by Rosie Hendry
‘It’s not just finding someone else, there’s always the danger that if you do come to love them that you might lose them again. I don’t want to experience that hurt ever again.’ Bella turned her cup around in her hands. ‘I still miss James, so very much.’
Station Officer Steele nodded sympathetically. ‘Of course you do, and part of you always will, but James wouldn’t want you to forgo love if the chance came along again, would he?’
‘We never discussed it.’
‘You didn’t need to, he was a good, kind and very caring man who adored you. He would want you to be happy however that came about, remember that.’ She smiled at Bella. ‘He would be immensely proud of the way you’ve carried on, and thrilled with the success you’ve achieved with your writing; you haven’t given up even though it was hard.’
Bella nodded, unable to say anything because her throat was aching with emotion and she couldn’t trust herself not to cry.
Chapter 10
Alastair’s train was late. Frankie kept glancing up at the huge clock as she paced up and down inside King’s Cross station, but its hands seemed to have slowed down and were crawling around the clock face at a snail’s pace. Late trains were nothing unusual these days, she told herself, but it didn’t help when she was so desperate to see him. She hadn’t seen him for over a year and a half and Frankie felt every one of these extra minutes until she saw him again.
Trying to distract herself, she thought about all that had happened since Alastair had telephoned Station 75 three days ago to tell her he was home. She’d been busy making arrangements for their wedding: they’d be married by special licence in two days’ time at St Dunstan’s church, Stepney – where her grandparents had been married and where she’d been christened – and the reception would be held at a pie and mash shop which Alastair had specifically requested and she’d loved the idea of. The alterations to Station Officer Steele’s wedding dress were almost finished, Josie was helping her to do them, and Winnie, Bella and Rose’s dresses were all organised and fitted. Now all she needed was the bridegroom.
Frankie’s stomach was fluttering like butterflies when at last the Edinburgh train pulled up at the platform forty minutes late. She watched eagerly as the carriage doors opened and passengers began to spill out, many of them servicemen and women in khaki, black or air force blue service uniforms. Scanning the faces, she spotted Alastair before he saw her, her heart leaping in her chest at the sight of him.
‘Alastair!’ she shouted, waving her arms above her head, catching the attention of not just him but many of the other passengers who smiled as she hurried towards him, pushing her way through the crowded platform. He dropped his kitbag and opened his arms wide to capture her and as Frankie flew into them, she couldn’t help the tears of relief and joy that rolled down her face.
Alastair hugged her tightly and they stood wrapped in each other’s arms, oblivious to the passengers skirting round them, many of them smiling at the joyful reunion. When they eventually loosened their hold of each other and stepped back to drink in each other’s face, Frankie thought he looked different, there were faint lines fanning out from the corners of his beautiful blue eyes which didn’t used to be there. His face was tanned, unlike most of the people around whose faces were pale and pasty after the long British winter, but he was still her gorgeous Alastair. It was hard to believe that he was actually here – that this wasn’t just a dream. Frankie smiled happily at him, touching his face.
‘I can ’ardly believe you’re really here, I’ve been waiting for this moment so long.’
‘Me too.’ Alastair’s eyes held hers for a few moments before he kissed her passionately which earned them several wolf whistles from passing servicemen.
Laughing when they came up for air, they linked hands and headed towards the exit of the busy station.
‘I’m starving, let’s go and get something to eat,’ Alastair said.
Settled at one of the tables in a British Restaurant a short while later, Frankie watched as he tucked into a plate of shepherd’s pie and cabbage. ‘You look like you needed that.’
He nodded while he chewed, his mouth full. ‘There was no food on the train and it was a long time since breakfast.’ He smiled. ‘I need something like this to help keep me warm, I’ve got used to the heat in Egypt. England feels a lot colder than it used to after being there.’
Frankie laughed. ‘You come from Scotland where it’s even colder than ’ere, you’ve gone soft!’
He raised his eyebrows and smiled as he took another mouthful of food.
‘I thought you’d be sent to Italy, I never expected you to be sent home.’ Frankie speared a piece of her own cabbage and popped it in her mouth.
‘I would have been, but I had to spend a bit of time in hospital.’
Frankie nearly choked on her mouthful. ‘What? When? Why? You never said in your letters.’
‘I didn’t want to worry you, and it was only for a couple of weeks. I had a gippy tummy – a touch of dysentery – and it got bad enough to put me in hospital.’ He reached across and took hold of her hand. ‘I’m perfectly all right now, but I lost my field unit and ended up working at the hospital where I was a patient for a bit once I was better. My old unit had gone, been sent on to Italy, so I’d missed being posted with them while I was ill, otherwise I’d have been there now instead of sitting here with you.’ He smiled. ‘So, I’m glad I was ill because it’s brought me home and now we can get married.’
‘I was worried when I didn’t ’ear from you for a while. I know you said that can happen sometimes if you’re on the move, but I couldn’t help it.’ Frankie squeezed his hand. ‘Are you working with a new unit now?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, after a spell working at the hospital, I was sent to join a casualty clearing station out in the desert again and now things have quietened down out there, they decided to send us all home for a bit.’
‘What will happen to you now, will you be posted to a military ’ospital here?’ Frankie said.
‘I doubt it, but I’ll hopefully be in England for a while yet.’ Alastair finished the last of his first course and reached for his pudding of apple crumble and custard. ‘But I expect I’ll be sent abroad again. I’ve got to go because I need to see this through to the end, Frankie. I’m staying in the RAMC until we’ve beaten them, I couldn’t pull out now even if they’d let me.’ He sighed. ‘After what I’ve seen, I need to do my bit to finish this off.’
She couldn’t help wishing that his time serving overseas was over, but she knew that, in reality, an experienced doctor like him would be needed when the invasion began. It was highly likely that he’d be sent to France. She was lucky to have him come home at all; if it hadn’t been for his illness, he’d be in Italy right now with little hope of coming home until the war was over, whenever that might be. If there was one thing that this horrible war had taught her, it was that you had to grab at every chance of happiness that came your way and not worry too much about what was coming next.
‘Then we need to make the most of it while you are here.’ She smiled at him. ‘I’ve arranged for you to stay at Winnie’s house until the wedding, now you ain’t got your room at the doctors’ residences at the London any more. It wouldn’t be right for you to stay at mine, so we thought it was the best place for you for a couple of nights. And after that, we’ll be on our honeymoon. Are you going to tell me where we’re going?’
‘No. Otherwise it won’t be a surprise, will it?’ He put down his spoon and rummaged in his large kitbag, taking out something wrapped in brown paper and handing it to her. ‘I bought this for you in Cairo, thought you could perhaps make something nice to wear with it.’
Frankie took the package and carefully unwrapped it, gasping in delight when she saw what was inside. She ran her fingers over the beautiful teal-coloured silk which shimmered in the light and from which an exotic smell of spices and perfume rose up. ‘It’s so beautiful! Thank you so much.’
�
�I thought the colour would suit you and I know how good you are at dressmaking. When I saw it in the market, I knew it was perfect for you.’
Frankie got up and went around to his side of the table and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. ‘I love you, Alastair Munro, and having you come home again is the best thing that’s happened to me in a long while.’
Chapter 11
Bella sat perched on the arm of Winnie’s chair only half listening to Station Officer Steele’s morning briefing, her thoughts instead drifting to Frankie who’d been given the day off by the boss to prepare for her wedding tomorrow. It felt odd not to have her here as they’d worked so closely together since her friend had joined Station 75. Loud groans and mutterings brought Bella’s attention back to the present and she looked around at her fellow crew members who didn’t look very happy.
‘Eating sandwiches for just one day isn’t going to kill you!’ Station Officer Steele said, a hint of impatience in her voice. ‘You’ve all become rather spoiled with hot meals since we switched to twenty-four-hour shifts and got our own station cook.’
‘What’s going on?’ Bella whispered to Winnie.
‘The gas was cut off by last night’s raid,’ Winnie explained, keeping her voice low. ‘So, there’ll be no hot meals made for us today – just sandwiches.’
Station Officer Steele tapped a teaspoon loudly against her mug of tea, bringing the common room into silence once more. ‘That is quite enough! We have faced far greater challenges during this war and I expect you all to get on with your work without any more fuss. I—’ She stopped as Mrs Connelly, Station 75’s cook, came bustling into the common room, her face flushed under her grey curls.
‘There ain’t no need for sandwiches after all, I’ve had an idea that’ll work. I can cook outside! If we get a fire going out in the courtyard, I can rig up a tripod over it and hang a cooking pot from it and have other pots standing in the embers as well.’ She smiled at the crew. ‘Old Hitler’s not goin’ to stop us from having a hot dinner if I can help it!’
‘What are you goin’ to burn on the fire?’ Sparky said. ‘We ain’t got much coal ration to spare.’
Mrs Connelly put one hand on her hip. ‘There ain’t no need for coal if some of you can go out and collect some wood from nearby bomb sites for me – there’s plenty of that just lying around. It’s perfect for burning on a campfire.’
Station Officer Steele beamed at Mrs Connelly. ‘That’s a marvellous idea, it’ll be rather like the Girl Guides. Sparky, would you and Paterson and a couple of other volunteers go out and collect some wood for the fire?’
Sparky nodded. ‘There’s plenty of wood further along the Minories where that building got bombed the other week, we’ll go there.’
‘Excellent,’ the boss said. ‘In the meantime, the rest of us will get on with our jobs and work up an appetite for Mrs Connelly’s dinner.’
‘I feel like a bit of a change so I’m going to volunteer to go and collect some wood, do you want to come as well?’ Bella asked Winnie as the crew started to disperse to do their usual morning jobs preparing the ambulances.
‘Not me,’ Winnie said. ‘I’d rather work on yours and Frankie’s ambulance as well as mine, if you don’t mind.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Rose said, standing up from where she’d been sitting on the other arm of Winnie’s chair.
Bella smiled at her. ‘Good, let’s go and volunteer our services to Sparky then.’
The bomb site further down the Minories was proving to be a rich source of firewood: the wheelbarrow which they’d brought with them from Station 75 soon became piled high with pieces of wood that they’d scavenged out of the ruins of the building.
Bella was enjoying doing something different rather than the usual checking of ambulances that they did at the start of every shift. Lifting and carrying the wood was warm work and she and Rose had both discarded their coats, hanging them up on an old pipe that was protruding out of the ruins.
‘How was Frankie this morning?’ Bella asked, her breath pluming in the cold air as she and Rose worked together to pull out a large chunk of wood from under some rubble, dislodging powdery brick dust that swirled up and settled on their trouser legs.
‘I think she’s a bit nervous, but excited, too.’ Rose smiled. ‘It’s a big day for her tomorrow.’
‘I’m glad Alastair’s been sent home so they’ve got a chance to get married, we all need a bit of joy right now and their wedding is going to be lovely.’
Together, they tugged at the wood, which finally came free, then carried it over to the heaped wheelbarrow.
‘That’s enough on there or we’ll never be able to shift it,’ Sparky said. ‘I’ll take this back to the station and come back for some more. I won’t be long.’ He left, pushing the heavy barrow, whistling cheerfully as he went.
‘I heard some good news yesterday,’ Rose said as they resumed their search for firewood. ‘I had a letter from my uncle telling me that my American cousins are shipping out any day now and will be coming to England, and hopefully I’ll get to meet them. Perhaps they might even come and stay at the American Eagle club here in London. I’ve told them about volunteering there in my letters.’
‘It’ll be exciting to meet them for the first time, won’t it?’
Rose nodded. ‘At least I’ll be able to see them, unlike the rest of my family.’ A look of pain shadowed her face.
Bella put her hand on Rose’s shoulder. ‘But you’ll be able to see your parents again when the war is over. Just keep thinking of that and in the meantime enjoy whatever life throws at you - Frankie’s wedding tomorrow, and the day you finally get to meet your cousins.’ She could only imagine the heartache that poor Rose was going through having not heard from her parents in so long and not knowing what had happened to them under the Nazis’ brutal regime.
‘Come on, we need to find some more firewood or Sparky will complain that we’ve been slacking,’ Rose said, nodding to where Paterson was already piling up some wood ready for when the wheelbarrow came back.
Chapter 12
Frankie threw a handful of corn into the chicken run and watched the hens fussing and clucking as they pecked at it, barging each other out of the way in case there was something better to be had. Watching them always amused her, their antics helping to soothe her if she was feeling out of sorts, like she was this morning. With only one day left to go before the wedding, all the preparations were in place. There was just the final fitting of her wedding dress to do with Josie this morning and then everything would be ready. The only other thing left to do was to ask Ivy if she’d made up her mind whether she was coming or not. She might as well go and get it over with. Throwing the last of the corn into the run, Frankie went inside to face her step-grandmother, feeling as if she was about to jab a stick into a wasps’ nest.
Ivy was sitting at the kitchen table eating her breakfast of two generous rashers of bacon and a slice of fried bread. She glanced up at Frankie and without saying anything returned her attention to her plate.
Frankie pulled out a chair and sat down at the table opposite her. ‘Ivy, have you made up your mind about the wedding, whether you’re comin’ tomorrow or not?’
She’d asked her two days ago as soon as the church was organised, but the older woman had just shrugged and not given her an answer, only now Frankie needed to know who was coming or not so there’d be enough pies and mash to go around at the reception.
Ivy slowly chewed on her mouthful, making Frankie wait for her reply, and then looked at her, her icy-blue eyes cold. ‘Why on earth would I want to come and see you get married? I ain’t havin’ time off work and losin’ money over you.’ Her words dripped scorn.
Frankie felt as if she’d just been slapped in the face by the vile woman’s poisonous attitude. She didn’t even want her to come, but her contemptuous, uncaring jibe still stung. It would have cost Ivy nothing to just say no. There’d been no need for her to say what she had, bu
t that was her step-grandmother all over and Frankie really shouldn’t have been surprised by her answer. Although she was annoyed with herself that she let it affect her.
Frankie nodded and stood up. ‘Well, don’t say I didn’t ask you.’
Ivy didn’t say anything, just returned her attention to her breakfast and carried on eating.
Walking up the street to Josie’s house a little while later, Frankie had managed to shrug off Ivy’s nasty response. She was glad she wasn’t coming as the foul woman would only have spoilt what was going to be a special day – she hadn’t wanted to ask her at all. But Josie had persuaded Frankie that she should, saying it was the right thing to do out of respect for her grandfather’s memory.
Opening the front door of number 5 Matlock Street, Frankie called out, ‘Only me, Josie,’ as she went in.
‘I’m in ’ere,’ Josie’s voice called from the front room.
Frankie went in the room that her friend kept for best, high days and holidays, where the furniture was polished to a gleam and where Josie had set up her sewing equipment to do the alterations on the wedding dress. Seeing it hanging on a coat-hanger from the picture rail, sent a shiver of anticipation trickling down her spine; Frankie still found it hard to believe that she’d be wearing it for real tomorrow when she would become Alastair’s wife. Beside it hung the new dress that Josie had helped her make out of the teal-coloured silk that Alastair had brought her. It had been a rush to finish it, as well as complete the wedding dress alterations, but with both of them working on it they had managed to create a stunning outfit which she would wear when they left for their honeymoon.