The Spitfire Sisters

by Margaret Dickinson

  Norah paused for breath, but Len said not a word. He was staring at her, open-mouthed, wondering if she’d lost her reason. He’d heard it said that when some folks got older, their character changed and he wondered if this was happening to his meek wife.

  He opened his mouth and then closed it again. Norah wasn’t done yet, though her voice was a little calmer now. ‘I’ve always done exactly what you told me to do, even siding with you when you encouraged the lads to go to war and, may God forgive me, I didn’t even argue with you over William. He was no coward – I know that now – but I’ve always been too afraid to stand up to you. And now this. Luke wants to do his duty, but this time, you don’t want him to go just because he’s all you have left. It’s always about you, isn’t it, Len? What you want. Well, this time you’ve found someone who’s standing up to you, and so am I, so if you think you can give me a good hiding after he’s gone, you can think again, ’cos I’ll pack me bags and be out of here.’

  ‘Oh aye, and where would you go?’ Len sneered.

  ‘Bess Cooper’s,’ Norah said promptly. ‘She’s always said there’s a bed for me at her house.’

  ‘Been telling that gossip all our business, have ya?’

  ‘I don’t need to tell anyone. The whole village has known for years what ya like. Now, say “goodbye” to ya grandson and wish him well, why don’t you? You’ve still got young Harry, at least at the moment, and there’s always Sam.’

  ‘I’ll wish him nowt,’ Len growled, and he stood up and stormed out of the cottage.

  ‘Oh Gran, are you going to be all right? He’ll not like you crossing him like that. I’m so afraid he’ll take it out on you later,’ Luke said.

  Norah put her arms around him and laid her head against the young man’s shoulder. Luke held her close. ‘Don’t you worry about me, love. Just take good care of yourself and come back to us safe and sound.’

  His voice trembled as he said, ‘I’ll do me best, Gran.’

  When he went back home to spend his final evening with his family, he told them what had happened, adding, ‘Dad, keep an eye on me gran, won’t you?’

  Solemnly, Sam shook his stepson’s hand and gave him his word.

  Two days after Gill returned home, it was announced in the newspapers that the evacuation of children from cities and towns had begun. At once, the villagers, led by Henrietta’s example, offered to take children from cities thought to be under the greatest threat.

  ‘Why are children coming here to Lincoln?’ Daisy asked. ‘Surely Lincoln’s industry will become a target, won’t it?’

  ‘More than likely,’ Henrietta remarked briskly, ‘but for the moment, they’re coming to us, not going away from here.’

  ‘Where are they coming from?’

  ‘I don’t know yet. I just know that our local billeting officer has asked for volunteers to take children arriving at the station. Oh, and by the way, Daisy, just so you know, I have been speaking to the headquarters of the Women’s Voluntary Services and they have put me in touch with our local Rural District Organizer. They’ll be wanting extra help.’

  ‘Oh Granny, haven’t you enough to do here?’

  Henrietta smiled and put her head on one side. ‘Not now you’re here, dear.’

  ‘But I’m supposed to be making life easier for you, not freeing up more time for you to undertake something else.’

  ‘Nonsense, Daisy. I am quite fit and keeping active and busy holds the years back. And I shall enlist your Grandpa’s help as well. High time he made himself useful again. He’s enjoying the idle life a mite too much for my liking.’

  Daisy giggled. ‘Oh Granny, don’t be so hard on him. He is almost eighty.’

  ‘And I’m seventy-five, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to do my bit.’

  To that, Daisy had no answer.

  Very few villagers owned a wireless set, apart from the Maitland family; Len refused to have one in the house, and Peggy and Sam felt they couldn’t afford the luxury, as did both their parents. So it was that the Maitlands, the Dawsons, the Coopers and even the Nuttalls too – all connected by marriage now – gathered together in the Great Hall at just after eleven o’clock on the morning of Sunday, 3 September. To everyone’s surprise, even Len had come. And this time the servants at the hall were there too. Only George was missing. He felt his place was in London at such a time.

  ‘If it wasn’t so serious,’ Bess tried to raise a smile, ‘it’d be just like our Boxing Day get-together.’

  ‘I haven’t put on quite the same spread, Mrs Cooper,’ Henrietta said, ‘but there’s tea, coffee and biscuits. Please help yourselves.’

  When the Prime Minister’s voice came over the airways, the gathering fell silent, their eyes all on the wireless set as if they were visualizing Mr Chamberlain sitting in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street to deliver the sombre message.

  As the broadcast ended, Edwin switched off the set and turned to glance around the room. ‘So, that’s it, then. We are at war once again and with the same enemy.’

  ‘D’you know, sir,’ Sam said respectfully, ‘mebbe it ain’t my place to say, but I don’t think the last one ever really ended. I reckon we’ve just had a long truce and now they’re determined to finish it. And this time, he’s got Russia on his side.’

  ‘For the moment, yes, he has,’ Edwin replied, nodding.

  Pips, home for the weekend, sat at one side of the long table, thoughtfully stirring her cup of tea. She glanced up and met her brother’s gaze across the table. ‘So, Robert,’ she said softly, ‘what are we going to do this time?’

  Robert sighed. ‘I don’t think there’s a lot I can do. No doubt you’ll be driving an ambulance somewhere, though I hope this time you’ll stay in this country. If they start bombing us, London will be a prime target. You’ll be needed there.’

  ‘I’ll have to do something. I can’t sit around doing nothing and I certainly won’t see much of George. He’s been coming home late from work for months now. He’s almost grey with worry and tiredness. I expect it’s only going to get worse for him and Paul now. And we mustn’t forget Rebecca’s Matthew at the Foreign Office.’

  ‘You could always enlist Rebecca to go out in your ambulance with you.’

  ‘She’s already said she’ll offer her services to the Red Cross.’

  ‘They’d probably be glad of your services, too, even though you’re not officially trained.’

  ‘Some more tea, Mr Dawson?’ Henrietta said. ‘You, too, Mrs Dawson?’

  ‘Thank you, Mrs Maitland,’ Len said politely. The mistress of the hall and the surrounding lands was perhaps the only person for whom Len had real respect. ‘I’d best be getting back. We’ve left young Harry holding the fort, because work does come in on a Sunday.’ He nodded towards the wireless and then his eyes met Henrietta’s calm gaze. ‘No doubt you’ll have heard that Luke’s gone?’

  ‘We have, yes.’

  ‘I didn’t want him to go,’ he blurted out and now the other voices in the room fell silent. ‘I know what you all think – that I was only too keen last time for my lads to go. All of them,’ he added pointedly. ‘And that I’m some kind of turncoat, saying the opposite now.’

  ‘None of us want our children – or grandchildren – to go, Mr Dawson, but most of them will be called up anyway, eventually. No doubt Harry will have to go too at some stage.’ Henrietta glanced towards Clara Nuttall, expecting an outburst of weeping from the woman. But surprisingly, though tears filled her eyes and the cup she held in her trembling hands rattled in its saucer, Clara said nothing.

  ‘I reckon I could have got a – whatchamacallit – for both of them,’ Len went on. ‘Their occupations are allied to agriculture, now, aren’t they? I reckon you could have helped me there, Mrs Maitland, if you’d had a mind to.’ His tone was accusatory now. It was the boldest he’d ever addressed her.

  ‘I’d have been only too happy to have tried, Mr Dawson, but the young men have to ask me themselves.’


  ‘Oh Mrs Maitland . . .’ Now Clara butted in. ‘D’you mean you’ll do it for Harry if he asks you?’

  ‘I’d do my best to help, of course, in any way I could, but it must come from Harry himself.’

  ‘Peggy,’ Clara turned to her daughter-in-law, ‘you ask Mrs Maitland. After all, they’re both your boys.’

  Peggy had been silent throughout the broadcast and even afterwards. She was standing next to Sam, leaning against him as if for support. Now she took a deep breath and straightened up. ‘We all know what happens in a war, don’t we?’ Her glance took in everyone in the room. ‘Of course I don’t want my boys to go. I’d lock ’em in their bedroom and throw away the key, if I could, but I can’t. We’ve brought both of them up to be good boys, to honour the memory of those we lost and now they’ve got to do their duty and fight once again for our freedom, because to give in and allow this monster Hitler to win would be to dishonour all those who gave their lives last time. Whatever the cost, as a family, as a community, as a nation, we have to pay it, because we have to win.’

  Usually a shy woman, it was one of the longest speeches any of them had ever heard Peggy make and, even now, she hadn’t finished.

  ‘I know what an appalling loss you suffered last time, Mr Dawson, and I can understand you not wanting to lose your only grandson, but he has to go. He has to. And Harry will go too with our blessing, if he chooses to, even though it will break my heart. But I beg you, please, Mr Dawson, don’t cut Luke off. Don’t disown him.’ As Len opened his mouth, she held up her hand to stop him. ‘And before you say it, this isn’t about him being the heir to your business. Not wanting to sound rude or ungrateful, but, right at this minute, I couldn’t care less about that. It’s just that I don’t want to see any more family feuds.’

  She fell silent at last and everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for Len to speak. Very quietly, he set his cup and saucer on the table, turned and left the room, letting himself out of the front door without speaking.

  ‘He dun’t give in, does he?’ Bess muttered and then turned to Norah. ‘I reckon you’d better come home with me and Charlie tonight, duck.’

  ‘Mrs Cooper’s right, isn’t she?’ Pips said, as the family sat down to dinner later that evening. ‘Mr Dawson doesn’t give in, but what I really can’t understand is why he’s saying exactly the opposite this time to what he said before.’

  ‘I expect he’s learned his lesson,’ Edwin said drily, ‘but he’s not a man to admit he was ever wrong.’

  ‘And what about Harry? Do you think he will go? He’ll be eighteen in December.’

  ‘Oh, he’ll go,’ Daisy said, before anyone else could answer Pips’s question. She smiled wryly. ‘He’ll always follow Luke. And to be honest, if they allowed women to fly, I’d be going too.’

  Twenty-One

  The following morning when they met in the estate office, Henrietta said, ‘You’ll be far more useful here, Daisy, than becoming a waitress in the mess on some RAF or army camp, or working in a factory. We’ll undoubtedly get an exemption for you, if it comes to it, because I’m sure that very shortly there are going to be demands from the Ministry of Agriculture for us all to grow more food and this is where we’ll come in. We have a lot of land that can be utilized.’ She laughed. ‘Even the croquet lawn, if necessary.’

  ‘Granny, do you think we should involve Jake more?’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘With our plans. He’s head gardener, so it’s going to affect him if we extend his vegetable patch, as I’m sure we must.’

  ‘But don’t forget he’s head groom too. He has a stable lad under him now and two boys in the gardens, but—’

  ‘Then don’t you think he should have a cottage on the estate now as befits his position instead of living above the stables?’

  ‘I do indeed, Daisy.’ Henrietta laughed. ‘I ask him every year on the day we celebrate his birthday.’

  ‘Midsummer Day, because no one knows his actual birthday – not even him.’

  ‘Exactly, but his reply has always been the same and I expect it always will be.’ She imitated Jake’s broad Lincolnshire accent as she added, ‘“I likes living in the stables. I need to be near me ’osses.”’

  They laughed together, but it was done fondly when thinking about the man who had been part of their lives for many years – in fact, for the whole of Daisy’s life and more.

  ‘So,’ Henrietta continued, ‘let’s start planning what we’re going to do.’

  They spent the rest of the morning happily poring over maps of the grounds and estate lands and making notes for the future. As the gong sounded for luncheon, Henrietta rolled up the maps. ‘You know, I think we’ll lose one or two of our workers to the war, especially the single young men.’

  ‘I expect so, but there may be a few school leavers in the area looking for work and maybe one or two older men who’d be able to do the lighter jobs on a part-time basis, perhaps.’

  ‘And then, of course, there’ll be the land girls.’

  Daisy giggled. ‘If they arrive in droves, it’ll cause a stir.’

  ‘Alice, will you join Daisy and me in the office?’ Henrietta said the next morning as they were all finishing breakfast. Robert had already disappeared to open the surgery and Edwin had retired behind his newspaper in the parlour. ‘Daisy and I have several ideas we’d like to discuss with you.’

  Alice’s eyes widened. ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes, you, my dear.’

  ‘But – but I don’t know anything about running the estate. Surely, if you want another opinion, it should be Father or Robert.’

  ‘This isn’t about the estate as such, Alice. It’s what I would like us to do to help the war effort that I wish us to discuss and who we can get to join us. I know you help Robert and Conrad with their paperwork, but I’m sure you could find a little time to help us, couldn’t you? Would you just ask Sarah to bring some coffee into the office and I will explain everything?’

  Still mystified, Alice shrugged, did as she was asked and then followed her mother-in-law and her daughter into the office.

  When they were all seated, Henrietta stirred her coffee and murmured, ‘I don’t expect we’ll be getting much more of this soon. They’ll be starting all sorts of rationing.’ Then she seemed to shake herself and bring her thoughts back to the matter in hand.

  ‘First of all, I intend to set up a branch of the WVS here in the village. I’ve been in touch with our local organizer and she’s all in favour of the idea.’

  ‘There’ll be one in Lincoln, won’t there?’

  ‘Very likely, but I want one here. One that I can run myself.’

  Alice and Daisy did not dare glance at one another. ‘Go on, Granny.’

  ‘I also intend to offer my services as a billeting officer for the village. As we know, the evacuation of children and young mothers with babies has already begun. The first trainload of children arrived in Lincoln last week from Leeds, so I fully expect that very soon we shall be asked to take our share here in Doddington. And I am well placed to know who can take how many children, and so on, far better than an official from the city.’

  ‘That’s true, but you shouldn’t be taking on so much, Mother.’

  Henrietta smiled winningly. ‘That’s why I need your help – both of you. I want us all to join the WVS and I’m also going to ask Mrs Cooper, Mrs Nuttall, Peggy and, of course, Betty, who works here too. And then there’s Kitty’s mother, Mrs Page.’ She paused for a moment before adding, ‘What do you think about your mother, Alice? Would she join us, do you think?’

  ‘I think she’d love to, but just whether my father would allow it, I’m not sure.’

  ‘Mm. I’ll have to see what I can do, then. Would they take an evacuee, d’you think?’

  Now Alice shook her head. ‘I don’t think he’d agree to that.’

  ‘He might have to. There’s going to be such a thing as compulsory billeting. He might not have any choice
.’

  Alice smiled weakly. ‘Mam would love having youngsters about the place again, but I’m not sure I’d want to put any children with him anyway.’

  Henrietta laughed. ‘There is that way of looking at it, Alice. Anyway, are you happy for me to approach the other ladies I’ve mentioned and to ask them to join us?’

  ‘Of course,’ Alice and Daisy chorused. Then Alice added, ‘I think we should include Florence Everton, if you’re agreeable. She and I have become good friends since she arrived.’ Her face clouded for a moment. ‘I think she misses being able to be useful in the community. Calls on her expertise as a midwife don’t come very often in the village.’

  ‘I’d’ve thought she and Conrad would have started their own family by now,’ Henrietta remarked.

  For a moment Alice looked uncomfortable and Henrietta, always astute, added, ‘Ah, perhaps that is a subject best not gone into, is it, Alice?’

  Alice bit her lip and nodded. Florence had confided in Alice that the greatest sadness in their lives was that she and Conrad could not have children. ‘We’ve had all sorts of tests and nothing is wrong with either of us, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening. But, please Alice, don’t say anything to anyone. I don’t want us to be the subject of gossip or of pity.’

  Alice had given her promise and she would not break it even to members of her own family.

  ‘So,’ Henrietta went on now. ‘We’ll certainly include Mrs Everton in our group but we’ll do it properly. Get them all to join the WVS and wear a uniform. That gives them a bit of authority.’

  Alice and Daisy looked at each other and could no longer hide their laughter.

  ‘What?’ Henrietta glanced between them. ‘What have I said?’

  ‘Nothing, Granny. Honestly. I think we’re both imagining Mrs Cooper strutting about the village in her uniform.’

  Now Henrietta joined in their mirth just as a knock on the door came and Wainwright entered.

  ‘Excuse me, Madam, but I wondered if you would have time to have a word with Kitty?’