Freddy ran to see what had happened and his heart began to thud painfully. The sea had turned quite rough and he couldn’t face diving in and swimming out to where people struggled in the water far beyond the surf, where breakers rose and fell in giant peaks and valleys. The sea was rising and falling like some great boiling cauldron. How could he swim out through that? He was afraid of the sea. Panic set in and his mind whirred. How could he get out of helping without disgracing himself in the eyes of Beth and her whole family?
He glanced at Shirley and knew at once that she understood. She could offer no help, though, and he grabbed his towel, hid in a corner and struggled into his wet bathers. He appeared to rush but many precious seconds passed before he stepped out and began to go down the metal steps to the beach.
‘Two children and two women there are,’ Beth shouted to him as she ran beside him, ‘besides the boatman.’
‘I think I’d do better to run to the first-aid hut and ask them to phone for help,’ he said, slowing down and standing near the edge of the tide. ‘I can’t go out there and bring five people back! What can I do?’
‘Do what you can, just get out there,’ Beth pleaded, thinking of the people in such danger only yards from where they stood. ‘Someone has already gone for help. We can’t stand here and watch them drown!’
He dived in and began to swim but was making little progress, faking cramp, when Bleddyn, who had just realised what had happened, stormed down the beach and dived in. He swam strongly and was soon overtaking Freddy.
The children were crying, the women close to collapse. After talking to them briefly and making sure they had something to hold, he supported each child with a hand under their heads, coaxing them, encouraging them when he realised they could actually swim a little but had been terrified out of trying by their distance from the shore and by the danger represented by the barricades and the mines frighteningly close.
He hadn’t wanted to leave one behind while he helped the other. He had thought the women and the boatman would be able to cope but it would have taken only one extra strong wave to have sent the child way beyond the beach and out of reach. Their being able to float enabled him to bring them both in together, kicking strongly with his legs until he could touch the bottom, then wading out, carrying them one under each arm, laughing, persuading them it had been an adventure, something to relate to their friends.
The owner of the boat had persuaded the two distressed women to hold on to the upturned boat, assuring them that the children were safe, and he waited with them while Bleddyn swam to safety with his precious charges and handed them over before swimming back to help the man bring the two women ashore. Like Bleddyn, he had been afraid to leave one of them for fear of them relaxing their tenuous hold and being swept out beyond help.
Bleddyn looked with utter disgust at Freddy when he walked past the younger man. He was carrying one of the women and was followed by the boat owner carrying the other.
Freddy turned to Beth and mouthed silently, ‘What’s up with him? I was on my way, wasn’t I?’
‘Were you, Freddy? Or were you waiting for someone else to do what you’re supposed to be trained to do?’
‘Beth, be fair. I did try but I got cramp and—’ But Beth was running up the beach beside her uncle, hoping the reason for her tears would be presumed to be relief and not shame.
Five
Beth looked at the ring on her third finger and thought it had lost its sparkle. How could Freddy have been so useless when five people were in danger? She had hardly spoken to him since the accident. Thank goodness nobody had been hurt. He could have been responsible for someone’s death, she kept reminding herself. Trained in life saving and too cowardly to swim out when he was needed.
It was early morning and she had been awake since five thirty, the brightness of the day making it impossible to chase sleep any longer. Hearing sounds from above her, she went into the kitchen and filled the kettle. Mam was usually first to rise and would be glad of a cup of tea.
‘How long have you been up?’ Marged asked as she came into the kitchen in her ancient woollen dressing gown. ‘Couldn’t you sleep?’
‘I keep thinking of that boat overturning and Freddy pretending he had cramp. Mam, what would have happened if one of those people had drowned? I couldn’t ever have forgiven him.’
‘You won’t be a very suppportive wife then, will you?’ Marged said sharply. ‘The minute he makes a mistake or loses his nerve, you’ll stop loving him, is it? Fine start to an engagement that is. I love your father and that means I forgive him whatever he does and support him when he’s done something foolish. And he’d do the same for me. I only have to reach out a hand and I know he’ll be there. That’s what love is, not being so sure of your own perfection. It’s knowing you’ll give, and have, understanding and forgiveness.’
‘Mam!’
‘All right, I don’t like the boy very much and I’d hoped you’d choose to marry someone else, to be honest. But you chose him and you should honour your decision.’
As they cleared up after breakfast and prepared to leave for the beach, Beth said, ‘Can I come over later? There’s something I want to do.’
Marged only nodded.
The factory worked shifts, but recently Freddy had worked days only, starting at nine and finishing at six o’clock. Instead of the usual stream of people rushing in to clock on before they were late and would miss a quarter of an hour’s pay, that morning at ten minutes to nine there were only seven people strolling through the entrance. Beth saw Freddy immediately, and ran up to him before he could disappear through the heavy reinforced metal gates with their barbed wire mounting.
‘Freddy? I’m sorry I’ve been so upset with you.’
‘I’m sorry too. I should have been braver. But I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do; my brain seized up. I couldn’t think how to deal with it, how I could possibly rescue five people when I got out there. I had no idea what to do. Ashamed I am, and I don’t blame you for hating me.’
‘I don’t hate you, you know that. My shame is that I reacted like I did.’
Freddy pulled her round to face him and took her hands in his. People were calling him from the gate but he ignored them. ‘I’m no film-star hero, am I?’ he said sadly.
‘None of us are. I don’t know how I’d react when faced with sudden danger.’
A security man came towards them looking angry.
‘For God’s sake, come in if you’re coming, boy! Lost your shift work because you were always late for shift and now you can’t even be on time at nine o’clock!’
‘What does he mean, Freddy? You moved to a more important job, didn’t you?’
‘I missed the six a.m. start a few times, that’s all, and the foreman’s got it in for me, Beth.’ He gave her a quick kiss and hurried inside the factory.
Beth wandered back through the town, heading for the small railway station. She would need to catch a train since she’d missed her ride to work. Mam had been right about her lack of loyalty, but she was more unsettled than ever after her attempt to make amends. Freddy had told her he’d been promoted to a more important job, but that wasn’t true. He’d lost his position because he was often late. Just how important had his job been, she wondered? Just how well did she know Freddy? They had been together since they were four years old, but she was beginning to think he was a stranger.
* * *
The reason the boat had overturned was that the boatman had gone too close to the defences and it had become caught on a metal spike. Held in place, the next wave partly filled it. That it had overturned rather than sank was pure good fortune.
A few days after the incident, the army came and blew up the boat; a frightening reminder that they were at war.
* * *
Under Moll’s tuition, helped by other members of the family, Maude and Myrtle quickly improved their ability to handle money. To encourage them, Marged allowed them to work on the stalls taking m
oney and giving change under supervision. The knowledge that they were useful was like magic medicine and as their abilities developed so their health improved. A nurse attached to the welfare department of the council visited them at intervals and declared herself satisfied that they were being cared for adequately.
‘I think a family environment is what most of these abandoned children need, Mrs Piper,’ Nurse Francis told Moll one morning. ‘Pity is that there aren’t enough families for them all.’ She sighed gently. ‘With any spare spaces being used by evacuees, there are fewer than usual.’
‘And things will be far worse in the big cities, Miss Francis, with bombing taking away so many houses, and families separated by evacuation as well as everything else. How will it ever get sorted once we’ve seen an end to it? Lucky we are, to live in a small unimportant place like St David’s Well.’
‘Indeed,’ Miss Francis agreed. ‘Now, have you learned anything to suggest there might be some truth in this story about them having a brother?’
‘They insist that they have a sister-in-law, which presumably means they have a brother somewhere, but nothing we’ve discovered gives any clue to where this sister-in-law might be, or even if she exists. Could they have invented her?’
‘It’s possible. Children who have no one of their own have been known to dream about discovering a long-lost aunt or invent a story that their mother isn’t really dead and one day will come back to find them. Sometimes they come to believe it.’
‘Poor dabs,’ Moll said sadly. ‘Never mind, they’ve got us Pipers now and we’ll look after them like they’re our own.’
‘In the circumstances Maude and Myrtle are lucky girls.’
* * *
Beth’s younger brother, Eynon, resented the beach. As far back as he could remember he had been made to help on the stalls or doing menial jobs in Piper’s Café. As a child he had enjoyed it – he’d made his friends envious when he described his days on the sands – but now he wanted something different, something that didn’t take so much of his time. He had discovered the joy of girls.
Today he had sloped off when his cousin Taff had come to repair a wooden support, and he had no intention of going back. Let them find someone else. The day was warm, summer was coming to its end, the girls were out in force and he was free.
He wandered aimlessly through the busy little town, where shops had filled their windows with patriotic displays supporting the soldiers and sailors and airmen. A pretty, dark-haired girl was standing looking at a tobacconist’s window and he strolled casually up and offered her a cigarette from his gold-coloured case, ‘borrowed’ from his father’s drawer.
‘No thanks, I don’t smoke. I think it’s a filthy, smelly thing to do,’ she said, tilting her pert little nose.
‘Neither do I,’ Eynon said, hiding the cigarette he had taken out. ‘I just keep some on me and offer them to any soldiers I see. Got it hard they have, not much money an’ that.’
‘You are kind,’ she purred and as he stretched up to his full height and smiled modestly, she added brightly, ‘Here’s my boyfriend, perhaps he’d like one.’
With a forced smile, Eynon opened his cigarette case and invited the soldier to help himself. ‘Greedy bugger needn’t have taken two,’ he muttered as he walked away.
From then on, every likely girl he saw was either with her parents or had a member of the armed forces on her arm. When he met Freddy coming out of the factory at six o’clock, they agreed immediately about the boredom of working for the Pipers.
‘Granny Moll thinks that as I’m family I’m bound to love working the beach, but I hate it,’ Eynon moaned.
‘I think it’s madness you wasting your talents serving kids with buckets and spades or helping them on and off the swingboats,’ Freddy said. ‘Your Beth wants me to work for the Pipers when I come back from the services, but I don’t think I’ll settle for that, not when I’ve travelled the world.’
‘Travel the world?’ Eynon said, his mouth open in awe. ‘Is that what you do in the army? I thought you’d go no further than France, stay a while blasting away at the enemy until you got wounded, them come back home.’
‘Of course I’ll travel. They can send you anywhere they like – and you can bet it won’t be anywhere near St David’s Well Bay! It’s the RAF for me, Eynon. Smart uniform and plenty of girls.’ Freddy suddenly realised he probably shouldn’t be talking to Beth’s brother about other women. Never mind; Eynon was a kindred spirit. He’d understand.
Eynon looked starry-eyed. ‘Just think, Freddy, you might be a pilot! Imagine that, skimming over the towns in France and Germany.’ He smiled dreamily at the thought of himself wearing his wings proudly on his sleeve and having girls pleading for his attention.
‘I’m thinking of enlisting,’ Freddy told him. ‘Not waiting for my papers, but signing on for a few years, official like. Then I’ll be able to choose which service I join. That’s got to be better than waiting to be called up. They can put you where they like then. So I’m told, mind.’
‘I’m not eighteen till next year, Freddy. I wish I was old enough to go with you.’
‘They’ll take you as a regular, won’t they? You’re old enough for that. Grab a fine lad like you without hesitation they will. You sign on for five years and you’ll come out smarter than you’d be after five years working on the sands. What can you possibly learn on the sands?’
Freddy didn’t tell the gullible young boy he had recently learned that his application for deferment had been turned down and that he was expecting his papers any day. ‘Come on, Eynon, let’s see what they tell us at the recruitment office, is it?’
‘Is there a place for Royal Navy volunteers, Freddy? I fancy that uniform more than the RAF, don’t you?’
‘No, I fancy that forage cap. Racy that looks, mind.’
* * *
During the busy weeks when factories and employments of all kinds normally closed to allow their workforce to take a week’s holiday, most continued working. But the beach was still packed and the café had a continuous queue from the moment it opened until the family thankfully closed the door and fell exhausted into the kitchen chairs.
People who didn’t usually take a holiday away from home were making the most of the short time before their sons or husbands went into the forces and the atmosphere was lively, with a kind of forced gaiety.
Maude and Myrtle were learning fast and were already very useful members of the Piper team. Lilly had found a new way of avoiding the tasks she hated, insisting she was teaching the youngsters the basics of working on the sands. She also realised that with the place so busy, Marged and Huw didn’t have time to check on what she was doing and she became adept at looking busy whenever they approached.
Beth was aware of her sister’s idleness but after complaining several times and having nothing done about it, she ignored Lilly and got on with her work. She knew that Lilly wasn’t the only one of the family who wasn’t doing their fair share, although for the past week her younger brother had seemed much more cheerful.
Eynon stood near the swingboats and was smiling and helpful to the steady stream of customers. Marged and Huw were relieved at his change of attitude. That he was especially charming to the young girls just made them smile. He was growing up. Huw and Marged were just thankful for the effort he was making at this particularly busy time.
Freddy came every evening in time to help, and even Lilly seemed willing to join in with the cleaning at the café when it came to the end of the day, so they could get off a little bit quicker. The family were unaware that she would soon be back there. Marged sighed contentedly as she told Moll that the family were pulling together and everyone seemed to be content despite the long, tiring days.
Audrey’s assistant at the rock shop, Alice Potter, worked for several hours each day, though she couldn’t work regular shifts as she was needed to look after her father. Colin Potter was an ex-boxer who had been injured in a fight. He couldn’t stand wi
thout support as he kept losing his balance and he was also deaf.
Alice found looking after him a thankless occupation. No praise was given, however well she managed. They lived in a building that had once been a shop. The room at the front, with its once grand entrance, was empty. The windows were streaked with dirt, and the whole place had a neglected air. Many rooms were unused, since they could afford to furnish and heat only a few.
Eynon saw Alice serving novelty rock when he was on his way to collect more crisps from the store room in Moll’s house and he went in to talk to her. That evening, when the rock and sweet shop closed and Audrey came to deal with the money, he was there to walk her home.
Alice was small and very thin, and dark haired like most of the Castle family. Audrey remarked that they could be mistaken for brother and sister. Eynon laughed and winked at Alice. He wasn’t feeling at all brotherly.
Alice and her father lived in a dingy lane and the back entrance to their home was blocked with abandoned shelving from the shop. Immediately behind it was another similar terrace. The place was dark and gloomy and from what Eynon could see when he glanced inside, the long passage leading through to the back door, past the hollow space of the shop area, was bare of lino. The walls were in serious need of fresh wallpaper.
On impulse, when he was on his way home, he went to the shops, which were just closing, bought a bunch of chrysanthemums, and returned to Alice’s house. When she opened the door her smile was rewarding, and he was about to invite her to go with him to the pictures when another figure appeared.
Leaning on the wall, Colin Potter came down the passageway in a series of jerking paces, angled oddly and using the walls for support. He demanded to know what Eynon wanted.
‘Just to thank your daughter for helping my aunt out today, sir,’ Eynon said politely and after a sly wink for Alice, he went home.
* * *
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