Leila didn’t think she was going to be able to stop either.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jake and Leila spent every possible moment they could together, although frustratingly there weren’t many. Leila was very busy at Whenuapai and Jake was training solidly with his regiment for the planned attack on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. Their destination was now a badly kept secret. It was rumoured that the Third Marine Division would be leaving New Zealand shores some time towards the end of June, and they both dreaded it.
He bombarded her with deliveries of flowers and chocolates, nylons and cigarettes — and on one memorable occasion, a giant teddy bear he’d procured from God only knew where and sent out on the back of a motorbike with a fellow Marine making a courier delivery to the base — and she on occasion risked her job and her reputation by sneaking out of Whenuapai to meet him. They made love whenever and wherever they could, and although Leila had not been a virgin before she met Jake, she had never experienced anything like him in her life. She was enchanted by his charm and easy confidence, his heart-stopping looks, his American ways and talk of big cities and tall mountains and wide open plains. But most of all, she was besotted with his driving, insistent sexuality. He seemed to want to do it all the time and, when she was with him, so did she.
And then the inevitable had happened. Leila discovered she was pregnant halfway through May and had it confirmed by a doctor a week later — not the staff one on the base, of course, who would have been duty-bound to inform BJ immediately. Ten weeks on, the Mount Eden doctor said, give or take. She didn’t tell anyone, not even Bonnie. On one hand she was secretly thrilled, but on the other there was a sense of shame at having been caught out in such a predictable way. They’d been careful to avoid such an eventuality, but obviously not careful enough.
She was nervous to her stomach when she told Jake, as she really had no idea of how he would react. He’d sworn repeatedly that he loved her, despite the fact that they’d only known each other a few short months, and she believed him, but there was no getting away from the certainty that this would change everything. There were plenty of stories of GIs who walked away from girls they’d made pregnant, avoiding them studiously until their units shipped out and leaving them alone and in desperate, shameful straits. Of course, there were other stories too, accompanied by girls proudly showing off engagement and even wedding rings. She’d gone over and over in her head how on earth to tell him, and had finally come to the conclusion that the best way was just to say it.
So she did.
Jake looked at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, then a slow smile spread across his handsome face and he finally laughed out loud in delight.
‘A daddy!’ he exclaimed. ‘I’m going to be a daddy!’
Then he scooped her up, whirled her around and then sat her down on his knee.
‘What shall we call him?’
Leila giggled herself but more, she suspected guiltily, from relief than anything else. ‘What if it’s a girl?’
‘What if it’s a boy and a girl? You’re a twin — isn’t that sort of thing passed on?’
Oh God, I hope not, Leila thought, especially as he hadn’t said anything yet about marrying her.
‘What are we going to do?’
Jake kissed her nose. ‘We’re having a baby, aren’t we?’
‘Yes, but I mean, well …’
His eyes twinkled mischievously. ‘Oh, I get it, you want to know if I’m going to make an honest woman of you, is that it?’
Leila felt a momentary stab of anger towards him, for making her have to say, yes, she did in fact want to know. So she held her tongue for as long as she could, but finally gave in.
‘I do, Jake, if you don’t mind,’ she said slightly frostily.
‘What do you want, honey? Whatever it is, you can have it.’
‘No, Jake, what do you want?’
He cocked his head to one side and looked at her so fondly that Leila felt tears suddenly prick the back of her eyes. ‘I want you to marry me, Leila Morgan, that’s what I want. I want you to marry me and come to America and be my wife and have dozens and dozens of children. So, will you?’
She felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her — it was going to turn out all right after all. She and Jake would be married, she would have their baby, and then she would go to America with him and they would be together, even if it did mean having to say goodbye to Bonnie and her parents and the rest of her family. Perhaps the war would be over even before the baby came, and then he could be here with her. That would be wonderful, she thought — perfect, in fact.
She hugged him. ‘I will, Jake, of course I will.’
He heaved a sigh of relief of his own, and hugged her back.
‘What was that for?’
‘I thought, with you being the sort of girl you are, you might rather have the baby on your own,’ he confessed. ‘I thought you might not want to saddle yourself with an Oklahoma country boy like me and traipse all the way over to America. Some girls are like that, they’d rather be independent.’
None that I know of, Leila thought incredulously, especially not when there was an unplanned baby on the way.
‘Would you have asked me to marry you any way?’ she asked.
Jake thought for a moment, and smiled again. ‘I think so, honey, yes. I love you.’
He bought her a ring, a ruby flanked with small diamonds, which she carried in her tunic pocket at work rather than invite attention by wearing it on her engagement finger, and they booked a date at the registry office.
She didn’t tell Bonnie until the very last moment, for fear that her sister would give her advice she really didn’t want to hear, advice that might concern the folly of marrying a Marine three weeks before he was due to ship out, even if a baby was involved. Bonnie had always been the more sensible twin, and although Leila was sure deep down that her sister would support her, sometimes you couldn’t tell with Bonnie.
You certainly couldn’t, she reflected later, after listening to Bonnie go on for a good ten minutes about what on earth Leila thought she was doing, and how could she have been so stupid as to let herself fall pregnant.
‘I didn’t let myself fall pregnant!’ Leila protested when Bonnie had finally shut up. ‘It just happened!’
‘I’m not surprised, the way you two have been going at it like high country rabbits.’
‘That’s good coming from you!’ Leila retorted. ‘You and Danny have hardly been paragons of virtue!’
They glared at each angrily for a moment, then Bonnie asked, ‘What is a paragon, any way?’
‘I don’t know.’
Bonnie sighed. ‘Are you sure you’re doing the right thing? It’s not too late to call it off, you know. You could go home and have the baby there. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had a baby in the family conceived on the wrong side of the sheets. Look at us. And Liam,’ she added. ‘God, and Duncan, and Uncle Joseph. What’s wrong with us all? What a dreadful family we are.’
‘No more dreadful than anyone else, I’d say. But everyone got married in the end, remember. I’d be the only unwed mother.’
‘Gran didn’t, and neither did Liam’s mother, whoever she was.’
‘But that was only because Uncle Ian died in the war.’
‘You don’t know that for a fact.’
Leila ignored her, lit a cigarette and flicked the match out of her cubicle window. ‘I’ll probably have to go home any way. I don’t fancy having the baby up here in one of those homes for girls too silly to avoid getting themselves into trouble. Even though I am one. And Mum and Dad would be ropable if I did that, any way.’
‘I’d say they’ll be ropable any way,’ Bonnie said gloomily. ‘But really, it’s an enormous step, marrying someone you’ve only known a few months and then trotting off to America after him, isn’t it? And it might be ages before that happens, if it ever does.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘We
ll, we both know girls married to blokes in the RAF and they’ve been waiting two years to go to England.’
‘But that’s England, this is America.’
‘I’ll bet it’s the same thing — no essential travel until after the war.’
‘That’s not really what you meant, though, is it?’
‘Not really. What if you get there and it turns out that all the two of you really had was a wartime fling? What if he’s already married?’
‘He isn’t already married.’
‘Leila, what if he doesn’t even make it back to America?’
Leila was losing her patience. ‘Bonnie, he will make it back and I’m marrying him and that’s all there is too it. I’d really like you to be there, and I know Jake’s asking Danny to be his best man, but if you don’t want to come, that’s up to you.’
‘Of course I’ll come. I just want to make sure you’ve really thought about it, that’s all.’
‘I have. I’ve thought about nothing else. I’m pregnant, Bonnie, and I love Jake desperately. That’s a good enough reason to marry someone, isn’t it?’
‘Maybe, but I think you should go and talk to Aunty Ri about it. She might be old but she certainly isn’t stupid. She could give you some good advice.’
But Leila didn’t want good advice, and she definitely didn’t want it from Riria Adams before she married Jake. She was very fond of Riria, but knew in her heart that the old lady would say something extremely sensible and considered and wise, something that might start Leila really thinking about what she was about to do. No, she didn’t want that at all.
Bonnie did attend the wedding, of course, and was as enthusiastic a bridesmaid as any bride could want. She helped Leila starch and iron her uniform to perfection the night before, and held Leila’s posy of orchids while she and Jake signed their marriage documents. There were only the four of them at the short but rather sweet ceremony, plus the marriage celebrant, a benevolent old bloke in a dusty black suit with a perpetual smile on his face and an oddly high-pitched voice that made Bonnie and Leila avoid each other’s eyes for fear of bursting into giggles.
And perhaps Bonnie too had been thinking about the boys’ impending departure, because after they’d left the registry office and ventured into the lounge bar of a nearby hotel for a celebratory drink, she dragged Leila off to the ladies’ and showed her the sparkling new ring on her left hand.
Leila threw her arms around her sister. ‘Oh Bonnie, that’s wonderful! We can be war brides together!’
‘Except that I’m not a bride, am I? I’m only engaged. Which reminds me, how did Jake manage to get permission to get married?’
Leila gave Bonnie a funny look. ‘What do you mean? He doesn’t need to get permission. Does he?’
‘Oh, Leila!’ Bonnie shook her head and blew out her cheeks in frustration. ‘He has to have permission from his CO, and a chaplain and God knows who else, and you’re supposed to have been interviewed by all sorts of people and assessed for American citizenship and what have you. Haven’t you done all that?’
‘Well, no, and you know I haven’t; you see me every day.’
‘But weren’t you … oh hell, ever since you’ve been talking about getting married I’ve assumed all those times you sneaked off the base you were … oh, never mind. Leila, do you realise how serious this is?’
‘No,’ Leila said truthfully, and wasn’t at all sure she did want to know.
They moved away from the handbasin as a woman came out of a toilet stall, and waited silently for her to wash her hands and leave, even though she must have heard every word they’d been saying.
‘If Jake didn’t get permission,’ Bonnie went on, ‘he’ll be in an awful lot of trouble if you get found out. He could be shipped out tomorrow, or court-martialled, or, God, I don’t know.’ She grabbed Leila’s hand. ‘Come on, we’re going to talk to him about this right now.’
She marched determinedly into the lounge bar with Leila trailing behind her, and sat down next to Jake, who was just starting on a large glass of beer.
‘Hi, sis,’ he said.
‘Sis, my eye,’ Bonnie shot back. ‘Did you get official permission to marry Leila?’
Jake put his beer down. ‘No, ma’am.’
‘Don’t you ma’am me. Why not?’
‘Because she’s pregnant and we’re shipping out in a few weeks. I knew I wouldn’t get it and I wanted to marry her. Simple. What the CO doesn’t know won’t hurt him.’ He patted Leila’s hand. ‘I’m sorry, honey, but it was the only way I could think of to do it.’
Bonnie saw the logic in his argument, but she was still angry. ‘What if it hurts Leila?’
‘It won’t. We’re legally married. When the war’s over I’ll write and request that she join me.’
Bonnie’s voice rose another octave. ‘And how do you know you won’t get found out?’
‘Because the four of us here, and that old coot in the registry office, are the only ones who know Leila and I are married.’
Danny said uncomfortably, ‘Bonnie, calm down, honey, people are starting to look at us.’
‘I don’t care, Danny. And how long have you known about this?’
Danny went red. ‘A week or so.’
‘Why didn’t you say something?’ Bonnie demanded.
‘I didn’t think it was any of my business. And I still don’t.’
That seemed to bring the conversation to a halt. Bonnie asked Danny to order two gin and tonics from the bar, and sat in silence until they arrived.
‘I suppose,’ she said eventually, ‘it will be all right, providing it’s kept a secret. Are we all agreed on that?’
Danny and Jake said yes immediately, and Leila nodded in agreement.
‘It’s still my wedding day, Bonnie,’ she said after a moment. ‘Couldn’t we just enjoy it? The boys will be gone soon, and I’d like to make the most of it while they’re still here.’
‘Oh, love, of course we can,’ Bonnie replied. She raised her glass. ‘Here’s to my sister Leila and my new brother-in-law Jake, and my fiancé Danny. Here’s to all of us. May the road rise to meet us, and may the wind be always at our backs.’
Bonnie and Leila couldn’t keep the secret, of course. For a start, they had to tell Riria when they went to visit her a fortnight later.
Riria’s house in Parnell Rise was big, old and gracious. Her husband John Adams had operated his medical clinic from a downstairs room before he’d gone off and been killed in the Boer War, and Riria had lived in the house ever since.
She welcomed them with a kiss each, sat them down in the eclectically decorated front parlour, which smelled faintly of cinnamon and warm dust, and asked if they would like some afternoon tea.
‘Yes, please, but would you like a hand?’ Leila asked. Riria waved her away.
‘You should be resting in your condition, girl,’ she said, and disappeared into the hall with a rustle of her long taffeta skirt.
Bonnie and Leila looked at each other. What?
Riria returned minutes later carrying a tray laden with a teapot, cups, a milk jug and a plate piled with three sorts of cake.
As usual she was dressed from head to toe in black. Her long silver hair hung down her back in stark contrast against the darkness of her clothes.
‘Now, tamariki, what is it you need to see me about?’
‘You said a minute ago, “in my condition”,’ Leila began.
‘You are pregnant, child.’
‘Er, yes. How did you know?’
‘Your smell. A woman’s smell changes when she is hapu.’
‘Oh. Well, that is sort of what we’ve come to talk to you about.’
Bonnie poured the tea and waited for her sister to explain further. And waited and waited.
Finally, she said herself, ‘We have to be blunt about this, Aunty. Leila is, as you’ve already noticed, pregnant. She’s about three and a half months on. The father is an American who is due to go over seas in three days.’
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br /> ‘Ah,’ Riria said knowingly. ‘The Third Marine Division, bound for the Solomons.’
‘How do you know that?’ Leila asked, surprised.
‘Everyone does, dear.’
‘Any way,’ Bonnie went on, ‘Leila has married this Marine, without knowing that he hadn’t received permission from his commanding officer. It’s an offence according to the US Navy to marry without permission and there’ll be hell to pay if anyone finds out. What do you think Leila should do about it?’
‘No, Bonnie, that’s not it,’ Leila said tetchily. ‘I’m very happy to be Mrs Jake Kelly, Aunty Ri. I need some advice on whether to stay here in Auckland to have the baby, or go home to Kenmore.’
‘I would have thought that was not a difficult decision to make at all,’ Riria replied. ‘Who would not want to have their baby with their whanau?’
Leila sighed. ‘All right, what I really want to know, Aunty, is how do you think Mum and Dad and Gran will take the news?’
‘As well as you would if your daughter was pregnant to a man you have not met, who comes from a foreign country and who is about to go off to fight the Japanese.’
‘I thought you might say that.’
Riria tut-tutted. ‘But that does not mean they will not welcome you, e hine. Go home, that is the only thing you can do. You must think first of your child.’
Leila looked as if she were about to cry. ‘I don’t know how to tell them, Aunty.’
‘Like this,’ Riria replied. ‘It is very simple.’
And she got up from her chair and went out.
‘What’s she doing?’ said Bonnie after a moment.
Leila shrugged, and they sat there for several minutes until they heard Riria speaking to someone in the hall.
Then it suddenly dawned on Leila. ‘Oh Christ! She’s telephoning them!’
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