by Linda Sole
Her hand was trembling as she picked it up, her voice breathy. ‘Hello. Frances Danby …’
‘Are you all right, darling?’
‘Marcus!’ Relief flooded through her as she heard her husband’s voice. ‘I’ve been thinking of you all day, wondering what you were doing.’
‘That’s what I like to hear,’ Marcus said, deep-throated with emotion. ‘It’s good news, Fran. I’ve finally got my papers. I’ll be home sometime next week and this time it’s for good.’
‘That’s wonderful!’ Her voice broke on a sob of relief. He was coming home at last and the nightmare of the past few years would be over. ‘I’ve missed you so much, darling. It seems so long since you were home.’
‘It’s nearly two months,’ he agreed. ‘I know everyone thinks the war is over and we can all go home, but things have to be cleared up, Fran. We’ve got to get our men home as well as a lot more stuff that doesn’t get into the papers – but I’ve done my stint and it won’t be long now.’
‘I can’t wait …’ She turned her head as she sensed Sam behind her. He nodded his head and walked past, letting himself out of the front door. She almost sagged with relief. ‘No, it won’t be long.’ She cradled the phone to her ear. ‘I’m so glad, Marcus. So glad …’
She could hear a car engine starting and wheels spinning on gravel and knew her father-in-law was leaving. Perhaps he would curtail his visits once Marcus was home. He must know she wasn’t interested in him in that way. Surely he would leave her alone now!
‘Emily,’ Amelia said as she saw her come in, her arms laden with parcels. ‘Did you enjoy your shopping trip? You seem to have bought a lot.’
‘It is so nice to see things in the shops again,’ Emily said. ‘There were so many things we simply couldn’t get during the war, even if we had the coupons, but it is getting better at last. I found some lovely French perfume for my sister’s birthday – and I bought some Yardley Lavender water for you, Amelia. I know you like it.’
Emily smiled at Vane’s wife. She was dressed in jodhpurs and an old jacket, the elbows patched with leather. She never wore make-up and used the lavender water only on her handkerchiefs, but it was her favourite and helped her when she had one of her headaches, which came more often these days.
‘Thank you,’ Amelia said. ‘That was very thoughtful of you. A letter came for you this afternoon. It is on the hall table.’
‘Oh, thank you,’ Emily said. ‘It is probably from my brother Henry. I have been expecting him to write. I’ll read it after dinner.’ She smiled at Amelia. ‘How is Vane? I thought he looked a little tired this morning.’
‘He ought to rest more,’ Amelia said and frowned, ‘but he won’t listen to me. He might listen to you, Emily. You know he values your opinion.’
‘Oh, I doubt anyone could keep Vane in bed if he didn’t want to be there,’ Emily said. ‘Excuse me. I must just pop up and see Robert. Has he been a good boy?’
‘You know he is never any trouble,’ Amelia said. ‘Vane bought him a puppy home from the farm. He is insisting on having it in the nursery, though Nanny isn’t too happy – and I can’t blame her. He is too young for a dog, Emily.’
‘Oh no, surely not,’ Emily said and laughed. ‘It does children good to learn about looking after animals. Nanny must be firm. The puppy stays in the kitchen area until it is house-trained.’
She ignored Amelia’s look of annoyance and ran up the stairs, depositing her small pile of parcels on her bed before going along to the nursery. Robert was her darling, the light of her life, and she couldn’t wait to see him with his new puppy.
Connor was out late again that evening. Frances glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost nine o’clock. She hadn’t delayed supper for him, because he often didn’t come home until bedtime. He preferred to stop with his friend Peter at Alice’s house. He had declared his intention of living with Daniel and Alice when his brother came home. If she were honest, Frances would be relieved to see him go. She stood up, thinking that she would leave something on the kitchen table for Connor and go upstairs. She wouldn’t sleep yet, but her brother could let himself in.
As she went out into the hall the telephone rang. She picked it up hoping it might be Marcus again, though she knew that wasn’t likely. He wouldn’t ring twice on the same day.
‘Good evening, Frances Danby speaking.’
‘Frances,’ Emily’s voice came over the phone like a breath of fresh air. ‘Are you all right, love? You sound a little tired – or upset?’
‘Yes, I am a little. I was just thinking of going to bed,’ Frances said. ‘Connor hasn’t been home all evening. I don’t know where he gets to at night.’
‘You worry too much,’ her sister said. ‘Connor is nearly sixteen, Frances. He isn’t a child. Some of the soldiers who died out there weren’t much older than he is now.’
‘I suppose not,’ Frances admitted. ‘I forget that most of the time. He still seems a little kid to me.’ She sighed. ‘What have you been doing? Are you at the house?’
‘No, I’ve been trying to make sense of the accounts for the home. I was about to leave and then I thought I would give you a ring.’
‘I’m glad you did. We don’t talk to each other enough, Emily. With you living so far away and me stuck here. If I could drive I would come and see you, but it is such a drag on the train.’
‘You sound miserable – are you?’
‘No, not really. Marcus rang me earlier. He will be home sometime next week, and this time it is for good. He was finally given his release papers today. It’s over, Emily. It’s really over at last!’
‘That’s wonderful.’ Emily’s pleasure lit up her voice. ‘I mean, I know that the war was officially over some months ago, but it is taking ages for some of the men to be demobbed. Vane has been doing his best to help get things moving for some of the families around here. He has been stuck in meetings for weeks – but none of that matters. You must be so thrilled, Frances?’
‘Yes, I am,’ Frances said. ‘We’ve been married for nearly six years but it seems as though we’ve spent only a few weeks together.’
‘Yes, I know. I often wonder to myself where the past few years have gone. Before the war we were all at home and Father was alive. So much has happened to us all. I know it has been hard for you with your husband away in the RAF, Frances, but you have your son. How is little Charles by the way?’
‘Very well. Naughty but beautiful,’ Frances said, laughter in her voice. ‘How is the Vane heir?’
‘Robert is fine,’ Emily said. ‘Amelia and Vane are always fussing over him, which is good in one way because I have my work at the convalescent home. If he so much as whimpers Amelia has him out of his nursery and on her knee. I tell her she is spoiling him and so does Nanny, but she won’t listen. She says he needs a little fuss. I believe she thinks I am a bad mother.’
‘No, of course you’re not,’ Frances said at once. Emily had had a rough time one way and the other, losing both her husband and the man she loved to the war. ‘I expect you are busy a lot of the time …’ She hesitated, then: ‘Will you be closing the convalescent home now that the war is over?’
‘I shouldn’t think so. Not for the foreseeable future anyway. We are still having men referred to us. Some of them are so badly injured that they may never go home … in fact quite a few don’t have homes to go to anymore. Either they lost them and their families during the Blitz or … some people don’t want them back. Some don’t even get visitors. Their wives never come near because they can’t bear to look at their injuries.’
‘Oh, that’s awful …’ Frances felt close to tears at the thought of all those ruined lives. ‘You are so good with them, Emily, and you enjoy it – don’t you? Does it make up for … other things?’ Frances couldn’t bring herself to say the words. Emily had discovered that her husband had a male lover and that her marriage had been nothing but a sham. Simon had married to give his father the heir he wanted for the Vane est
ate, but after being badly burned in a plane crash, he had been on the verge of going to America with his lover for treatment when he had a sudden relapse and died.
‘Sometimes,’ Emily told her. ‘When I’m feeling a bit low I come down and talk to some of the men. I soon realize how lucky I am.’
‘Yes …’ Frances was quiet for a moment. ‘I think I must be one of the luckiest women alive. I feel so guilty when I think of all the wives who have lost their sweethearts and husbands, brothers and cousins. Marcus is coming home and I’ve got everything I ever wanted.’
‘You were always lucky,’ Emily said, ‘but you shouldn’t feel guilty about it, love. Lots of other men are coming back too. Has Alice heard when Daniel might be home?’
‘I saw her yesterday,’ Frances said, thinking that they were lucky as a family. Daniel was her only brother to go to war, and he would be home soon. ‘You knew that Daniel was with a batch of prisoners the Red Cross evacuated immediately the war was finished, of course. I think he is in some sort of halfway camp now, being rehabilitated. Alice is hoping that he might be home in a couple of weeks …’ Frances smiled as she thought of her sister-in-law’s happiness. Alice had clung to her belief that her husband was alive when all the signs were that Daniel had been killed, and in the end she’d been proved right. He had been captured while working with a resistance group in Greece and out of his mind after a severe blow to the back of his head for some while. But at last he had recovered and Alice had begun to receive his letters. Ever since then, she had walked around lit up like a beacon.
‘Well, at least that is something to look forward to,’ Emily said. ‘Alice was so certain he wasn’t dead when she got that official telegram – and she was proved right in the end.’
‘Yes, it was a relief to us all when that happened. Emily, I wanted to talk to you about …’ Frances broke off with a little sigh of annoyance. ‘There’s someone at the door. I had better answer it … I’ll talk to you again soon. Come down and see us when you can. It’s ages since you did.’
‘Yes, I’ll try. I had a letter from Henry today. He needs my help with the farm accounts – and he doesn’t sound at all well, Frances. You should go and see him if you get a chance.’
‘Yes, I will,’ Frances promised. ‘I must go now.’ She replaced the receiver and went to open the door, frowning at the thought of her eldest brother being ill. She hadn’t seen Henry for ages. They got on all right, but didn’t have much in common. ‘Oh, it’s you …’ Frances stared at her youngest brother in annoyance. ‘I was on the telephone. Why didn’t you let yourself in? I hope you haven’t lost the key I gave you?’
‘No, I forgot it this morning,’ Connor said. ‘Sorry I made you answer the door. I should have found a ladder and climbed in through the bedroom window.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Frances said. ‘Of course you shouldn’t. We would have the police round here thinking there were burglars.’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘I suppose you want some supper?’
‘No, thanks,’ Connor said. ‘I went over to Henry’s after school and Mary got me some supper. I’ve been helping to feed their pigs.’
‘Is that what I can smell?’ Frances wrinkled her nose. ‘You had better put those clothes out to be washed tomorrow – and wash yourself before you get into bed.’
‘Yeah, all right.’
Connor went past her and up the stairs. Frances suspected that he would ignore her. She had no control over him whatsoever and it worried her that he was getting into trouble. She was annoyed that he had interrupted her conversation with Emily. They didn’t talk often enough as it was. She thought about ringing back, but Emily would probably have gone up to the house by now and she might get Amelia Vane if she rang there. Frances didn’t like Lady Vane very much. She suspected her of trying to keep Emily from visiting her family, though Emily always denied it.
Yawning, Frances tried the various doors and windows, making sure that they were locked before she went upstairs. Marcus would be home soon and then she wouldn’t have to do these things; he would do them for her. It would be so nice to be looked after, to have someone to lean on. She had a feeling that her problems with Sam Danby were nearly over. Marcus would protect her once he was home.
The thought of Marcus’s homecoming warmed Frances as she went upstairs. Suddenly, she was excited, feeling like a bride again. She had loved Marcus all her life and being married to him was all she had ever wanted of life – but the war had spoiled things. She smiled and hugged her pleasure to herself because the war was over and so were the loneliness and the fear that had hung over her for months.
Emily walked up to the house, because it was a lovely still night. She hadn’t bothered to bring her car earlier and she didn’t mind walking alone at night, at least she didn’t mind being alone on Vane’s land. She felt safe here, protected from the dangers of the outside world.
During the early years of the war she had worked for the fire service in Liverpool. She had been caught out in raids several times, witnessing the utter destruction that the bombing had caused, and the grief. Terry had been a fireman too, and it was his devotion to duty that had caused his death. She smiled a little as she thought of her lover … the father of her child. If he hadn’t been killed doing his duty, she would probably have left this place long ago.
‘Emily … is that you?’
Vane’s voice broke into her thoughts, startling her, making her feel slightly guilty. There was always an element of guilt in her thoughts concerning Vane, because she had lied to him about Robert – at least she had allowed him to believe what he wanted to believe, that her son was also Simon’s and therefore his grandson.
‘Yes,’ she answered, thrusting the guilt to a far corner of her mind. ‘It was such a lovely night that I thought I would walk.’
‘Yes, the stars are wonderful tonight,’ Vane agreed. ‘I came out to smoke a cigar. You know Amelia hates them … and I wanted to be alone.’
‘It is good to be alone sometimes,’ Emily said. ‘Shall I go and leave you to your thoughts?’
‘No, let me walk back with you,’ Vane said. ‘I don’t want to be alone when I can have your company.’
Emily nodded. She knew that he preferred her company to Amelia’s, but she took no advantage of it. They all lived in harmony together most of the time – and that was best.
‘I think I shall visit my brother soon,’ she said. ‘Just for a few days.’
‘We shall miss you,’ Vane said. ‘But you must do as you want, Emily.’
‘Oh, I shan’t be away long,’ Emily said. ‘I told you I would stay while you needed me, and I shall …’
‘Good,’ he said, smiling as they walked the rest of the way in silence.
Two
‘Where are you off to, Connor?’ Frances asked a week later, as she saw him standing in the bus queue for Ely, a small, nearby market town. His friend Peter Robinson was with him, and he gave her a nervous look as she stopped. ‘Shouldn’t you be at school?’
‘We’ve got a day off,’ Connor told his eldest sister. ‘We’re going to have fish and chips at the shop on the market place, and then go to the Thursday matinee at the pictures. It’s a western.’
‘Have you got enough money?’ Frances asked. She frowned as the bus arrived and he hopped on without answering her. She often worried about him these days. He had become very moody during the time that Daniel was believed dead, and she knew he hated living with her. He spent as much time as he could with Henry or at Alice’s house. ‘Don’t get into any trouble …’ she called after him, though she knew he wouldn’t hear and he wouldn’t listen if he did.
Frances wheeled her bike through the High Street to the shop she favoured with her weekly order. There were two grocery shops in the village and both thriving, because despite the regular bus service into Ely it was easier to have the goods delivered from a local shop: especially if you had children. It would have been different if she had learned to drive, as Emily had at the start
of the war, but somehow she had never bothered. Marcus or her late father had always been there before the war, and then, after she’d married, she’d been busy with other things.
She had left Charlie with Muriel that morning. He was a noisy, happy child and he would be fine playing in the garden with the puppy he loved so much. Perhaps Sam Danby had been right about that, she thought and then frowned, because she didn’t want to think about her father-in-law. She gave a little shudder and then dismissed him from her mind.
Entering the small shop, which smelled strongly of carbolic soap, vegetables and tar from the wood kindling piled in the corner, Frances found that Alice was already there ordering her goods. She turned as she heard Frances speak her name, a smile on her lips.
‘Frances, how lovely to see you. I was going to come and visit you after I’d done my shopping. I’ve had a letter from Daniel. He will be home sometime next week.’
‘That’s good news,’ Frances said. ‘I told you that Marcus would be back this week, didn’t I?’ Alice nodded, smiling happily. She was a pretty girl with soft hair and a gentle smile, though a little plumper than she had been before the birth of her son. ‘We must have a little party, a get together for all the family. I telephoned Emily yesterday and she has sort of promised to come down for a visit but I am sure she will if you tell her that Daniel is coming home. He was always her favourite.’
‘Yes, I know. Dan is very fond of her too,’ Alice said. She looked down at her son, who was by her side and pulling at her skirt for attention. ‘Yes, darling. You shall have a sweetie if mummy can get some.’ She laughed as she saw Frances frown. ‘I expect you think I spoil him, but he looks so much like Dan sometimes that I can’t help it.’
‘I don’t let Charlie have sweets often,’ Frances said. ‘I don’t think they are good for him.’