Clara poked Minnie in the side. ‘Language, Min.’
Minnie laughed. ‘Aw yeah, I was forgetting. We’ve gotta watch every word we say now. The woman what owned this bird might have looked a nice old girl, but she must’ve had a tongue like a docker’s tart. Yer wanna hear this bleed’n thing swear!’
Clara giggled. ‘Come on, Min, we’ll be late.’
Minnie rolled her eyes at Georgie. ‘I dunno. She still worries about being on time, even in the bloody bombing.’ She linked her big, plump arm though Clara’s. ‘Still, we’d better get this little devil indoors then get ourselves off to clean them bloody offices.’ She looked back over her shoulder at Georgie and shook her head. ‘Then we’re off down to Bancroft Road to do the hospital. No peace for the wicked, eh, Ringer?’
‘No peace for no one lately, Min.’
Georgie still didn’t get inside the pub. Someone tapped him lightly on the back. He turned round. It was Maudie Peters.
‘I’m glad I caught you, Mr Bell.’ She was puffing as though she had been running. ‘I saw you talking to Minnie and Clara and wanted to find out how you all were. What with one thing and another, I’ve not seen either of the girls for days.’
‘Me neither. I’ve been on duty solid for the last three days.’ Georgie suddenly looked concerned. He jerked his thumb at the pub door. ‘Haven’t you seen ’em in here? They promised me faithfully they’d go in here to shelter every night.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m sure they have been. It’s me, I’ve not been in there. I’ve been round at the church, handing out blankets and tea.’
Georgie looked relieved. ‘Aw, I see.’
‘There’s been plenty of little things to do round there lately. Mind you,’ she said, looking up at him, ‘I still feel bad when I see how much other people are doing.’
‘We all do what we can.’
‘Well, to be honest, it’s a bit of a waste of time. There are more than enough volunteers at the church. Too many really, all getting on top of one another.’ Maudie laughed ironically. ‘With all the old maids like me around, the vicar’s attracted himself quite a following, elderly though he is.’
‘Yer shouldn’t knock yerself so much, Miss Peters.’
‘You’re being kind.’
‘No. No, I’m not. I mean it. And like I said, we all only do what we can.’
‘I think that some of us are doing a lot more than others.’
Georgie looked down at his boots. ‘I was thinking the other day,’ he said quietly. ‘There’s something I’d like to do for you. If yer like.’
‘Oh?’ Maudie sounded intrigued.
‘There’s always loads of timber on the bombsites. And I was thinking that I could fetch some home and chop it up for yer, for firewood. ’Cos this cold weather looks like it’s set in for the winter now.’
Maudie wrinkled her nose and blushed. ‘Oh dear.’
‘Is something wrong?’
‘I’ve got a gas fire.’
Now it was Georgie’s turn to blush. ‘I don’t suppose it’ll be much use to yer then, firewood?’
Maudie burst out laughing. ‘No.’
George grinned. ‘Yer know, that is exactly what I could do with, seeing someone laughing, Miss Peters. And you have got a very nice laugh.’
‘Thank you, Mr Bell.’ She smiled up at him, meeting his gaze for just a little longer than Georgie expected. ‘And I’ve also got very cold feet,’ she added. ‘In fact, I’m freezing. I’ll see you later.’
Georgie watched her as she hurried off along the road towards her house, his breath making little clouds as he whistled thoughtfully to himself.
As Maudie disappeared inside number seven with a wave, the door of the Drum opened and Babs and Evie were standing beside him.
‘You sound like yer in a good mood, Dad,’ said Babs after she had kissed him on the cheek.
‘Why shouldn’t I be, with two lovely daughters?’ He put his arms round their shoulders.
‘Careful, Dad,’ Evie groaned, pulling away from him. ‘I ain’t feeling too good.’
‘No?’
‘No. Must be having to sleep on them rotten, hard bunks.’
‘Yeah,’ he said cautiously, looking at the dark circles under her eyes. ‘Must be. Well, I just wanted to see that yer was both safe and sound before I nipped back to the station for a couple of hours. You eating properly, Eve? Yer wanna get home and get yerself some grub.’
Evie’s face turned even paler.
Later that day, Blanche Simpkins was coming to the end of her first day’s work at Styleways.
‘I know I’ve never met that young lad from the warehouse, but I hope he’s all right. Fancy him getting trapped in that building like that. Must have been terrifying for him, poor little sod. And I can imagine how his mother’s suffering.’
Ginny turned to Joan and said quietly, ‘She ain’t been here five minutes and hark at her. Yer’d think he was her kid the way she’s going on.’
Blanche might not have been there for very long, but it was still more than long enough for her to have got the measure of Ginny. ‘What was that yer said, Ginny? Something poisonous, I suppose. But yer wanna be careful what yer say in front of me, ’cos I don’t take no lip from no one. Wouldn’t do no harm for you to remember that.’
Babs cheered. ‘Go on, Blanche, you tell her, girl.’
‘Yer gonna have to watch that trap of your’n, Gin,’ said Lou, happily. ‘I’ve seen Blanche chasing her Terry down the street with a copper stick just for cheeking her before now. Gawd knows what she’d do with them tailoring shears.’
Ginny was fuming. ‘I thought working with a bloody Eytie was bad enough, but now we’ve got sodding Mother Hen to put up with and all.’
‘That’s me finished,’ said Blanche, pointedly ignoring Ginny’s taunts as she snapped open the foot of her machine. Then she stood up and went to the end of the work bench where she picked up a stack of completed army trousers from by the side of Evie’s chair and carried them along to the other end of the row to Maria. ‘There y’are, sweetheart,’ she said, smiling at her, and turned and walked slowly back to her place. ‘Yer know what,’ she said as she sauntered past Ginny’s seat, ‘I can hardly believe it’s this time already. I never would have thought the day could pass so quick. Must be all the nice, friendly company.’
Everyone in the workshop, except Ginny, started snorting with laughter, but their amusement didn’t last long – the all too familiar sound of the air raid warning had started its wailing.
‘Aw, bloody hell,’ said Lou, throwing up her arms. ‘Can’t they even wait for us to get home? I don’t wanna be stuck here in the sodding basement for another night.’
‘Perhaps it’s not too bad,’ said Maria, pulling back the corner of the blackout curtains and peering down into the street below. ‘Blimey, it is. Will yer look at them fires? They ain’t wasted no time tonight.’
Babs leant over Maria’s shoulder to look for herself. ‘Christ, Eve, we’ve gotta get home. Them fires. They’re over Bow way. Look.’
Mr Silver came puffing into the workshop; he had run up the stairs to make sure that everyone was following the procedure. He knew what a fuss the girls made about having to go downstairs to shelter; in fact, he thought they had all started getting a bit too relaxed about the warnings altogether lately and he didn’t want their injuries on his conscience.
‘Come on, girls,’ he urged them. ‘Switch those machines off and get yerselves down to the basement.’ He shook his head at Babs. ‘Don’t worry about yer bags and coats. Just leave them where they are. Please, just get yerself downstairs.’
‘Sorry, Mr Silver, I can’t. I’ve gotta get home to see if me dad’s all right.’
Mr Silver couldn’t stop her. Babs, quickly followed by Blanche and Evie, dashed past him and disappeared through the fire doors before he had the chance to open his mouth to protest.
‘I knew I shouldn’t have left the kids,’ Blanche panted as they flew down the s
tairs.
‘They’ll be all right,’ Babs said, jumping down the bottom three steps. ‘Mary’ll be sheltering at the factory with your Ruby. Terry’ll have made Len go in the Drum with him. And Janey’ll be fine at the nursery.’
‘Will she?’ Blanche didn’t sound convinced.
‘Course,’ Babs reassured her, pulling open the door to the street. ‘Now, come on, Eve, get yer coat done up, it’s perishing out here.’
It wasn’t only cold outside, it was dark, noisy and frightening. The three of them ran, the sound of their shoes hitting the pavement ringing in their ears. But Evie suddenly stopped.
‘You two go on,’ she gasped. ‘I’ll have to slow down.’
‘If yer think I’m leaving you here, yer silly cow, yer even dafter than I thought yer was,’ Babs said, trying to drag her along. ‘What’s the matter with you, Eve? Too much riding around in motor cars made yer soft?’
‘I feel sick, Babs.’
‘Yer wanna try staying in a couple o’ nights and getting some rest. Now come on.’
‘I mean it, Babs. And I ain’t arguing with yer.’ Evie leant back against the wall. She could feel the cold sweat trickling down her back. ‘I told yer, I feel ill.’
Babs sighed in despair. ‘You’ll have to go on, Blanche. See to yer kids. I’ll sort Evie out.’
‘I will if yer don’t mind,’ Blanche agreed hurriedly and ran off into the dark. ‘Look after yerselves,’ they heard her call back to them.
‘We can’t stand here like flipping targets, Eve. We might as well have stayed at work.’
‘I can’t help it.’ Evie’s bottom lip was trembling.
Babs bowed her head and took a deep breath before speaking. ‘Look, Eve,’ she said slowly and deliberately. ‘Yer gonna have to move. It ain’t much further and we’ll be at the station. If the trains’re running we can at least get to Mile End.’
Evie nearly vomited at the thought of going on the packed, smoke-filled Tube. ‘I can’t, Babs. I’m sorry. I’ll stay down on the platform till the all clear if that’ll make yer any happier, but I can’t go on no train. I really ain’t well.’
Torn as she was between leaving her twin and finding out if their dad was safe, Babs knew that she had to get back to Darnfield Street. She had only been saying to Blanche that very morning how well things had been going for Georgie lately. Now, as she ran though the streets back to Bow, she felt she had been tempting fate.
Although he was now even more tired than he would have thought possible without falling asleep on his feet, Georgie was glad that he had gone back to the station. They needed all the help they could get during the night of almost nonstop raids. The word was that there were over twice as many planes as usual dropping their deadly cargoes over London; nobody knew if that was true, but it certainly seemed like it.
When he finally drove the heavy unit back into the yard at gone nine o’clock the next morning, all he was fit for was the short crawl from the engine’s cab to the mess room.
‘I’m gonna murder this cup of tea,’ he yawned, as he slumped down at one of the trestle tables. ‘Don’t matter how much yer drink when yer out there, yer can never quench yer thirst while yer’ve got that stink of fire in yer nostrils.’
One of the women from the watch room came in and sat down next to him. ‘I know yer knackered, Ringer,’ she said to him gently. ‘But I think yer wanna get home. We heard a couple of hours ago that Darnfield Street got hit.’
Without saying a word, Georgie sprang to his feet and, not even noticing the weight of his soaking wet uniform, sprinted off as though he was a man half his age who had had a full eight hours’ sleep.
‘They’ve gotta be all right,’ he kept repeating to himself. ‘They’ve gotta be.’
Georgie was frantic by the time he reached the corner of Darnfield Street. A group of his neighbours was sitting huddled over cups of tea on the pavement outside the Drum. He could barely force himself to look to see who was there.
He nearly collapsed with relief when he saw that two of them were his daughters.
He dropped down on the kerb between Babs and Evie and buried his head in his hands. ‘When they told me back at the station that the street had got hit, all I could think of was …’ He slowly let his hands fall from his face and looked along to the canal end of the road. ‘I never realised that the demolition squad was here. They look hard at it.’ He half rose to his feet. ‘It wasn’t number seven what got hit, was it?’
Babs put her hand on his shoulder. ‘No. Sit yerself down, Dad. Don’t worry. Miss Peters ain’t hurt.’
‘So where is she?’
‘The pub’s the only place with water, so she’s inside helping Nellie make the tea for everyone. All them blokes working down there must be gasping.’
Evie stared into her cup. ‘It was the house next door to Miss Peters what got it.’ Her voice sounded flat, as if she was in a trance. ‘The Jenners.’ She gulped down a mouthful of her tea, ‘Their baby. It’s dead.’
‘Aw, Christ. Not the baby.’ Georgie shook his head, but all he could see was a picture of Sal lying in the rubble with a baby by her side instead of her little dog.
‘And Ted’s old nan. She’s copped it and all,’ Babs said, rubbing Georgie’s back: ‘Blimey, Dad. Yer uniform’s soaked through and yer look that tired. Let me get yer a cup o’ tea and then yer can go home and get some kip, eh?’
It was as though Georgie hadn’t heard her. ‘Them poor buggers.’
‘I know, Dad. But how about that cuppa?’
‘I’ll have some tea in a minute,’ Georgie said, struggling to his feet. ‘I’ve gotta see if there’s anything I can do to help.’
Just as he got to the wreck that had once been the Jenners’s home, Maudie caught up with him.
‘I saw the girls back there. They told me you were here.’
Georgie ran his hands through his gritty, smoke-clogged hair. He could imagine what a state he looked. ‘How are you?’
Maudie shrugged. ‘The back of my roof got hit, that’s all. But, compared with this, that hardly seems to matter.’
Alice Clarke came striding over from where she had been standing right up the front by the rescue workers. ‘Well, you might think it don’t matter,’ she snapped at Maudie, ‘but yer wanna see the mess in my back yard. Half your roof tiles I’ve got in there. What yer gonna do about it?’
Maudie rolled her eyes disbelievingly at George. ‘I’ll make sure it’s sorted out, Alice.’
‘Well yer wanna make sure yer do.’ Alice folded her scraggy little arms and nodded to where Ted and Liz stood in a daze, watching as the men brought a ragbag of smashed and broken things out of the ruins of the house. ‘Should have gone in the Drum’s cellar like the rest of us.’
Georgie ignored her. ‘Don’t make sense, does it, when that bloody empty house opposite’s still standing.’ He stepped a bit closer to Ted and Liz, not close enough to impose, but close enough not to have to shout. ‘Anything I can do, mate?’
Ted hugged Liz to him and shook his head. ‘Nothing no one can do, ta, Ringer.’
‘Yer’ve only gotta ask.’
‘Yeah. I know.’
Georgie stood there as the rescue squad workers clambered through the inside of what had been the privacy of the Jenners’s home but was now exposed for everyone to see like the guts of a slaughtered animal. One of the men reached up and unhooked a looking glass that was hanging crookedly from a nail but had somehow not been smashed by the blast. He loaded it onto the pushchair he had just dragged from under a pile of bricks and pushed it, bumping crazily over the rubble, out onto the pavement.
When she saw her baby’s pushchair, Liz pulled away from her husband and started laughing wildly. ‘Look, the mirror’s all right,’ she shrieked. ‘So at least we won’t have seven years’ bad luck, eh, Ted? Eh? Eh? Eh?’ Then she let out a terrifying animal wail, folded in on herself like a rag doll and collapsed in a heap onto the cold, hard road.
One of the Jenner ch
ildren, a boy of about six who was standing with his equally bewildered brothers and sisters, started to cry. His little arms hanging loose by his side, he made no attempt to wipe away the tears. ‘Daddy?’ he pleaded. ‘What’s wrong with Mummy?’
Maudie took off her coat and wrapped it and her arms round the crying child. ‘Mummy doesn’t feel well,’ she said softly, soothing the petrified little boy.
‘Needs to pull herself together, that one,’ sniped Alice.
Ted bent down beside Liz and cradled her in his lap, rocking her back and forth as though she, too, were a frightened child. ‘Everything’ll be fine, darling, you see,’ he said, his jaw rigid. ‘I’ll find somewhere for us. Don’t you worry. I’ll get us another home.’
Maudie glared at Alice, daring her to say another word, and then said quietly to Ted, ‘I hope I’m not interfering, but the kids are all badly shaken. Let me take them indoors. I can put you all up, for as long as you like.’
Ted looked up at her. ‘That’s kind of yer,’ he said flatly.
‘Yer wanna remember that yer’ve gotta clear up them tiles,’ Alice butted in.
Maudie didn’t even look at Alice. ‘Not kind at all, Ted,’ Maudie insisted. ‘There’s more than enough room.’
Liz lifted her head, her red tear-filled eyes darting around as if she was being hounded by some unseen predator. ‘No. No, Ted. I wanna go to the rest centre round the school. I don’t wanna stay here. Not here. Please. Not where my baby …’ She pushed Ted away from her and staggered to her feet. She just managed to get to the drain in the side of the road before she threw up.
Maudie moved forward to help her, the child still clinging tightly to her side, but she stopped when Ted held up his hand to prevent her from getting any closer to his wife. ‘We don’t need any help. Thanks. We’ll be all right.’ There wasn’t a hint of either hope or belief in what he said.
Liz looked up. Even though it was so cold, her hair was damp with sweat, stuck to her forehead in black, snaking tendrils. ‘You could help out with the arrangements,’ she said to Maudie as she swayed unsteadily from side to side. Her voice sounded harsh and rasping. ‘You could speak to the vicar for me. I want it all done proper.’
The Bells of Bow Page 23