The Bomb Girl Brides

by Daisy Styles

  ‘My dear child, I would never do that!’ Sister exclaimed. ‘You two have been drawn to each other for some time; it’s been sweet to see your affection towards each other grow, and your devotion to Peter has aided his recovery. Since you appeared on the scene, he’s come on in leaps and bounds.’

  Nora smiled proudly. ‘I’d do anything for him, I love him so much,’ she whispered.

  ‘We can all see that,’ Sister said fondly.

  Whilst Nora was in the office, she took advantage of the situation to ask a question that had been on her mind for quite some time.

  ‘When might Peter be discharged?’

  ‘That depends entirely on the plastic surgeon and Peter’s physiotherapist,’ Sister informed her.

  ‘I know he’s got an elderly mother Bradford way – will he go home to her when he’s discharged?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘That’s for Peter to decide when the time comes for him to leave us,’ Sister answered diplomatically.

  In the end Nora had no choice but to confess her secret plan to Percy, who went red with indignation.

  ‘You can’t do that, yer daft bugger!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘I can!’ she replied, equally indignant.

  ‘It’s thieving!’

  ‘Not if you can find me a replacement,’ she insisted. ‘I’ve got money for that.’

  ‘Why bring me into it?’ he demanded.

  ‘Because you’re the only person I know who could find a pig in this valley.’

  Percy didn’t argue with that; but he wasn’t going to be fobbed off with compliments.

  He looked over towards Polly, who was standing on her hind legs so she could see what was going on beyond the confines of her pen. With her head cocked to one side, she actually looked like she was listening in on their conversation.

  ‘And what exactly are you planning on doing with yon pig?’ Percy asked.

  ‘I’ll find somewhere for her,’ Nora answered with a confidence that she didn’t actually feel.

  ‘It’ll cost you, all this buggering about,’ he added irritably.

  ‘I can pay,’ she said forcefully.

  ‘When do you want it done?’

  ‘As soon as possible.’

  Percy looked her steadily in the eye for several seconds, then said, ‘If I do get thee another pig, you’ve got to faithfully promise you’ll never go near the damn thing. Otherwise you’ll be wanting to rescue that one too.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I won’t,’ she promised, knowing he was right and she would indeed have to keep away from the hapless replacement pig before she fell for that one just as hard as she’d fallen for Polly!

  ‘Because I’m telling you straight, lass, I’m not swapping pigs every ten minutes just because you’re too soft to see them slaughtered!’

  When Nora guiltily confided her plan to Edna, she burst out laughing.

  ‘Yer big soft sod!’ she hooted. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’

  Nora solemnly shook her head. ‘It’s God’s honest truth,’ she replied.

  ‘You’re serious?’ Edna gasped. ‘You really think you can swap Polly for another pig?’

  ‘I’ll do my damn best,’ Nora retorted. ‘Will you help me, Edna?’ she pleaded. ‘I’ve got to find a truck and a driver …’ Hoping that Edna would catch on, Nora left the sentence dangling in the air.

  Typically Edna replied with her usual generosity. ‘Course I’ll help you, cock.’ Nora sighed with relief.

  ‘Though if Maggie finds out what we’re up to, she might never speak to either of us again.’

  ‘Let’s hope that never happens,’ Nora retorted, as she drew out her packet of Woodbines. ‘Now tell me, how are Marilyn and Katherine getting on at their new school?’

  Edna beamed. ‘Couldn’t be better,’ she replied happily. ‘I have to admit I was worried to start with. Since they moved in with me, the little lasses have barely been parted from their mam for more than a few hours.’

  Nora nodded; she’d seen the girls around town, shopping with their mum, but always holding her hand and never straying far from her side.

  ‘Flora had a private word with the headmistress,’ Edna continued. ‘She explained to her why they’d moved so suddenly from Penrith; the head was very sympathetic and promised to keep an eye on the girls.’

  ‘Has Flora heard any news about their father?’ Nora asked in a low voice.

  ‘Just a few letters that her neighbour redirected down here, from the army, informing Flora that they’re looking after him until he’s fit for action again.’ Edna’s face darkened. ‘I pray to God he doesn’t turn up and drag them poor little chicks back with him,’ she said with an emotional catch in her voice.

  ‘I wouldn’t worry – it sounds like the man’s in no state to whisk the girls away,’ Nora quickly assured her friend.

  ‘I hope the army can help to get him better,’ Edna said in a guilty afterthought. ‘Flora tells me time and again that he wasn’t always a bad husband – it’s just that not having seen it, I find it very hard to believe.’

  After Edna managed to locate a truck, it was then a question of synchronizing the swap on a day that Maggie would definitely not be anywhere near the allotment, and also on a day that Peter would be allowed out of hospital.

  ‘Peter will be joining us,’ Nora informed Edna. ‘He won’t be able to do much but he wants to be there anyway.’

  Edna chuckled. ‘You two love birds can barely be parted,’ she teased.

  ‘Does everybody know we’re walking out, then?’ Nora asked with a blush.

  ‘Let’s just say good news travels fast in these parts,’ Edna answered with a wink.

  On the appointed day Edna drove Nora up to Wrigg Hall, where she dropped her off, then waited for her and Peter to join her in the truck that Nora had lovingly spread with straw so that her beloved Polly wouldn’t have an uncomfortable ride to her secret destination.

  Peter’s fellow patients grinned when Nora, looking pretty in her best cotton frock and cardigan, arrived to pick Peter up. Surprised not to see her in her volunteer’s uniform, the men complimented the blushing girl, whose hair hung long and loose about her smiling happy face.

  ‘You look a picture.’

  ‘Proper bonny.’

  As the smiling couple left the ward arm in arm, more good-natured comments followed them: ‘Take care of the lad’, ‘Don’t wear him out’, ‘Bring him back in one piece!’

  Peter and Nora, squeezed tightly together in the passenger seat, held hands as Edna, clearly enjoying herself, drove up the steep, cobbled hill that led to the farm. As Peter enjoyed the views of the wild rolling Pennines, Nora gnawed on her nails; her heart was thudding as she thought about what they had to do in the next few hours. What if Maggie, after all her careful planning, showed up out of the blue?

  ‘Cheer up, lovie,’ Peter said, as he stroked her knee. ‘This is an adventure for me, driving along on a lovely day like today with my girlfriend by my side.’ He astonished Nora by suddenly saying, ‘One day when I’m fitter I’ll teach you to drive, if you like?’

  ‘Me?’ Nora laughed. ‘Give over! I’m too daft to learn how to drive.’

  Edna and Peter exchanged a knowing look.

  ‘Now listen here,’ Peter said in his firmest voice, ‘if you’re going to be my lass, I’ll hear no more of the “I’m too daft” stuff from you.’

  Edna nodded in agreement with Peter’s sentiment, whilst Nora looked embarrassed.

  ‘You’re one of the cleverest women I’ve ever met,’ he continued.

  ‘I’m not –’ she started to protest.

  ‘Hear me out, please. You’re clever from the inside, Nora. You understand people, and you have compassion, which is not something you find on a fancy certificate – it’s a God-given gift, and you’ve got it.’

  Moved to tears by Peter’s earnest words, Edna almost missed the turning to Haworth, but luckily Peter saw it, and after a sharp turn left they followed a narrow farm track, which w
as rutted with holes.

  Edna stayed in the truck whilst Peter exchanged the right amount of pound notes with the farmer, who then led the pig out of his sty.

  ‘Here he is,’ he announced. ‘I reckon you’ve got your money’s worth.’

  ‘He?’ Nora gasped. ‘It’s a boy?’

  The farmer nodded. ‘And a big one at that.’

  In shocked silence Nora gazed at the beast.

  ‘Well, do you want it or not?’ barked the farmer.

  With a flourish Peter flung open the truck’s back doors. ‘Aye, of course we want it,’ he said loudly.

  After a few protesting scuffles the pig was dragged into the truck, and the doors were securely slammed shut.

  Peter winked at Edna as he and Nora clambered back into the cab.

  ‘What’s up?’ she asked.

  ‘Slight change of plan,’ Peter replied.

  Almost in tears Nora cried, ‘It’s not a girl! Maggie’s sure to notice.’

  Edna calmly started the engine and pulled away from the farm. ‘Do you really think she’ll notice, lovie? I mean, how much time does she spend in the pig sty checking out Polly’s whatsits?’

  Peter stifled a snort of laughter, whilst Nora considered the question.

  ‘You’re right, Maggie does spend most of her time working alongside Percy on the allotment,’ she finally conceded.

  ‘So with luck you might get away with it,’ Edna said cheerfully.

  ‘And after all,’ Peter added, ‘a pig’s a pig if all you’re going to do at the end of the day is eat it!’

  When Edna drove up to the allotment and saw Percy with a face like thunder holding tightly on to Polly, who had a rope tethered around her neck, she muttered under her breath, ‘Aye, aye, here’s trouble.’

  ‘Get a soddin’ move on,’ Percy growled when they pulled up. ‘I’ve been sweating bricks waiting for you two – if Maggie ever finds out what we’re up to there’ll be hell to pay.’

  Nora, after dashing to open the back of the truck and drop the ramp, nervously led out the new pig. But within a few seconds she heard Percy furiously swearing, ‘BLOODY HELL FIRE!’

  Turning to Nora, he yelled, ‘You’ve gone and bought a fella!’

  ‘I didn’t know!’ poor Nora protested.

  ‘How do you think you’re going to pull the wool over Maggie’s eyes with this bugger?’ Percy raged. ‘Maggie’s not daft, yer know.’

  ‘I was hoping she might not notice,’ Nora cried apologetically.

  Percy pointed at the pig’s dangling genitals. ‘She’d have to be bloody blind to miss that lot!’

  Muttering curses under his breath, Percy led the pig into his new sty, leaving Nora to deal with Polly, who skipped up the ramp and into the truck as if she was going on holiday.

  Edna popped her head out of the driver’s seat window. ‘Let’s get out of here before Percy gives us another earful,’ she urged.

  With Polly grunting contentedly in the back of the truck, they drove her to her new home on a rather isolated farm a couple of miles from the cowshed.

  ‘It’s a bit far out,’ Peter observed when they pulled up.

  ‘I thought the further away from Maggie the better,’ Nora told him. ‘But not so far that I can’t visit her,’ she added fondly.

  ‘How are you going to get out here to see Polly?’ Edna asked.

  ‘I’ll cycle out,’ Nora replied.

  ‘And what will you say to Maggie when she asks where you’ve been?’

  ‘I’ll think of something,’ Nora said, as she led Polly to the sty she’d lovingly prepared for her. ‘Here you are, my sweetheart,’ she said and removed the rope from around Polly’s neck. ‘A nice safe place where nobody will ever find you.’

  As Polly buried her head in a bucket of pigswill, Peter joined Nora, who was leaning over the gate, watching Polly guzzle.

  ‘We did it,’ he chuckled as he hugged Nora.

  ‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ she murmured, as she kissed Peter’s cheek. ‘All the money you’ve spent – you’re wonderful!’ she said with grateful tears in her eyes.

  Peter gave Nora a deep kiss on her warm pink lips. ‘I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,’ he said, then added with a sparkle in his eye, ‘I’ve not laughed so much in years, my sweetheart!’

  30. Hugo

  Even though she’d asked Hugo for his help, Julia was nevertheless taken by surprise when a telegram from him turned up in her pigeon-hole at the Phoenix.

  Dearest Jay,

  Phone me when you have a private moment.

  H.

  Her heart skipped a beat; she knew instinctively it could only be about Gabriel. Looking down the length of the canteen, Julia could see Rosa, smoking and chatting to Kit and a few other women from the filling shed.

  ‘God!’ thought Julia. ‘What if it’s bad news? She hates me enough already. What will I say to her if Gabriel’s been found dead in a ditch?’

  The hooter blasting out, recalling the workers, made Julia jump; then, taking a deep breath, she joined Kit in the filling shed, where they resumed the monotonous dirty job of filling shells. Ten minutes in, just as the strains of Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’ were issuing from the factory loudspeaker, Kit suddenly laid down the gunpowder she was smoothing with her fingertips, groaned loudly and got to her feet. Seeing her white, strained face, Julia immediately stood up too.

  ‘What is it, Kit?’

  ‘Terrible back pains,’ she replied, as she clutched her lumbar region and groaned again, but this time louder.

  ‘Let’s get you out of here,’ Julia said firmly, as she took her friend’s arm and steered her out of the shed.

  In the first-aid room the nurse on duty briefly examined Kit.

  ‘You’re big,’ she said, running her hands over Kit’s bulging stomach. ‘How far gone are you?’

  ‘Nearly seven months now.’

  ‘I’m not a doctor but I’d say you’re putting too much pressure on your body doing twelve-hour shifts in this place,’ the nurse said. ‘It’s time to put your feet up, lass.’

  ‘I’m not due maternity leave yet,’ Kit told her anxiously.

  ‘Your baby doesn’t know that,’ the nurse replied. ‘I suggest you go home right away and make an appointment to see your family doctor, who’ll give you a thorough examination. Now,’ she asked briskly, ‘how will you get home?’

  Kit hauled herself up from the narrow examination bed. ‘I can get a bus; it’s not that far.’

  Julia, who’d stayed with Kit, helped her to her feet. ‘Shall I pick up Billy from nursery for you?’ she inquired.

  ‘Thank you, but I’ll get Ian to collect him on his way home,’ Kit replied. ‘You get yourself back to work, Julia,’ she urged. ‘I’ll be fine.’

  Julia returned to the filling shed, where she automatically filled one shell after another, her mind on Kit, but also on how she would manage to secure a private telephone call with Hugo. She knew Malc, the factory supervisor, had a phone in his office, but she didn’t feel she knew him well enough to ask him directly if she could use it. But Maggie and Nora were on easy-going terms with Malc, so she decided to ask them to ask on her behalf.

  ‘My brother wants a word with me,’ she told them. ‘Some sort of family business,’ she added with a vague shrug.

  Malc didn’t mind Julia using his phone so long as he wasn’t busy in his office; on hearing this, Julia arranged a time that was convenient for Malc, then phoned her brother in between her breaks.

  ‘Jay, darling, how are you?’

  Julia’s heart began to pound – what on earth was he going to tell her?

  ‘Fine, what news?’ she answered almost curtly.

  Dropping his voice, Hugo said, ‘There is a chance that Falco may be alive.’

  Julia smothered a gasp as she almost dropped the phone she was grasping so tightly.

  ‘If he’s using the false name and identity papers he was issued with, then it would seem he’s alive
and, more to the point, been spotted more than once recently.’

  ‘How do you know this?’ Julia gasped.

  As Hugo briefly stated the facts, Julia hardly dared to breathe for fear of missing a word he said.

  ‘We know a male who fits Falco’s description got himself to underground workers, who vetted him, then hid him in a safe house, where he was given a false name and identity pass. Under his false name he was placed on a train with other rescued Jews, bound for Belgium.’

  ‘Belgium!’ Julia cried.

  Ignoring her excitement, Hugo concluded, ‘We have men on the ground monitoring safe houses across the Belgian coast; if I hear further news, I’ll try to let you know.’

  ‘Thank you, Hugo,’ she started but he hurriedly interrupted her.

  ‘Sorry, Jay – got to go.’

  A sharp click on the other end of the line told her he was gone.

  ‘What now?’ she said out loud, as she replaced the handset in its cradle. Now that she had news, should she share it with Rosa, or would it be sensible to wait till she knew more?

  After leaving Malc’s office, she thoughtfully walked back home but as she got nearer to the cowshed Julia realized she was actually frightened of talking to Rosa, who couldn’t even look at her without scowling.

  ‘If I’m going to tell her,’ she thought, ‘it should be soon, whilst the news is fresh; then at least she won’t think I’ve been keeping secrets from her for weeks.’

  The spring days were getting longer and lighter, allowing Maggie and Nora more time on the allotment, tending their now very large vegetables; Julia waved guiltily as she passed them by.

  ‘They could do with another pair of hands,’ she thought, but now might be the ideal moment to catch Rosa alone in the cowshed.

  Rosa was in fact sitting on the front step, smoking a cheroot, admiring the view of the moors loud with the call of skylarks and curlews. Usually Julia would have deftly sidestepped Rosa and entered the house without speaking a word, but now was not the time to sidestep important issues. Taking a deep breath to steady her trembling limbs, she plucked up the courage to say what she had to say.