Welcome Home

by Margaret Dickinson

  Archie, home for three days from the sea, disappeared to the pub, meeting Harry for a drink. ‘Thank God it’s all over now, Harry,’ he said.

  ‘I’ll drink to that, Archie.’

  They sat in companionable silence for several minutes before Harry said softly. ‘Any news?’

  Archie sighed heavily. ‘No more’n you already know. Nothing from Frank and not a word from Beth. I really . . .’ He paused and swallowed hard before adding, ‘I’m really afraid now that something’s happened to her, but I daren’t say owt to Edie.’

  ‘Wouldn’t you have heard something by now from the authorities if . . . ?’

  Archie shrugged. ‘Perhaps not if she’s been involved in something top secret abroad.’

  ‘Ah,’ Harry said, understanding at once. That had been his thought too.

  Archie sighed, ‘Anyway, all this other business seems to have taken Edie’s mind off Beth a bit and with Reggie staying on the farm . . .’

  ‘It’ll be a much better life for the lad, Archie.’

  ‘I know that and I’ve sided with him, but that doesn’t go down well with Edie. Oh, I can see her point, Harry, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve always advocated letting our kids do what they want with their lives, and that doesn’t sit easily with her. She thinks she knows what’s best for them.’

  ‘She just wants them at home, Archie. You can’t blame a mother for that.’ There was a note of wistfulness in his tone that Archie couldn’t fail to notice.

  ‘I don’t,’ he said gently, with unspoken understanding, ‘but you have to let the young ones fly the nest some time.’

  ‘I agree. The trouble is that Edie’s been forced into parting with hers by the war far earlier than she would have done normally. Especially Reggie.’

  ‘You’re right, Harry. But it’s been the same for everyone. Thousands of families have lost loved ones, have been separated for years and,’ he smiled wryly, ‘I’ve no doubt a great many are at this moment being faced with the same sort of shock that we’ve had with Irene. The war’s ruined – or certainly altered – a lot of lives.’

  A noisy group of revellers congaed past the open door of the pub, singing, ‘The war is over, the lads are coming home . . .’ to the traditional music played to the dance.

  Archie and Harry exchanged a smile. ‘I’d best be getting back. I don’t want to leave Edie on her own for too long. She’s not out merrymaking today.’

  Harry chuckled. ‘But Jessie’s in the thick of it. The bunting and the Union Jack hat she made are on full display once more. And Terry is playing his piano at the end of the street. I think I’ll stay here a bit longer, if you don’t mind. I might have a quiet game of dominoes with old Charlie over there in the corner. It’d save me getting roped into the dancing because of the shortage of men. Mind you don’t get dragged into it, Archie.’

  ‘They’d have a job. My dancing days are over – if there ever were any.’

  He stood up, shook Harry’s hand and made his way home, but it was with leaden feet and an even heavier heart.

  Forty-Six

  ‘Are you having a party for little Tommy? He’ll be five next Wednesday, won’t he?’ Jessie asked.

  Edie pulled a face and sighed. ‘I really don’t know what’s happening. Usually, we would have done summat together but now—’

  ‘Oh for Heaven’s sake, Edie, surely you can put your differences with Lil and Irene aside for one day. What about that little lad? Think of him. He hasn’t a clue what’s going on. It’s his birthday and a very important one at that. He’ll start school here in the same week, won’t he?’

  Edie shuddered at the thought. ‘I expect so,’ she said tightly. ‘But that won’t be a very happy experience for him, will it?’

  Jessie blinked. ‘No worse than for anyone else.’

  Edie glared at her sister. ‘You think not? He’ll be bullied for sure when the other kids find out about his whore of a mother.’

  Broadminded though Jessie was, she winced at Edie’s description of Irene. ‘Well, I reckon we should have a little party here for him. Maybe on another day. When will Archie be home? He’d not want to miss it.’

  ‘Thursday.’

  ‘There you are, then. We can give the little lad another party on either the Friday or the Saturday, because Archie certainly won’t sail on a Friday, now will he?’

  Edie laughed wryly. ‘No, he won’t.’

  ‘Saturday’d be best for us and then Harry can come as well.’

  ‘All right,’ Edie agreed reluctantly, but for once her heart wasn’t really in the planning of a party. The last one she’d helped to organize – for VE day – had ended in disaster.

  Irene had enrolled Tommy in the local primary school, but she was anxious. Several children from their street went there and she was sure word would soon spread like the proverbial wildfire. Tommy would be bullied, she was sure.

  He’d been at school less than two weeks before it happened. Irene felt helpless, but aid came from an unexpected quarter. Shirley, home on leave, arrived at Lil’s back door, holding Tommy by the hand. Ursula stood a little uncertainly behind her. Irene was the one to open the door and for the first time since her homecoming, the two former friends and sisters-in-law faced each other.

  ‘He’s got a bloody nose, Irene, but we’ve sorted them out. I don’t think it’ll happen again. But mebbe you ought to meet him out of school rather than let him walk home on his own. He’s only just five.’

  Irene avoided meeting Shirley’s gaze and bit her lip. ‘Thank you,’ she said huskily as she reached out to grasp Tommy’s arm and pull him into the house. ‘Thank you – both of you.’ Then she closed the door.

  As they walked through the backyards, Shirley muttered. ‘I expect she doesn’t want to go out much. Afraid of the stares and the whispers. But she ought to look out for Tommy more.’

  Inside her own home, Shirley told her mother. ‘We saw Tommy on our way home. He was being bullied by some kids in the street.’

  ‘Eh?’ Edie turned anxious eyes towards Shirley. ‘Who was it? Them little buggers at the end of the street?’ She started towards the back door as if she would go this very instant to protect her grandson.

  ‘It’s all right. We put a stop to it, Mam. In fact,’ Shirley grinned, ‘Ursula was a real star. She gave the two lads a clip round the ear and they ran off.’

  Ursula laughed. ‘I happen to know them. They live next door to where I have lodgings. They’ll be worried I’ll tell their mothers.’

  Edie nodded absently, her mind returning to her grandson. ‘Is Tommy all right?’

  Shirley pulled a face. ‘More or less. They’d ripped his pullover and thrown his satchel in a puddle and he’d got a bloody nose.’

  ‘Poor little scrap.’ Edie muttered. ‘None of it’s his fault, yet he has to bear the bullying and the cruel taunts about his mother, I bet.’

  Ursula glanced at Shirley, but said nothing. She knew all about Irene and the trouble she had brought on the family.

  It was Lil, who, on hearing what had happened, decided that she would be the one to take Tommy to and from school each day.

  ‘You’ve enough to do, Mam. I – I ought to go,’ Irene said hesitantly.

  ‘It’s only ten minutes’ walk. And it’ll do me good to get away from me work for a bit. Besides, me grandson’s safety comes first.’

  After a week of taking and fetching Tommy, Lil was surprised by a loud summons from Edie, banging on the door between their yards. ‘Lil? You there, Lil?’

  Lil approached the other side of the fence with trepidation. Now what? Was Frank back? Was this the day fateful decisions would be made?

  ‘What is it?’

  Without preamble, Edie said, ‘I’ve seen you taking and fetching Tommy every day because that little trollop daren’t show her face, I expect. But I can fetch him home each afternoon, if you like, and then he can have his tea with me.’

  Lil hesitated for a moment before saying, ‘That’s very ki
nd of you, Edie—’

  ‘It’s not kindness, Lil,’ Edie said harshly. ‘I want to see me grandson an’ I won’t stand by and see him bullied because of her.’ She turned away without another word, entered her back door and slammed it behind her, leaving Lil staring after her.

  And so they fell into a kind of routine, but it was an uneasy one of mutual help. Both sides of the feud, for that was what it had become, were at least united on one point; Tommy’s wellbeing was paramount.

  When Archie was at home, he took his turn in meeting Tommy out of school, and the big man’s presence was a warning to the would-be bullies. Once the nastiness had stopped, to everyone’s relief, Tommy seemed to settle in well at the school. It would be a shame now, Archie thought, if he had to be uprooted and sent back to the country; new school, new classmates. Another upheaval for the little lad.

  Edie was sunk in gloom, not even the thought that the war was finally over could raise her spirits.

  ‘It says here,’ Archie said, jabbing at his newspaper, ‘that they’re increasing the rate at which servicemen are demobilized. A million men by December, they reckon.’ He glanced up at Edie. ‘That might include Frank, love.’

  But Edie was not to be comforted. ‘Mebbe,’ she murmured disconsolately. ‘But will he come home even then?’

  ‘He’ll have to sometime,’ Archie muttered. ‘He might as well get it over with.’ He paused and then asked, ‘Have you written to him?’ He held his breath, waiting for the answer that he was sure was coming.

  ‘I certainly have,’ Edie said grimly, ‘and I’ve told him exactly what I think. Frank will listen to me. He’ll know I’m right. He wants to get shut of the little trollop and fight her – in court, if necessary – for custody of Tommy.’ Edie met his gaze. ‘He can live with us. They both can and, if necessary, we’ll move.’

  ‘Move? Whatever for?’

  Edie jerked her head in the direction of Lil’s home. ‘To get away from them, of course.’

  ‘But – but what about Lil? You and Lil?’

  ‘There is no “me an’ Lil” any more, Archie. I don’t want owt to do with Lil Horton ever again.’

  If there was any greater shock to be had than those Archie had suffered already, then this was it. He’d never dreamed he’d hear such words from Edie’s lips.

  As the first Christmas since the war had ended approached, Archie had one more trip to sea, but he had had no chance to speak to Shirley as he’d intended to do; she had had no more leave. Before he left, he said to Edie, ‘When you write to Shirley, Edie love, just ask her a bit more about Ursula, will you? I’m not sure about this girl she’s been keeping company with. She’s still hanging around the docks, talking to unsavoury characters. I’ve seen her there several times. I’ve just got an uncomfortable feeling about her and I don’t want Shirley getting in with someone – unsuitable. That’s all.’

  Edie glared at him. The relationship between husband and wife was strained. It had been ever since Irene had arrived home and it was something that had never happened before in the whole of their married life. But Edie was adamant in her withdrawal from Lil and her family – apart from Tommy, of course – and she knew that Archie still went round next door, still talked to both Lil and Irene. He’d had the cheek to come back one day and say what a pretty little thing the baby was. That, as far as Edie was concerned, had been the last straw.

  ‘Are you saying I haven’t looked after me own daughter, Archie Kelsey? After all these years of bringing up your children when you’ve hardly been here. Oh, it’s all very well to come home every few weeks and spoil ’em rotten. King for a Day, aren’t you, down Freeman Street, when you’ve money in your pocket?’

  ‘Edie love, I meant no such thing and you know it. It’s just this Ursula. She was on the docks again when I took Tommy down to see the ships after school yesterday. She was talking to a right scruffy character. And I’d seen her with him before. That time when she told me there was a trawler late back – and there wasn’t. That was funny for a start.’

  ‘She’s a reporter for the newspaper, for heaven’s sake. She’s got to go all over the place to find news.

  ‘Is she employed by the Telegraph?’

  ‘Well – not exactly. She writes bits and pieces for them from what Shirley said. A freelance, she calls herself.’

  ‘There you are, then, even the folks at the paper have got doubts about her, else they’d have taken her on, wouldn’t they?’

  ‘Maybe – maybe not. Newspapers use freelances regularly, don’t they?’

  ‘Quite possibly, and I’m also sure they’ll verify anything a freelance sends in, but that still doesn’t answer my doubts about exactly who and what she is.’

  ‘What do you mean, “what she is”? You make it sound as if she’s a – as if she’s a –’ For once, even Edie was lost for words.

  ‘I don’t really know what I’m saying, love. It’s just that I’ve got this feeling that something’s not quite right.’

  Edie laughed sarcastically. ‘And I thought it was women who were supposed to have intuition.’

  Archie smiled weakly. ‘Aye, well, fishermen have too, you know.’

  ‘No – you’re a superstitious lot. That’s what you are.’

  Now Archie’s smile broadened. ‘And one of ’em is not going to sea on a quarrel.’ He held out his arms. ‘Come on, love, don’t let’s argue. Give us a kiss.’

  Edie submitted to his kiss, but she couldn’t summon up the usual warmth or bring herself to say ‘Take care’ as she always had.

  Before he’d reached the end of the street on his way to the docks, Edie was regretting her coolness towards him.

  In Shirley’s next letter, she wrote, I’ve been really lucky and got over a week off at Christmas and New Year and I was wondering if Ursula can come to us for Christmas, Mam? She’s no family here and the old misery she lodges with is going to her daughter’s in Lincoln. Ursula will be on her own.

  Edie wrote back at once. She can, as far as I’m concerned, though she’ll have to share her rations with us. But I’d better tell you that your dad isn’t too sure about her. And besides, won’t she be going home to Switzerland soon?

  A week later, Shirley wrote, I really don’t know Ursula’s plans – perhaps she’ll tell us at Christmas. But I do know she wants to stay and do a series of articles about all the folks coming home after the war. You know, servicemen and women, evacuees – everybody.

  ‘Well,’ Edie said aloud to the empty room as she folded Shirley’s letter and put it on the mantelpiece behind Laurence’s photograph. ‘It won’t be any good her coming to this house for that, will it?’

  The queues for food seemed just as long as they had during the wartime, but now people groused about it more.

  ‘I thought the war was supposed to be over,’ Jessie grumbled as she and Edie stood in a queue outside the butcher’s shop before going on to the WVS together. Lil no longer helped out as their war efforts at the centre were winding down.

  ‘So they say,’ Edie murmured, ‘but I haven’t noticed much difference yet. No one’s coming home.’

  Jessie glanced at her, but said nothing. She knew all about how not one of Edie’s family was coming back to live at home and she felt sorry for her sister. She knew, too, all about the heartache Irene had brought upon the family and how Edie and Lil were no longer on speaking terms, though Jessie was shrewd enough to know that the blame for that lay at Edie’s door. In Jessie’s mind, Lil needed her friend more than ever at this moment.

  ‘Have you heard anything from Beth?’

  Edie pursed her lips and shook her head. ‘Not a word.’

  Jessie squeezed her sister’s arm as they shuffled further up the queue. ‘She’ll come back,’ Jessie said. But Edie wasn’t sure. If she’d still been alive, surely by now Beth would have made contact. And yet, wouldn’t the authorities have let them know if she had been killed, just as they had about Laurence? It was a mystery.

  Jessie bit her
lip and asked tentatively, ‘Have you spoken to Lil yet?’

  Again Edie shook her head.

  ‘Well, you should, Edie. You’ve been friends for more years than I can count and it’s not her fault her daughter’s a little trollop.’

  ‘Isn’t it?’

  Jessie cast a sly glance at her sister. Jessie had never been one to hold her tongue when there was something to be said and she wasn’t going to start now. ‘You can’t be held responsible for what your kids do when they grow up, duck. Just be thankful that – so far – neither of your girls have got themselves in the family way.’

  ‘I hope I’ve brought them up to know what’s right and wrong,’ Edie said primly.

  ‘That’s not the point.’ Jessie paused for a brief moment before saying harshly. ‘It’s in the breed, Edie, isn’t it?’

  Edie stared at her. It was the first time she could ever remember her sister referring to the fact that Edie herself had had a shotgun wedding.

  ‘Jessie, how could you?’ Edie said reproachfully, but Jessie only shrugged. ‘It’s a fact, though. And you know me, I only speak the truth, even though it might hurt sometimes.’

  She was right, but Edie was shocked that her own sister could fling it back into her face at a time like this. And Jessie was not finished yet. ‘You’ve maybe brought your daughters up to be perfect because of what happened to you. But you want to watch your Shirley.’

  ‘What d’you mean?’

  ‘Mrs Doughty at the WVS was telling me that her hubby had seen Shirley hanging around the docks with that friend of hers when she was home on leave the last time.’

  ‘Ursula works for the Telegraph.’ Edie went on to make the same excuse to Jessie as she had to Archie. ‘She’s looking for stories and I expect Shirley was just helping her. That’s all.’

  Jessie pursed her lips and cast a disbelieving glance at Edie. ‘If you say so, Edie. If you say so. Come on, we’re next in line – if there’s anything left by now.’