Johnny stood across the road and heard the door close and the house became anonymous, just one of a row, but with such sadness locked inside he imagined it stood out from the rest. He felt moved by Hannah’s plight and wondered what he could do to ease her misery.
There were no lights either from the street lamps or from shop windows. Usually during the dark months, the window displays would light the way down the main road, enticing passers-by to stop and look and then come back to buy. Now, with the lighting restrictions so diligently kept, there wasn’t a glimmer.
Another month and the windows would be showing Christmas delights. This brought his mind back to Hannah and her children. What sort of Christmas would they have, with a disapproving mother and nowhere to have fun? He wondered whether he could persuade his mam to invite her to share their day. They usually joined Uncle Huw and Auntie Marged and his cousins on Christmas afternoon; there would be plenty of company and plenty of food. An escape from the sad little overcrowded room.
Irene reached home at the same time as he did and when Bleddyn opened the door to them he stared at his wife but said nothing.
‘Was Hannah pleased with the apples?’ he asked his son.
‘Yes, but Dad, she has such an awful time of it, no husband and a miserable mother.’
‘Don’t interfere, Johnny. She’s better off than some. Being alone isn’t the only way of being miserable.’ The words were harsh, the words pointed.
Johnny watched his mother take a glass of water and make her way up to bed without a word for his father, and understood what was being said. But it was Hannah for whom he felt concern. Mam and Dad had to sort out their own problems, he daren’t interfere in that quarter. Hannah was different. She needed a friend to stand up for her and persuade her that there was more than one way of dealing with a problem, and it wasn’t necessary to deal with it alone.
Eirlys came into his mind as he was making a hot drink for himself and his father, and he wondered why he found Hannah filling his thoughts more than she. Hannah was too old and she was a divorcee with children. Why couldn’t he accept that and put her from his mind? Tomorrow he would call on Eirlys and ask about the boys.
‘Eirlys called while you were out,’ Bleddyn said, breaking into his thoughts. ‘There was a tall, skinny bloke with her, wanting help to set up some extra entertainments next summer. Max Moon he called himself – what sort of a name is that? Know him, do you?’
Johnny shook his head. ‘What did he want with Eirlys?’
‘She thought we could help, but I explained we were always too busy during the season. This Max Moon chap said there’ll be more people staying home next summer. That’s what he thinks!’
Johnny glanced at his watch. It was a bit too late to call on Eirlys now, and besides, he admitted to himself, he wanted to sit and think about Hannah.
* * *
At the Prices’ house in Conroy Street, there was something of a party atmosphere. Max had produced an accordion and he played a few chords. This brought the three musketeers out of bed and running down the stairs.
‘We ’aving a party, Auntie Annie?’ Harold asked, eyes shining. ‘Always having parties when we was ’ome, wasn’t we, Stanley?’
To everyone’s delight, Max sat and played several popular tunes, party songs in which the boys lustily joined. Even little Percival seemed touched by memories of other days and mouthed a few words of ‘Knees Up Mother Brown’, which brought tears of laughter to Annie’s eyes.
It was eleven o’clock before the boys settled back into bed. As Max prepared to leave he made a suggestion.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said. ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to give the evacuees and some of the local children a Christmas party? We could hire the hall and, if we could persuade the council to pay for it, we could ask various families to help with the food and give them a good time.’
‘What about entertainers?’ Annie asked. ‘Are you volunteering to play the piano for pass the parcel and things like that?’
‘Better than that. I am an entertainer, it’s my job. Ken and I are getting together a concert party and we hope to travel around giving concerts as soon as everything is sorted. For the children I’ll do a puppet show and if we can arrange a small gift each, I’ll be Father Christmas, with the aid of a few cushions. Or, if you prefer, I’ll be Maxie the Clown.’
Eirlys stared at him. ‘You do that as a job? Entertain children?’
‘And adults.’ He smiled. ‘I was turned down for the army as I have a weak chest, but I have arranged to reapply and I think they’ll take me for ENSA, the organisation for entertaining the forces. I’m going to London in a week or so to be interviewed. Ken too.’
‘Max knows Ken Ward,’ Eirlys explained to her parents.
Max stayed another hour and talked about his work with children in which he was helped by Ken. It was as though they had found a long-lost friend.
Eirlys was filled with excitement at the thought of being involved in arranging the party for the children. Several families had already returned to London, as no bombs had yet fallen, but there were still a large number of them staying in the town.
Mr Johnston agreed to fund the hire of the hall as it was good publicity for the forthcoming arrangements for local holiday entertainment. It was no surprise that he put Eirlys in charge of arrangements and allowed her to take two members of staff to assist her.
* * *
‘I think I’ll take the boys to see their mother next week,’ Annie announced one day in late November. ‘If you’ll go and buy some fresh eggs from Mr Gregory, Eirlys, I’ll take a dozen or so with me. I don’t expect they get fresh eggs up there. Not still warm from the hens like we do, eh?’
Eirlys was apprehensive about the proposed visit. Not because of the danger, should German bombers begin to attack, but because she was afraid that once they were back on home territory the boys would refuse to return.
‘Don’t worry,’ Morgan said when she expressed her fear. ‘I doubt their mother would want to risk their lives when they can be safe down here. Stands to reason.’ He was trying to reassure himself, Eirlys and Annie both knew that.
‘There haven’t been any air raids and people are starting to think there never will be,’ Annie said doubtfully. ‘They might stay with their mother.’
‘There’s always Plan B,’ Morgan smiled. ‘I’m getting bikes for them for Christmas. Old ones, mind, but I’ll paint them up all smart and Johnny has promised to help me replace the old brakes with new ones and check everything is sound. With fancy new handlebar grips and a shiny new bell each, they’ll look a treat. If we accidentally let them see the bikes, well, that’ll bring them back for sure.’
* * *
Johnny and Eirlys were ill at ease when they met and even when they went to the pictures there was no hand-holding, no real togetherness when the film was romantic or scary or funny. Neither could explain what was wrong. Johnny suspected it was thoughts of Hannah getting in the way of his growing attraction for Eirlys. Eirlys wondered whether Evelyn had passed on her unexplained animosity. They were both relieved when the boys went with them and they didn’t have to pretend that everything was all right.
When she mentioned going to see Annie and the boys off at the station, she was pleased when Johnny offered to take them in Piper’s van. He carried their luggage on to the platform and paid for the platform tickets they needed.
The boys were very excited and insisted on Annie repeating their travel plans again and again. She told them they would change in Cardiff, then they were being met at Paddington by Teresa Love, the boys’ mother.
The journey was an exciting one for Annie as well as the boys. She had never travelled so far away from home before. They had a picnic on the train, which they shared with a young soldier who was returning to camp after a week’s leave. He amused the boys, showing them card tricks and a few simple sleight-of-hand mysteries to confuse their friends. She was grateful to him. He wasn’t much more than a chil
d himself, she thought sadly.
He talked bravely about what lay ahead of him, and the new friends he had made to replace the ones left behind. Annie felt sorry for him. He looked so young and was obviously unprepared for the dangers he would certainly face in the next months. He lived only a few miles from Conroy Street and she promised to call on his parents one day and tell them that she had travelled with their son.
Mrs Love, the boys’ mother, was a surprise. She looked hardly any older than Eirlys and was dressed so smartly that she stood out like an exotic bird among the navy-blue, black and khaki surrounding them. She was dressed in a rather smart white coat and a hat with a cheerful feather, stockings that looked like pure silk and high-heeled red shoes to match the feather. Annie was still looking around her trying to recognise a woman in her thirties who looked poor and downtrodden and when she saw the boys running towards this smart young girl she tried to call them back. ‘Wait for me, come here, I don’t want to lose you!’ When they stopped and hugged the girl she decided it must be a sister they hadn’t told her about.
A hand covered in a good-quality calf-leather glove was offered for her to take and the girl said jauntily, ‘How-di-do! I’m Teresa, the boys’ mother. Mrs Price, I’m pleased to meet yer.’
‘You aren’t what I expected and that’s a fact,’ Annie smiled. She turned to the trio and added, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you had such a beautiful young mother?’
With Stanley and Harold either side of her and Percival clinging to her skirt, they made their way off the platform and down to the Underground trains. Annie had never been so nervous in her life but hid her panic well. She picked Percival up and held him as a shield when the train came rushing out of the tunnel and pulled up like an impatient and bad-tempered animal at the platform.
‘I feel as startled by this as you lot did when you first saw one of the fanner’s cows,’ she laughed, as they pushed their way into the already crowded carriage.
Mrs Love lived in a single room and had managed to make bed-space for her three sons by pushing chairs together to make a bed for herself and putting the boys to sleep widthways along her double bed.
Although Teresa Love was smartly dressed in good-quality clothes, Annie thought the room was not very clean. The bed was covered in satin sheets that slithered as the boys sat on them, and there were several pillows, but it looked, to Annie’s fussy eyes, very impractical and it all needed a thorough washing. But then, she excused, it must be difficult keeping such an inconvenient and cluttered space clean. And with dust floating in from the road outside, from where there came the continuous noise of traffic.
‘Well, now I know where to find you, I’ll make my way to my hotel,’ Annie said when she had been plied with tea and biscuits. ‘I’ll come to collect you for the four o’clock train tomorrow, shall I?’
‘Oh, don’t go yet,’ Teresa said.
‘But I thought you would want to talk to each other, catch up with family news and all that.’
‘Look, stay and have a bite to eat; we could go to the chip shop. Our Percival loves chips, don’t yer Percival?’ She looked around and frowned. ‘It’ll have to be chips in paper. I don’t think I can find enough plates for us all. They get broken, don’t they? I’ll put the kettle on and Stanley will show you where the chip shop is. Go on, Stanley, while I find the forks. Although, we don’t need forks do we? Fingers is fine, eh, Percival?’
Annie bought the fish and chips, Stanley insisting that his Mam only liked the best bit of hake. When they had finished the food, Teresa put on her coat. ‘There’s no need to take me, I can find the way if you’ll give directions,’ Annie protested.
‘Well, I wondered if you’d hang on a bit longer, Annie dear. I have to go out and I’d be much happier if you stayed with the boys.’
It was three thirty a.m. when Teresa returned, smelling of drink and hardly aware of her being there. Dozing lightly on the chair, with Teresa opposite her, the night passed.
The next day Teresa didn’t feel well, so it was Annie who found a shop selling bread and made them some sandwiches for their breakfast, and Stanley who led the way and took them to see the sights. He showed them the Thames and boasted about the bridges, found a place for them to eat, then took them to Buckingham Palace, guiding them through the intricacies of the Underground train system like an expert, while the tickets were paid for from Annie’s dwindling purse.
‘There’s just time to feed the sparrers,’ Stanley announced and he dodged through the traffic and took them into the park, from where they made their way, via the Underground, back to Paddington station.
‘There isn’t time to go and say goodbye to your mother,’ Annie said, having repeatedly tried and failed to persuade them to return to the bedsit and Teresa.
‘It’s all right, Mrs Price. She’ll be sleepin’ it off,’ Harold said. ‘Won’t she, our Stanley?’
Annie had a lot to think about on the journey home, with Percival snuggled against her and the other two fast asleep on the opposite seat. Morgan met her in Cardiff and during the last leg of their journey she whispered some of her observations to him, trying not to let the boys hear her disapproval.
‘Mum is only twenty-six and she says she wants a bit of fun,’ Stanley said in a spuriously adult tone. ‘Had me when she was only a kid.’
‘Sixteen,’ Harold supplied sleepily. ‘Lovely, ain’t she, our mum?’
‘Absolutely beautiful,’ Annie agreed, hugging them. ‘You’re such lucky boys to have a lovely young mam like Teresa.’
‘Ain’t we just,’ Stanley said sleepily. ‘Now, how long do we have to wait for them bikes, Uncle Morgan?’
Five
Plans for the Christmas concert for the evacuees went ahead with few problems. The entertainments committee refused at first to pay for more than the use of the hall but changed their minds when Max pleaded for some compassion for the poor children taken from home and everything familiar, on account of Hitler. Then they agreed to pay for the hall plus his expenses and something towards buying a gift for each child. Everything else needed for the concert, including stage and curtains, had to be found by Max and his supporters, who at that moment seemed to include no one except Eirlys.
For Eirlys, the organisation of the concert seemed to be an extension of her work at the council offices and she began to enjoy the challenge more and more. Marriage to Johnny was still enticing, but she beginning to like the idea of giving up her job less and less.
Johnny, Taff and a still suspicious Evelyn were persuaded to help, a carpenter was found to knock up a rostrum or two and Max was encouraged sufficiently to arrange auditions for a number of local people prepared to take part. Ken Ward wrote to tell Eirlys that although he was unable to help beforehand, he would definitely be there in time to support Max on the day of the concert.
Eirlys found it all very exciting and involved herself enthusiastically. It was easy to forget everything else. She would hurry home from work and start at once carrying out the instructions Max had left for her.
Johnny called twice and found she was out. He made his way to the hall, lent free for auditions and rehearsals, where she would be running around sorting out lists of names and skills, a pile of jugglers’ equipment in one corner, ventriloquists’ dolls and puppets in another.
Annie had to remind her that Johnny was feeling neglected. Ashamed that her enthusiasm had left him out, and to make sure he felt really involved, Eirlys put him down for various tasks, mainly searching for the hundred and one things they needed to get the hall ready. She also included him in the team of scene painters, using paint scrounged from a local shop and many garden sheds.
Hannah too offered her help and, after being given the material, made a pair of curtains for the makeshift staging Max had managed to acquire.
‘It’s all good practice for ENSA,’ Max told Eirlys. ‘I expect to be faced with worse than this if I have to entertain forces in strange places. There won’t be doors to knock on and kind neighbou
rs to ask, if I’m up where the fighting is taking place. Scavenging and making do will be a way of life for me if this war continues to run.’
‘You sound as though you want it to,’ Eirlys commented.
‘No,’ he protested. ‘Like every other thinking person, I’d be relieved if it ended now, this minute. Many are going to be killed before it’s over – how can you think I want that?’
‘Sorry, Max. I didn’t really mean it.’
‘I hope you didn’t. I want you to think better of me than that, Eirlys.’ He looked at her and when she met his gaze, he smiled and she saw an interest in his bright blue eyes that made her turn away. She didn’t want to see that look on anyone except Johnny Castle. But it was flattering just the same.
Between work, meeting Johnny, helping Max and amusing the evacuees, Eirlys still managed to work on her rugs most evenings. With the wireless for company, she worked until past eleven o’clock and had soon used up all the material she had gathered. If she were to continue, she had to find more unwanted coats and skirts. She was toying with the idea of making more attractive rugs using good quality wool, better colours as well as texture, but, it would have to be cheap if she were going to make a profit.
She saw an advertisement for Readicut rug-making kits which included a pattern set out in squares to represent each tuft, the canvas marked into sections to make the pattern easy to follow. The wool needed to complete the design was also included. Impulsively she sent for one. Heaven knew when she would find time to work on it with so many calls on her time, but an idea was growing in her mind about one day running a business of her own. Her father hadn’t managed it but there was no reason why his failure should discourage her from trying.
That brought her thoughts back to Johnny. She didn’t want any ambition to come between them: whatever the future held, she hoped Johnny would be a part of it. She smiled inwardly. Evelyn could hardly accuse her of sitting waiting for marriage; she had filled her life with so many things since that rather unkind remark. Life was full and it made her feel more confident. She was important and needed by her boss Mr Johnston, by the three musketeers, and hopefully by Johnny too. When things had settled down and she had more free time she would concentrate on a business of her own, earn lots of money and make Johnny proud of her.
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