A Band of Steel

by Rosie Goodwin

  ‘Never!’ Mrs Haynes responded, scandalised. ‘Well, I knew Ezra were havin’ a few problems wi’ her but I didn’t realise she were like that. An’ him so religious, an’ all. It just goes to show, don’t it? There are skeletons in every closet.’

  Not wishing to be caught eavesdropping, Adina coughed before swinging the gate open.

  ‘Hello,’ she said politely to the two women as they flushed guiltily. ‘It’s a lovely evening, isn’t it?’

  ‘It is that, luv,’ Mrs Haynes said hastily. ‘Where you off to – somewhere nice?’

  ‘Oh, I’m just going to pop round to see Beryl for half an hour. Goodbye now.’

  ‘Now there’s a lovely girl for yer if ever I’ve seen one,’ she heard Mrs Haynes confide. ‘Never gives her parents a moment o’ worry, that one don’t. She’ll make someone a lovely wife one o’ these days. Her an’ Ariel are as different as chalk from cheese.’

  Adina cringed inwardly. Oh, if only they knew, she thought, and she hurried on with Mrs Thompson’s words ringing in her ears. She was still reeling from what she had heard when something else just as shocking occurred. She was just about to turn into Deacon Street when she saw a U.S. Army jeep coming towards her, and thinking that it looked like the one that Tyrone drove, she peered towards it. If it was Tyrone on his way to see Beryl, she would go back home rather than disturb them.

  As it drew closer her mouth gaped open when she saw an attractive dark-haired girl sitting in the passenger seat. She was laughing at something the driver had said – and as it drove by, Adina saw that it was Tyrone. But who was the girl? And why wasn’t he with Beryl? They were engaged to be married, after all. She forced herself to move on, sure that there must be some logical explanation for it. Beryl would probably tell her all about it when she got there.

  ‘Hello, love,’ Mrs Tait greeted her at the door. ‘Our Beryl is upstairs wi’ her head stuck in one o’ them bridal magazines, if you want to go up to her.’

  Adina squeezed her way up the steep narrow staircase and seconds later she knocked at Beryl’s door.

  ‘I wasn’t sure if you would be in or out with Tye,’ she said, as her friend greeted her.

  ‘Oh, Tye is at some sort of military meeting tonight up at the Hall,’ Beryl informed her. ‘But I did see him last night. We went dancin’ an’ I did so much jitterbuggin’ that I thought me feet were goin’ to drop off . . . But what are you looking’ so glum for?’

  Adina felt as if someone had smacked her in the face, but keen to save her friend from any hurt she told her, ‘I just heard Mrs Haynes and Mrs Thompson talking about our Ariel over the gate. Mrs Thompson reckons Ariel is seeing one of the local boys.’

  ‘It wouldn’t surprise me,’ Beryl replied. ‘But it’ll be God help ’er if your dad gets to hear about it. He’s very strict, ain’t he, an’ the shit will hit the fan bigtime then. But never mind about that for now. What do you think o’ this wedding dress? Ain’t it just the best you’ve ever seen?’ When she pointed a long scarlet fingernail at the page, Adina had to admit that the dress was truly beautiful.

  ‘Not that I could get anything like it around here,’ Beryl complained. ‘Even if I could buy it, it would be more than I could afford, an’ I’d never be able to get me hands on that much silk. There must be yards o’ the stuff in the train alone.’

  Adina stared at the dress thoughtfully. ‘Leave it with me,’ she told her friend. ‘I just might be able to come up with something.’

  ‘Really?’ Beryl’s face lit up.

  ‘Let me take the magazine with me when I go and I’ll see what I can do’, Adina said. ‘But I’m not making any promises, mind.’

  ‘You are just about the best friend anyone could wish for!’ Beryl flung her arms about her and kissed her soundly on the cheek. ‘But now tell me what you’ve been up to since I last saw you.’

  When Adina blushed a deep brick-red, Beryl laughed knowingly. ‘Mmm, is there somethin’ you want to tell me about?’

  In truth, Adina was longing to talk to someone about Karl, and as Beryl was about the only one she could trust with her secret, she told her what had happened.

  When she had finished, Beryl let out a long breath. ‘Phew, you don’t believe in doin’ things by halves, do you, gel?’ she muttered. ‘But what’s goin’ to happen if your mam an’ dad find out about him?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Adina bowed her head in misery. ‘But what can I do? We can’t choose who we’re going to fall in love with. It just sort of happens, doesn’t it?’

  ‘I suppose it does,’ Beryl admitted, but no matter how much she thought about it she just couldn’t picture a happy ending for her friend in this scenario. She was no fool and had guessed on the very first day when they had met outside the gates of Astley Hall that Karl and Adina were attracted to each other. But she had thought that her friend had more sense than to pursue it. From where she was standing Adina was up the creek without a paddle now and she couldn’t think of a single thing that she could do to help her.

  ‘Couldn’t you just sort of stop seein’ him before it goes any further?’ she asked with concern.

  Adina shook her head. ‘I could just as easily give up breathing.’

  ‘Then from where I’m standin’ you’re in deep trouble,’ Beryl stated flatly, and as much as she hated to hear it, Adina knew that she was right. But what about the girl she had seen Tyrone with, earlier in the night? He had told Beryl that he would be attending some military meeting up at the Hall but it was definitely him Adina had seen: she would have staked her life on it. She wondered again if she should tell Beryl, but couldn’t bring herself to do so. There might have been some perfectly plausible explanation as to why he was with the girl. She could have been a secretary or someone he was simply transporting to the meeting. Deciding that she preferred to believe that, Adina held her tongue.

  The next day when she saw Karl she said shyly, ‘Would you mind very much if I asked you a favour?’

  ‘Ask away,’ he answered with a grin.

  ‘Well, the thing is, Beryl has seen this picture of a wedding gown in a magazine but we aren’t able to get hold of the silk to make it, what with all the rationing. So I was wondering . . . would you happen to know if any of your friends might have a spare parachute tucked away somewhere? The silk they are made of is lovely quality and I’d be able to make two wedding gowns out of one parachute.’

  ‘Hmm.’ He tapped his chin thoughtfully. ‘Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do.’

  She flushed with pleasure when his fingers closed briefly around hers.

  Two days later when she met him, Karl was clutching a large parcel wrapped in brown paper.

  ‘Here,’ he grinned. ‘I think this might be what you were after.’

  As Adina tore a corner of the paper and saw the smooth white silk folded inside she squealed with delight. ‘Oh Karl, this is wonderful! Thank you so much. Beryl will be thrilled and I’ll be able to start making her wedding dress now. But what do we owe you?’

  ‘Not a thing,’ he assured her. ‘I was just happy to help.’

  Adina had to resist the urge to kiss him there and then. As she was discovering, Karl was a very caring man, always happy to help anyone when he could. If only my father could see that, she found herself thinking, but she knew that the chances of that happening were remote. Karl was a German and a non-Jew, and because of that, her father would never accept him.

  As soon as she got home, Adina went to her room and began to study the picture of the wedding dress that Beryl had admired in the magazine.

  It was actually quite a simple design, and Adina was sure that she could copy it. The bodice was fitted tight into the waist, and came to a point, with tiny pearl buttons running all the way up the back and front to the sweetheart neckline. The sleeves were long and tapered to a point on the back of each hand, and the front of the skirt then fell away into an A-line shape. The back stretched away into a pretty train.

  Adina could almost pictu
re Beryl floating down the aisle in it and determined to make a start on it straight away. She decided she wouldn’t tell her friend about it yet though, until she was sure that she could get it just right. Thankfully they were almost the same size, apart from the fact that Beryl was taller than her, and Adina had her measurements, so she knew that she could get quite a fair way with it before having to ask Beryl to try it on.

  Untying the brown paper, she lifted the parachute from the parcel and sighed happily as it drifted onto the bed in a swish of silk. It was just perfect for the design that Beryl had chosen, and already Adina could imagine her face when she first got a glimpse of it.

  By teatime she had the pattern cut out. She had taped old news papers together and cut them into the different sections that would make up the dress. Next she would have to start cutting the fabric, which was slightly more nervewracking.

  When her mother eventually called her down for her evening meal Freyde glanced at her curiously. ‘So what have you been doing, shut away in your room all afternoon then?’ she asked.

  Adina took a seat at the table with a wide smile on her face. ‘Can you keep a secret?’

  ‘It all depends what the secret is,’ her mother responded, so Adina began to tell her how she was hoping to surprise Beryl.

  ‘And just where did you manage to get the parachute from?’ her mother asked when Adina paused for breath.

  The girl said vaguely, ‘Oh, some friend of her fiancé’s managed to get hold of it.’ Once again she hated lying, but how could she tell her mother the truth?

  Thankfully, Freyde seemed quite happy with the explanation and the rest of the meal passed without another mention of it.

  Within a week, Adina had the dress tacked together and she was thrilled with how it was beginning to look. Now the more intricate work would begin as she machined all the hems. She was humming softly to herself as she walked to her friend’s house one night when she once again saw Tyrone in his US Army jeep with the same woman she had spotted him with the week before. Adina’s heart sank into her shoes as she watched the tail-lights of the vehicle disappearing off down the road. What if he was two-timing Beryl? The girl would be broken-hearted. Suddenly unable to face her, she turned and went back home whilst she tried to put her thoughts into some sort of order.

  She entered the kitchen to find herself in the midst of yet another blazing row between Ariel and her father. Her parents were going to see Dovi the next day and Ariel had informed them that she would not be accompanying them as she was intending to go to a dance in the town that evening.

  ‘You are telling me that you would put a dance before going to see your own brother?’ Ezra raged, red in the face.

  ‘Yes, I am,’ Ariel retorted boldly. ‘He doesn’t even know we’re there anyway, so what’s the point in going?’

  ‘How could you be so heartless,’ Freyde wept. Sometimes she didn’t even recognise this selfish young woman as her daughter any more.

  ‘Oh, I’m not going to stand here arguing about it,’ Ariel spat peevishly and with that she turned on her heel and stormed away upstairs.

  ‘Try to be patient with her,’ Adina muttered, hoping to ease the tension. ‘She’s only young. She’s just going through a stage.’

  ‘A stage!’ Ezra stormed. ‘She doesn’t seem to care about anyone but herself any more and I’m sick of it!’

  Not knowing what else to say, Adina too slipped away upstairs where she sat on her bed with her mind in turmoil. What with one thing and another, she felt as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. There was Beryl, totally besotted with her fiancé – but was he besotted with her? And then there was Ariel, who seemed to have gone completely off the rails over the last few months. And Dovi, poor Dovi – it broke her heart just to think of him, and sometimes she could scarcely remember him as he had been before he went away to war. And finally there was Karl. Just the thought of him made her break out in goose-bumps, but her parents would never accept him in a million years, which left her with only one solution. Once the war was over and he was a free man again, she would have to go away with him.

  But do I love him enough to cut all ties with my family? she asked herself. And the answer came back loud and clear. Yes I do, and if need be I shall follow him to the ends of the earth.

  Part Two

  Loving and Leaving

  Chapter Fifteen

  The war raged on, taking a terrible turn for the worse in September when the new V2 rockets were aimed at London. Silent until the last moment, these deadly weapons dropped from the sky without warning, causing widespread devastation.

  Ezra listened to the radio reports with a heavy heart. It was now almost two months since he had seen his son, as the last time he and Freyde had set out to do so they had been unable to get trains to Portsmouth because of widespread damage to the railway tracks.

  ‘I’m sure you will manage it tomorrow,’ Adina soothed as she saw him studying the train timetables.

  ‘I hope so.’ Freyde looked towards the fire. ‘He will think we have forsaken him.’

  ‘Never.’ Adina was adamant. Thankfully, her brother was now showing signs of recovery – and had even recognised his parents on their last visit – but they were well aware that he still had an awful long way to go.

  If they did manage their journey the next day, she intended to bring Karl back to the shop at lunchtime. She was so besotted with him now that she didn’t even feel guilty about their secret rendezvous any more.

  Yawning now, she asked her father, ‘Do you think they’ll drop any of those rockets on us?’

  ‘Who can say what the Nazis are capable of?’ he said. ‘But now, bubbeleh, you get yourself off to bed and try not to worry about it. I shall be up too shortly, when your sister finally decides to come in.’

  After planting a kiss on his thinning hair, Adina then embraced her mother and went upstairs to Dovi’s room, where she still slept, and stood surveying Beryl’s wedding dress. It stood in the corner of the room on the dressmaker’s dummy, completely finished now all but for the hem – and that could not be turned up until Beryl had tried it on. In truth, it had been finished for weeks now, and Adina wondered why she hadn’t shown it to her friend before. She supposed it was because she still had doubts about Tyrone’s commitment to Beryl after seeing him with the girl in his jeep those couple of times. Admittedly she hadn’t seen him with her since then, but still the niggles of unease were there deep in the pit of her stomach each time she thought of him.

  Recently, some of the officers stationed at the Hall had been shipped back to the States, and Adina knew that Beryl was wondering when it would be Tyrone’s turn. The girl was secretly hoping that it would be soon because she felt sure that as soon as he knew he was going home, they would be married. Adina wasn’t so sure but wisely held her tongue. She knew how much Beryl loved the American and hoped that things would turn out well for her.

  It was as she was slipping her nightdress over her head that she heard the back door open and close. No doubt it was Ariel returning from her date – which meant yet another row with her father.

  Sighing, she snuggled down into the cold cotton sheets and as sleep came to claim her she wondered why life had to be so complicated.

  The next morning, Ezra and Freyde left early for the station, closely followed by Ariel when she went off to her job at Woolworth’s. After washing and drying the breakfast pots, Adina set off for school with a million butterflies flitting about in her stomach. Ezra and Freyde had not returned, which meant that they must have been able to get a train to Portsmouth. It also meant that she would be able to bring Karl home during his lunch-break – and the thought of spending time with him lent speed to her feet.

  The morning passed interminably slowly but at last the bell for the lunch-hour rang and Adina tidied her hair in the staff room before setting off for Coton Church. Karl was waiting for her as usual at the lychgate and her heart sang at the sight of him.

  ‘My pare
nts have gone to visit Dovi,’ she told him shyly, as he fell into step beside her.

  ‘Then we must not waste a single second of the precious time we have,’ he told her, and as they moved along, he delved into his coat pocket. ‘I have something for you,’ he told her looking slightly embarrassed. He pressed something into her hand, and when Adina glanced down, a band of steel winked up at her in the sunlight.

  ‘It is not much,’ Karl told her hurriedly. ‘It is just something I made when I was at the forge. I would like you to have it as a keepsake.’

  ‘A keepsake?’ The thrill of the gift was lost for the minute as fear flooded through her. Was Karl trying to tell her that he was going away?

  ‘Are you leaving?’ she managed to ask.

  He shook his head. ‘No no – at least not for the foreseeable future. But one day when the war is over . . .’

  ‘But I thought . . .’

  When her voice trailed away he smiled at her sadly. ‘One day I shall have to return to Germany mein Liebling, and the ring is just something to remind you of me.’

  ‘But I . . . I thought we would be together,’ she said falteringly.

  Karl pursed his lips. ‘There is nothing I would like more, but there are things . . . But come – do not let us spoil our time together. Take the gift and think of me when you wear it.’

  As Adina stared down at the steel band it was more precious to her than platinum. She slid it onto her finger and sighed happily as it shone in the sunshine.

  ‘I shall treasure it always,’ she murmured as they turned the corner leading to the shop. Mrs Haynes was standing outside her gate, chatting to the neighbour from the house on the other side of her, and Adina was suddenly unsure what she should do. But then an idea occured to her.