Above the Bright Blue Sky

by Margaret Thornton

  ‘Can I see ’em?’ he asked. His eyes had more of an interested light in them than she had ever seen there.

  ‘I don’t know, Percy. I’m not sure. This is an awful lot to take in.’

  ‘Aye, I can see that… It were when me dad started thieving that I knew I’d had enough of ’im. I know I were a bad sort o’ lad; I did a lot of awful things, but I couldn’t go along wi’ that – thieving, I mean. Neither could Moira – you know, the woman he was living with. She was quite a good sort, was Moira; her and me got along quite well. I left before she did, though.’ He paused, but Lily could not think of any comment to make; she was dumbfounded by the turn of events. She let him go on talking, which was what he seemed to want to do.

  ‘Y’see, I’d got a girlfriend by then, a proper one, a real nice girl she is, an’ I started to see as how I weren’t doing meself any good, living wi’ Sid. An’ so I decided to volunteer for th’ army.’

  ‘So…you still have this girlfriend, do you?’ asked Lily. ‘A girl from Armley, is she?’

  ‘Aye, that’s reight. She worked at t’ mill with me; well, she still works there. I’d always been a bit scared o’ lasses. T’other lads I knew were always boasting, like, about the girls they took out…an’ all that. But I never… That’s why…’ He cast an apologetic glance in Maisie’s direction, but she was looking anywhere but at him. He hung his head. ‘Anyroad, I’m trying to forget all that. I’m ashamed of it acksherly, an’ I’m sorry. That’s why I’ve come, to say sorry.’

  ‘Well, that certainly takes some doing, to say you’re sorry,’ said Lily. She was feeling a certain – not warmth, not quite that yet – but sympathy for him. ‘It was brave of you to come, Percy. But how did you find us, exactly where we were, I mean? I suppose it would be common knowledge that we were in Middlebeck?’

  ‘Aye, I knew that. But this girl as I’m friendly with, her name’s Peggy Clough, an’ her sister was up here when t’ war started, but she went back.’

  Maisie spoke for the first time, quite involuntarily. She hadn’t intended speaking to him, but before she had realised it she said, ‘Esme Clough… Is it her sister that you’re going out with?’

  ‘Aye, that’s reight.’ Percy turned to Maisie. ‘She told me that you and yer mam and the kiddies were still up here. She knew that you were staying wi’ that rector chap an’ his wife. And then – would yer believe it? – when I joined up I was sent up here to Catterick. But it took me a while to pluck up courage to come and see yer. I asked around, like, an’ then I found out you’d just moved into t’ shop. So that were that.’ He shrugged and gave a weak sort of grin.

  ‘Esme and me weren’t friends,’ said Maisie, a little testily. ‘She caused a lot of trouble when she was up here, her and some other girls.’

  Percy nodded. ‘Aye, she can be a bit of a terror, that ’un. Peggy’s not much like her; she’s gentler, much nicer really…’

  ‘You must miss her then?’ said Lily, warming to the lad a shade more.

  ‘Aye, so I do…’

  ‘And…if you go back on leave to Armley, where do you stay?’

  ‘Oh, I’ve no fixed address now, not since me dad’s been inside. I knew about what he did to you, Lily, an’ I’m real sorry. Anyroad he’s banged up for a few years now, and serve him bloody well right! Er…sorry; I’m trying not to swear an’ all. Peggy doesn’t like it… Like I was saying, I’ve got no proper address. I’ll be able to stay at Peggy’s place, though. Her mam’s not a bad sort; I’ll make out somehow. I’ll probably be sent abroad soon, but we’re not allowed to say owt about that. Top secret, y’ know.’ He tapped at his nose importantly.

  Lily moved suddenly, making towards the door. ‘We’re keeping customers out,’ she said ‘and that’ll never do, not on a Saturday morning. If we shut ’em out they might never come back.’ She drew back the bolt and turned the notice to ‘Open’. ‘Now, Percy, you an’ me’ll go upstairs, then you can see your little sister and brother. Don’t be surprised, though, if they don’t know who you are. It’s been a long time; well, two years is like a lifetime to a small child…’

  ‘It’s all right, Maisie.’ She smiled at her daughter who was staring at her in amazement. ‘I know what I’m doing. You stay here and look after the shop for me. That’s what you like to do on a Saturday morning, isn’t it?’

  ‘Aye, it’s all right, Maisie,’ said Percy. ‘Honest, it is. I’m real glad to see you and yer mum again. But I know you’re not all that pleased to see me, an’ I know how you feel. But there’s a war on, i’n’t there, an’ we’ve got to try and make peace where we can.’

  ‘OK,’ said Maisie, briefly. She glanced at him, then quickly looked away again. ‘I’ll see to the shop, Mum…’

  They closed each day from one o’ clock until two, as was customary with most of the shops in the town. This gave Lily the chance to prepare a meal for the two children when they came home from school. Maisie’s school was further away so she had her dinner there each day. But on Saturdays they all dined together.

  Maisie was slightly miffed, but not altogether surprised, to find that Percy had been invited to stay and have dinner with them. The young man tucked into the meat and potato pie, which had been cooking slowly in the oven all morning, with great relish. She glanced at him surreptitiously from time to time from under her eyelids. His table manners seemed to have improved; she would say that for him. He no longer burped loudly nor wiped his sleeve across his mouth as he had used to do. No doubt he had been imitating his loutish father, and she thought she could understand that.

  She had been listening to what he had told her mum, downstairs in the shop. She had known that he had no mother, but she had believed that she had died. It must have been awful for him, she pondered, that his mother had deserted him and that he had never seen her since. And to be left with such a dreadful person as Sidney Bragg… Maybe there was some excuse, after all, for the way he had behaved in the past. All the same, Maisie felt that it might be a long, long time before she could speak to Percy in a normal sort of way, if ever.

  She did not say much during the meal. Most of the conversation that was taking place was between her mother and Percy. He was telling Lily that he was enjoying army life. He had made new friends and he thought that the scenery up in the northern dales was ‘reight grand’.

  Joanie and Jimmy stared at him and were unusually quiet. It was doubtful that they remembered him at all, although there was just the slightest glimmer of recognition in Joanie’s eyes. Towards the end of the meal she said, ‘I ’member now…. You lived with us in Armley, didn’t yer, a long time ago?’

  ‘Aye, that’s reight; so I did,’ laughed Percy. ‘And happen the next time I come this young feller’ll know me an’ all, won’t you, Jimmy lad?’ Jimmy looked up from his rice pudding to give a brief nod.

  Maisie glanced at her mother. So there was to be a next time, was there? Lily did not return her glance, but continued to look down at her pudding plate.

  Later on, however, as they sat drinking a cup of tea – which was the way that all true Yorkshire folk finished a meal – Lily asked him if he would like to come and visit them again… Sometime, she added, not making her invitation too enthusiastic.

  ‘Aye, I’ll let you know when I can come again,’ Percy replied, quite humbly. He clearly knew that he was fortunate to have received any sort of a welcome at all. He stood up and put on his greatcoat. ‘Ta very much, Lily, for t’ meal…an’ everything. I’d best be off now and let you open up t’ shop again. Tara then, you two.’ He waggled his fingers at Joanie and Jimmy. ‘Happen you’ll talk to me a bit more next time… Tara then, Maisie…look after yerself.’

  ‘Tara…’ she muttered, still unable to do more than glance at him.

  Her mother went downstairs with him to see him on his way. ‘I know how you feel,’ she said to Maisie when she returned. ‘It was a big shock to me as well as to you. But at least the lad has tried to make amends.’

  ‘I don’t se
e why you asked him to come again though,’ said Maisie. She knew she was being peevish and unforgiving, but it had been so nice lately; just her and her mum, and her little brother and sister.

  ‘He won’t come all that often, love,’ said Lily. ‘He just wanted to make his peace with us. There was no one who disliked Percy more than I did – there were times when I hated him – but I can see that he really has changed. We’ve got to try and give him the benefit of the doubt, Maisie love. Do you know what that means?’

  ‘Yes, I think so…’ replied Maisie.

  ‘There’s so much unhappiness in the world at the moment.’ Lily shook her head sorrowfully. ‘Young men are being killed fighting for their country, when they should really be looking forward to getting married and having a family; folk are being bombed out of their homes; and there’s still no sign of this flippin’ war coming to an end. So when we find that somebody wants to be friendly and say they’re sorry, well, we’ve got to try and believe them, haven’t we? At least Percy’s trying to do what’s right.’

  ‘OK, Mum…I’ll try to understand,’ said Maisie. ‘I remember Peggy Clough; she was a lot nicer than her sister. I can’t imagine her wanting to go out with Percy; but p’raps if he’s different now…Mum, can I go and see Audrey this afternoon? P’raps she could come for tea, if Aunty Patience says it’s all right…’

  As it happened, Lily and her little family saw Percy only once more before he was sent overseas. General Rommel, the Desert Fox, for almost a year, had been leading what seemed to be his invincible Afrika Corps in northern Africa. Percy, in December, became a member of the British Eighth Army, endeavouring to drive the Germans and Italians out of the Western Desert.

  At the end of 1941 the news was grim. On December the seventh, Japan bombed the American Naval base at Pearl Harbour; more than two thousand Americans were killed and almost every major unit of the US Pacific Fleet was sunk or maimed. On December the tenth the Japanese sent shock waves through Britain with the sinking of two great warships, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse. And on Christmas Day Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese.

  It seemed that there was little cause for celebration when the Fairchild family and Lily’s family met together for their Christmas dinner at the rectory.

  ‘We must drink to the future, though,’ said Luke, ‘whatever it holds for us.’ Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, had gone to spend Christmas in Washington with President Roosevelt, to cement the new alliance with the USA. ‘It might be somewhat late in coming…but we now have a powerful ally. And all we can do is hope and pray. This past year has brought its share of sadness, but so many blessings as well to our families…’

  The Fairchild family – Luke and Patience, Audrey and Timothy, with baby John asleep in his pram; and the Jackson family, Lily having decided that this was the name they would use from now on – Lily and Maisie, Joanie and Jimmy, knew that they had much for which they must be thankful.

  Luke raised his glass. ‘To the future,’ he said. ‘To victory, and to peace, please God… And to our families; God bless us all.’

  ‘To the future…God bless us,’ they all replied.

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  About the Author

  MARGARET THORNTON was born in Blackpool and has lived there all her life. She was a teacher for many years but retired early in order to concentrate on writing. She has had twenty novels published.

  By Margaret Thornton

  Above the Bright Blue Sky

  Down an English Lane

  A True Love of Mine

  Remember Me

  Until We Meet Again

  Time Goes By

  Copyright

  Allison & Busby Limited

  12 Fitzroy Mews

  London W1T 6DW

  www.allisonandbusby.com

  First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2005.

  This ebook edition first published in 2014.

  Copyright © 2005 by MARGARET THORNTON

  The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978–0–7490–1762–0