by Leah Fleming
She had been daydreaming again, staring into space, making an utter fool of herself.
‘I’m just making lists in my head. So much to do…so much to do,’ she replied, fooling no one.
‘The bell will ring soon,’ Violet continued.
At noon every day St Wilfred’s church bell tolled the hour to remind the village to halt work, bow and pray for those who were fighting. The room fell silent and afterwards it was time for them to break up for luncheon. For once Hester decided to walk home unaccompanied. Time for some fresh air before afternoon visits began. Her days were so full there was hardly time to change from morning gown to afternoon dress, but duty and standards must be set, war or no. She must fly the flag of confidence, no matter how terrified she was feeling.
Essie paused at her scrubbing when she heard the wall clock strike twelve. ‘Lord have mercy on our boys, wherever they may be and give courage to their folks at home,’ she prayed. Then she carried on rubbing over the flags on her hands and knees until she saw the shadow fall over her and a pair of size ten boots in front of her nose. The polish on his toecaps made her stomach turn over. She looked up. ‘I’ve done it, Mam. Took the King’s shilling. I’m off to war!’ he announced, grinning as if it was something to rejoice about.
‘Oh, Newton Bartley…whatever for? What’ll yer dad say? He needs you in the forge.’
‘No he doesn’t. He’s got Frank to pump the bellows. When I told them my trade, they nearly bit my hand off…asked if I could ride and I leaped on one of their hosses in one jump to show I was not kidding. It’ll be the Artillery or Engineers for me. I might get to work with hosses in the cavalry…I won’t be in the front line but doing what I’m good at. Don’t cry…I’ll be back.’
Essie couldn’t hide her tears. ‘Oh, I wish you hadn’t…but I’m that proud of you, just the same. At least they won’t send you abroad until you’re nineteen.’
‘I told them I was eighteen and a half,’ Newt confessed.
‘Well, you can just go and untell them. If you don’t I will. You’re not eighteen until next March. Don’t be in such a hurry to wish your life away.’
‘It’s my life. I hate it when people eye you up and down in the street for not being in uniform. There’s loads of lads joining up together. The colonel’s been up and down the streets checking who’s joined up. I think one of us should go.’
‘But not to please him. Yer dad has already chewed off his ear when he poked his head round the smiddy door. He told him someone had to keep the wheels turning and machinery in fine fettle and the farmers’ hosses on the trot. That’s war work too. The colonel went red in the face and stormed out but yer dad got the last word on’t matter.’
‘I’m not going to please anyone—or the lassies, before you start—but ’cos I sort of have to…to prove to meself that village lads are tough and reliable and stand up for what is right. Don’t be mad at me; I’ll write to you.’
‘You’d better had, young man. When will you tell yer dad?’
Newt looked sheepish. ‘Not yet a while. I’ll wait until he’s cooling off. I don’t fancy breaking the news with him with a hammer in his hand.’ He grinned and Essie wanted to hug him, her first-born, the daft happorth! He had that stubborn mule Bartley streak in him, a devil to shift. Selma had it too, but Frank was more her own makeup, sensitive and feeling. Essie shivered, knowing this blessed war had just crept through her front door and stolen a son.
Angus and Guy stood in Otley Street outside the Drill Hall in Skipton sizing up the queue, the bustle of lads coming in and out, the giggling girls hanging around the gates waiting for their chaps to come out smiling, waving papers.
‘Come on, don’t hang about,’ Guy said. ‘Let’s get it over with, we’ve not got long.’
‘Not so fast,’ Angus grinned. ‘We can have some fun here. I’ll go in first and you wait outside…’
‘What for?’
‘You’ll see.’ Angus disappeared through the arched door while Guy looked to see if there was anyone he recognised. Mother would rant and rave when she found out what they were doing but if they waited any longer the war would be over. Angus reappeared, grinning. ‘Your turn, give your initials and wait and see.’
Guy stepped inside and joined the queue. He felt conspicuous in his striped school blazer. He stepped up to the table where the Sergeant Major looked up at him with surprise.
‘What’ve you forgotten, lad…changed yer mind? Let’s be havin’ you! Next.’ He ignored Guy and looked to the boy behind.
‘Sir, I’ve come to enlist,’ Guy offered.
‘Oh, aye? You can’t do it twice, laddie. I’ve got you on the list already. Next!’
‘That’s not me,’ Guy said.
‘I’m not deaf dumb and blind…stop wasting my time. See this joker out!’ A soldier made to manhandle him out of the door. So that was Angus’s little game.
‘Thanks a bundle! They wouldn’t take me…’
‘Don’t you think it’s better if only one of us goes? Poor Mama will have a fit,’ Angus offered.
‘Don’t be so stupid! You’re the one who ought to stay at home, not me.’ Guy dragged his brother back into the hall. This time there would be no monkey business. The Sergeant looked up as they both saluted and roared, ‘Well, I’ll be damned! A right pair of jokers, we have here! We’ll soon wipe the smile off your faces…’
Selma was busy supervising the junior knitting bee when the noon bell tolled. The children rose, put their hands together and offered a silent prayer. Soon the dinner break would start and she must make sure the knitting was well away from spills and sticky fingers. They were attempting mittens for soldiers. Some of the girls were experts already with knitting needles fixed to their belts, but her boys were all fingers and thumbs even though everyone was taking it as seriously as any eight-year-old could.
The autumn sun beamed down through the high arched school window, dust and chalk motes sparkling in the light, no sound but the clacking of needles and squirming clogs on wooden boards. Barbara Finch had just been sick again and sent home though the smell of vomit and sawdust was still in the air, as was the stink of someone’s dirty socks, but for once her thoughts rose above her own knit one, purl one to those afternoon walks with Guy…
How many Sundays had they met in secret now? How she longed for that precious moment when she stepped onto the secret path, through the iron gate up onto the scar to avoid the usual Sunday strollers and Sharland scholars, her heart beating fast, anticipating the moment when Guy would step out onto the path ahead of her as if by magic and she could drink him all in, those long striding legs, the sway of his hips, the moment when she caught him up and he looked down at her, inclining his head as if he was appraising her for the first time, smiling with those bluest of eyes, holding out his hand, his long fingers grasping her hand with such warmth and tenderness as they held each other in such a gaze that made Selma feel dizzy. It was as if the whole world stopped for those precious hours when they could lose themselves in each other, holding hands like any courting couple but always with one eye on the horizon in case they were discovered, hands separating as they drew close to the village to go their different paths. Sometimes Guy left Jemima tethered close by and they took turns to ride and walk up to the far ridge from where they could see the whole valley spread out before them.
Last week Guy sat staring out over the hills. He’d just heard that one of his school friends had been killed while on training with live ammunition. His name would be the first Sharlander to go on the Roll of Honour but not the last. Both of them sensed that this war was changing lives for ever and Selma felt a flash of fear that this was only the beginning of things to come. They sat under the shelter of a huge piece of granite rock; an erratic, Guy called it.
Selma noticed how when she talked to him her voice softened and her vowels rounded and deepened away from broad Yorkshire, taking her cue from his own refined accent. They were reading from his pocket Palgrave’s Golden Treasu
ry.
‘You read so well and with such meaning like an actress,’ Guy said.
‘I’ve never been to a proper theatre,’ she confessed.
‘Then you must go…perhaps to Bradford or Leeds on the train.’
‘I don’t think so…we don’t go to those places.’
‘Not even to Shakespeare? You just have to see one of his plays. School’s going to do Hamlet next term but I won’t be there.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I was thinking if we got up a party now, a crowd from the village for a train trip or something, your pa’ll know you’d be safe. It’ll be fun before I…’ Guy paused. ‘It’s no good. I’ve got something to tell you…’ He was looking at her with such serious eyes and she knew what was coming.
‘Oh no, not you and all? You’ve never joined up, have you?’ Selma’s heart sank as Guy winked and smiled.
‘Officers can join at seventeen, you know. I can’t sit about and do nothing when other chaps are getting on with the job.’
‘My brother lied about his age and joined up too and now our Frank is going round with a face like a wet weekend and Dad threatening to chain him to the horse’s stall if he does the same. Why do you all want to rush off? Your mother will be as worried as mine is now.’ Selma felt sick at this news just when they were getting to know each other. What would happen to their Sunday walks?
‘Actually she doesn’t know yet. We’ll pick our moment but she can’t stop us. We can get written permission from Papa if she won’t agree. Secretly, she’ll be very proud. We’ll be in training for months so she’ll get used to us being away before we’re sent off somewhere.’
‘It won’t be the same though, will it? I mean our walks and talks…’ Selma blushed, knowing how much she’d miss them.
‘I’ll be home on leave,’ he offered.
‘It won’t be the same though, will it?’
‘Why not?’ He looked puzzled.
‘It just won’t, I know it. You’ll be doing manly things while I’m stuck in school with the baby class to teach.’
‘That’s important work too,’ he said with such a look of tenderness in his eyes. ‘I’ll be larking about marking time, playing pranks with Angus. It’ll be just like school. We have to do our bit.’
‘I’ll miss you.’ Selma felt tears of disappointment rising up as she gazed back at him.
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he whispered, his face drawing ever closer so they were almost touching. His lips found hers in a soft kiss and they stared at each other with surprise.
‘I’m sorry…I’ve never done this sort of thing before,’ Guy apologised but, tipping her chin towards him with his finger, he kissed her again and they clung to each other, breathless.
‘Me neither,’ Selma whispered. The look between them stirred her to the pit of her stomach as they drew close again, kissing and hugging.
‘You are my best girl, Selima Bartley, do you know that? My best girl.’
She drew back,laughing.‘How many others do you have?’
‘You know what I mean. Ever since I saw you rescuing my brother…’
‘Ever since I saw you in that bathing costume,’ she giggled. ‘But I don’t want you to go away…’
‘I’m here now so let’s make hay while the sun shines,’ he said, pulling her down onto the grass.
Selma surrendered herself to this delicious moment. There was so much to learn.
‘Miss…Miss, I dropped a stitch again.’ Selma was jolted back to work. No peace for the wicked, she smiled. This secret courtship warmed her heart and fired her resolve. She would not let Guy down with shoddy knitting. ‘Come on now, children, winter is upon us and those poor soldiers need warm fingers, not mittens with holes!’
Hester sat bolt upright on the horsehair sofa, one eye on the grandfather clock in the corner of the farmhouse parlour. It had a brass face of some distinction, as did the dark oak furniture with fine pewter plates in racks. In her hand a piece of porcelain of antiquity that unfortunately smelled and tasted of musty damp from the china cabinet. The rounds of the sick and elderly were done and she always finished off at the Pateleys’ farm at the top end of the village out on the old high road to Sowerthwaite. It was set back among the trees with a fine view across the valley. Whoever had chosen this site knew his arse from his elbow, as Charles would say.
She smiled, knowing her dutiful day was done and Beaven would be waiting to return her to Waterloo House for tea and hot pikelets dripping with this season’s raspberry jam. The fire would be roaring in the morning room; they were setting an example of austerity by having only one fire lit during the week to save fuel.
‘How’s them young ’uns?’ said Emma Pateley, the farmer’s maiden sister, who kept home for him now he was widowed.
‘Ah, growing up too fast,’ Hester offered. ‘Still at school, of course…too young yet for any war work.’
‘Is that so? But not too young to go a-courtin’,’ Emma chuckled. ‘I seed one of yourn the other day up the far field walking a horse with a girl on its back. A proper knight in shining armour he looked.’
‘I’m sure you’re mistaken,’ Hester protested. ‘The boys are busy at school.’
‘It were a Sunday afternoon, as I recall; he were on that chestnut mare, fine beast. You were lucky the army didn’t get her on a rope. Tall as a spear, fair lad. The girl were dark-haired like that one of Bartleys’ as teaches school. You know, the one with the funny name. I’d watch it there. Them chapelgoers can be trouble when crossed. They like to match with their own.’
‘I’m sure it won’t be one of my boys, Miss Pateley.’ Hester felt herself flushing. Emma could be a gossipy old crone but her eyes didn’t miss much. The boys, it was true did have free periods on Sunday afternoons but surely one of her children wouldn’t make a fool of himself in the village?
‘When men and maids meet, there’s allus mischief, my lady,’ Emma continued, unaware of Hester’s discomfort. ‘Lads will be lads, and lasses aye let them…’
‘Thank you for the tea, Miss Pateley, but I must take my leave of you. Things to do in these trying times.’
‘I ’eard as how old Jones the plumber’s boy copped it last week and him a regular in the army. He’s been out there since it began…He’ll not be the last. My cups are telling me we’ll all be wearing black afore the next year’s out.’
‘Yes, yes, perhaps…Now you’ve got some more wool for the socks. I hear you’re one of the best heel turners in the district. We want to send socks, scarves and comforts by the end of next month, parcels for our local boys. I can rely on you?’ Hester wagged her finger, desperate for Emma to stop talking.
‘I’ll do my best. Thank you for calling on a poor old soul as is cut off from the world up here.’
Not so cut off that you can’t find gossip, mused Hester as she stepped briskly into the waiting carriage. There was something about the woman’s ramblings that unsettled her. Could one of her boys really be making a fool of himself with a village girl? How ridiculous, how stupid, to foul on your own doorstep! How dare he shame the family? No doubt it would be one of Angus’s pranks. He was always up for silliness. Had he no respect for his station in life? Just wait until their next exeat: she’d lay down the law. A liaison with a villager was simply unthinkable.
Guy saw the thunderous look on his mother’s face after church and wondered what was up. She’d been acting strange all morning, silent and severe. Had another under gardener left them in the lurch? She plonked down her Prayer Book and her gloves, and pointed the twins into the cold drawing room.
‘Inside…both of you,’ she ordered, out of earshot from Shorrocks, who was hovering by the hall stairs with their coats and hats.
‘Now which one of you has been silly enough to pay attention to the Bartley girl?’
Neither of them spoke but stood together to attention while she choked them off.
‘Don’t look at me, Mother,’ said Angus. ‘I’ve not been near the vill
age for ages.’ He turned to Guy. ‘And Guy’s head has been stuck in a poetry book, hasn’t it?’
Bless Angus for covering for him, but Guy was not ashamed of his friendship with Selma.
‘Don’t blame Angus. Selma and I have been walking out, riding Jemima. She’s awfully clever, you know, training to be a teacher. You’ll like her when you meet her.’
‘I have no intention of doing any such thing. At your age, walking out with a blacksmith’s daughter and a nonconformist—have you no sense? You should be in school, not gadding about with a girl, giving her false expectations. You are far too young for such matters and there’s a war on. Why didn’t you tell me this was going on, Angus?’ Hester accused.
Angus shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’s all news to me,’ he grinned.
‘Have you nothing to say, Guy? Stop grinning at each other like simpletons.’
‘Sorry, Mother, but we’re not kids any more. We’re old enough to volunteer and take up commissions—’
‘That’s as may be, in good time,’ Hester interrupted.
‘No time like the present.’ Angus threw in his verbal grenade,standing to attention to salute. ‘We’re soldiers now, all signed on the dotted line.’
‘You have done what!’ she exploded. ‘Behind my back? I forbid it!’
‘You can’t, Mother. It’s done. We’ll be off to training camps in the next week or so.’
Guy felt sorry for his mother as he saw her bravado crumple. She sat down, pale-faced, deflated for once, speechless at this news. ‘Does your father know about this madness?’
‘We’ll write to him. It’s only what he expects of us.’
‘But, Angus, you can’t go, not with your recent affliction. You won’t pass a medical, not with your history.’
‘Don’t fuss. I’m fine now. It’s going to be such a wheeze. Oh, don’t cry, Mother. We’ll be fine and they might let us join the same regiment.’
‘I see you have got it all worked out behind my back. Does this Miss Bartley know your plans too? I dare say she’s behind all this show of gallantry,’ Hester said, her lips composed, her arms crossed tightly against her bodice.