A Band of Steel

by Rosie Goodwin

  ‘Oh, Beryl.’ Adina was so shocked she scarcely knew what to say. ‘I’m so sorry. What will happen now?’

  ‘Nothing. I get a copy of his death certificate and that’s that.’

  She stood up and took her coat off just as Cathy came hurtling towards her. Meanwhile, Adina’s mind was working overtime. The significance of this obviously hadn’t dawned on Beryl yet, but it had to Adina. Beryl was now a widow, and whilst the Church would have frowned on Father Mick marrying a divorcée, they certainly wouldn’t object to him marrying a widow. If he still wanted to, that was. But she wouldn’t mention the fact for now, of course; it would have seemed too disrespectful somehow when Beryl had just learned of her husband’s death. She needed some time to come to terms with it first and Adina was prepared to wait for the right moment to point it out to her.

  The right moment actually presented itself far more quickly than she had thought it would when she accompanied the children to Sunday school the following Sunday afternoon. It was a blustery day as Adina led them into the church hall, where she saw Father Mick standing at the window staring vacantly out across the churchyard. He looked so sad that it tore at her heart as she approached him. Every week he would look up expectantly when she entered, hoping to see Beryl, and then he would try to mask his disappointment with a smile.

  ‘Oh, we’re the first here, are we?’ she said cheerfully as she ushered the children into their seats. ‘We must be a little early.’

  ‘What? Oh . . . yes, you are.’ Looking at her more closely, he then asked quietly, ‘How is Beryl?’ It was obvious he was missing her, so keeping her voice light Adina seized her opportunity.

  ‘Actually, she’s having a bit of a tough time of it at present,’ she said casually as she peeled her woollen mittens off.

  When he raised an eyebrow she went on, ‘Her solicitor informed her a few days ago that her husband in America had died in a car crash, so she’s a widow now.’

  He instantly looked concerned as he said, ‘How awful! How has she taken it?’

  ‘Well, as you know they were estranged and Beryl is no hypocrite, so I’d be a liar to say that she was heartbroken. But even so, Tyrone was the father of her child so she wouldn’t have wished for this to happen to him. She admits that she was swept away with the romance of dating a GI when she met him, along with hundreds of other young women during the war who are now seeking divorces. I was only reading in the newspaper recently that divorces reached a record-breaking peak last year. It’s very sad, isn’t it? But then she is still young enough to meet someone else. Beryl is such a warm-hearted person that I can’t see her being on her own for long unless she wishes to be, and now she can start again with a clean slate so to speak.’

  She watched with satisfaction as a million emotions swept across the young vicar’s face. Obviously he was feeling sorry for Beryl but she wondered if he had realised the full implications of what she had told him. Without spelling out what Tyrone’s death meant to him and Beryl, all she could do now was wait and see what happened.

  It was mid-April when there was a knock on the door one Tuesday evening and Adina hurried away to answer it. Beryl was listening to the radio in the drawing room and all the children were in bed. Adina had been about to go up for a bath after a long afternoon at the school. Her work there was coming to a close now and she knew that she would miss it, but she had done what she had started out to do and felt a measure of satisfaction. Some of the children she had worked with had been returned to their families, but the majority of them had been placed in orphanages or in foster homes. She was thinking of them now as she walked along the hallway, but when she opened the door to find Father Mick standing on the doorstep, all other thoughts were chased from her mind.

  ‘Good evening,’ he said.

  ‘Good evening,’ Adina looked at him questioningly. He looked so embarrassed that she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

  ‘I er . . . I was wondering if Beryl was in and if I might have a word with her?’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ As Adina held the door wide for him to step into the hallway she felt a little flutter of excitement. ‘She’s in there.’ She pointed towards the drawing-room door before saying apologetically. ‘You don’t mind showing yourself in, do you? I was just going to pop upstairs for a bath.’

  ‘No, of course not.’

  She watched him stride purposefully towards the drawing room as she headed for the stairs, and unconsciously crossed her fingers. Beryl was due for some good luck, Adina thought, and all she could do now was hope that Father Mick would be the beginning of it.

  An hour later she stood indecisively at the top of the stairs debating whether or not she should disturb her friend and her visitor or get an early night. She was now wrapped in her comfy old candlewick dressing-gown and feeling refreshed and relaxed after a nice long soak in the bath. She leaned over the banisters but all she could hear was the dull murmur of voices so she crept away to her room. No doubt Beryl would tell her all about the visit first thing in the morning, so for now she decided she would leave them to it although she was bursting with curiosity.

  The next morning, when Adina entered the kitchen she found Beryl humming happily as she stirred a large pan of porridge on the stove.

  ‘Ah, good morning,’ she chirped happily. ‘There’s fresh tea in the pot if you’d like to pour yourself one. You can pour one out for me too while you’re at it, if you wouldn’t mind.’

  Adina grinned as she lifted the tea cosy from the pot. ‘Somebody sounds happy this morning. It wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain young man’s visit last night, would it?’

  Beryl blushed becomingly as she added brown sugar to the porridge. ‘It was lovely to see Mick,’ she admitted. ‘He came to offer his condolences about Tyrone’s death. He said he didn’t like to come too soon in case it looked disrespectful, but he’s talked me into taking the children to Sunday school again.’

  ‘I’m very pleased to hear it. That means I’ll get Sunday afternoons off again,’ Adina said. She had the strangest feeling that her wedding dress might just be put to good use again before too much longer . . .

  Chapter Forty-Six

  August 1949

  ‘Aw, do I have to wear this?’ Christopher groaned as he yanked at his bow tie.

  ‘Yes, you do, young man. You want to look nice for Beryl’s wedding, don’t you?’ Adina stifled a grin as she patted his hair into place and held him at arm’s length for inspection. ‘Right, now I want you to promise me you’ll keep tidy while I go up and give the girls a hand with getting into their bridesmaids’ dresses. And then I have to help Beryl get dressed, so just behave, do you hear me?’ Although her voice was stern there was a twinkle in her eye as Christopher nodded miserably. He couldn’t see why there had to be all this fuss and palaver over a wedding anyway. Adina had promised to take him to a football match at Wembley Stadium next week, and to his mind that was much more worthy of excitement.

  Adina hurried away, and once she was happy that Cathy, Esther and Rebekah were ready, she went to help Beryl get into her wedding dress. It was the one that Ariel had once worn and now it would be worn again, which made Adina very happy. Beryl had left her wedding dress behind in Texas when she had fled from Tyrone’s tyranny, and anyway it would have been an ill omen for her to wear the same dress for her second marriage. Although Adina’s dress was made from the same parachute silk, it was of a completely different design, since Adina had originally made it for herself.

  Beryl twirled in front of the cheval mirror in her room, while Adina lifted a filmy veil from a large cardboard box. In actual fact, Beryl had been intent on wearing a plain two-piece costume. ‘After all, it is my second time,’ she had told her, but Adina was having none of it.

  ‘You’re still a bride, and you’ll look like a bride if I have anything to do with it,’ she’d insisted. ‘And it’s not as if I’m ever going to wear it now, is it?’

  Beryl’s eyes had filled with tears at
that remark. ‘Aw, don’t get sayin’ that,’ she’d protested. ‘You’ll find someone some day, and it will probably be when you’re least expecting it.’

  Adina shook her head solemnly. ‘No, I won’t get married now. What I felt for Karl was a once-in-a-lifetime love and if I can’t have him I won’t settle for second-best. Anyway, I’m quite happy with my little crew here, and now that I’ve finished working at the school I’ll have all the time in the world.’

  Now as Beryl sat at her dressing-table and Adina fastened her veil on, Beryl asked, ‘Are you quite sure that you’re going to manage here on your own?’

  They had had this conversation at least a dozen times before and Adina sighed. When Mick had proposed to Beryl, the latter had felt torn between her love for him and her loyalty to Adina and the children. After all, as she had pointed out, it had been her idea in the first place for them to foster the children, and now here she was considering clearing off and leaving Adina to it. Added to that was the fact that she too loved Rebekah, Esther and Christopher, and she knew that she would miss them. But as Adina had equally firmly pointed out, they had been just what she had needed at the time to give her life some purpose, and she didn’t regret a thing.

  Still, Beryl had dithered. ‘But I’m going to miss them so much,’ she had whispered with tears in her eyes. And so they had come to an arrangement. She and Mick would have the children for the whole day once per week whenever Adina needed a break. As for money, she earned enough by caring for the children and her sewing to be able to live quite comfortably now. In fact, she had even managed to replace some of the money that Mrs Montgomery had left her, and now it was safely put aside for a rainy day.

  ‘I won’t be on my own, will I?’ Adina answered Beryl now. ‘I’ve still got Beattie coming in to help and there’ll be two less to run around after, once you and Cathy have gone.’

  ‘You cheeky bugger,’ Beryl giggled and then clamped her hand over her mouth guiltily. ‘Oops, I can’t go sayin’ things like that now I’m about to be a vicar’s wife, can I?’

  ‘I don’t think Mick would mind what you said,’ Adina said wryly. ‘He loves you to bits and in his eyes you can do no wrong. I just hope he’ll make you happy, that’s all.’

  ‘Oh, he will,’ Beryl replied dreamily, and then becoming serious, she peeped at Adina in the mirror saying, ‘Life’s a funny thing ain’t it? Nothin’ ever seems to turn out as we imagined it would, but somehow I know I’m goin’ to be happy with Mick.’

  Adina’s throat clogged with tears, and at the sound of the doorbell ringing she raced towards the bedroom door, glad of a chance to escape. The florist was standing on the front step with an enormous box, and after thanking her Adina carried it carefully upstairs and into Beryl’s room.

  ‘I got you a little surprise, I hope you don’t mind.’ Lifting a garland of cream and red roses from the box, she fastened it onto the top of Beryl’s veil. ‘There, that just finishes it off nicely.’ She beamed with satisfaction as Beryl’s mouth dropped open, then hurried back to the box to fetch a matching bouquet.

  ‘Oh Dina, you shouldn’t have! You’ve gone to so much trouble already,’ Beryl choked.

  ‘It was my pleasure. And there are some smaller posies for the girls here too and a buttonhole for Christopher. We can’t have him feeling left out, can we? Now I must get downstairs and see if Beattie has everything under control. She’s been baking for days, bless her. I’ll see you at the church. Good luck, not that you’ll be needing it.’

  She skipped away before Beryl could say another word just as the car arrived that would take Adina, the bridesmaids and Beryl’s mother to the church. Mr and Mrs Tait had arrived the day before and were delighted that their daughter was about to marry a vicar. Mrs Tait had chipped in the night before and helped them rearrange all the furniture in readiness for the wedding breakfast that would take place there following the church service. Now as Adina descended the stairs she found them both in the hallway looking as smart as a new pin. Mrs Tait was sporting a new hat that exactly matched the peacock-blue two-piece costume she was wearing, and even Mr Tait was dressed in a smart navy-blue suit and tie today.

  ‘So come on then,’ he grinned. ‘When do I get to ’ave a peep at me lovely daughter?’

  ‘Just as soon as I get this lot out to the car.’ Smiling widely, Adina ushered the children and Mrs Tait outside, and soon they were heading for the church in their kindly neighbour’s car that had been lavishly trimmed with ribbons.

  ‘Ooh, everythin’ is just so lovely,’ Mrs Tait chuckled delightedly as she balanced her new handbag on her lap. ‘Can’t believe we’re doin’ this again. Second time lucky for our lass, eh?’

  Adina had made herself a smart New Look navy-blue costume with a long skirt and padded shoulders, teaming it with a little white hat and bag. The only extravagance had been the flowers – but then Adina believed they were worth every penny. After all, how could a bride not have flowers?

  The church bells were ringing when the car dropped them off at St Chad’s, Father Mick’s church. It was filled to capacity as many of his parishioners had turned out to wish the young vicar and his wife-to-be well. It seemed natural that he would want to be married in his own parish, although another vicar would be officiating at the ceremony. As soon as they all got out, the car headed back to fetch Beryl and her father, and as Adina clutched Cathy’s hand, she got her first glimpse of the bridegroom. Mick was standing just inside the church doorway with his brother, who was going to be his best man. He was looking very smart in a new black suit, sporting a carnation in his buttonhole, and he was positively glowing with happiness. A little pang of envy flamed through Adina as she briefly pictured Karl standing there, but she quickly stifled it. Beryl deserved to be happy and Adina had a feeling that after today, she would be.

  When the bride entered the church some minutes later, a hush fell over the congregation as she floated down the aisle on the arm of her father. But it was clear that Beryl had eyes for no one but the handsome man waiting for her at the altar, and from then on there might have been no one else present as they solemnly recited their vows. And then at last the vicar declared them to be man and wife and a great cheer went up as the bridegroom kissed his bride. After signing the register the beaming couple left the church in a hail of confetti and rose petals, before heading back to the house where Beattie had prepared them a buffet fit for a king. Adina had no idea where Beattie had managed to get everything from with food rationing still in operation, but when she asked her, Beattie just tapped the side of her nose and said, ‘Ask me no questions an’ I’ll tell you no lies.’

  There were homemade sausage rolls and Twiglets, which Christopher declared ‘disgusting’. There were also plates of sandwiches of several varieties, and Beattie had managed to get a whole ham from somewhere, although Adina didn’t touch that. It was strange, she thought, that she had somehow along the way forsaken her religion, yet she still couldn’t bring herself to eat anything to do with a pig. Beattie had also made a large number of cakes, jellies and blancmanges that the children polished off in minutes. She had even managed to rustle together the ingredients for a wedding cake, which she had iced and which took pride of place in the middle of the table.

  It was a wonderfully happy party but eventually the taxi arrived that would take the newlyweds away. They were catching the train to Eastbourne for a three-day honeymoon before moving into the small vicarage beside St Chad’s. Whilst they were gone Cathy would be returning to Nuneaton with her doting grandparents, where Beryl had no doubt she would be spoiled rotten.

  ‘Now you make her do as she’s told,’ Beryl told her mother as she planted a last kiss on the little girl’s soft hair. ‘She’s a right little tear-away if you don’t keep her in check.’

  ‘Oh, get off wi’ you. She’s a little angel,’ her mother laughingly objected and then they all waved until the taxi was out of sight, with the tin cans they had tied to the back bumper rattling along the road behind
it, before trooping back inside.

  ‘Right, I’d better go and get our bags packed now if we’re to catch the train back to Nuneaton.’ Mrs Tait dabbed at her eyes with a little lace handkerchief. ‘I just hope everything turns out well for our Beryl this time after what happened with that Tyrone.’

  ‘I don’t think you need have any worries on that score,’ Adina reassured her. ‘Beryl and Mick were made for each other.’

  ‘Well, they might have been, but I still can’t imagine our Beryl as a vicar’s wife.’ Mrs Tait tittered. ‘An’ when I think what a handful she were when she were younger an’ all.’

  ‘Yes, but she’s done a lot of growing up since then, so stop worrying. Here, give Cathy to me and I’ll keep her occupied while you pack your case.’

  Mr Tait, meanwhile, was headed for the drawing room. ‘I reckon I might help meself to another glass of ale while I wait for the missus,’ he said jovially. ‘No sense in seein’ it go to waste, is there?’

  Adina grinned as he hared off, only to be caught by Beattie, who was busily loading dirty pots onto an enormous tray, and asked to help.

  Once the Taits had departed with Cathy, Dina set to and helped Beattie with the clearing up whilst the girls and Christopher went upstairs to play in their rooms. It was gone seven o’clock that evening before the two women managed to get the house back to any semblance of order, and Beattie looked worn out.

  ‘Why don’t you go and sit down, and I’ll put the kettle on?’ Adina suggested. ‘I think you’ve overdone it this week, what with all the cooking you’ve done and all the excitement of today.’

  ‘Hm, trouble is I still think I’m twenty-one in me head,’ Beattie chuckled. ‘It’s just my old bones that remind me that I ain’t. Still, it was worth it to see Beryl lookin’ so happy, wasn’t it? I don’t reckon I’ve ever seen a happier bride. Now you go up and get the kids washed an’ changed into their nightclothes an’ I’ll make us both a nice cuppa an’ we’ll have some of that leftover cake. Come through to the kitchen when you’re ready, eh?’