A Wise Child

by A Wise Child (retail) (epub)

  She asked him what he thought of the war news and he said. ‘It’s bad. No two ways about it. This German General Rommel seems to be having it all his own way in north Africa, and Singapore! How could they let that happen? The Japs just walking in and the guns all facing out to sea. And losing the two battleships.’

  ‘That was the worst of all,’ Nellie said. ‘So many local lads were on the Prince of Wales and some on the Repulse. I know two families where the sons have gone down on the Prince of Wales and Gwen knows more, don’t you Gwen?’

  ‘Yes. The only good news is the air raids on Germany. Giving the buggers some of their own medicine. Anyhow, as they say, we always lose every battle but the last one. We’ll win in the end.’

  ‘Of course,’ Nellie said and Sam smiled to himself at their confident tone.

  We will win too, he thought, just because people believe it. His only worry was of what would happen to Tom before then, but he said nothing of this.

  Gwen approved of all their plans and like Sam swept aside any difficulties. ‘You’d be fools to part again,’ she declared.

  Sam had expected to find that Nellie was still part of a tightly knit community and he was amazed when she told him how her old neighbours were now scattered.

  ‘Katy Rimmer and her family and her mother Bella are living out at Huyton. Poor Bella lost a son and his wife and two children in the May blitz but most of the people had gone out to Maghull to sleep when Johnson Street was hit.’

  ‘What about Maggie Nolan?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Johnny died, y’know. Maggie’s living with her married daughter. I see her now and again but it’s not the same.’

  Later when they went out for a walk Sam could see why the community was scattered. He was horrified by the devastation. ‘I never realised,’ he kept saying.

  The only person he met from the old days was Katy when she came back to shop in Great Homer Street and called to see Nellie. There was a moment’s embarrassment but then she and Sam talked easily and as she left Katy said quietly to Nellie, ‘You done right to take him back, girl. That all seems far away now, doesn’t it? You’ve got to take any happiness you can. God bless.’

  They hugged each other and Nellie went back to Sam looking tearful.

  ‘Katy wishes us well,’ she said.

  Sam had written to Stan Riley to suggest that young Peter might take his place in the partnership when he was ready and to tell him of the plan for Nellie to return with him. Stan wrote back almost by return, enthusiastic about the idea and saying that his wife would find a furnished house or flat. Stan and his wife met them at the station when they returned.

  Mrs Riley told Nellie that she thought one of the flats was the most suitable and suggested that they went to see it the following morning.

  ‘No use bringing furniture down from Liverpool if you won’t be here very long,’ she said. ‘The furnishings aren’t swanky in this flat but it’s spotlessly clean.’

  ‘That’s all I want,’ Nellie declared.

  The flat was suitable and they moved in a few days later. Nellie found that Sam had been right about the lack of interest in her. So many couples were parted at this time that no one found the sudden appearance of Sam’s wife at all strange.

  Sam had expected difficulty in leaving his war work but when it was established that he intended to start a branch in Liverpool no obstacles were placed in his way. He was helped by Mrs Riley’s eagerness to have her son in Sam’s place in the works and her brother, the chauffeur, complained to Sam that she never gave him a minute’s peace.

  ‘She thinks I can work miracles,’ he said. ‘God help me if I drove for Winston Churchill.’

  ‘More ways than one of cutting through red tape,’ Sam said to Nellie with a grin.

  They returned to Liverpool briefly a few days before Tom’s leave was due. Nellie immediately started an orgy of cleaning and Sam went to look at the rundown engineering works he was interested in.

  He found the foreman a doleful individual and the works dirty and neglected. ‘What’s the use of it all?’ the foreman said as they began to look round. ‘This country’s finished.’

  Sam said nothing. He was looking at the grimy walls, the piles of rubbish in corners and the workbenches strewn with oily cotton waste.

  None of the machines seemed well maintained. He was glad when the foreman left him on the pretext of an urgent phone call and handed him over to a young chargehand he introduced as Bernie Alton.

  The chargehand was a stocky young man with a round rosy face and he looked scornfully after the foreman as he trailed slowly away. ‘It’s being so cheerful keeps him going,’ he said.

  ‘Doesn’t seem very happy,’ Sam commented.

  ‘I suppose he’s got some reason,’ the chargehand said. ‘His two sons were lost at sea early on and his wife was injured when the house was bombed. She died three months after. I suppose he’s lost heart here too.’

  ‘Aye, I can see the place has gone down,’ Sam said. ‘What I want to know is why.’

  ‘Several reasons, I suppose,’ Bernie Alton said, ‘chiefly that nobody’s interested.’

  ‘Including you?’ Sam asked.

  The young man grew red and said truculently, ‘No. Not including me but I was pushing a stone uphill on me own. I got fed up. Why should I get myself disliked trying to get things done when the foreman doesn’t care and the owner’s saving his skin on a Welsh farm? “Plenty of butter and eggs look you”,’ he added in a falsetto voice.

  ‘I see,’ Sam said thoughtfully. ‘What about all this muck?’ He indicated the rubbish in the corners.

  The chargehand said quickly, ‘That can soon be cleared up. Are you thinking of taking over?’

  ‘Depends,’ Sam said cautiously. He went round the machines with Alton finding that there was a nucleus of good machinery and that the men were discouraged rather than bad workmen. Sam was non-commital but later to Nellie he said enthusiastically that it was just what he wanted.

  Tom came home the next day and there was a joyful reunion of all the family. Nellie was anxious not to intrude on the young couple but Tom wanted to see more of his father and Roz was willing to share him with his family, so they all spent a lot of time together.

  Nellie and Sam had wondered whether Tom had a right to know about the doubts about his parentage.

  ‘Not that I think there is any doubt,’ Nellie declared. ‘But perhaps we should tell them.’

  ‘Sometime,’ Sam said, ‘but not now. They’ve got enough to think about now.’

  Nellie agreed but a few days later Roz was talking about the joy of waiting for her baby and Nellie said impulsively, ‘I wish it had been like that for me.’

  Roz looked surprised. ‘Didn’t you want Tom, then?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh yes,’ Nellie said. She hesitated, then with her cheeks red and her face averted she told Roz about her worries before Tom’s birth.

  ‘The swine,’ Roz said indignantly. ‘And did he just get away with it? Raping an innocent little girl?’

  ‘I was afraid to tell anyone. He said I’d get put in gaol and then I was afraid to tell Sam in case he tackled him and got into trouble.’

  ‘I think that’s terrible,’ Roz declared. ‘Is he still alive? Couldn’t something be done now?’

  ‘It’s not important any more,’ Nellie said. ‘Now that Sam knows. I mean, Sam knows and he didn’t go to see him because I asked him not to.’

  She felt that she was floundering in deceit but Roz said brightly, ‘And Tom turned out to be Sam’s baby anyway,’ and Nellie thankfully agreed.

  Sam was right, she thought. Why burden these young people with old worries at this time in their lives? Let Roz look forward to her baby secure that there was no doubt about his family.

  She said nothing about Sam being told that he was sterile. She was determined to believe that the doctors were wrong although she knew that Sam only pretended to agree with her. To him a doctor’s word was law but he believed that Chanc
er was right. Tom was his son because of their closeness in his early years and the strong love between them.

  Nellie told Sam later that she had told Roz about the attack on her by Leadbetter. ‘It just came out when we were talking about looking forward to her own baby. I didn’t say anything about what those doctors told you though because I’m still sure they’re wrong.’

  Sam shrugged and smiled. ‘What did Roz say?’ he asked.

  ‘She was all for riding out with a posse,’ Nellie said laughing. She put her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh Sam, I never thought I’d be able to laugh about that,’ she said.

  ‘Good thing you can, girl,’ Sam said, kissing her tenderly.

  I wish he could believe that those doctors were wrong, Nellie thought. I know he doesn’t although he pretends to and I know he says he feels Tom is his son because he helped to rear him. But to be sure that Tom was his son by blood would make him really happy, she thought.

  There was something which Sam had not told Nellie which convinced him that he was sterile. Before leaving Canada for England he had been for a medical check and when he went back for the result he had said to the doctor, ‘Am I still sterile?’

  ‘Afraid so,’ the man said. ‘I didn’t know whether you were aware of it.’

  ‘Yes. I was told a long time ago,’ Sam said. He said nothing about his illness on the voyage after his marriage, when Tom had already been conceived, because he was unaware that the illness had been mumps and that in a man it could cause sterility but not impotence.

  Now Nellie said gently, ‘It’s easy to talk to Roz about anything like this. She’s so matter of fact. I suppose it’s with being a nurse.’

  ‘Or being Gwen’s granddaughter,’ Sam said with a grin. ‘She doesn’t care what she says, does she? Our Tom’s a lucky lad all the same.’

  Sam had not wasted any time since he signed the papers for the works. He had persuaded the foreman to retire by making him a lump payment and promising to include him in the pension scheme he intended to set up. He made Bernie Alton foreman in his place.

  The day before Tom was due to go back off leave he went with Sam to see the works.

  ‘I’ve got the men working with me,’ Sam said as they walked down. ‘I’ve promised a bonus scheme and a pension scheme so the men will share in the profits – when I make them. Even Bernie’s on my side and he’s a bit of a commie, I realise now.’

  ‘That’s a respectable thing to be now Russia’s on our side,’ Tom said. ‘Even Mum’s supporting them.’

  Nellie shopped at the Co-operative Stores and she told Tom that there was a special dividend number for the Aid to Russia Fund. ‘You just give that number instead of your own and your divi goes to the Fund. I always do it,’ she said.

  The works had been transformed in the short time since Sam’s first visit. The rubbish had been swept up and the workbenches cleaned and all the machines had been cleaned down. There was a new air of efficiency about the place and Bernie was bustling about happily.

  He scowled when he saw Tom and said aggressively, ‘I suppose you think I’m skiving here. Ready to give me a white feather or something.’

  Sam was ready to be annoyed but Tom laughed.

  ‘You’re a bit out of date, mate,’ he said, ‘that was old women in the first war. You might think I’m skiving. I’ve never been out of England.’

  Bernie stopped scowling but he said defensively, ‘My da was killed at the end of that war. Ma got no pension and she had to struggle to keep me and my sister while she was a sick woman herself. She died of malnutrition in 1921. Malnutrition, when my dad had given his life for this country. My sister died of TB when she was four.’

  ‘So you reckon you don’t owe the country anything,’ Sam said. ‘Fair enough but it’s me you’re working for and don’t forget it. I want a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.’

  ‘You’ll get it, Mr Meadows,’ Bernie said. He suddenly grinned. ‘I just had to get that off me chest.’

  ‘There’s hope for that lad yet,’ Sam said as they walked away. ‘At least he can laugh at himself.’

  Nellie and Sam tried to leave Tom and Roz to themselves as much as possible for the last day of Tom’s leave and when he had gone they returned to Reading. Gwen moved into Nellie’s spare bedroom to be near Roz until they came back as it was now only two months before the baby was expected.

  Sam found Peter Riley well in command of all his paperwork and having also been in contact with the official from the Ministry of Supply. ‘I reckon another couple of weeks and you’ll manage on your own, Peter,’ Sam said.

  ‘There’s just a few things I’m not clear about,’ Peter said, ‘but you’ve left everything very straight for me, Sam. How are things in Liverpool?’

  ‘Great. The works are looking better already but I could do with being there as soon as possible,’ Sam said.

  Nellie was also answering questions from Mrs Riley, and telling her how much they had enjoyed Tom’s leave.

  ‘We’ve got a lovely daughter-in-law,’ Nellie said. ‘A real good girl. Didn’t mind us butting in on their time together at all.’

  ‘I should think not,’ Mrs Riley said. ‘I’d like to see the girl who’d keep our Peter away from me!’ Nellie said nothing and Mrs Riley went on. ‘Are things going well for the works? You’ll be anxious to get back well before the baby arrives, won’t you?’

  Later Nellie said to Sam, ‘I could nearly feel her hand in my back pushing me. I was thinking of saying we’d changed our minds just to see her face.’

  ‘She can sleep easy,’ Sam said. ‘I had a talk with Stan and Peter and we reckon I could be away in another couple of weeks.’

  Less than three weeks later they were on their way home to Liverpool, happy in the thought that they would never leave it again. Nellie had written to Roz and Gwen and there was a good meal and a warm welcome awaiting them when they arrived.

  Roz had booked into the Liverpool Maternity Hospital in Oxford Street to have her baby. It was very active and Roz swore that it would be a footballer. ‘He must be,’ she said, ‘he never stops kicking,’ but Gwen disagreed.

  ‘The way you’re carrying it’ll be a girl, you see,’ she said positively, but Roz only laughed and said that they would soon know.

  On the first of August labour began for Roz and on the second she was delivered of an eight-pound baby boy. As a nurse she was given a small private room. Tom wangled a short pass and he and Gwen went in first to see Roz then a little later Nellie and Sam joined them.

  Roz was sitting up in bed, her cheeks pink with excitement, and Tom sitting beside her holding her hand and gazing at her lovingly.

  ‘Will you look at her, Nellie?’ Gwen said. ‘As if she’s been on a holiday. When you think the way we were.’

  ‘You’re only mad because you guessed wrong about the baby, Nin,’ Roz laughed.

  ‘Where is the baby?’ asked Nellie.

  ‘He’ll be back in a minute,’ Roz said and a moment later a nurse came in with the baby in a blue blanket. She laid him on the bed and opened the blanket. ‘Look at him. The shoulders on him. Trust me to get one this shape.’

  ‘Nurse Hopkins delivered him,’ Roz explained but the grandparents were craning to see the baby. He was almost square with broad shoulders and a mop of dark curls.

  ‘I said he’d be a footballer. Look at his legs,’ Roz said delightedly.

  ‘More likely a boxer,’ Tom said. ‘Look at his fists.’

  The nurse wrapped the blanket around the baby and lifted him up. ‘Now who’s he like?’ she said, glancing round them. She leaned over to the bed to look at Sam and gave an exultant cry. She pointed to Sam’s ear. ‘Look at that, Roz.’ She turned back the blanket from the baby’s head and put her finger under his tiny ear. ‘Now look at that.’

  There on the little shell-like ear was the exact replica of the nick in Sam’s ear.

  Sam turned and looked at Nellie and she looked back at him with shining eyes. He held out his arms
and the nurse placed the baby in them.

  ‘There you are, Dad,’ Tom said. ‘Your first grandchild.’

  Sam lifted his head and looked proudly round at his family.

  ‘Yes. Thank God,’ he said. ‘My own first grandchild.’

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank the numerous people who have given me help and encouragement over the years, particularly Margaret Thomson Davis, Dianne Doubtfire and Mary Johnson in my early years of writing. Members of Crosby Writers’ Club and, for this book especially, Don Higham for help with seafaring research. The staff of Crosby and Bootle Libraries and, as always, my husband and all my family. My sincere thanks to all.

  First published in the United Kingdom in 1994 by Headline

  This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by

  Canelo Digital Publishing Limited

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  Copyright © Elizabeth Murphy, 1994

  The moral right of Elizabeth Murphy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781788634786

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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