Keep the Home Fires Burning

by Anne Bennett

  ‘How’s the kids?’ he asked, changing the subject.

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Tony behaving himself?’

  ‘Yeah, I suppose,’ Marion said. ‘He seems either a bit more responsible or better at not getting caught. He hasn’t been brought home by a policeman or the priest this long time, anyroad.’

  Bill grinned. ‘And Richard?’

  ‘Can’t wait to join up,’ Marion said. ‘He’s your son, Bill, and like you, once he has decided a thing then that is that. He knows what we are up against as well as anyone, and if those pleasure cruisers and the like could cross the Channel, so could Hitler’s invasion force, which people say are massed on the other side.’

  ‘I heard that the Germans have got to smash the RAF before an invasion takes place.’

  ‘Well, they’re having a good go at that,’ Marion said. ‘I watched a dogfight myself the other day. We all stood in the street and cheered the pilot on like mad and when the German plane turned for home, the Spitfire pursued him and, so we heard, shot him down over the allotments. Tony and Jack went to see but the wardens wouldn’t let them near and then the police came and shooed them away. I heard the German pilot was killed, and I suppose they didn’t want young boys seeing a sight like that.’

  ‘No,’ Bill agreed. ‘They will see death and destruction soon enough as it is.’

  ‘You think there will be bombing here?’

  ‘Almost certain to be. Birmingham makes so much for the war effort.’ He looked at Marion steadily and went on, ‘I think that we have got to brace ourselves for the worst. Thank God you’ve all got the cellar to shelter in.’

  ‘Yes …’ Marion said. And then because she didn’t want to talk about the threat of bombing any more she said, ‘Do you want to speak to Richard and Sarah?’

  ‘Are they here?’

  ‘Yes. They are desperate to see you but I left them in the visitors’ room because only two are allowed around the bed at a time.’

  ‘Then send them in,’ Bill said.

  Unlike Marion, Sarah and Richard wanted to know all about the rescue from the beaches of Dunkirk. Bill missed out the gory bits, but he did say that the Stukas and bombers were overhead all the time. The soldiers had hastily erected field guns and were trying to shoot them down, and the RAF planes were fighting the German ones, and the noise was incredible.

  ‘Were you manning the guns, Dad?’ Richard asked.

  ‘No, I was helping construct makeshift piers,’ Bill told his son, ‘using anything we could find littering the beaches so it was easier for the smaller boats to come alongside and not be stuck on the sand, see?’

  ‘That’s what it said in the papers,’ Richard said. ‘And it showed pictures of them boats taking the soldiers to the warships.’

  ‘Yeah they did,’ Bill said.

  ‘What did you come on?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘A fishing smack,’ Bill said, and added with a smile, ‘I stunk to high heaven. See, I was on the pier waiting and the Stukas came in from nowhere. I tried to hide but it wasn’t easy, and they got my leg and I fell in the water. This fishing smack was just setting off going back and he hauled me out of the drink and brought me along too.’

  ‘God, Dad, was it exciting?’ Richard asked.

  Bill looked at his face full of eagerness and zeal, and knew that if he was to be involved in that war, as he so longed to be, he had to be truthful with him. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, son, but it wasn’t exciting. It was bloody exhausting and terrifying most of the time, if you want the truth, like trying to make your way across a beach with bombs hurtling down and the wheeling Stukas trying to rip you to pieces with machine-gun fire.

  ‘It sounds awful, Dad,’ Sarah said.

  ‘All war is awful, pet,’ Bill said. ‘And yet however bad it is no one can run away from it.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Richard said. ‘And that’s exactly why I will enlist just as soon as I can.’

  Bill heard the fervour in his son’s voice and knew that Marion was right, his mind was made up.

  Marion and the older children visited Bill every Sunday afternoon, delighted with his progress although Marion’s joy was tempered with apprehension for she knew when Bill was pronounced fully fit he would be off again. In one way she hoped that he would never be fully fit, but despite the fact that he had had many painful operations to rebuild his leg, and had pins inserted in places, he continued to improve.

  Peggy’s brother had improved faster than Bill, though, and two weeks after Marion’s first visit to Bill, one shrapnel-free Sam Wagstaffe was released from hospital. He had five days’ convalescence before rejoining his battalion and, as planned, he came to the Whittakers’ for a couple of days to see his sister.

  He arrived by train on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with them and Peggy got permission to leave work a little earlier to meet him off the train at Aston station. She was so pleased to see him, and he looked so smart in his uniform, that tears seeped from her eyes and ran down her cheeks as she hugged him tight, feeling the rough khaki against her cheek. She tried to hide her distress from Sam lest he tease her about being soppy. However, he would never have done that, because he knew just how close he had come to death and that sort of experience can change a person’s outlook a great deal. His own eyes glistened with tears at seeing his sister again.

  Peggy had been writing to him fairly regularly so he felt he knew the Whittakers fairly well. She filled him in on Bill’s injuries as they walked arm in arm to the house. ‘He should have been in the same hospital as you, but there was no space,’ she said.

  ‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ Sam said. ‘The injury list must have been colossal, because when they ran out of ward space they had men lying on stretchers in corridors.’

  ‘It sounds horrendous.’

  ‘Well, let’s say it was nothing like a vicar’s tea party.’

  Peggy knew that was Sam’s way of saying he didn’t want to talk about it and so she said, ‘I can’t wait for you to meet all the family.’

  ‘And me,’ Sam said. ‘It will be nice to put faces to the names.’

  Peggy nodded. ‘They’re all lovely, particularly Marion, and her sister, Polly, is such a card …’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But what?’

  Sam shrugged. ‘I don’t know what, but there has to be some fly in the ointment because I heard it in your voice.’

  ‘Oh, that’s just Clara, the mother of Marion and Polly. I told you about her in the letters.’

  ‘You said she was a bit of a tartar.’

  ‘That’s putting it mildly,’ Peggy said. ‘I mean, she’s had a hard life, there’s no denying it, but she plays on it and is full of resentment and spite.’

  ‘Well, forewarned is forearmed, they say, so at least when I meet the old harridan I will know what to expect.’ Sam flashed Peggy the mischievous grin she was so familiar with. ‘Don’t worry, if I should meet this woman I will be the soul of tact and discretion.’

  Peggy laughed. ‘Sam Wagstaffe, you wouldn’t know tact and discretion if it leaped up and socked you between the eyes.’ She gave his arm a playful punch. ‘Anyroad, you’re here to rest and recuperate, not bandy angry words with the embittered old woman.’

  Fortunately Marion had no intention of giving her mother the opportunity to spoil the few precious days that Sam had with his sister and so she never told her about Sam’s visit, but Marion and the children were in the house when they arrived, all wanting to welcome Peggy’s brother.

  He was a very presentable young man, Marion thought, and she could see the resemblance between the siblings: he had the same dark hair, open face and wide mouth that Peggy had. However, he hadn’t got her slightly snub nose and his eyes were much darker brown, so dark they were almost black. He also had the longest lashes she had ever seen, which Marion considered wasted on a man. But she was more than pleased with his good manners as he thanked her for looking after his sister and Violet so well.

  He got on wel
l with the younger children too because he was used to his young brother and sister and their friends. ‘Shall I show you a few card tricks?’ he asked and was almost deafened by the response. He sat at one side of the table, the children opposite him, and Peggy, with a smile on her face, went into the kitchen to help Marion prepare the meal for them all.

  ‘Is Sam all right out there?’ Marion asked.

  ‘He’s fine,’ Peggy replied. ‘He likes kids and he’s good at card tricks. He really used to baffle Pete and Daisy.’

  A few moments later they heard Tony exclaim, ‘How did you do that?’ and Magda say, ‘How did you know that it was the ace of spades he took?’

  ‘Magic,’ Sam claimed.

  ‘Ah, Sam, tell us how you did it?’

  ‘Can’t do that,’ Sam said. ‘Trade secret. But I’ll do it again and you watch carefully.’

  They did, but were none the wiser. Nor did they know how he could make a card disappear and turn up in the box it had come out of. Nor did they understand why the top card of four random piles should turn out to be an ace. But the best trick of all was when he counted the cards and found one was missing and he withdrew the missing card from behind Tony’s ear. That flabbergasted them all.

  When Sam began to tidy away the cards, though, the children clamoured for more, but he shook his head. ‘No, your mother will probably be needing the table soon.’

  ‘So what shall we do now?’ Tony asked.

  ‘Well, let’s see,’ Sam said, stroking his chin. ‘How clever are you on solving riddles?’

  ‘I’m great at them,’ said Tony.

  The twins looked unsure. ‘Don’t think we’re that good really,’ Magda said.

  ‘Never mind,’ Sam assured her. ‘Give it a go anyway. Now what can go up the chimney down but not down the chimney up?’

  The children thought hard, especially Tony after his boast, but in the end they had to admit defeat.

  ‘An umbrella,’ Sam said.

  ‘Give us another one,’ Tony said. ‘Bet I get this.’

  ‘All right then. What gets wetter the more it dries?’

  Again the children were flummoxed.

  ‘A towel,’ Sam said in the end, and there was a groan of exasperation.

  ‘Just one more?’ Tony pleaded.

  Sam laughed. ‘Just one then. What month has twenty-eight days?’

  ‘That ain’t a real riddle, is it?’ Tony said. ‘And the answer is February of course.’

  ‘No it isn’t,’ Magda cried. ‘The answer is all of them. They all have twenty-eight days.’

  ‘Well done, Magda,’ Sam said. ‘All of them is the right answer.’

  Before any one could say anything further, Marion came out with knives and forks. ‘Hope the meal is all right for you, Sam,’ she said as she began to lay the table.

  ‘Oh, I’m an easy man to please,’ Sam said. ‘And I know rationing must make life very difficult.’

  ‘It is,’ Marion said. ‘Me and my sister, Polly, have started listening to The Kitchen Front on the wireless after the eight o’clock news in the morning because it suggests recipes to try out.’

  ‘So what are we trying out tonight?’

  ‘Poor Man’s Goose,’ Marion said with a smile. ‘Only it’s never been near a goose. It’s made with liver.’

  ‘With a name like that it’s got to be delicious.’

  ‘Not necessarily,’ Marion said. ‘But it’s all there is, so it’s that or nothing.’

  It was almost ready when Violet and Richard came in together. With Sam arriving that day, neither had elected to do overtime. ‘Sarah not with you?’ Marion asked as Richard, after shaking hands with Sam, went to have his wash.

  ‘No,’ Richard said. ‘Shouldn’t think she’ll be long, though there were still people in the shop when we passed.’

  Marion clicked her tongue in disapproval. ‘Sarah’s always complaining about that,’ she said to Sam. ‘She said the shop might be quiet as a tomb all afternoon and just before closing time droves of people come in. She said she could understand it if they were working, but not that many are. Some have all day to collect their groceries.’

  ‘That’s human nature for you,’ Sam said. ‘All told, we are an inconsiderate lot.’

  Marion gave a sigh. ‘You’re right there, Sam. Anyway,’ she said to Violet, ‘by the time you’ve had your wash Sarah will likely be in, and I hope she is because I’m starving.’

  And so when Sarah arrived home a little later, Violet and Richard were in the scullery, Peggy helping Marion dish up in the kitchen, and the children listening to the wireless. Sarah looked across the room to Sam Wagstaff and thought he was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life, and she was struck dumb.

  Sam noticed her awkwardness and though he was a little flattered because she was a pretty girl, she was very young, little more than a child, and he said, ‘You must be Sarah?’

  He extended his hand, and though Sarah took it she seemed incapable of speech. He went on, ‘I bet you’re hungry. I always was when I came home from work, but I think the meal is about ready.’

  He smiled at her and she felt sudden heat flood her face. When Marion came in with the plates she looked from one to the other and saw her young daughter just gazing at Sam Wagstaffe.

  Everyone was taking his or her place at the table as the meal was shared out and all were talking fifteen to the dozen. Sam entertained them royally, answering the children’s many questions without a hint of impatience, and Sarah listened to the timbre of his voice and watched his expressive eyes as he spoke.

  He was a natural storyteller and had a knack of making the commonplace seem interesting and amusing, so that even Tony would listen. Richard was really keen on learning as much as he could about the regular army, and Sam told him all about life at the barracks when he was in training, the endless parades and route marches, and inspection, when his bed had to be made with hospital corners, and everything – his boots, certainly, but even the buttons on his uniform and the buckle on his belt – had to shine like a new pin.

  ‘And God help you if they find your gun is dirty,’ he added. ‘You’re really for the high jump then. Fortunately I was warned about that and I always worked on my gun first, so I’ve never been hauled over the coals over the state of it.’

  ‘I’m pleased about that, at any rate,’ Marion said.

  ‘Do you enjoy the army?’ Richard asked.

  ‘Yes and no,’ Sam said. ‘They’re a great bunch of lads I’m with, and they’ve become almost closer than brothers because you know your life might depend on them – and vice versa, of course – but though I’m not that keen on being shot at, I know that I’m where I should be, so I suppose, yes, I do enjoy the life mostly. I couldn’t be a conscientious objector, for instance.’

  Tm glad you feel that way,’ Marion said. Tm grateful to all the men out there fighting for us. I think all of you are extremely brave.’

  ‘And I do,’ Sarah said, but her mouth was so dry that her voice came out in a croak.

  Magda looked at her across the table and said, ‘Are you getting a cold? My voice goes like that when I am getting a cold.’

  Sarah, embarrassed beyond measure, cleared her throat and said, ‘No, I’m not getting a cold.’

  ‘Well, why was your voice all funny then?’

  ‘It just was.’

  ‘Yeah, but …’

  ‘That’s enough, Magda,’ Marion said.

  ‘Yeah, but I was only saying—‘

  ‘No one wants to hear what you’re saying, Magda,’ Marion said. ‘What I want is for you to eat your dinner quickly. Polly is coming around later and I want to get everything cleared away before she gets here.’

  TWELVE

  The next morning Marion took the twins around to Polly’s. Polly’s three daughters descended on the two young girls and they went into the street to play, leaving Marion and Polly chance to talk. Marion was glad about this because she wanted her sister’s advice on a matt
er that was troubling her.

  Polly knew Marion had something on her mind and so she made a cup of tea and when it was before them both said, ‘Come then. What’s nagging you?’

  ‘You’ll probably think me silly …’ Marion said.

  Polly smiled. ‘Possibly. But we’ll never know until you tell me what you’re so agitated about.’

  ‘Last night,’ Marion said. ‘Did you notice the way our Sarah was looking at Peggy’s brother?’

  Polly gave a chuckle. ‘I noticed all right. It was clear as the nose on your face, and all I can say is the girl has good taste for the man is a charmer and as dishy as they come.’

  ‘She’s far too young for that sort of thing.’

  ‘Oh, you can’t put an age on matters of the heart,’ Polly said, and then, seeing the horrified look on her sister’s face: ‘I’m joking, Marion. Sarah is in the throes of her first great passion and there will probably be many more before she meets the one she’s going to marry.’

  ‘She makes it so obvious, though,’ Marion said. ‘I mean, you and I both noticed; what if Sam is aware of it too?’

  ‘That won’t be the end of the world,’ Polly said. ‘He knows how old Sarah is and he will take this for what it is, a childish infatuation.’

  ‘I hope you’re right.’

  ‘Course I am,’ Polly said confidently. ‘Anyway, what difference will it make? Sam Wagstaffe will be back in the army in a day or two.’

  ‘D’you think I should say anything to Peggy?’

  ‘Wouldn’t do any harm to mention it,’ Polly said. ‘But do stop worrying. We’re staring the threat of invasion in the face and that is far more important than your Sarah having a childish fancy for Peggy’s brother.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Marion agreed morosely. ‘The thought of this country under Nazi dominance makes me feel sick.’

  ‘Ah, but there is one thing about the British people,’ Polly said a little fiercely. ‘When their backs are to the wall, they don’t give up, but fight that little bit harder. I think we mustn’t forget that.’