by Katie King
On a piece of lined paper they’d scavenged from Roger’s office and later tacked to the inside of the door to the cupboard where they kept their shoes and clothes, they listed then what Aiden called the ‘debits’ and ‘credits’ of the situation. Jessie couldn’t help but smirk at Aiden sounding so grown up, but Tommy and Larry both had to be talked through what Aiden meant, and Jessie had to be most careful to explain the debits and credits in such a way that neither boy was left feeling stupid.
The debits were easy.
Jessie ticked each debit off on a finger as he said, ‘There are more Hull lads than TT Muskets; they’re bigger; they look used to a scrap; an’ they look as if their fathers know how to make their fists do the talking…’ Jessie shut up abruptly when he caught a look of Larry’s perturbed face and he realised he’d strayed onto territory that Larry was all too familiar with.
Aiden raced to Jessie’s aid. ‘They look as if they’re used to doin’ things together – I bet this sort of silly act was first begun back in ’ull before they were even evacuees.’
‘Pa and Ma, and Peggy too’ll larrup us to Leeds an’ back if they catch us squarin’ up,’ Tommy said reflectively, and Jessie ticked this off as a debit too.
‘An’ we’ll be sitting targets on the paper-collection days,’ said Larry, ‘specially as we’ve told everyone where we’ll be.’
‘Yikes, that’s true,’ admitted Aiden. ‘We’d best talk of our credits to cheer ourselves up.’
The credits took more thinking about, but eventually they managed to come up with some:
Jessie: The TT Muskets had the advantage of living together, which meant:
1.Ease of careful strategising and planning (and if necessary re-planning things, should the situation suddenly change), and
2.There was little danger of one TT Musket being caught on his own without the others. In theory there would at least be a little safety in numbers.
Larry: While every one of the TT Muskets was smaller than their Hull adversaries, being small might have advantages such as nippiness, as they could be in and out of an attack very quickly, and they’d be good at hiding, i.e. doing a stake-out, as they could squeeze into tiny and unobtrusive places to watch what was going on unseen.
Jessie: Tommy and Aiden had been born in Harrogate and therefore would know the lie of the land better – the Hull boys didn’t seem to have anyone from Harrogate in their gang that they had made friends with.
Tommy: The TT Muskets had Milburn, and a pony had to count for something.
Larry: They could practise their own routine of moves.
Tommy summed it up by pointing out that none of the Hull lads would be as clever as either Jessie or Aiden. ‘Beef usually beats brains, but the ’Ull lot don’t know yous. But yers goin’ ter need a gud plan…’
Jessie looked around at his pals. It needed to be a very good plan indeed, he concluded.
A week or more later, after the boys had been trying to come up (not very successfully, it had to be said) with their own routine for when they next saw the Hull boys), there was an argument over whether it was time that they should include the girls as honorary members of the TT Muskets – Tommy claimed girls were better at country dancing and maypoles, and so were used to this sort of thing – but all the boys were surprised when the motion was carried unanimously that they stay boys-only for now.
Rather to everyone’s surprise, Jessie had probably swung it in the boys’ favour by pointing out that, although Connie was incredibly suspicious about what they were up to and undoubtedly would be most cross not to have been included, it was an unavoidable fact that Angela wasn’t going to be able to join in, given her wheelchair, and so it was only fair that Connie be allowed to spend time with her and not feel guilty that she wasn’t with the boys.
Jessie was pretty sure that Connie might not see it like that at all, as she always baulked at the notion of ‘boys’ things’ and ‘girls’ things’, and he was in no doubt that her nose would be severely out of joint when she discovered what was going on, even though she was very fond of spending time with Angela. But he didn’t want to go into all this with the others as it might make Connie lose face with them, although privately he thought her a little too hot-headed to be relied on in any tense or dangerous situation that they might be going to face. And while he didn’t want to embarrass his sister by suggesting this, Jessie could see it being disastrous if Connie said something silly in a moment of temper and the TT Muskets had to look after her and concentrate their efforts that way, rather than putting everything they had into taking on the Hull lot. And, Jessie knew, neither Ted nor Barbara would approve of him being in a gang, added to which they really wouldn’t like it if Connie were also a member, as both of them believed in ‘boys’ things’ and ‘girl’s’ things, and girls in gangs wasn’t one of them.
Contenting himself to exhaling through vibrating lips, as Jessie said ‘No girls’, he tried not to think too much about Connie’s wrath that would surely be directed at him at some point, as it probably wasn’t going to be a pleasant few minutes.
Tommy nodded approval as he didn’t like to think of Angela being exposed to danger, and Larry seemed to think no girls was a good idea too. While not obviously quite agreeing or disagreeing, Aiden (who was probably weighing up mostly the pros and cons of getting on the wrong side of Connie) had just opened his mouth to say something when Gracie tapped at their bedroom door to say that they were wanted by Mabel.
They raced downstairs with Larry shouting ‘motion carried’ and Aiden replying only a little grudgingly ‘oh, all right then’, and when they went into the kitchen Mabel was making pastry at the table and she gave a nod of her head towards Milburn’s stable across the yard.
There, a surprise was waiting.
James was showing Connie how to tack Milburn up with a proper riding bridle, complete with a shiny bit and plaited webbing reins of the right length for riding, and a pony saddle. Both bridle and saddle looked as if they had seen better days, and the saddle, rather than being a leather saddle with sprung tree, was instead a rather moth-eaten thick felt pad with a leather bit sewn to the front on to which the stirrup leathers were attached, as well as the straps which the webbing girth buckled to. The stirrups were rusty in parts, and the saddle was thickly embedded with grey hairs from the back of the previous owner, but to all the children both it and the bridle seemed like manna from heaven, and they all shared a moment of grinning at each other.
‘Hello, lads,’ said James. ‘I couldn’t bear the wait for one of you to come to me with a broken arm or worse through riding bareback, and so I asked my patients if they had anything at home that would do for you to ride Milburn a bit more safely, and when Private Smith’s parents came to see me, this is what they brought with them. You’ll be pleased to know Connie is stealing a march on you with the tacking up, and so she’ll be able to teach you how to do it.’
The last sentence had a deliberate tinge of irony to it, but seeing how Connie had just been voted off the TT Muskets membership roll, tactfully the boys let her get away with thinking they were happy that she really could instruct them.
‘I’ve only just been able to do up the bit that keeps the saddle on, the girth I think it’s called,’ said Connie, who, aside from looking a bit quizzical at her pals for their lack of ribbing her, was a bit hot in the cheeks as she had been engaged in a manful tussle with the size of Milburn’s tummy and quite a short girth. ‘They puff themselves up when you are trying to tighten it, and she’s a bit too fat, James says, well, a lot too fat actually. We need to cut her food back a little, and remember to check the saddle is on properly before we ride as Milburn will have let her breath out by then which might make the saddle slip around. If it’s tight but we can just get three fingers under the girth, then it is done up properly. And we need to put the front of the saddle about a hand’s width behind where her mane ends.’
‘Well remembered, Connie, very good,’ said James, ‘now, who’s for t
he first ride?’
Tommy went first and they headed to a patch of rough ground up the road and James, who had done quite a lot of riding as a child, called out instructions. The saddle and bridle made it much easier, and when it was his turn Jessie was able in just a few minutes to master rising and falling to the trot, and even had a short canter, while everyone else showed an immediate improvement from their bareback riding.
Milburn was very stoic about the children all taking it in turns, and although now and again she would dip her nose to the ground to grab a sly mouthful of grass, she stood there patiently while James taught each of them how to mount properly with a foot in the stirrup, and then to adjust the stirrup leathers either longer or shorter.
After they had all ridden and Connie had moaned about not having any shorts to ride in, not that anyone paid her much attention which put rather a grumpy look on her face, James turned to Angela and asked if she wanted a go.
‘Can I? Oh might I? Oh please!’ she said, clearly excited. James lifted her straight from the wheelchair onto Milburn and then he led her about. Milburn seemed to understand that she had a very precious cargo on board, and so she walked very smoothly and obediently.
‘You’ve learnt what people say to Milburn when they are driving her, Angela, and so you could try that as you don’t have enough movement in your legs to use them to control her. We’ll make you a neck strap to hold on to, but I think that as long as you stay in walk you’ll both do very well,’ said James, as he quietly let go of the bridle and stood back so that Angela was riding the pony under her own steam with the biggest grin on her face imaginable, the other children raising their hands in a silent air-punch of celebration.
Back at Tall Trees Milburn was given some carrot tops as a reward, and then James skulked around in the kitchen talking to Roger until Peggy came downstairs from having put Holly down for the night. Roger had had to hang about talking to James even though he’d really been itching to go into the parlour to put his feet up for a while as he listened to the wireless, but he was too polite to say so (plus Mabel had given him The Look which he translated as meaning that he was to keep the doctor talking), so the minute Peggy walked into the kitchen Roger made his escape.
It was Peggy’s turn for concocting something that could be popped into the oven at lunchtime tomorrow and so she and James chatted about this and that as she parboiled potatoes and then sliced them into a huge greased baking tray, adding some fried pieces of crumbled sausage and an onion, and then she covered it with two damp tea towels and placed it on a marble slab in the cool walk-in larder, telling James that in the morning she’d add milk and some breadcrumbs as a crust that she would dot with margarine, and then it could be baked.
Peggy started on the washing-up, and James got up from where he was sitting and picked up a tea towel so that he could dry the pans and cutlery that Peggy had just washed and placed on the wooden drying rack. Then she put everything tidily away, the kitchen at Tall Trees now having much more organised cupboards and drawers than when Peggy had first arrived in Harrogate.
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ she asked. ‘I’ll make some for everybody.’
Everybody else seemed to be gathered in the parlour now, ready to listen to the BBC news, but Peggy discovered that she’d rather sit in the kitchen chatting with James as they drank their tea.
At one point Connie popped into the kitchen to give the doctor a thank-you letter she had just made to say how pleased they all were, now that they had the saddle and bridle for Milburn.
‘It’s my pleasure,’ said James, and then he patiently answered Connie’s questions about the technicalities of Private Smith’s artificial legs and the operation that had removed his injured ones. Connie nodded seriously when he had finished and went to find the other children.
James shook his head and smiled at Connie’s retreating back and at her rather good likeness of Milburn in her new saddle and bridle that adorned the top of the page, but then Peggy saw his brow wrinkle when he began to read the thank-you note and was confronted with the poor state of Connie’s writing and her terrible spelling, all of which was squished towards one corner of the small piece of paper.
‘We just can’t understand it,’ said Peggy. ‘She’s as bright as a button, yet the schoolwork lags far behind, I’m afraid. It’s quite another story with Jessie, but then it always has been as he’s found schoolwork much easier – for him it’s like a duck taking to water.’
‘I wonder whether Connie needs to find something where her attention is really captured,’ said James. ‘Private Smith was very impressed at her interest in what happened to him when he was taken to hospital and the intelligent questions she asked, and she was as quick as anything learning how to put the saddle on Milburn. Those things she asked just now, well, in fact I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that I’ve worked with doctors in training who haven’t asked such intelligent questions.’
‘Yes, she was the same when I was in hospital,’ said Peggy, ‘and once Holly and I were well enough to come home – all thanks to you, James – she then grilled me lots about feeding the baby and nappy-changing. And she’s been very useful helping me with Holly as you only have to explain something to her once and she’s got it, and she’s been the best of all of them in the practical sense when helping Mabel with Angela. To be honest, I think Connie has really encouraged Angela to come out of herself as she just doesn’t seem to see that the wheelchair may give Angela problems in any way.’
‘Perhaps a career in nursing beckons for Connie – if this war drags on, I think we’ll be taking them younger and younger. That reminds me, Peggy – I put Angela up on the pony earlier, and I think if she takes to riding and Milburn seems safe, then that might give Angela a sense of proper independence and will mean that she can go out and about a bit more,’ said James. ‘I don’t know what you think about this idea, but on the days the girls are riding it might be a good idea to let Connie and Angela wear old pairs of the boys’ shorts, as that’s going to be a bit more dignified than them riding in their dresses.’
Peggy smiled at him and then shocked herself by saying completely out of the blue, ‘Well, what a good idea, James, about Angela riding Milburn, I mean, although the shorts idea is probably sensible too. I’m sure being able to ride the pony under her own steam will mean the world to Angela, as long as you are sure that Milburn seems safe, or at least as safe as ponies ever are. And if we were in a public house right now, I would treat you to a drink for being so thoughtful about sorting out the saddle and bridle for the pony. In fact I probably should treat you to a drink or two sometime anyway as you’ve done such a lot for us evacuees.’
Up until that moment the conversation had flowed pleasantly and very naturally between Peggy and James, with their awkwardness of the afternoon at the first-aid demonstration forgotten. But Peggy had unintentionally overstepped and blundered across an invisible line of propriety – bang! – and suddenly they were back to where they had been that day, with them each feeling embarrassed and unable to think of anything to say.
And once her words had sunk in, both James and Peggy went a little hot and bothered at the boldness of what she had actually said.
Peggy couldn’t think what had come over her as she always liked to think she thought first and spoke after. She supposed the reason for her unlikely impetuousness was that she was still all over the place following Bill’s bombshell about Maureen and the hideous shock visit from the dratted woman. And now within only a matter of weeks following Bill’s confession to his lack of fidelity on the telephone, when Peggy had screamed about his inability to remain true, here she was almost flirting with the doctor. Oh bother, maybe she spoke first and thought second, after all, Peggy had to acknowledge.
James wasn’t any better either, his uncomfortable expression seemed to flag, as simultaneously he and Peggy remembered that she had been his patient, and weren’t there rules about that sort of thing? Neither seemed quite sure of the exact technica
lities of this, but still it all felt very tricky.
After a pause that was too long to feel anything other than clumsy and uncomfortable, James jumped up and announced as firmly as he could, given that his voice had a nervous tremble, that it was high time for him to go as he needed to get back to the hospital to make sure that the evening rounds were going off without any drama.
Although Peggy said hastily, ‘Of course, yes you must, we’ve been monopolising far too much of your time here when you’ve been so kind to the children,’ nevertheless her tummy did a little lurch of disappointment as he picked up his hat and strode swiftly towards the back door.
James opened it and then turned to her with an expression that could now only be described as self-consciousness giving way to something verging on the coy. ‘I might just hold you to that promise, Peggy,’ he said with a sudden twinkle in his eye and an uncharacteristically raised eyebrow.
Had they both taken leave of their senses, Peggy wondered, but she didn’t need to think of a retort because James hurried off before he could see Peggy’s deep blush of confusion and her hand reach to her chest to fiddle with the front of her pretty cotton blouse that had been made from the leftover material that Barbara had brought to Harrogate for Connie’s dress, and which Peggy had changed into after putting Holly in her crib when she realised the young doctor was still somewhere downstairs after being out with the children and the pony.
Chapter Eighteen
Roger and Ted had been in touch once more over the letter that Ted had been sent by Jessie. Roger had thought for a while after Ted had read it out and then he said that many people would be feeling anxious as regards their personal safety these days, as he had noticed a creeping anxiety growing in the minds of some of his parishioners. He added that it was hard not to when the papers talked constantly these days of unpleasant things happening to ordinary people in Europe and further afield, with the implication that Jerry might invade, or hidden away at the bottom of the middle pages of the newspapers in an attempt to keep public morale as high as possible, that some hooligans were taking advantage of the blackout.