by Anne Baker
‘Soon,’ he added. ‘We’ve already waited for over a decade.’
‘As soon as possible,’ she agreed. ‘We can’t have a big wedding and a lot of fuss and I had that the first time round anyway, I don’t need it.’
‘What about next month then?’
Leonie stretched up to return his kiss and knew he loved her as much as she loved him. Their daughter had brought them together again.
That Saturday June had her off-duty in the morning, which was when most of the other girls that were off went shopping. She’d had such a busy time the day before that she went back to the nurses’ home and curled up on the sofa to read, but it was quiet and she dozed off and slept until nearly midday.
At lunch, there was much talk about the terrible bomb damage in the town. June, still full of agony, told them her home had been so badly damaged it was no longer possible to live in it. As she worked on the ward she worried about how her mother was getting on sorting out the flat. It had been a chaotic mess when she’d last seen it and they’d all been exhausted.
The evening were lighter now and when she came off duty at eight o’clock, she decided to collect her suitcase of personal belongings. In her haste yesterday she’d pushed it inside one of the garden sheds, but she was afraid to leave it there for long because there were so many rumours about looting. After that, she’d call in and see Mum and perhaps give her a hand with straightening things out.
The dusk was thickening when she reached the garden gate and as soon as it closed behind her she could see the glimmer of a shaded flashlight. She stopped in her tracks, her heart pounding; her first thought was that she’d caught looters red handed. Then she heard a cackle and the door to the henhouse close. Full of relief she called, ‘Milo, is that you?’
‘Hello, yes, I’m just shutting the chicks in for the night. You missed all the excitement yesterday.’
He was bursting to tell her the news about Amy coming home from Wales, and how worried they’d all been about her.
‘Amy’s here then?’
‘I’m not sure.’ He told her how kind Elaine and Tom had been and how their friend, Nicholas Bailey, had come from Chester and had found Amy bedded down in the clubhouse he’d made from the old summer house. ‘Mum wanted her to go back and Nick was planning to take her. I thought I’d look in on Mum now.’
‘So did I,’ June said.
‘Let’s get a move on then. If we get another raid, I’ll have to rush off to fire-watch again.’
June had to ring the shop doorbell twice before she heard footsteps coming. Mum ushered them inside quickly. Once upstairs in the light, June could see that her mother’s cheeks were pink and she looked radiant. ‘Is Amy still here?’ June asked.
‘No, Nick took her back to Wales. He’s here. Come and say hello. This is Nicholas Bailey, I don’t think you know him, do you June?’
‘We have met,’ he said, coming towards her with his hand outstretched. ‘But you won’t remember me, it was a long time ago.’
‘I’ve heard Elaine mention your name,’ she told him, and was surprised when, as well as clasping her hand, he bent to kiss her cheek.
He grinned broadly at her. ‘Your mother has told me a great deal about you.’
June sensed his joyful mood and felt an air of pleasure and happiness sparking in the atmosphere, but it was Milo who asked, ‘Has something happened?’
‘Yes,’ her mother laughed. ‘I’m going to tell them, Nick. I want us to have everything out in the open from now on. Nick and I are going to be married.’
‘What?’ June couldn’t believe it.
‘And it’s going to be quite soon.’
‘A bit sudden, isn’t it Mum?’ Milo asked, looking from Nick to his mother.’
She sat down on the sofa and pulled June down on one side of her and Milo on the other. Clasping their hands, she said, ‘It isn’t at all sudden. Quite the opposite in fact. Nick is Amy’s father.’
It took June some time to digest this information. Her mother had had a love affair that she’d kept secret while she and Milo had been growing up. She understood then why Mum had been so ready to help her and Ralph. It all made perfect sense.
‘I’m so happy for you,’ she breathed. ‘I wish both of you all the very best in the world. You deserve it.’
When Amy returned to Coed Cae Bach she found Auntie Bessie gently reproachful. Nick had reminded her to apologise for the trouble she’d caused her and Uncle Jack. She felt ashamed now of taking off as she had. She did that as soon as Nick left but she was unable to hold back her tears and Bessie ended up trying to comfort her.
On Sunday she did the homework she should have done on Thursday night, but she knew she’d have been given a good deal more to do over the weekend if she’d been at school. She was afraid Mrs Roberts would be cross with her and Mum really wanted her to do well in the exam.
As she’d missed school on Friday, Bessie said, ‘I’ll write a note for you to take to Mrs Roberts tomorrow.’
‘Could you say you kept me home because I had a cold?’ Amy asked. She didn’t want her to know she’d run home.
‘No,’ Uncle Jack said. ‘She’ll already know what happened and why. News travels fast in the country. Don’t you worry about it. Come on out now and help me with the afternoon milking.’
On Monday, Amy was surprised to find Mrs Roberts quite sympathetic. She received more homework but not as much as usual. ‘You’ve worked very hard, Amy, and I think you’ll do well. Perhaps you should do a little less homework this week. We don’t want you to be overtired on Thursday.’
Amy was to sit the examination in the grammar school in town and she wasn’t looking forward to it. ‘You must be there in plenty of time,’ Mrs Roberts told her. ‘The exam starts at ten o’clock and you must be there at least fifteen minutes before that. Do you have a watch?’
‘Yes.’ Amy rolled up the cuff of her jersey to show her. ‘My mum gave it to me for Christmas.’
‘Good. Can you find your way to the grammar school?’
‘Yes, I met Glenys in town one Saturday. She was coming out from her piano lesson and I asked her to show me where it was. We walked down to see it. It’s a bit out of town.’
‘Yes, it is. You can take the school taxi back into town after it has dropped the children off here and you may be able to catch it to come back in the afternoon if you hurry to the garage as soon as the afternoon exam finishes. Shall I have a word with the driver?’
‘I’d rather go on my bike,’ Amy said. ‘They’ve got bike sheds there, I saw them.’
‘Of course, if you prefer. You’ve got a lock for your bike?’
‘Yes, thank you.’
‘It could be needed. Take your usual sandwich and bottle of milk with you for your lunch. You will sit a maths paper in the morning and English and Welsh in the afternoon, with an hour and a half break between them.’
On Wednesday, Mrs Roberts marked her homework and wished her well in the exam. ‘Do your best and I’m sure you’ll be fine. You’re well up to the required standard.’
The thought of the exam hung heavily over her. But the next morning, Amy found once she settled down and looked at the questions that they weren’t too bad. It was just like doing the homework that Mrs Roberts had been setting her for the last eight weeks.
Despite all the wartime difficulties, Leonie felt life had suddenly taken a turn for the better. She couldn’t forget Steve, she never would, she’d shared too much of her life with him, and the fact that he’d died a hero made her put the bad times to the back of her mind. It was getting back with Nick that was making all the difference.
That first weekend they spent together they didn’t go out and they didn’t speak to anybody else. They had so much to catch up with but Nick had to return to Chester on Sunday night. Elaine came to work on Monday morning and swept her into a big bear hug. She’d already heard the news from Nick.
‘Congratulations,’ she said. ‘At last you’ve both seen sense.
You’ll be good for each other. I know you will.’
‘It’ll mean big changes.’ Leonie had been giving them some thought.
‘Of course it will,’ Elaine enthused. ‘Marriage usually does, but think of what you had to do to move your home to the flat upstairs. You achieved that in no time at all, didn’t you?’
‘That job isn’t finished, the hens are still down there. I’ve walked down this morning to feed them and let them into their outside pen. Milo’s going to ask his friends to help him bring them up.’
‘Oh gosh, what a job. Are you going to put them in the yard here?’
‘Where else? We’ve got to make looking after them more convenient than it is now.’
Leonie looked out of the window at the courtyard effect they’d made in the backyard. It was a quite a pleasant place to sit out on fine days and it had improved the view from the back windows.
‘We’ll have to find a henhouse from somewhere first. We can’t move their present shed, it’s built on to the side of the house. I’m afraid it’ll spoil the courtyard.’
‘Oh dear,’ Elaine was frowning. The window of her office looked over the back of the premises. ‘I was wondering whether they’d be better in our garden, but with the Anderson shelter and Tom’s attempt at digging for victory, there isn’t much space left. He’s put most of it down to growing vegetables.’
‘I’ll ask Nick what sort of a garden he has and whether he’d be willing to have them.’
‘He has a big garden with apple trees. He’s growing vegetables too, but I reckon he has space for a henhouse at the bottom end.’
‘I’ll ask if he’s willing.’
‘Where are you going to live, Leonie? I mean, if you’re going to marry him, you’ll be going there, won’t you?’
‘Yes, but I’ve got this business and travelling from Chester every day would reduce the time I’d have here. Unravelling my life after all this time is very complicated.’
‘I know, Tom and I have talked about it and wondered what you’ll do.’
‘Nick and I have talked about it too but we’ve not made much progress on that.’
‘Leonie, I would be willing to buy you out if that’s what you want. I’m getting better at sewing but a long way off you yet. But Ida is settled here and she’s a reliable worker. I’d need to take on another full-time seamstress and then I could handle pretty much what goes through the business now. I’d aim to expand my side, provide high-class designs and fit. It’s a good time to do it, there’s nothing but utility clothes in the shops and very little choice in styles.’
‘That would solve my main difficulty. Let me think about it because there’s Milo too, he has nowhere else to live and he needs to stay near his job.’
‘We’ve already talked about that, haven’t we? I won’t want to live in the flat.’
‘Unless you get bombed out of your house.’
‘Heaven forbid, but I’m not even going to consider that. I’d be willing to rent it to Milo, I know him well enough to trust him. I couldn’t rent it to a complete stranger because there’s no way I can lock away any of the stuff in the shop.’
‘If you explain that you don’t want him to touch your property, I know he’d respect your wishes.’
Elaine smiled. ‘I’d want his bed out of my office but he’d only need one bedroom.’
It was Leonie’s turn to deliberate.
‘Milo is twenty-four now, isn’t he?’ Elaine asked
‘Nearly twenty-five.’
‘He’s more than old enough to take care of himself, and he’ll have everything he needs, use of kitchen and bathroom and a decent size bedroom to himself. He’ll probably enjoy it.’
‘He’s not terribly tidy, Elaine. You’ll have to lay down the law about that and about keeping the place clean.’
‘He’ll be on his own in the evenings and at weekends because I’ll be using it only for business. With so many families bombed out he won’t get a better deal than that.’
‘He’ll be over the moon and with the bus stop only fifty yards from the front door, it’ll be easier for him to get to work.’
‘What’s that lorry doing outside?’
‘Oh! I’m expecting a Morrison shelter to be delivered. Is it that? Yes, I do believe it is.’
The front door pinged and Leonie rushed down to find a burly workman in the shop. ‘We’ve brought your shelter,’ he said. ‘Where d’you want it erected?’
‘In here.’ She ushered him into the back room where their customers were fitted.
‘You’re not going to be left with all that much space.’ He stamped on the floor. ‘You’ve no cellar under here?’
‘No, it’s solid.’ Leonie went back upstairs to see Elaine. ‘Milo will even have his own shelter,’ she said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
THE WORKMEN WERE LEAVING. They had slid the mattress she’d kept under the stairs inside the shelter for her. She was tossing in the pillows and blankets on top of it as Elaine prepared to go. Leonie thanked her for her offer. ‘Think about it,’ Elaine urged. ‘Talk it over with Nick.’
Leonie sat down to scribble a note to Milo, reminding him to feed the hens and bring up a lettuce from the garden at Mersey Reach. ‘Sorry,’ she wrote, ‘I’m going to Chester, you’ll have to make your own supper tonight. Help yourself to anything you can find. There are tins and oddments we brought up earlier.’
Then she rang Nick at his office and told him she was about to leave. Feeling on top of the world, she ran out to catch the Chester bus that ran along the main road outside.
Nick had asked her to come and said he’d run her back in the car later. She was excited at the thought of spending the evening with him and looking forward to seeing his house. She laughed to herself that she’d agreed to share it with him without even seeing it. Nick was about to turn her life upside down. She felt he was giving her back her youth.
When the bus drew to the stop in the centre of the city, she could see him waiting, his gaze sweeping through the passengers. A smile lit up his face when he saw her. His kiss on her cheek was as light as a butterfly’s but he pulled her close and threaded her arm through his as they walked to his car.
As he drove out to the suburbs, all his attention was on the road but Leonie couldn’t take her eyes off him. His well-groomed hands moved expertly on the wheel, his profile was calm and handsome.
‘We have so much to decide,’ he said, ‘that I’ve asked Lily Bales, who cleans up for me, to make us a meal. It’s easier to think calmly at home and talk things through, so I thought it better not to go to a restaurant tonight.’
Leonie’s heart was racing as he pulled into the drive of a modest modern house. ‘This is it.’ He took her into his arms as soon as the front door closed behind them. ‘Come and see.’ He took her by the hand and led her from room to room. Leonie couldn’t take it all in. ‘Really, it’s nothing special. I was looking for bachelor’s accommodation when I chose this. Will it be big enough for us?’
‘Of course, Nick.’
‘There are three bedrooms but it’s a bit tight when Tom and Elaine come with their twins.’
‘I like it. It’s very smart.’
‘That’s Elaine’s influence. She helped me furnish it.’
‘You’ve made it very comfortable. It’s lovely.’
‘It’s easy to keep warm and clean – at least that’s what she tells me.’
‘Elaine will be right about that.’
‘If you want to change anything, I’ll be quite happy to—’
‘No, I can’t improve on this, especially not now. Elaine’s better at this sort of thing than I am.’ Leonie told him of her offer to buy her business and also rent the flat to Milo.
‘That solves our problems for us.’ He laughed. ‘I hope you jumped at it.’
‘I told her I’d think it over. Goodness! Where was my head?’
He gave her a hug. ‘You’ve had a lot to think about. Ring her now and tell her it’s exactly
what you want.’ He pushed her towards the phone. ‘Tell her it’s what I want too. It’ll make everything possible for us and take you away from the air raids.’
Leonie was heading towards the phone when he caught her hand. ‘Am I being selfish? Do you want to keep your business? You’ve worked hard at building it up.’
‘No, what I want is to be here with you.’
‘You could start another business here, if that’s what you want.’
Leonie nodded and picked up the phone. ‘Perhaps, but right now I’m too excited about getting married to think about that.’
Elaine sounded over the moon. ‘It’s exactly what I want too,’ she said. ‘I’ve already had a word with Ida. She met a woman in Woolworths who once worked with her. She’s local and she’s looking for a job. On Monday, I’ll ask Ida to get in touch and tell her to come and see me.’
Nick gave her another delighted hug. ‘All you need to do now is to agree a price and I’ll do the rest.’
‘Since it’s going to Elaine I don’t much mind.’
‘We’ll have it independently valued,’ he said. ‘That’s what she’d want. Leonie, let’s fix the soonest possible wedding date. We don’t need to wait for months. I want us to be together, we’ve waited long enough.’
It was what Leonie wanted too. ‘But we need to think of Amy. She missed June’s wedding and Steve’s funeral. I don’t want her to feel excluded from . . .’
Nick kissed her forehead. ‘We must have her here for our wedding. That’s important for me too, I want her to accept me as her father.’
‘Of course we must.’ Leonie gave a little hiccup of joy as she had another thought. ‘Amy could stay on here. Live with us from now on, I mean. You’ve seen very little of the Luftwaffe in Chester. She’d be safe enough here.’
‘That’s true, but don’t you think it would be wiser to wait until we get her exam results? She’ll reach secondary school age next September and whether she gets a scholarship or she doesn’t, she’ll need to start a new school then. I suggest she goes back to Wales after our wedding and has the summer term at her present school.’