by Katie King
With a final glance at the grubby doll and then across at the contrast of the twins’ knitted toys, more robust and much cleaner, Peggy felt washed with shame that she had just been wrapped up in herself, lost in the trivial embarrassment of the few minutes earlier that her left her feeling upset and affronted by being given the once-over by a few men in uniform. Ordinary people had had their homes disappear into nothing; this is what she should find upsetting, and certainly not an unwelcome leer or two from some men on their way to war.
It was a salutary lesson that she’d do well not to forget, Peggy told herself, and then, as she and the twins sat in total quiet, too stunned to speak, she spent a mile or two of the bus journey reminding herself very firmly of the myriad things and people in her life she should be grateful for.
‘Peggy! And my darlings!’ squealed Barbara when they tapped on the front door in Jubilee Street.
Barbara’s broad smile was heartening to see, and immediately Peggy felt as if the weight of the world had been swept away in an instant from her shoulders.
She knew Barbara wouldn’t be smiling as she was if Ted had been badly hurt or worse. And the fact her sister wasn’t surprised to see the twins told Peggy that either Roger or Mabel had telephoned the Jolly, to beg someone to pass on the message to Barbara that the three of them were on their way to Bermondsey.
‘Ted’s all right,’ Barbara cried, her eyes shining with happiness.
Jessie and Connie both yelped with pleasure and threw themselves against their mother who hugged them back as tightly as she could.
Peggy smiled at her sister, as she mouthed, ‘How is he really?’
Barbara pulled the children close once more for a final hug, and then she said to all of them, ‘Ted had a concussion that temporarily affected his memory, and he doesn’t seem to have suffered any other obvious injuries other than some cuts and grazes to his hands.
‘He went missing as after he’d had his head bumped, he was helped out of a hole made in the rear of the building by an ambulance crew who didn’t pass the information on to the relevant authorities, or to those working at the front of the building where most of the damage was. And so we found him this morning in a shelter all the way up in Camden – no, don’t ask me why he was there as I have no idea, but I suppose all the ones around here must have been full – when somebody thought to check all the shelters outside the immediate area. He’d lost his memory, but although he was groggy this morning, I hear that now he seems to be getting it back quickly. He’s being brought down from Camden in an ambulance and I’m just about to meet him at the doctor’s. Shall we all walk there together to give him a lovely surprise?’
Peggy suddenly felt overwhelmed with fatigue, and she knew that she’d rather have a moment to herself than to go with the others to collect Ted. ‘You three go to meet him – it will be good for you to have a special family moment. I’ll have a sit-down and wait for you to come back.’ Peggy grinned at Jessie and Connie. ‘And then you two rascals can tell me all about it.’
‘Thanks, Peggy, and I’m delighted you’re here,’ said Barbara, ‘I’ve got warden training tonight, even though I feel a bit that I’m running on empty, and so it’s good that you’ll be able to keep an eye on Ted later. I think I told you I’m being moved from helping with the mobile canteens to assisting the Chief Warden as he deals with bombed-out people and moving those affected to safety, but you and I should have time for a catch-up before I have to go out again.’
As she put the kettle on to heat once they’d gone, Peggy wished she was able to buy some food to chip in with Barbara and Ted’s provisions, but unfortunately her and the twins’ ration books were for use in designated local shops in Harrogate only.
Peggy told herself that she should make the most of whatever Barbara had in the house already and see if she could surprise them with a ready-prepared supper. After a little sit-down, that was.
She looked around her as she slumped in a chair.
It was undeniable that number five Jubilee Street seemed much tinier, and tattier, and colder inside, than Peggy remembered. How odd.
It was verging on the dingy in fact, which she had never previously thought, with its familiar metal bathtub hung on a strong peg from the scullery wall ready to be lifted down and filled with kettles of hot water for the whole family to take turns in on bath night in front of the range in the kitchen, with no indoor plumbing, or Hoover Model 150 vacuum cleaner or electric iron, all of which Mabel owned.
With a little jolt Peggy understood that without realising it had been happening, she had got used to the generous proportions of the large rooms at Tall Trees, and the pleasures having central heating and devices to help with the housework, as well as a proper bathroom and not one but two inside lavatories.
But there was something here that Tall Trees didn’t have, Peggy realised, as then a warm welcome bounded into the kitchen, purring a happy welcome that instantly made Peggy grin.
Fishy, Peggy’s beloved puss when she and Bill had lived a couple of streets away, was clearly pleased to see her.
And as Peggy sat with the little tabby on her lap, the cat’s rhythmic purrs and her paws paddy-padding soon lulled Peggy into a doze from which she started awake only once the twins and Barbara and a tired-looking and slightly woozy Ted arrived back home.
Seeing Ted with an arm around each twin and Barbara and him smiling at each other was a very sweet sight, Peggy thought, as her mood lifted and she thought how nice it was to be back somewhere so familiar, feeling almost as if she had just slipped her feet into some warm and comfy slippers. She really liked Harrogate, but there was something very comforting nonetheless to be found in the wonderfully familiar tiny kitchen in Jubilee Street.
Barbara was bearing a large newspaper-wrapped package as well as some bottles of Mackeson stout and some lemonade to celebrate having everyone back together again.
It was going to be fish and chips for tea, Barbara announced, as she placed the parcel of food on the kitchen table, and told Connie to look lively with the cutlery then reminded Jessie that he was going to need to let go of his father so Ted could sit down. Oh, and they’d popped into the Jolly on the way back to Jubilee street to ring Tall Trees to let everyone know the good news.
They decided to eat their food directly from the newspaper – as who didn’t know that that was the very best way to eat fish and chips? – and there was a separate, much smaller package that Jessie pushed Peggy’s way. Peggy smiled as she knew just what this contained, and how thrilled Fishy would be.
Peggy’s belly rumbled at the smell of the fish and chips. With so many to feed at Tall Trees, a treat of somebody else cooking their supper beside her or Mabel was practically non-existent, and she felt very spoilt as she folded back the newspaper to douse her food in salt and malt vinegar, and then spoon herself out a couple of pickled onions from the jar that Barbara had made with produce from her and Ted’s allotment.
The twins’ happy faces broadcast loudly that they were really pleased about the fish and chips too, but not nearly as pleased as they were about Ted being safely home with a child sitting as close as possible on either side of him.
Fishy was, however, the most thrilled of all about the food as she had a particular fondness for scraps, which was what the local chippy called the bits of batter that had dropped off in the fryer, especially if there was a tiny morsel of fish tucked away now and again inside. Peggy laughed at the way the treat made Fishy purr squeakily and lash her tail with pleasure. It was how she had got her name, and it was the heart-warming sight of the tabby cat and everyone’s contented munching that made Peggy’s heart feel full to bursting.
‘A toast,’ she said, raising her glass of stout. ‘To our dear Ted, and to all of us. And a big phooey to Jerry!’
‘Hear, hear!’ the others said as glasses of stout or lemonade were clinked together. ‘Phooey to Jerry.’
Chapter Fourteen
After Fishy scoffed a second helping of scraps
with such speed that Peggy told her she was a greedy trencher-woman and she’d be sick if she didn’t slow down – not that Fishy listened – Peggy deftly cleared away, insisting that Barbara and Ted remained seated at the kitchen table while she made them all a pot of tea.
As it was still light, the twins were allowed outside for half an hour so that they could visit some of their old haunts, provided they didn’t go anywhere near the docks, or as far as their old school, and that if the siren sounded they ran home as fast as they could.
‘What on earth happened, Ted?’ said Peggy in her most serious voice, once the twins had gone off to explore.
‘I don’t rightly know, to be honest. I remember kissing Barbara before I left for work, an’ then nothing until this morning when it was more than thirty hours later an’ I was in a strange place with no idea of my name or where I lived,’ said Ted. ‘Then somebody asked me if I might be called Ted, and did I live in Jubilee Street? An’ I thought, I like the sound of “Ted” an’ that street, an’ so I said I might be. Barbara arrived then, an’ I remembered who she was. And since then people ‘ave told me about the warehouse, an’ it coming down while I was inside – I was in a doorway in the back I’m told, an’ this was why I wasn’t badly hurt as the lintel took the strain when the wall collapsed. And then I was taken out the other way an’ whisked up to north of the river before anyone knew.’
‘I should jolly well think you would remember who Barbara was! Thank goodness, Ted, it wasn’t worse,’ said Peggy. ‘You gave us all a huge scare, you know.’
‘It’ll be nothing to the scare I’ll give him if he does it again,’ said Barbara grimly. Peggy didn’t think her sister was joking.
Barbara sounded quite indignant as she added, ‘Do you know, when Ted noticed me picking my way between the beds, he told a man sitting nearby that he’d never seen me before in his life, and I heard him! I knew he was joshing, but all the same … I told him to give over, or else I’d leave him there.’
‘Risky, Ted. A very risky strategy. Barbara might then have said to them you were suffering from delusions, once you claimed afterwards that you did know her,’ admonished Peggy. How naughty of Ted to lark around at that point as he must have known that Barbara would have been beside herself with worry, Peggy thought, but then he’d always enjoyed a prank and it must have seemed a perfect moment to have a moment’s fun after the fright of what had happened.
Ted was very pale still, and he admitted to having a headache, so Barbara insisted that he have a couple of aspirins and go to bed for an hour, while she and Peggy caught up.
After he’d disappeared upstairs, Barbara poured Peggy and herself another cup of tea, and said, ‘He’ll be out for the count now. Tell me once again about going to the police station to see Bill as I only had the time to hear the bare bones when I was up in Harrogate. And I want to hear about how you found the twins had done a flit.’
It was quite some time before Peggy paused for breath.
Once she and Barbara had mulled over every nuance of the distress at finding the twins gone, and she’d reminded Barbara what had been said between her and Bill, Barbara told Peggy that she had already put out feelers locally to see if anyone knew of a good solicitor who might be able to offer advice at short notice. Barbara didn’t for a second urge Peggy to think long-term and hope her marriage could survive, and for this Peggy was grateful.
Peggy took special care not to paint Bill to be blacker than he was, even to Barbara, as of course Bill and Ted’s friendship went back a long way as they had known each other since they were three or four years old, and so Peggy reiterated that she didn’t want Ted to ever feel that he was in the awkward position of appearing as if he had to choose between Bill or her, which could conceivably also put Barbara in a difficult position. Peggy hadn’t asked Ted recently what he thought of it all, and Barbara hadn’t commented either about what her husband might be thinking. But Peggy knew he had taken a dim view of Bill getting Maureen pregnant, and he hadn’t enjoyed seeing Bill fight with James. But good friends were good friends, Peggy knew, and so she assumed that Ted would probably keep these feelings to himself when he was with Bill, and that their friendship would go on much as before, as long as Barbara and Peggy weren’t around.
As the twins arrived back and Barbara stood up to put her coat on to go to her training session, Peggy told her, ‘I do hope Ted understands that I don’t want this to come between him and Bill. I think Bill may be in need of a good friend come the war’s end, and so it would be awful if the pair of them were estranged.’
Barbara listened with a sympathetic expression. ‘I’m certain Ted knows that. Meanwhile, Peggy, you are stronger than you think, you know. In fact I think all of us women are, and once it’s peacetime again it’s going to be very possible that we’re not going to love returning to how it was, standing endlessly in front of the kitchen sink. I was terrified for Ted last night, but now he’s safe, I can see that I dug into reserves I didn’t know I had, and I am sure that the same is true of you too.’
Peggy knew exactly what Barbara meant. The sisters looked seriously at each other in agreement, and then as one they leaned across the table to grasp their hands together. It felt good, and for a minute or two as if there was nothing they couldn’t conquer.
Barbara broke the moment. ‘Well, this isn’t going to get the old woman her ninepence. I must get off to ARP training. Peggy, you understand that you’re going to have to nip into the Anderson shelter tonight if the air-raid alarm sounds, don’t you?’ Peggy nodded, and then Barbara said, ‘You’ll be in charge of making sure the twins and Ted get there, if I’m not back by then.’ Jessie and Connie looked quite excited at the prospect. ‘That shelter will be an experience for all of you,’ Barbara added with a grim look that made Peggy feel apprehensive.
Before hostilities broke out, the Government had supplied those who had their own gardens with all the parts of an Anderson shelter that were needed, with instructions of how to construct it from sheets of galvanised corrugated steel. It was, apparently, a design excellent at withstanding blast and shock, but it was quite a Herculean task to get one ready. Homeowners had to bolt the sheets together, making sure the arch for the roof of the shelter felt strong and sturdy. The sides of the shelter were straight, as were the front and back, with the front having a narrow door in its middle.
Ted had constructed the shelter and then grumbled mightily when he’d had to dig a pit four feet deep to wedge it into. It had been back-breaking work, and Barbara had had to help, but at last the shelter was in place. Ted had then banked up the displaced earth around the dome of the corrugated steel, bolstered by rather a lot of sandbags to bring the protection on top of the curved roof up to the fifteen inches of cover the Government specified.
Peggy knew that once they had finished in their own garden, Barbara and Ted had then helped the elderly residents of Jubilee Street with their shelters, as well as a couple of young mothers whose husbands had already been conscripted. Jubilee Street had always had enjoyed a tremendous feeling of community spirit, and everyone liked to muck in together, both in good and bad times. Still, it had been fortunate for a huge number of people that Jerry kept the Phoney War going for as long as it lasted, as it had taken quite a few months to get everybody’s shelters up and functional.
Peggy had noticed earlier that the sandbags and the heaped earth over the shelter in Barbara and Ted’s back garden had been there long enough to have sprouted some tufts of grass.
As Barbara went out of the door, she said, ‘You’ll have to wrap up warmly if you need to go in the shelter, do you hear me, Jessie and Connie? Take a Thermos in with you – maybe Peggy can make it beforehand – and eiderdowns and cushions, and I’ve a spare torch you can use. The shelter isn’t exactly roomy, but it’s what we have. Try to take Fishy in with you too.’
The evacuees hadn’t had personal experience of an air raid yet in Harrogate, and the plan back at Tall Trees was that if the siren went, then everyon
e would charge like the clappers the length of the garden path in order to take refuge in an old mossy icehouse down at the bottom end of the garden, in a dark and shaded area under the fir trees that gave the rectory its name. Roger had made them all practise this several times, and Porky was yet not to be the first into the icehouse; he clearly wasn’t going to risk being a piglet left to fend for himself when everyone else was taking refuge.
The icehouse had been there for donkey’s years and was made of a double layer of large stone blocks, strengthened when Roger had put in struts for extra support as it was very spacious inside. Luckily, it had been built largely underground in order to keep a constant low temperature to prevent the large blocks of ice it would once have contained from melting. A motley collection of camp beds and ancient garden seating had been put inside. For now, its big colony of spiders remained in charge, as the siren in Harrogate was yet to sound.
‘We’d best give it a once-over,’ said Connie, sounding very practical and grown-up, and Jessie, Peggy and Fishy followed her outside to see what was what as regards the Anderson shelter.
The entrance was only feet away from the outside WC, the only ‘facilities’ the Jubilee street house possessed. In fact the wooden door to the lean-to toilet was so close to the entrance down to the shelter that Peggy’s elbow touched the latch as she passed.
Once down a couple of steps and inside, it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t roomy.
Peggy had of course seen Anderson shelters from the outside, but she had never ventured into one before. It was ‘compact’, to say the least. She estimated it couldn’t be even five feet wide nor much longer than six feet. Ted had laid some boards down on the earth to give it what passed for a floor, and there was a small drainage sump and so Peggy assumed that this must mean that either it leaked from the rain or that if people were inside, then perhaps the warmth of their breath would cause condensation to gather on the inside walls of the shelter and then pool on the floor, neither of which were appealing thoughts.