Christmas Roses

by Pat Posner

  Christmas Roses and…

  More Stories from Broome Park Prefab Village

  (A Fabrian Book)

  Pat Posner

  Copyright © 2018 Pat Posner. Published by Fabrian Books.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Illustration: David Young - http://www.davidyoungillustration.co.uk

  Typesetting and Design Fabrian Books – fabrianbooks.com.

  Pat Posner asserts the right to be identified as the author of this book. Broome Park Prefab Village and all the characters and events in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to individuals is purely unintentional.

  Welcome back to Broome Park Prefab Village for this new collection of stories set in the 1950s and celebrate Christmas and other events with the prefab families.

  Rationing has ended and there are new products arriving in the shops – though when the weather is cruel, the villagers still have to find ways of ‘making do’.

  There’s love and romance for the young and not so young, worries of keeping secrets, problems and mysteries and the odd crime or two but, above all, friendship and neighbourliness.

  Contents

  About the Author

  For Loretta and Henry – thanks for the walks and talks

  Christmas Roses

  Mistletoe Magic

  An Unforgettable Christmas

  Snowy Day Birthday Blues

  Secrets

  Wrong Number

  Easter Parade

  Travelling Tulips

  The Wedding Day: Problems and Plans

  Blackpool Blues

  With Every Christmas Card

  Flo and Sam’s First Christmas Together

  Acknowledgements

  Also available from Pat Posner

  About the Author

  Pat started out writing children’s fiction published by Bloomsbury, Hodder, Egmont and Scholastic.

  Nowadays she writes contemporary romance and stories of family, friendship and love set in the 1950s published by DC Thomson, Ulverscroft and Fabrian Books.

  Pat lives in a farmhouse on a sheep farm with her husband. They are owned by Tim and Ted, their 2 Rough Collies, visiting wildlife and the sheep who graze in the moorland meadows outside Pat’s study window.

  For Loretta and Henry – thanks for the walks and talks

  Christmas Roses

  “There, Audrey. That’s the button sewn back on your blouse.”

  “Thanks, Mum.” Audrey walked across to the fireside chair where her mother was sitting with her plastered leg resting on a footstool. “It came off when I was ironing it yesterday. I should have sewn it back on then but I didn’t think I’d be needing this blouse ’til tomorrow.”

  “It’s the least I could do seeing as you got a stain on the one you’re wearing through helping me go crackers.”

  Audrey’s mum had been taken on as an outworker for Chapman’s Christmas Crackers soon after they’d moved to Broome Park Prefab Village four months ago. Their prefab often smelt of glue and glitter and boxes of finished crackers waiting to be collected lined the hallway. The crackers were collected once a week and all the bits for making more were left in their place.

  It could be quite monotonous rolling the crepe paper, gluing it, tying the first end, inserting the little gifts and the rolled up paper hats, tying the other end and then sticking a paper motif, or sprinkling glitter on to each one. The pay wasn’t that good but it meant they’d been able to buy distemper to decorate the kitchen and bedrooms and could afford paraffin for the paraffin heaters they needed to use in the bedrooms during cold weather. And in a couple of weeks, they’d be using some of the hard-earned cash for something special.

  “I couldn’t let you do it all on your own when I had time to do some before I go to work,” Audrey said. “Especially as you’ve taken on more than usual and Dad’s working overtime at the brewery.”

  “It’ll all be worth it, though, Audrey. With the extra I earn we’ll be able to have a right good Christmas party to thank the villagers for all their help with shopping and bringing round casseroles ready to pop in the oven since I broke my leg. I might even be able to buy you a couple of new blouses so there’d always be a spare ready if one gets stained.” Audrey’s mum smiled.

  They’d been making red crackers today. The crepe paper always stained their hands and, although she thought she’d been careful, Audrey had managed to get a red mark on her white blouse which was part of her usherette uniform. She knew she should have worn something else until it was time to get ready to go to work. But they’d run out of paraffin last night and were waiting for a delivery so her bedroom was freezing.

  “I thought wearing my work blouse straight away would mean spending less time in my bedroom when I changed into the rest of my uniform,” Audrey told her mum. “By now, it’s probably even colder in there, but I daren’t chance keeping this on. Gwen would be sure to notice the little red blob when she puts the usherettes on parade.”

  “She’ll notice if you’re late, too. You’d best go and put your uniform on and get going. I’ll manage to hobble to the door when someone from Chapman’s comes. I hope it’s Lenny. He won’t expect me to help him. He’ll do it all himself and I’ll make sure he has a drink of dandelion and burdock. He likes it even in cold weather.”

  Audrey glanced at the clock. “I’m all right for another half-hour yet.” She hoped it would be Lenny coming from Chapman’s, too. He usually came around this time and if she went to get changed now she might miss seeing him. She had made a few friends since they’d come to live here, Gloria Turner from the prefab opposite and Janet Whittaker who lived in one of the Blakeley Road prefabs. There didn’t seem to be any lads her age in the village, though, and working at the Gaumont meant she didn’t have much chance to go dancing of an evening where she might have met someone who’d become a boyfriend. But maybe Lenny might ask her out…

  A couple of weeks ago when he’d arrived she’d been walking up the garden path carrying a pot of hyacinths. Betty Jones from one of the prefabs on Blakeley Road had given them to her. “Came into flower early this year,” she’d said. “I thought they might cheer up your mum seeing how she’s laid up with her broken ankle.”

  Lenny had smiled and said the hyacinths were the same lovely blue as her eyes.

  Lenny’s eyes were blue, too, and Audrey loved how they crinkled at the edges when he smiled. His hair was a sort of dark caramel. Like the colour of the dandelion and burdock he liked so much.

  Audrey remembered how she’d wondered if she should tell him that – but it wasn’t exactly a romantic-sounding comparison, so she hadn’t.

  Last week when he’d called Lenny had admired the white flowers with pink tipped petals growing in a small flower bed beneath the living room window, saying he liked seeing Christmas roses in bloom. She’d agreed, adding they were her favourite flower. At the time she’d thought the few words they exchanged often seemed to be about flowers.

  But now, a warm glow flowed through her as she remembered how, looking at her and not the flowers, he’d added: “Pretty as a picture”.

  Checking the time again Audrey decided to go and change now and take the chance Lenny wouldn’t arrive just yet. If he didn’t, she’d leave as soon as she was ready and maybe she’d see him going in or coming out of Mary Green’s prefab on Blakeley Road. Mary was also one of Chapman’s Crackers outdoor workers. She rolled the hats that went inside the crackers. In spring and summer she’d fill an old baby pram with sacks full of hats and push the pram to and from the factory, returning with more to be rolled. You got paid a bit mor
e if you delivered and collected yourself but Mary settled for less in winter and let Chapman’s do the delivering and collecting.

  Leaving early was a good idea, Audrey thought, hurrying into her bedroom. Lenny might talk more freely when her mum wasn’t around. Luckily, she’d put on what little make-up she used earlier. She just had to change into her uniform – a maroon skirt, double-breasted jacket and the white blouse. That done, with cold fingers, she forced her hair into the pageboy hairstyle that looked neat for work, sprayed on some hair lacquer and then dabbed a couple of drops of Coty L’Aimant behind her ears.

  “You look smart and smell nice, too,” said her mum when Audrey went back into the living room.

  “I suppose it’s not too bad as uniforms go,” Audrey said. Then, after checking her mum had everything she needed, she went into the hall. Stretching up over the piled-up boxes of crackers, she grabbed her grey duffle coat from its hook, put it on, raked in the pockets for her gloves and hurried out.

  Even though it was fast turning dark, and starting to snow as well, when she turned out of Knott Lane onto Blakeley Road she could make out a lorry parked a distance ahead. She didn’t want to miss seeing Lenny come out of Mary’s so she walked quickly until she got closer and then slowed down.

  But to Audrey’s disappointment the young man who came out of the gate carrying sacks piled up in his arms wasn’t Lenny. Maybe Lenny was ill. Or he could have had an accident. Or perhaps he’d changed to a different delivery round. She had to know.

  “He’s taken the day off,” the delivery man replied when Audrey asked where Lenny was. “Special event,” he added. “Wedding Anniversary.”

  Stunned, Audrey felt a twinge of hurt deep inside. But she pulled herself together and murmured, “Oh, that’s all right then.”

  It wasn’t all right, though was it? she thought as she continued on her way. Lenny had flirted with her and being a married man he shouldn’t have done that. Or maybe he hadn’t been flirting. Perhaps he’d really been talking about the Christmas roses when he’d said “pretty as a picture”. She’d just thought he was referring to her because she’d wanted him to be.

  The emotions waged inside her. Disappointment and annoyance that she’d read anything into Lenny’s words and the way he smiled at her must have added wings to her feet. When the Gaumont came into sight there was still a good few minutes until her shift started. She decided to go for a coffee and try to calm herself down.

  *

  As she stood at the counter, someone put a coin in the jukebox. When the record started to play, to Audrey’s dismay, it was Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford singing Christmas Roses.

  And to make matters worse, the girl who served her the coffee said, “I love this song. There’s a lovely legend about Christmas roses. It tells of a young shepherdess on her way to see the baby who’d been born in a manger. She noticed the Wise Men and the shepherds carrying gifts and began to cry because she had no gift to give. An angel appeared and brushed over the ground where the shepherdess’s tears had fallen…”

  The girl paused and smiling said, “This is the part I like the best: And a cluster of white winter roses with pink tipped petals appeared. The shepherdess gathered them to give to the baby. From that time on, winter roses became known as Christmas roses and stand for hope and love and all that’s wonderful about the season.”

  Audrey blinked back her tears as she paid for her drink and went to sit down at a table. Lenny liked flowers. Maybe he knew that legend. Maybe he’d sent his wife Christmas roses for their flaming wedding anniversary, along with his ever lovin’ heart like it said in the song’s chorus. Three times over.

  “You feeling homesick again?”

  The question broke into Audrey’s thoughts and she nodded as a girl with a glass of milk shake sat down opposite her. Like her, Mary was an usherette at the picture house a few doors down. When they’d moved, Audrey had felt really homesick for a while and Mary, who’d also moved away from her old home, had felt the same. They’d often talked about it and tried to cheer each other up.

  “I thought I’d got over it,” Audrey said now. “But then something happens and it all comes flooding back.”

  “What do you miss the most?”

  “The hills. Being lulled to sleep by the sound of water burbling over a rocky beck, drystone walls, stone bridges, the farm cottage being all on its own with no neighbours except the sheep and cows.”

  “Sounds boring to me.” Mary shuddered. “Might be all right at haymaking time, though, snuggling in a haystack with a brawny young farmer. You’ve not mentioned one of them, Audrey. Is there a nice farmer you miss as well?”

  “There was one or two I went to dances with, but nobody special.”

  “I don’t know why you didn’t stop there when your parents moved.”

  “That’s the irony of it. I could have stayed, but I thought it would be nice not living all crushed up with my grandparents and aunt and uncle and cousin. We went to live there after we were bombed out. Mum and Dad wanted to come back to somewhere near Manchester but it took ten years ’til the council offered the prefab. Anyway, when I knew we were moving, I thought I’d happen meet a nice lad who wasn’t a farm worker or a blacksmith.”

  “Maybe you haven’t lived here long enough yet to appreciate what there is round here, Audrey. But I suppose, even if you do meet someone, working the late shift at the Gaumont won’t do much to help things along.”

  “Working the late shift doesn’t give you much chance to meet anyone in the first place,” said Audrey. “I only get to see delivery men and they’re either too old, too young or married.” An image of Lenny danced behind her eyelids and she sighed.

  “You could always go back to Foxleigh, couldn’t you?”

  “I think I would if Mum hadn’t gone and broken her leg so badly. And I probably will once she’s had the plaster off. The neighbours have been great popping in and out but Mum still needs someone with her as much as possible until Dad gets home. Otherwise, she’d try to do too much. At least she can do the crackers sitting down. And me working the evening shift means I can help her with them.”

  “And talking of which,” said Mary, pointing to her watch. “It’s almost quarter to six.”

  “Crikey. Gwen will go barmy if we’re late for the parade.”

  Audrey jumped up and rammed on her maroon pill box hat. It was the very devil getting it to stay put on her fine hair. She had to wear it, though. It was part of her uniform.

  *

  “Are you listening, Audrey?” Gwen asked.

  The inspection of uniforms was over and now Gwen was telling the usherettes who would be doing what.

  “I’m sorry, Gwen, I wasn’t concentrating.”

  “Our Audrey’s feeling a bit homesick,” said Mary.

  “Or maybe she’s lovesick,” said one of the other usherettes. “Good job The Titfield Thunderbolt is a comedy and not a romance or a weepy.”

  None of them saw much of the film during the first part of their shift. Their time was spent mainly at the entrance to the stalls and circle. They only went inside to show people to their seats or to check there weren’t any trouble makers.

  They got to see a fair amount of the feature film during the last showing when it wasn’t so busy and they were allowed to go and sit in the seats especially provided for them.

  Apart from getting to watch the film, and whisper quietly amongst themselves, it was a chance to rest their aching feet. But Audrey knew if it had been a romance or a sad film, she’d have had to think up an excuse for not joining the others.

  “Right. If you’ve quite finished discussing Audrey’s lack of concentration, it’s time to get your torches and take your places,” Gwen said.

  But as Audrey walked past, Gwen gave her arm a sympathetic squeeze.

  Somehow that small gesture made Audrey feel a bit better. Gwen’s nice really, she thought, picking up a torch and making her way to the foyer.

  *

  “We�
�ve got a lot in for the last showing, haven’t we?” Mary said to Audrey a couple of hours later as they stood by the entrance to the stalls. “Surprising really, everyone coming in says it’s snowing hard now.”

  “Maybe everybody needed cheering up. Seeing a funny—” Audrey broke off as a small group of people walked into the foyer brushing snow off their coats. Amongst them was Lenny with an attractive dark-haired girl clinging to his arm and laughing.

  Obviously, they’d chosen to come to the pictures to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

  And, Audrey realised after a few seconds, she’d have to check their tickets because Mary had gone inside – probably to check everything was all right.

  Now Lenny was walking towards her, leaving his wife a few steps behind talking to the other four in the group.

  “I didn’t know you worked here, Audrey,” Lenny said, smiling.

  Audrey’s heart somersaulted. He looked so gorgeous when he smiled like that. But he’d no right smiling at her as if she were special.

  He indicated the people behind him. “It’s my parents’ twenty-fifth. They always insist on me, my sister and my brother and his wife bringing them here on their wedding anniversary because this is where they first met.”

  So it wasn’t his wedding anniversary. And it didn’t seem as if was married after all.

  “That’s really nice,” Audrey managed.

  “Not so nice in this weather. How about I walk you home when you finish your shift? If it turns to a blizzard you might get lost. We could get to know each other better, too.”

  Joy bubbled through her. “I’d like that, Lenny,” she said. “I’ll sneak my torch out with me so we can see where we’re going.”

  *

  They talked a lot on their way to the prefab village. Lenny had told her not to use her torch, adding that they’d hold hands so they wouldn’t lose each other in the swirling snowflakes. Audrey thought it was a lovely reason for walking hand in hand. Who knew walking in an almost blizzard could feel romantic?