‘And if you carry on coming to the club and studying hard, you might be able to do that sooner rather than later.’
‘I think Ron would like to learn self-defence too,’ Danny said. ‘We both made up our minds no one was going to grab us again – but I didn’t want to stick a knife in me dad, though I could’ve done when he was asleep.’
‘That wouldn’t have been a good idea, Danny,’ Constable Jones agreed. ‘Self-defence is another matter which will stand you in good stead all your life.’
Danny thanked him and then Steve left. Beattie started to get tea ready and Danny helped her. They didn’t talk for a while, because it felt good just to be together, doing the things they enjoyed.
‘I like just being with you, Mum,’ Danny said. ‘You’re a lovely person, and I’ll miss the times we’re just on our own before Sister Rose came home and when you got a special breakfast just for me; I mean, I love her too, but not in the same way.’
‘I know what you mean, Danny love.’ Beattie smiled at him in her special way and he felt warm inside and loved. It was a good feeling and he knew it didn’t have to stop just because he wouldn’t be with her all the time.
‘You don’t stop loving someone just because they aren’t there, do you, Mum?’
‘No, Danny, you don’t – you just miss them,’ Beattie said and smiled. ‘What a wise boy you are. There, I think that’s all done – now we just have to wait for the food to cook while we sit down to a cup of tea and a little slice of cake – just a small one so we don’t spoil our dinner …’
‘I had to agree,’ Beattie told Rose when Danny had gone to bed later that evening. ‘It means that Ted – Mr Phillips – and Ron will be here most weekends so I hope you don’t mind?’
‘It’s your home, Beattie,’ Rose said. ‘And I certainly don’t mind, although I wish things could be as they were, but it is all for Danny’s sake and that makes it fine with me.’
‘Yes, and he understands that and that’s why I had to agree, because if he is willing to accept the situation, then so must we, Rose.’
‘Yes, I know.’ Rose sighed. ‘I almost wish I’d never suggested we foster Danny now – you wouldn’t have got to love him then.’
‘I don’t regret a minute of it,’ Beattie said. ‘Never think that, Rose. Yes, I want him here all the time but if I can’t have that, I’ll take what I can and be grateful.’
‘You’re such a wise, loving person,’ Rose said and smiled at her. ‘Do you know how much I love you?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Beattie said and laughed. ‘We’ve been like sisters or mother and daughter from the start, haven’t we?’
‘Sisters is right,’ Rose said. ‘I’m in my thirties and you’re only forty-one so there isn’t much difference.’
‘I feel older,’ Beattie sighed. ‘I was sixteen when I married but my husband was lost almost as soon as we wed … Oh, that was a terrible war!’ Her eyes glimmered with tears. ‘Having Danny was like getting another chance at life – the child we never had a chance to have.’
‘You’re not too old to marry again.’
‘I can’t see it happening,’ Beattie laughed. ‘I never was a beauty, Rose.’
‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ Rose said. ‘You’re lovely to me – the loveliest person I know.’
‘Now that,’ Beattie said wisely, ‘is another thing …’
CHAPTER 32
‘Danny says Beattie is like a mum to him,’ Ron told Ted as they were working together on a large shed for a manufacturer. It was to store the firm’s raw materials and cheaper to build than a brick building, which was why
Mr Reynolds was so busy at the yard. Times were better than they had been but there still wasn’t much money about and timber buildings went up quicker and cheaper than conventional brick and mortar. ‘He loves being with her.’
‘Yes, she is a really lovely person,’ Ted said and screwed a hinge into place, wiping the sweat from his brow. ‘I don’t mind telling you, Ron, I’ve had a few qualms about taking him away from her, and yet I feel my sister would want him to be safe with us. His father really could snatch him away from under her nose.’
Ron nodded and sighed. ‘Yeah, I know.’ He fetched some tools for Ted and watched as he smoothed out a knot in a doorpost. His employer was a perfectionist and wouldn’t do less than a good job. ‘It’s a pity we can’t all live together, isn’t it?’
Ted turned to stare at him thoughtfully and then nodded. ‘You’ve taken the thought right out of my head, Ron – that just shows how well we understand each other these days. I wonder if Beattie would consider moving in with us?’
‘We’ve only got two rooms,’ Ron reminded him. Even the new home they were moving to had only two bedrooms, one for the boys to share and one for Ted. He scratched the back of his neck. ‘She’s got a bigger house than ours, though – perhaps we could move in with her?’
Ted frowned. ‘I doubt Sister Rose would be happy about that. She needs peace and quiet when she’s on nightshift and she often works weekends so it would mean being very, very quiet half the time, not easy with two great lads!’
‘Perhaps Sister Rose would move out?’ Ron suggested but Ted shook his head.
‘We can’t push her out of her home, lad,’ he said, reddening slightly. ‘There’s only one way and I’m not sure Beattie would be willing to take it – after all, she hardly knows me …’
Ron stared at him, not knowing what he meant, but Ted was smiling to himself in a daft way so he didn’t push it. He’d never seen his friend with such a look on his face and didn’t know what to make of it so offered the only thing he could think of to say.
‘Why don’t you ask her?’
‘Well, maybe I might,’ Ted said, ‘in a few weeks. We’ll go over this Saturday and take something nice. She said we could go to tea so we will – and we’ll see what happens …’
Ron didn’t mind what they did, because his world was so different and good that he was easy whatever Ted suggested. He sometimes thought that if his friend had asked, he would put his hand in the fire for him, but Ted wouldn’t ask. It was because he had perfect trust in Ted that he whistled as he worked and looked forward to each day. Life couldn’t get much better. He was looking forward to Danny living and working with them, but he’d be happy to live in Beattie’s house, because Danny had told him what lovely food she cooked and he’d liked her house better than the one Ted had managed to rent for them. It was up to Ted …
‘That will do for now,’ Ted told him a little later. ‘We’ll take a break for a cuppa and a bite to eat. I want to finish this this afternoon, Ron, and we’ll work all the better for a break now.’
It was as they were eating their bread and cheese that Mr Reynolds walked up to the shed and went all the way round it, looking at it carefully. He stood looking at them thoughtfully for a moment and then spoke to Ted.
‘Would you come into the office a minute, Ted? I’ve got something to say to you …’
Ted looked anxious for a moment but got up and followed the boss into his office. He was gone several minutes and Ron waited, feeling worried. If they got the sack it might mean they would have to go back to living in hostels or even under the arches, but then he saw Ted coming back and he was grinning, looking a bit like the cat that got the cream.
‘Is everything all right?’ Ron asked, getting to his feet.
‘Couldn’t be better, lad,’ Ted told him. ‘Mr Reynolds thinks I’m the best worker he’s ever had and he’s making me his head craftsman. If I can train you to take over from me then he’s going to make me his foreman next year. He wants to semi-retire and spend more time with his family and he says I’m the man he can trust to run the business for him. He’s also putting our wages up. It will be ten shillings for you and six for Danny when he helps out in the holidays, going up to ten when he can do what you do – and I’ll be getting three pounds five shillings a week.’
Ron whistled because it was a huge rise for Ted and would make their lives so much better. ‘That’s great, Ted, but you deserve it.’
‘For a long time, I had it hard when I was discharged and my pension didn’t come through as it should but it seems my luck turned when I met you, Ron. It was knowing you needed my help that made me come after this job and then I discovered my pension had been paid for the last several years and I had a large sum owing to me. I could almost afford to set up for myself with that money, Ron. I was thinking of it until Mr Reynolds told me what he was planning. Now, I’ll stop where I am and take over when he retires.’
‘I reckon it was a lucky day for both of us when you stood up for me and I started to trust you, Ted.’
‘I wouldn’t have bothered to look for a regular job if you hadn’t,’ Ted said and grinned. ‘Come on, lad, let’s show Mr Reynolds he has made a wise choice and get that shed finished!’
Ron moved to obey eagerly. They worked steadily for the rest of the afternoon, despite the heat which had most of the other men in the yard groaning.
‘Slow down, Ted,’ one of them called to him. ‘You make the rest of us look bad.’
‘I want this done today,’ Ted said. ‘Do you want us to give you a hand to get yours finished?’
All he got in reply was a scowl, but Ron noticed the other men stopped moaning and got on with their work instead of standing about and complaining it was too hot. Ron smiled inwardly. Mr Reynolds knew what he was doing when he spoke of making Ted foreman; he would be good at the job and might even end up as the owner of the woodyard one day.
‘I think we’ll call on Beattie and Danny this evening,’ Ted said when they finished work. ‘We’ll go home, have something to eat and a wash and then we’ll take Danny a packet of sweets – and a little something for Beattie too …’
Ted had that daft look on his face again and Ron wondered about it.
When Ted came out of the newsagents with a packet of sweets for Ron, one for Danny and a small box of Cadbury’s chocolates under his arm, something triggered in Ron’s mind. Was Ted courting Beattie? Ron knew very little about family life or courting. He’d heard men talk crudely about things they did with women, but Danny had spoken of his mum fondly and Marjorie had cried for her mummy and daddy.
It might be nice to live as a family with Ted and Danny and Beattie. Ron had once seen a young woman and a young man sitting together in the park and kissing when they thought no one was looking. He’d also seen glamorous posters outside cinemas with men and women kissing – but he knew no more than that of love or marriage. Ron had never been to the cinema or read a book other than a school exercise book. He’d been forced to go to school for a while when he was in one of the orphanages he’d been sent to and he’d picked up enough learning to count money, measure lengths and scale things up, though Ted had taught him most of that, and write his name. He was wise in certain things, having lived on the streets and he’d picked up everything Ted had taught him easily, because he was bright – or so Ted said – but he knew nothing of a loving family, of affection between a man and woman …
When Beattie let them in that evening and Ted gave her the chocolates and thanked her for allowing them to visit, Ron noticed that she went pink. She smiled at Ron and told him to come and sit down and have a glass of the fizzy pop she’d bought for Danny and some cake.
Ron sat beside his friend and they exchanged news about their day while Ted was discussing something to do with a place called Germany with Beattie and Sister Rose. They mentioned an Anglo-French pact to defend the Czechs, whatever that meant. Ron knew, because Ted had told him, that in Germany there was a man called Hitler who was dangerous.
‘Do you think there will be a war, Ted?’ Sister Rose asked.
‘Not if Mr Chamberlain can broker a peace with Hitler,’ Ted said, looking grave. ‘I’m not sure that I would trust anything that man says, but we have to hope for the best, Rose.’
‘Yes, I suppose we do …’
‘We’ve been making a chart for the world cup at school,’ Danny told Ron and he turned to him, forgetting what the adults were talking about. Ron did know about the world cup because the papers were full of it and Ted bought a paper every Friday night. Besides, the other men on the docks talked of little else but football. He knew that it was all going to happen soon, but that Britain along with some other nations wasn’t taking part.
‘The chaps on the docks don’t like it ’cos we ain’t got a team,’ Ron said and pulled a face. ‘Ted took me to see a cricket match the other day and we’ll all go to the footie when you live with us.’
Danny’s face lit up. ‘Beattie – Ron says I can go to football with them next season!’
Beattie turned to look at him and smiled. ‘You’ll enjoy that, love.’ She turned to Ted, still smiling. ‘That is very kind of you, Ted. We’ll all enjoy that. Now, shall we expect you for tea on Saturday?’
‘May we come to lunch on Sunday? I’ve got something planned for Saturday afternoon.’ He looked at the boys. ‘There’s a cowboy film on at the Odeon and I thought I would take both of you, if you’d like to go?’
The cries of joy that met his suggestion answered that one and Beattie laughed. ‘Have you come into a fortune, Mr Phillips?’
‘No, but I’ve been given a rise and the promise of a better job next year – and I told you about my little windfall, didn’t I?’
‘Yes, your Army pension came through after all? What had happened?’
‘It was paid into an old bank account and I didn’t know. I hadn’t tried to access it for three years or more, wasn’t sure I still could, but the balance was nearly five hundred pounds. I could have started up my own business with that but Mr Reynolds is paying more than I’d probably earn at the start and in time I can take over from him. I intend to work hard and make sure these two have a good life.’