‘Wait there,’ she told Karl. ‘I shall go and unlock the shop and then you can come in as if you were just a customer. Mrs Haynes won’t think anything of that.’
‘I do not wish to cause any trouble for you,’ he said uncertainly, but Adina waved her hand at him.
‘Just give me two minutes.’ And then she was hurrying away as he stood there watching her.
‘You all right, are you, luv? Just finished at the school for the day?’ Mrs Haynes asked good-naturedly as Adina approached.
‘Yes, I have, and if you’ll excuse me I ought to get the shop open now,’ Adina replied with a smile.
‘Yes, an’ I ought to go in an’ get my Bert’s dinner on the go – otherwise he’ll have me guts for garters!’ Mrs Haynes exclaimed as she nodded towards her neighbour. ‘See you, Gertie.’ With that she pottered away up the entry ahead of Adina as the girl sighed with relief.
After hurrying through the shop she admitted Karl and they went through to the kitchen. Each time she glanced at the shining band of steel on her finger she found herself smiling. Surely this was Karl’s way of telling her that he was committing himself to her. Why else would he have made her a ring? And yet her joy was tinged with sorrow as she thought of the sacrifices she would have to make to be with him. Her family would disown her once they knew that she was going to marry a Nazi – but what choice did she have, if she was to be with the man she loved? Glancing across at him now, she noticed that Karl seemed strangely distracted. ‘Is everything all right?’ she asked.
‘Yes, it is, but there is something I must talk to you about,’ he told her.
‘Of course.’ She sat down next to him on the couch. ‘Now – what is it you want to tell me?’
He opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment the bell on the shop door began to tinkle.
‘Ignore it,’ Adina urged. ‘They will go away in a moment.’ But when the noise continued she sighed with frustration. ‘I won’t be long,’ she told him as she hurried away into the shop. She hastily served the customer and then went back into the kitchen, only to find no sign of Karl. He had probably gone outside to the lavatory, she told herself. The minutes on the clock ticked away until eventually she crept into the yard where she whispered, ‘Karl . . . are you there?’
When no answer came she inched the privy door open, only to find that it was empty. It was then she saw that the gate was also slightly ajar, and she frowned. Why would Karl have shot off like that without a word? Deciding that he had probably gone in case whoever was ringing the shop bell might find him there, she sighed with disappointment. It was just like him to be so considerate, she decided. But what had he been about to tell her? There could be no way of knowing now until she saw him the next day, so she put the latch on the gate and went through to open the shop. There wasn’t much else she could do for now.
When her parents arrived home late that evening they were weary but excited.
‘Dovi may be able to come home soon,’ her mother told her as she took the hat pin from the back of her hat and patted her hair into place. ‘He knew us immediately today when we arrived at the hospital and the doctors are pleased with his progress.’
‘That’s wonderful news,’ Adina told her with genuine pleasure.
‘He is still far from well, of course,’ her father continued in a more cautious manner, ‘and he will be on heavy medication for some time, but at least he will be home again and that is the main thing.’
‘How soon?’ Adina asked.
Ezra shrugged. ‘They did not give us a definite date but perhaps a couple more months.’
‘I shall feed him up with my chicken soup.’ Freyde beamed. She believed that chicken soup was the cure for all ills. ‘He will have meat on his bones again in no time, once I can have him back with us.’
Adina did not doubt it and began to look forward to having her brother home.
The following evening there was a knock at the back door and when Ezra went to open it he found Beryl standing on the doorstep.
‘Good evening, Mr Schwartz. Is Adina in?’ she asked politely. Adina’s father always made her feel nervous.
‘Yes, she is,’ he answered as he held the door wide. ‘She is sewing up in her room. Perhaps you would like to go up to her?’
‘Thank you.’ She slid past him and nodded at Freyde and Ariel who smiled at her as she headed for the stairs door.
‘Beryl was looking a little pale, didn’t you think?’ Freyde commented when the girl had gone; she then turned her attention back to the sock she was darning as Ezra shrugged and settled back into his chair. He had never wholly approved of his daughter’s friendship with Beryl but he supposed it was up to Adina who she chose to mix with. Up to a point, of course.
Upstairs, Beryl tapped on Adina’s bedroom door before entering to find her friend busily at work on the old Singer sewing machine.
‘Beryl, what are you doing here?’ Adina took her foot off the treadle as she smiled a welcome. ‘Don’t you usually see Tyrone on Wednesday nights?’
Beryl plonked herself down on the edge of Adina’s bed. ‘Yes, I do, but he said he was going to be busy tonight. He seems to be busy a lot just lately.’
A picture of him sitting next to the dark-haired girl in the jeep flashed into Adina’s mind but she pushed it away as she looked at her friend’s downcast face.
‘Well, he does have a job to do and he can’t be in two places at once, can he?’ she said kindly.
Beryl shook her head. ‘It’s now that they’re shipping some of the officers back home to America,’ she said glumly. ‘Tyrone has to organise everything so I don’t get to see so much of him any more.’
Adina crossed to sit beside her friend and draped her arm around her shoulders. ‘And is that all that’s bothering you?’
Beryl suddenly burst into tears, which wasn’t like her friend at all. She was usually such a happy-go-lucky sort of person. Adina remained silent as Beryl sobbed until eventually the girl took a deep breath and mopped at her eyes with the handkerchief Adina had passed her.
‘Now, is it something you want to talk about?’ Adina asked.
For a moment it appeared that Beryl wasn’t going to answer her, but then she suddenly blurted out, ‘I’m in real trouble, mate.’
‘What sort of trouble?’ Adina probed gently. ‘Is it something I can help you with?’
‘No one can help me,’ Beryl wailed. ‘You see, I’m pregnant.’
Adina gulped before asking, ‘Are you quite sure?’
‘Well, I ain’t been to the doctor’s yet but my monthlies are usually as regular as clockwork an’ I’ve missed two now. Added to that I keep bein’ sick in the mornin’ an’ me boobs are killing me, so I reckon I can safely say I am, don’t you?’
‘It certainly sounds like it,’ Adina admitted. ‘What has Tyrone had to say about it?’
‘I ain’t told him yet. I wanted to talk to you first. What do you reckon I should do, Dina?’
‘I think you should tell him,’ Adina advised without hesitation. ‘And it isn’t the end of the world, you know. You are engaged, after all. This just means that you’ll have to get married slightly sooner than you’d planned. Tyrone might even be pleased to know that he’s going to be a father.’
‘Do you really think so?’ Beryl looked slightly happier. ‘But what are me mam an’ dad goin’ to say?’ she said after a while. ‘Me dad will bloody slay ’im alive.’
‘Your parents needn’t know straight away,’ Adina soothed. ‘Just say that with the war on you don’t want to wait, and get the wedding organised as soon as you can. Lots of couples are doing it nowadays. Ruth Connor from Riversley Road married her boyfriend last week while he was on two days’ leave.’
‘An’ just what am I supposed to wear?’ Beryl grumbled.
Adina hopped off the bed and chuckled. ‘Now there I can help you,’ she told her with a twinkle in her eye, and crossing to the mannequin in the corner of the room, she whipped the white sheet off
it.
Beryl’s jaw dropped with amazement as she saw the beautiful dress beneath it. ‘Why, that’s like the one I showed you in me magazine,’ she choked.
Adina grinned from ear to ear. ‘I copied the pattern and now all I need you to do is try it on so that I can turn the hem up.’
‘But where did you manage to get the material from?’
Adina tapped the side of her nose. ‘Let’s just say I have friends,’ she chuckled. ‘Now come and try it on, and let’s see if we can’t cheer you up a bit.’
Within minutes Beryl was twirling delightedly in front of the cheval mirror. ‘It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen,’ she breathed as she sashayed this way and that.
‘Good, then hurry and decide when you’re going to wear it, otherwise I shall have to be letting the seams out,’ Adina teased.
‘I’ll tell him tomorrow,’ Beryl promised. ‘But now help me out of it, would you, afore I muck it up.’
Within minutes the dress was safely back on the mannequin and as Beryl got dressed she told Adina, ‘Thanks fer listenin’, Dina. I didn’t know who else to turn to.’
‘That’s what friends are for,’ Adina told her with a warm hug, but once Beryl had left in a slightly happier frame of mind she frowned. She could only pray now that Tyrone would stand by her friend and marry her. The alternative was just too awful to contemplate.
Her hand rose to finger the steel band that Karl had given her and that was now suspended on a silver chain about her neck. She dare not risk wearing it on her hand in front of her parents for fear of any questions they might ask about it. But why had he rushed off as he had? She pushed her fears aside. Karl was an honourable man, she would have staked her life on it, and he would stand by her no matter what, just as, hopefully, Tyrone would stand by Beryl.
Her eyes settled on the white silk on the sewing machine. She had already begun to make her own wedding gown, and one day she would wear it when she married Karl. As far as she was concerned, the day could not come soon enough.
Chapter Sixteen
‘Be sure an’ have her in at a decent time now, do y’hear, son?’
‘Yes, sir.’ Tyrone told Beryl’s father respectfully as he steered her towards the door. Once outside he let out a sigh of relief. Beryl’s parents had always made him welcome in their home, but he had a feeling that Mr Tait would not be a man to cross. Not that he ever intended to, if he could help it.
‘So, how are ya, honey?’ he asked now as he helped Beryl into the jeep. She seemed a little subdued tonight, which wasn’t like her at all. Usually Beryl was the life and soul of the party.
‘I’m fine,’ she muttered as he closed the door and strode round to the driver’s seat. Soon they were cruising along Queen’s Road and he asked her, ‘So what did you have in mind for tonight?’
‘Actually, I’d quite like us to go somewhere quiet. There’s somethin’ I need to talk to you about.’
‘In that case we’ll head out into the country and find us a quaint little pub, eh? How about the Cock at Sibson? They do a nice pint of ale there.’
Beryl nodded absently as Tyrone glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She was looking a bit peaky – perhaps she was sickening for something? There seemed to be an awful lot of bugs flying around. They drove through Weddington and Fenny Drayton in silence until the pub came into view, and Tyrone pulled the jeep into the car park and switched off the engine. He loved this inn; it was reputed to be the oldest in England, and legend had it that it had once been the haunt of Dick Turpin, the notorious highwayman. He loved anything with an English history attached to it, but after staring at it for a while he slid his arm across the back of the seat and asked, ‘You feelin’ ill, honey?’
‘Not ill exactly,’ she told him as she squirmed in her seat. ‘But . . . look – I may as well get it over with and tell you. I’m pregnant, Tye. I’m going to have your baby.’
The look of horror that swept across his face brought tears stinging to her eyes. She had expected him to be shocked, but he looked as if she had just told him that the world was coming to an end.
‘It’ll be all right,’ she gulped, grasping his hand as panic flooded through her. ‘It just means that we’ll have to get married a little sooner than we’d planned.’
‘B-but I might be flyin’ home next month,’ he mumbled.
‘You didn’t tell me that before, but that’s fine.’ Alarm bells started to clang in her head but she rushed on, ‘We can get married and then I can fly home with you. We’ll be in America before I even start to show, an’ no one here need ever be any the wiser.’ Her eyes were full of hope as she smiled at him, and swallowing, he looked away and stared across the fields. His mind was working overtime. This was the last thing he had wanted. Beryl was a nice enough girl but he had never intended to marry her. He had just bought her a ring to string her along and get her to allow him to use her until he was tired of her. She was just one of several, could she have known it, and if this hadn’t happened he could have just discreetly disappeared off the scene without telling her, but now what was he to do?
‘Do your folks know?’ he asked eventually.
Beryl shook her head. ‘No, I wanted to tell you before I told them. The only other person who knows is Dina, and guess what? She’s made me the most wonderful wedding gown you’ve ever seen. It’s fit for a queen, although I didn’t think I’d be wearin’ it quite so soon.’
‘Now hold on, honey.’ Tye ran his hand distractedly through his thick thatch of hair. This was his worst nightmare come true. Wedding gown, wedding! ‘We need to think this through. Marriage isn’t somethin’ you go into lightly.’
‘Lightly!’ Beryl frowned. ‘In case you’d forgotten, we are already engaged to be married.’
‘Yes, yes, of course we are,’ he said in a placating tone of voice. ‘All I’m sayin’ is we need to think what’s best to do.’
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit late for that?’ Beryl said acidly.
‘There are er . . . things you can do if you don’t want a child.’
When she stared at him in horror he rushed on, ‘One of the guys up at the Hall found himself in a similar predicament not long ago and he took his girl to see this woman who lives in the town. She fixed it for them – at a price, of course. But money ain’t a problem if you feel that’s best.’
‘Y-you’re telling me you want me to go to some seedy place and have a back-street abortion?’ she stuttered as she recoiled from him.
‘No, no, honey. I’m just saying we have to think what’s best.’ He tried to take her hand but she thrust him away from her as she swiped at the tears that were streaming down her cheeks.
‘How could you even think o’ doin’ that to our baby?’ she choked and then slowly her distress was replaced by cold hard rage.
‘I know what happens to blokes like you if their Commanding Officer gets to hear about situations like this,’ she threatened, and now it was his turn to tremble.
‘They don’t look too well on unwanted pregnancies,’ she went on with venom in her voice. ‘An’ neither will my dad. It will be God help you if you don’t do the right thing by me, Tyrone. I’m warning you, I ain’t some floozy who you can just use an’ abuse an’ then cast away.’
‘I never thought you were, honey,’ he lied as panic engulfed him.
‘Good! Then in that case I suggest we start to plan the weddin’.’ Her voice was colder than any snow he had ever stepped in, and his mind raced as he tried to think of a way out of this nightmare.
Suddenly his shoulders sagged. ‘So how do we go about it then? Are you going to tell your folks?’
‘No,’ she said with determination. ‘There’s no point in upsettin’ them unless we have to. I’ll just tell them that you have the chance to fly home sooner than expected so we’re bringin’ the weddin’ forward so that I can fly back with you.’
He nodded as resignation settled around him like a cold damp cloud.
‘I’ll
see to all the arrangements,’ she went on. ‘All you’ll have to do is turn up at the church. We’ll apply for a special licence an’ you can arrange for me to fly home with you.’
She sidled across the seat and stroked his cheek, surprised to feel that it was damp with sweat.
He nodded numbly. There didn’t seem to be any point in arguing; whatever happened now, he felt he was up the creek without a paddle.
‘So how did he take the news then?’ Adina asked the next evening as she took her coat off and curled up on the end of Beryl’s bed.
‘Well, he was quite shocked when I first told him,’ Beryl replied cautiously as she twisted another pipe cleaner into her damp hair. ‘But once he’d got used to the idea he agreed that the best thing we could do was to get married as soon as we can.’
Adina had expected to find Beryl jumping with joy at the prospect of the forthcoming wedding, but if anything she seemed a little subdued. But then, getting married was a big step so she supposed her friend was bound to have mixed feelings, particularly as she would be leaving with Tye to live in America.
‘How did your parents take the news?’ Adina babbled on. ‘Did you tell them about the baby?’
‘Of course I didn’t,’ Beryl snapped. ‘There won’t be any need for them to know about that. You see, shortly after the wedding, Tye will be going home, so I just told them that we plan to get married sooner than we’d expected to so that I can fly back with him.’
‘How shortly?’
‘Next month,’ Beryl admitted, and her face softened as she caught sight of her friend’s stricken expression in the mirror.
‘B . . . but you never said before that it would be so soon,’ Adina mumbled.
‘I didn’t know myself until Tye told me last night.’
‘Oh!’ Adina found it quite strange that Tyrone was being flown back so soon, and stranger still that he hadn’t told Beryl before, but then she gave him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he might only just have been told himself.
‘I shall miss you.’ As tears shimmered in her eyes Beryl turned to give her a hug.
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