But Archie had other ideas and he was, after all, the man of the house.
‘I’ll take him in, Edie,’ he said firmly in a tone that brooked no argument from her or anyone else.
Taking Tommy by the hand, Archie led him out of their back door, turned to the left and lifted the latch. He paused, glancing down at the child. ‘OK, Tommy lad?’
The boy nodded, but he didn’t look all right. He looked as if he was expecting trouble between his mam and his granddad even though, at his tender age, it was unlikely he understood the cause of it. Archie squeezed his hand but couldn’t think of anything to say in comfort. He knocked on Lil’s back door and, as they always had, he opened it without waiting for it to be answered and stepped inside. ‘Lil, love, you home?’
There was no one in the back scullery, and moving into the living room he found Irene sitting beside the fire, the baby in her lap. She glanced up, her eyes widening. ‘Oh, Uncle Archie, I didn’t expect—’ Her glance went to her son with a frown. ‘Is he all right?’
‘As nine pence,’ Archie said cheerfully. ‘You run along upstairs and play, Tommy, while I have a chat with your mam. And come round for your tea again, won’t you?’
Fear flitted across Irene’s face, but she knew there was no getting out of it and she gave a brief nod to her son. She would have to face her father-in-law sooner or later, so she might as well get it over with. The door closed behind Tommy and they heard his feet tramping up the stairs.
‘Your mam out, is she?’
Irene nodded and looked down at the baby gurgling happily. Archie, too, looked at the child, taking in her bright blue eyes and fair curly hair. As far as Archie could tell – he wasn’t very good in such matters – the little girl resembled her mother. That could be a good thing, he mused, but he didn’t voice his thoughts.
‘She’s a pretty little thing,’ he murmured, not quite sure how to open the conversation that was going to be painful for both of them.
Tears spilled down Irene’s face. ‘Oh Uncle Archie, I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t have hurt Frank – all of you – for the world, but . . .’ She lapsed into silence.
‘But it happened. Look, lass, I’m not going to interrogate you. In fact, I don’t really want to know the whys and wherefores.’
‘Aunty Edie does,’ Irene blurted out.
A wry smile twitched his mouth. ‘Aye, well, your Aunty Edie would. But I’m not here for that. I just need to know what you want to happen now?’
Irene wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. ‘I don’t think what I want will come into it, do you? It’s – it’s what Frank will want that matters. And – if he does what his mother says – he’ll have nowt to do with me.’
Archie was silent for a moment, struggling with his conscience. The last thing he wanted to be was disloyal to his wife and yet there were things that had to be said. At last he said quietly, ‘It’ll be up to Frank. He’s a man now. He’s been through a war and none of us know how that might have altered him. Not one of us – not even his mam, though she might think she can guess how he’ll take the news or what he’ll do.’
Irene’s voice trembled as she said, ‘There was a piece in Mr Schofield’s paper a few weeks ago about a soldier who came home on leave to find his wife had had a baby that – that wasn’t his.’ She bit her lip. ‘He – he killed them both.’ Instinctively, her arm tightened round her child and she stroked Marie’s downy hair.
‘Frank wouldn’t do that, love. The worst that can happen is that he’ll want no more to do with you – that he’ll want a divorce.’
Irene flinched but she nodded sadly and said huskily, ‘I know.’
‘If that turns out to be the case, what would you do? Live here with your mam?’
‘I’m not sure she wants me here really. Oh, she wants Tommy. I suppose you all do. I expect that Frank will want to keep Tommy.’ Her mouth trembled again and easy tears filled her eyes.
‘And what about you and – and the bairn?’ He didn’t even know the child’s name, though he could guess it was a girl by the pink jacket she was wearing.
‘We can go back to the farm. Mrs Schofield will have us back, but – but I don’t want to go without Tommy. I want to be near him, at least, even if – even if . . .’ There was a pause before she added hesitantly, ‘I suppose I ought to write and tell Frank.’
Grim-faced, Archie said, ‘No, need, love. Shirley’s already done that.’
Despite what she had done and the trouble it was causing, the look of horror that crossed Irene’s face tore at Archie’s heartstrings.
Forty-Three
‘I hope you’re not thinking of trying to persuade our Frank to forgive the little trollop?’ was Edie’s greeting as Archie stepped into their house once more.
‘I’m not going to try to persuade him one way or the other, love, and neither should you.’
Edie snorted. ‘Well, I don’t want owt to do with her. She’s ruined Frank’s life – and after all he’s been through – torn this family apart and wrecked my friendship with her mam. And if’ – she wagged her forefinger in Archie’s face – ‘it means that our lad will leave home then – then – well, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll likely kill her and her little bastard.’
Shirley, who had been listening to the heated exchange between her parents, said slyly, ‘Unless Frank gets there first.’
‘There’s to be no more talk like that,’ Archie boomed, suddenly angry. He was usually a mild-tempered man. He didn’t drink to excess, didn’t smoke much and loved his family above all else. He rarely raised his voice and he had never once lifted a hand in anger to any of his children. Chastisement had always been left to Edie, though all five of his offspring had always been aware when he disapproved.
Both Edie and Shirley blinked, knowing that, for once, they had pushed him too far. Seeing their shocked faces he calmed down at once. ‘We’ll sort it all out when Frank gets back. I expect’ – he glanced at Shirley – ‘when he gets your letter, he’ll apply for compassionate leave.’
‘But he’ll be coming home for good, won’t he?’ Edie said. ‘He’ll be demobbed.’
Archie sighed as he sat down in his easy chair by the fire. ‘I really don’t know, love. All I know is they’re demobbed by a kind of rota. It depends on the date they went in as to when they come out. Frank didn’t go in until towards the end of ’40, so he’s not going to be home yet, is he? But let’s just leave it until he does get back, eh? There’s nowt more we can do till then.’
‘And,’ Edie raged, as if she laid the blame for everything on Irene’s head, ‘Reggie’s not coming home.’ She flung the letter their youngest son had written into Archie’s lap. Archie glanced up at her and then slowly picked up the letter and began to read it. ‘He prefers to make his life with strangers rather than with his own family.’ There was a catch in Edie’s voice and Archie realized at once just how much all this was upsetting his wife. She’d wanted all her little chicks back in the nest, but it wasn’t going to happen.
‘It’ll be a better life for him than the sea, Edie love.’
‘I know that,’ she snapped. ‘I’m not a fool. And’, she added grudgingly, ‘they are nice people – the Schofields – even if they haven’t kept a proper eye on her.’ She jerked her head towards the house next door.
Archie sighed. ‘Irene’s a grown woman. She—’
‘They encouraged her to go out and have fun. Fun, indeed! Out till all hours of the night with the land army girls, I shouldn’t wonder. But she was a married woman with a young son and a husband at war facing God alone knew what dangers. Do we really want our Reggie living in a household like that? And their own two sons will be coming back. What’ll happen then, eh? They’ll put Reggie out on his ear, that’s what.’
Archie frowned, puzzled. ‘How do you know all this?’
Edie wriggled her plump shoulders.
‘She went out to White Gates Farm to see Reggie,’ Shirley said. ‘To bring him home, but he wouldn’t come.’
‘It wasn’t quite like that,’ Edie said. ‘When I got there I could see how happy he is. He’s grown – filled out. You’d hardly recognize him, Archie.’ There was nostalgia and longing in her tone as she added softly, ‘He’s almost a man now. He’s grown up without us.’
‘Then don’t you think,’ he said gently, ‘we should allow him to make a man’s decision about his own future? I know you want all your family back home again, love, but it’s not going to happen. The war’s changed us all and nothing’s going to be the same as it was before. We’ve got to build a new life, not hanker after the old one.’
Edie sat down heavily in the chair on the opposite side of the fireplace, for the moment defeated in the face of her husband’s common sense and fairness.
‘Tell you what,’ Archie went on, ‘we’ll go out to the farm together the next time I’m home and I can see for myself how the land lies.’ He smiled at his unintentional pun, then his expression sobered again as he added, ‘But as for the other business, let’s leave things as they are for now, eh?’
He picked up the evening paper, signalling that, as far as he was concerned, the discussion was at an end.
Shirley and her mother glanced at each other. They had no intention of leaving things as they were.
The matter was not spoken of between them again for the rest of Archie’s time ashore, yet it lay heavily between them and caused a tension in the home that had never before been known in the Kelsey household. For the first time in his life, Archie went back to sea with relief. And yet he left once more with a deep anxiety in his heart. Still there had been no word from Beth. And now the war was really over, surely that didn’t look good.
As soon as she knew Archie’s ship had safely left the dock at the end of his brief time ashore, Edie banged loudly on the communicating door between the backyards.
‘Lil – Lil! You there? I want a word.’
There was a long pause before Lil appeared and hesitantly approached the fence. The summons had held none of Edie’s usually friendly tone. No ‘Get the kettle on, duck’ as had been their normal greeting when visiting, as it had been most mornings for years. But now, Edie hadn’t even come into her neighbour’s yard, never mind her home.
‘Edie?’ Lil said, her voice trembling, as she opened the door.
‘I want you to tell that trollop of a daughter of yours – if you’re still owning her as your daughter and let me tell you I wouldn’t if she was mine – to get herself and her bastard back to the farm. Them folks encouraged her to go out dancing – and drinking an’ all, I shouldn’t wonder. Well, they can look after them. But Tommy stays here. He’s to come and live with us. And if she’s out the way, then maybe my Frank will come home.’
Lil stared at Edie with frightened eyes. ‘Is that what Archie’s said?’
Edie had never been one to tell lies. She’d always believed in the saying “tell the truth and shame the devil”, but for once she was very tempted. She drew in a deep breath, about to say that yes, that was what she and Archie had agreed, but the words stuck in her throat. She gave an exasperated sigh, angry with herself as she was forced to admit, ‘No, it’s what I say. She’s a bad mother and I won’t have my grandson living under her influence any longer. It’s what Frank would want.’
‘You’ve heard from him?’
Reluctantly, Edie admitted that they had not, but she insisted, ‘It’ll be what he does want though. I know my son. He’ll get shot of her once he’s home so she might as well go back now and save him the bother. The Schofields have said they’ll have her back.’
‘How d’you know that?’
‘Because I went to see them. I wanted to find out what had gone on.’ She omitted to tell Lil that she’d also gone to see her own son and had been obliged to agree to him staying there – at least for the time being. But she wasn’t going to let that matter drop either, whatever Archie said.
In spite of herself, Lil moved closer to the fence. ‘Did – did they tell you anything? Irene won’t say a word. She – she won’t even tell me the father’s name.’
‘Some airman from a nearby station. The lads used to go dancing in the village on a Saturday night and your trollop of a daughter decided she’d go out with the land army girls, who, let me tell you, were young, free and single.’
‘What about Tommy? Who looked after him?’ Lil asked.
Edie snorted contemptuously. ‘The Schofields. They encouraged her to go. “Have a bit of fun”, they said. Well, look where that bit of fun has landed us all.’
‘The airman?’ Lil asked tentatively. ‘Irene told me that much but—’
‘He’s dead.’
‘Yes, she told me that too, but that’s all. I don’t know any – any details.’
‘He was killed on a raid just before she found out she was pregnant, so that’s why she’s come crawling back here hoping our Frank’ll be daft enough to forgive her.’
‘Do – do you know his name – the airman’s?’
Edie sniffed. ‘Ken something, I think Ruth said, but she didn’t tell me his surname.’ She eyed Lil speculatively. ‘Oh, I know what you’re thinking. That his family might be prepared to take on the child.’ She laughed mockingly. ‘Do you reckon they’d be daft enough to believe every little whore that turns up on their doorstep claiming their son’s the father of her bastard? Well, I wouldn’t and I don’t expect they would either. Not if they’d any sense.’
Lil’s face had turned bright red. She dropped her gaze and turned away, her shoulders hunched, any hope of her long friendship with Edie being able to survive this scandal now crushed. She returned inside and closed her back door, leaning against it for a moment and closing her eyes. Then she took a deep breath, plastered a smile on her face and went into the living room.
‘What did she want?’ Irene asked at once.
‘She wants you to go back to the farm but to leave Tommy here. With them.’
Irene’s mouth tightened. ‘I’m going nowhere until Frank’s got home. We’ll see what he says first. If he wants me to go, then I will. But I’m not leaving Tommy. Not with Frank and certainly not with them. Whatever happens, Tommy stays with me.’
Lil bit her lip, undecided whether she should tell Irene everything that Edie had said. But then, she thought, the time for all these secrets was over. ‘She’s been out to see the Schofields.’
Irene stared at her mother for a moment, her mind working busily. ‘The nosy old cow. What did she tell you?’
‘Only what you’ve already told me, but she did find out that his first name was Ken.’ Cautiously, Lil asked, ‘What about his parents? Have you been in touch with them? I mean, might they—?’
Reading her mother’s mind, Irene cut off the suggestion before it could even be voiced. ‘No, I haven’t. I don’t even know where they live. Besides, I wouldn’t let them have her even if they wanted her. Marie’s mine and that’s an end of it.’
Lil turned away. Sadly, she thought, that was far from the end of it.
Forty-Four
Three days later, Edie rapped loudly on the fence, once more. ‘Lil – Lil.’
The woman appeared at her back door, drying her hands on a rough towel. ‘Just doing a bit of washing.’
‘On a Thursday?’ Edie was incredulous. Washday was always on a Monday.
‘There’s a lot of washing with a—’ Lil stopped, embarrassed as Edie’s mouth hardened. Then she asked harshly, with more spirit in her tone than Edie could ever remember hearing from her erstwhile friend, ‘What d’you want?’
‘I want you to tell that trollop of a daughter of yours to get herself and her bastard back to the countryside.’ Edie waved a letter in Lil’s face. ‘Frank’s written to say he’s not coming home. See what that little trollop has done. But if she’s out of the way, then maybe my boy will come back.’
Shirley had gone back, but a letter had come in answer to the one she had written and Edie had had no compunction in opening it.
Li
l, thinner than ever with the worry and upset her daughter’s homecoming had caused, blinked in the face of Edie’s wrath. ‘What – what do you mean?’
‘He’s written to say,’ Edie emphasized every word as if explaining to a child, ‘that he’s not coming home. He won’t get demobbed yet because he didn’t go in at the beginning and though he could get compassionate leave, he doesn’t want to. All because of her. I’ve lost Laurence, Reggie doesn’t want to come back, Shirley’s stopping on in the ATS and God knows what’s happened to Beth. And now this. Frank’s not coming either because of her.’
‘Oh Edie.’ Lil was almost in tears. She desperately wanted to put her arms around Edie as – in happier times – she would have done instantly. But now there was this awful chasm between them that she feared would never be bridged. She was so afraid that their friendship was shattered for ever. And right now, she didn’t know what else to say; there was nothing she could say, for she was all too well aware that the fault for this latest disappointment for Edie did indeed lie with Irene.
‘So you tell her, Lil, to go back out of the way, but she can leave Tommy with us.’
Lil stared at her for a brief moment before snapping, ‘She’s going nowhere. Her and the bairns – both of ’em – are staying put.’ With that she turned her back on Edie and returned to her dolly tub, thumping the clothes with the posser with a viciousness she hadn’t known was in her nature.
The rift between the former friends deepened.
With no one at home now, when Archie was at sea, and the WVS work dwindling, Edie hardly knew how to fill the long, lonely days. She missed Lil more than she’d ever admit and the noise of the crying infant next door only fuelled her anger. Even Tommy did not come into her house unless his granddad fetched him and Edie couldn’t even bring herself to ask Lil to let him visit her when Archie was away. She counted the days and the hours until Archie would come home again, something she had never needed to do before. But now the days stretched endlessly and his time at home was all too brief.
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