‘Nah then, Miss Pips. Brought that young scallywag back to us, have you? Has he behaved himself?’ But she was smiling as she said it. Her fondness for her great-grandson was obvious.
Today, Pips had brought Ma’s great-granddaughter to visit her too. ‘She’s coming on.’ Ma nodded towards Daisy. ‘Just like her mother, isn’t she?’ Daisy favoured Alice in looks and colouring with a sweet face, black hair and dark blue eyes. Ma gave a toothless grin. ‘But I reckon she’s got some of your spirit, Miss Pips. As she gets older, we’ll have two of you to deal with.’
Pips laughed. ‘Oh, I’ll keep an eye on her.’
Ma cackled with laughter. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of. She’ll be following you into mischief, I’ll be bound.’
Pips sat down beside the old lady and murmured, ‘Is the coast clear?’
‘Aye, he’s at his work, but don’t say owt in front of the young ’un. Not any more. He’s getting a mite too sharp. Tell you what. We’ll go inside. I’m sure you’d like a cuppa. Bring little Daisy. She’s too young to understand owt yet. Luke can run up to his granddad. Luke,’ she raised her voice, ‘go and find Granddad.’
The boy scampered up the lane towards the workshop where they could hear Len at his anvil.
‘How’s Mr Dawson managing? With the work, I mean, now that he’s on his own.’
Ma pulled herself stiffly to her feet. ‘He’s taken on Sam Nuttall, one of the few lads to come back to the village from the war. He’s shaping up quite nicely. But it’ll never be the same as if it’d been his own lads back home again and working alongside him.’
‘Of course not,’ Pips murmured. ‘And how are you all – coping?’ This time, her meaning was clear. Three of the Dawsons’ four sons had been killed on the Somme within days of each another.
‘Len doesn’t say much. Being a man, he keeps it all to himself. But it’s Norah I’m worried about. It’s as if she thought they’d died just for the duration of the war, you know. And now she expects them to come back.’
‘And what about you, Ma?’ Pips asked softly.
The old lady was silent for a moment, before she said slowly, ‘I’ve lived a long time, Miss Pips. I’ve seen a lot of folks die afore their time through illness or accident. And I’ve lived through wars too when families lost their menfolk. I don’t mean you don’t feel it any the less or that you get hardened to it, but you learn to deal with it.’
‘But this is a bit different, isn’t it? It feels as if a whole generation of men from all classes of society has been wiped out.’
‘Aye, your age group, Miss Pips. From the highest in the land to the most humble, we’re all united in sorrow. And it’s going to be hard, especially for the young women of your age. Where are you young girls going to find husbands now?’
Pips smiled thinly but did not answer. It was a grievance she heard almost daily from her own family.
‘Let’s just hope that President Wilson was right when he said that it was “the war to end all wars”,’ Ma said. ‘And we must make the world a safer place for Luke and Daisy and their generation.’
Pips sighed heavily. ‘It’s going to take a while. There’s a lot of unrest and unemployment as the troops are coming home.’ Then she grinned. ‘But now women – at least some women – have been given the vote, things should get better. We might even get a woman prime minister one day.’
Ma cackled with laughter. ‘I don’t doubt it, but I don’t expect I shall live to see that happen, Miss Pips.’ Then she lowered her voice. Now that Luke was out of earshot, she asked, ‘You’ve had a letter from William?’
Pips nodded as she lifted Daisy out of the baby carriage and they walked slowly round the side of the cottage and in through the back door. Passing through the scullery into the kitchen, Ma sat down in her favourite chair by the range, where the fire burned winter and summer.
On the mantelpiece above the range were two photographs. One was of Bernard and Roy together, both in uniform and grinning at the camera, taken just before they had been posted abroad. The other was a grainy picture of Harold as a young boy. Both frames were edged with black cloth. ‘We don’t have a picture of Harold in his uniform,’ Ma had told Pips once, ‘seeing as how he ran away to join up because he was underage.’
‘Oh Miss Pips, you’ve brought little Daisy to see us.’ Norah Dawson greeted her, reaching out for her granddaughter. ‘Now, I wonder if I can find a piece of your favourite cake.’
Daisy chuckled and wound her arms round Norah’s neck. ‘Cake – cake.’
The three women smiled.
‘Miss Pips has had a letter, Norah.’
For a moment, a fleeting look of fear crossed Norah’s face as she glanced at the door.
‘It’s all right, duck. I’ve sent Luke up to his granddad. Best he doesn’t know about the letters now. He might tell Len. Innocently, of course,’ she added swiftly.
Norah bit her lip nervously. ‘But Len might bring him home. He won’t want him in the way.’
Ma waved her hand dismissively. ‘He’ll sit him well out of the way at the workshop. Besides, Sam’ll keep an eye on him. He’s very good with the little lad.’
Norah relaxed a little, but still murmured, ‘I’ll make sure the back door’s closed. That way, we’ll hear if anyone comes in.’
When the three women were settled with a cup of tea and Daisy was sitting on Norah’s lap munching a piece of sponge cake, Pips drew the letter out of her pocket and handed it across the table to Norah. She read it swiftly and then again more slowly, now reading it aloud to Ma:
‘Dear Miss Pips,
I’m settling in very well here and there is a lot of work to keep me busy. Brigitta’s grandparents, Mr and Mrs Dupont, treat me like a son and I’m slowly learning the language too, though they speak excellent English.
Now, I have some wonderful news. With Mr Dupont’s kind permission, I proposed to Brigitta and she said “yes”. We are to be married in the autumn – October – after harvest time, though what sort of harvest we’ll manage, I don’t know. Although we weren’t too badly affected here, it will take a long time to get back to normal, never mind the poor folk who have lost almost everything. If you get the chance, please tell Mother and Ma that I am very happy. Of course, I wish they could be at my wedding, but I know that won’t be possible.’
Norah paused for a moment as her voice cracked with emotion, but then she took in a deep breath and carried on, though her voice trembled a little.
‘I know they would love Brigitta and I hope you will tell them all about her. Thank you for the photographs of both Daisy and Luke. Perhaps one day I will be able to meet them. I hope they grow up to be good friends with each other.’
Norah glanced up. ‘You’ve sent him photographs, Miss Pips?’
Pips nodded. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Of course not. It’s kind of you to write to him. Please – when you write again, give him our love.’ She gestured towards her mother-in-law and Ma nodded.
‘And – and tell him,’ Norah went on hesitantly, ‘I see now that I was wrong. I got caught up in the patriotic fever of the time along with the boys and look what’s happened. We’ve lost all three of them. Only William had any sense and we’ve lost him too, though it’s some comfort to know he is happy. Of course,’ she added swiftly and a little nervously, ‘I’m only speaking for myself and Ma. Len will never change the way he feels.’
‘Won’t he?’ Pips asked gently. ‘Are you sure?’
Norah gave a deep sigh. ‘Positive. He will never forgive William. Not as long as he lives, so there’s no way we could go to the wedding, even if we could afford it.’
‘When we get a definite date, I will take Alice and perhaps Daisy too. William should have some members of his family there.’
Norah’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh would you, Miss Pips? That would be wonderful.’
As Pips bade her farewell, Ma murmured, ‘She’s a remarkable young woman.’
‘Yes,
but I wonder what she will do with her life now. I fear she’ll never find a husband.’
Ma snorted with contempt. ‘We thought she’d found one in Dr Giles Kendall, didn’t we? The young feller that Master Robert had met at medical school and who went out to the front with them. Though he turned out to be a wrong ’un, didn’t he? Running off with another nurse out there. But don’t you worry about Miss Pips, Norah. She’ll find summat to do with her life, never fear.’
As Pips walked home again, there was a little more spring in her step. William’s happy news had given her something to plan. She was determined that at least she and Alice would go to Belgium for his wedding in a few months’ time. Daisy, too.
About Robert, she couldn’t be sure.
Three
Early in September, Henrietta said, ‘Basil and Rosemary are dining with us on Saturday night.’
Before the war, it had long been a tradition in Henrietta’s family to have a dinner party every Saturday evening and she had continued the ritual. The war had interrupted that but now Henrietta felt it was time to try and get back to normal as much as possible.
Pips clapped her hands. ‘That’s wonderful. It seems ages since we saw them both.’
‘Basil was so busy in his post as consultant to the War Office and even though it’s over now, I expect there are still things he’s needed for. Anyway, he’s home at the moment, so they’re coming.’
‘I do like old Basil, he’s a darling.’
A portly figure with a florid face, a grey handlebar moustache and a booming voice more suited to the parade ground than a genteel dining room, the major was nevertheless always such fun. He was Pips’s favourite dinner guest. His wife, Rosemary, was an elegant and charming woman and Henrietta’s best friend. Together they had done a great deal of fund-raising during the war, sending welcome gifts out to the troops, especially to the flying ambulance corps where Henrietta’s family were serving.
On their arrival, the major held out his arms to Pips and kissed her soundly on both cheeks.
‘My dear girl. How lovely to see you. I hope you’re sitting next to me.’
She hugged him in return. ‘Of course. Would I sit anywhere else?’
The talk was general during the first two courses, but over dessert, Pips asked, ‘Are you still working as a consultant for the War Office, major?’
‘At the moment, yes, but there is talk of the numbers employed being seriously reduced. It’s to be expected, I suppose, now we’re no longer at war.’
‘But they’ll still need to keep the department active, surely?’
‘Sadly, I fear that will be the case, but I expect an old duffer like me will soon be put out to grass. They’ll want a younger man – probably one who actually served at the front – to take over that sort of role in the future.’ The major smiled. ‘But more importantly, my dear, what are you going to do with yourself now?’
Pips wrinkled her forehead. ‘To be honest with you, major, I’m not sure. But I must do something. My usefulness in life has suddenly gone from one extreme to the other.’
Major Fieldsend patted her hand. ‘You’ll find something, my dear, I’m sure.’
Pips leaned closer. ‘The first thing I’m going to try to do is to take whoever I can persuade to go out to Belgium to William Dawson’s wedding.’
He chuckled. ‘Good luck with that.’
‘I think I might need it, major,’ Pips said with heartfelt irony.
‘So, are we going, then, Alice?’
‘Going, Pips? Going where?’
‘To William and Brigitta’s wedding. It’s next month, you know, and time’s getting on. We ought to be making arrangements. Booking the ferry and other transport. Sorting out passports for us all. That sort of thing. I’m not sure what we need for Daisy, but I’ll find out.’
‘Oh, I don’t know if I should go. I don’t like to leave Robert . . .’
‘Surely, he’ll come too?’
Alice bit her lip and shook her head. ‘No, he says he can’t face going back there. At least, not now. It’s too soon.’
‘Oh phooey.’ Pips flapped her hand impatiently. ‘I’ll talk to him.’
‘Try, by all means, Pips, but I don’t think even you will be able to persuade him.’
Pips picked up her skirts and took the stairs two at a time to the Blue Drawing Room on the first floor. It was a long room, with windows looking out over the rear gardens. On either side of the white marble fireplace, ornate cabinets held Henrietta’s precious china and, in the centre of the room, a chess set was laid out, with a chair on either side; this was where Robert and Pips played against each other with fierce rivalry. Family portraits of Henrietta’s ancestors adorned the walls and at the far end of the room there was a large embroidery frame. Alice was a clever needlewoman and now she had the task of repairing the tapestries that lined the walls of Henrietta and Edwin’s bedroom. There were comfortable sofas and chairs dotted about the room, but Robert was sitting near the window, yet again gazing out of it into the far distance.
‘Never mind sitting there,’ Pips said as she came into the room. ‘You should be out touring your estate.’
‘The estate works perfectly well without my interference.’
‘Oh for goodness’ sake, Robert! It isn’t interference. You’re going to be in charge of all this one day . . .’ She waved her hand to encompass the hall where they all lived, its grounds and the farmland beyond. ‘Mother won’t live for ever.’
Robert managed a smile. ‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that.’
With a sigh, Pips sat down beside him. ‘You’ve got one of your black moods, haven’t you?’
Listlessly, Robert said, ‘I suppose there’s no other way to describe it. Then I feel guilty because it’s affecting all the family. Especially Alice.’
‘Alice loves you devotedly, she’ll never give up on you. Nor will we, but I have to admit I haven’t her patience. I itch to tell you to “snap out of it”, but I know it’s not that simple. And poor Mother – she longs to help you but doesn’t know how. And even Father – a doctor – doesn’t know what to do.’
‘I know,’ Robert said gloomily. There was silence between them until Robert asked, ‘You don’t think it’s affecting Daisy, do you? I couldn’t bear to think that.’
‘No, I don’t. At the moment, she’s too young to understand and, as she gets older, she’ll just think her daddy can be a bit grumpy at times.’ Pips leaned forward and added gently, ‘If it would help to talk about it, you only have to—’
‘No, no, I can’t. None of us can.’
‘Sam Nuttall does.’
Robert looked up at her. ‘Does he? Does he really?’
‘Yes, but he tells folks all the good bits – the camaraderie, playing football behind the lines, visiting Talbot House in Poperinghe on a few days’ leave, cooking breakfast in the trenches, even about using the empty tins of Ticklers jam to make hand grenades.’
‘But I bet he doesn’t tell them about the soldiers sleeping in waterlogged trenches, with rats as big as cats nestling under their armpits. Or about the dreadful wounds men suffered, how they were left for hours, days sometimes, in no-man’s-land where their wounds became infected and it was impossible to save them. Or about thousands being mown down by machine guns on the first day of the Somme as they climbed out of the trenches or being blown sky high by mines and their bodies never recovered.’
‘No, he doesn’t tell them all that, though I’ve no doubt he remembers it all,’ Pips said gently, ‘just as you do. Just as all of us who were out there remember. But he visits the Dawsons and tries to bring them some comfort to think that their three lads had some good times too.’
Slowly, Robert turned to look at her. ‘How do you cope with it, Pips? You saw the same dreadful sights that I did.’
‘But I didn’t get wounded, did I?’
‘You got shot in the back of the leg rescuing Mitch Hammond from his crashed aeroplane. You could have been killed.�
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‘So could you.’
‘Yes, perhaps it would have been better . . .’
‘Don’t you dare say that, Robert Maitland. Don’t you ever let those words pass your lips.’
He grinned sheepishly, feeling the black cloud of despair beginning to lift a little. Though he loved Alice fiercely and she was kind and patient and considerate, it was Pips who challenged him and could often bring him out of his despair like no one else could. And now there was Daisy too. His adorable little daughter could lift his spirits just by running into the room.
‘So, why are you here? Did Alice ask you to come?’
‘No, it’s something else entirely,’ Pips said, bending the truth a little. ‘William gets married next month and I think we should go.’
‘You and Alice, you mean?’
‘And you and Daisy too.’
‘Oh no, not me, Pips. I couldn’t, but you could take Daisy. I’m sure her uncle William would love to meet her.’
‘Could you really not try, Robert?’
He shook his head and said huskily, ‘I wish I could – for Alice’s sake – but it’s too soon. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to face it.’
‘But you’d allow me to take Alice and Daisy?’
He chuckled, the last shreds of the dark veil falling away. ‘Allow? Since when did you need anyone’s approval to do something? Not since you were about ten years old, I think. I must ask Mother.’
‘Don’t you dare! She’d say five! Besides, you’re wrong. I sought her approval before we went to the front.’
‘Yes, you did, but if she hadn’t given it, you’d have gone anyway, wouldn’t you?’
The Brooklands Girls Page 2