Home Fires and Spitfires

by Daisy Styles

  Feeling sick with fear and apprehension, Harry took a deep breath before he rang the front doorbell and waited, hardly daring to breathe. A few minutes passed before a rather beautiful nurse with deep, dark-blue eyes opened the door.

  ‘Good morning, may I help?’ she said pleasantly.

  Tongue-tied, Harry was momentarily lost for words. ‘I’m Harry Langham,’ he finally blurted out. ‘Diana Bishop is my fiancée. Is she here?’

  Ada visibly paled. Gripping the door handle for support, she gasped in shock. ‘Oh, heavens!’ she cried, and repeated exactly the same words that Harry’s Duxford pal had said on first sight of him: ‘You’re alive!’

  Now almost frantic, Harry repeated his question. ‘Yes, yes, I’m very much alive,’ he spluttered. ‘I beg you, please tell me, is Diana still here?’ he implored.

  Ada gave a quick nod and smiled delightedly as she beckoned him inside. ‘Yes, yes, Diana’s here. She’s in the nursery.’

  With butterflies whirling in her stomach, Ada led the visitor along the corridor. Before they reached the nursery, she paused to lay a warning hand on Harry’s shoulder. ‘This is going to come as a terrible shock to Diana,’ she said anxiously. ‘A good shock, of course, the best thing that could possibly happen, but nevertheless … you’ll need to be very careful with her,’ Ada said in her firmest professional voice.

  Harry gave her a curt nod, his eyes anxious and questioning.

  ‘The baby came early; she’s really only just getting her health back after …’ Ada explained, unable to summon up in a sentence quite what her patient had gone through over the past few months. ‘Well, after everything that happened,’ she finished limply.

  ‘I promise I’ll be careful, only please,’ he begged once more, ‘just let me see her.’

  Totally unaware of what was taking place only around the corner, Diana was stooping over the canvas cot, where Teddy lay squealing in delight at her smiling face.

  ‘Come here, you little rascal,’ Diana laughed, as she lifted her son into her arms and covered his smiling face with kisses. ‘Mummy’s darling boy,’ she murmured into his ear just as Ada walked into the nursery, followed by Harry in his blue uniform. As his eyes locked on to hers, Diana went absolutely still, hardly daring to believe her eyes, before letting out an animal noise that brought a sob into Ada’s throat. Harry walked slowly towards his fiancée, who clutched her son tightly to her chest. The uncomfortable squeal of her little boy seemed to bring Diana to her senses, and, standing wide-eyed, she felt Harry’s arms wrap around her body, and then she smelt him; tweed, soap and tobacco. Still unable to speak, she leant her head against his warm chest, where she listened to the steady beat of his heart. Teddy’s second indignant squeal made them both start in surprise.

  Anxious Ada stepped forward. ‘Shall I take him, dear?’ she asked softly.

  Diana shook her head. ‘No thanks, Ada,’ she murmured. ‘It’s time Teddy met his father.’

  Laying the baby in Harry’s arms, Diana watched and waited.

  ‘Teddy,’ Harry whispered, as he gently rolled his hand over his son’s soft, downy hair, then stared into eyes exactly the same colour as his own. ‘My little boy.’

  As tears rolled unchecked down Harry’s face, Ada guided the little family into the empty dining room.

  ‘You can have a bit of privacy for the time being in here,’ she told them. ‘I’ll just go and make you both a cup of tea.’

  Closing the door softly behind her, Ada all but ran to the kitchen, where Sister Mary Paul and Sister Theresa were rolling pastry for an onion-and-mincemeat pie for lunch.

  ‘Oh, my God!’ she exclaimed, as she rushed into the room. ‘You’re never going to believe this.’

  In the dining room Harry and Diana clung to each other as much as was possible, given that wriggling Teddy was in between them.

  ‘I thought you were dead,’ she cried.

  ‘I know, I know, forgive me,’ he begged, and kissed her over and over again.

  ‘I thought I’d never see you again,’ she murmured, as she traced the line of Harry’s nose and mouth with her free hand.

  ‘Darling, I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry. What you must have been through …’

  ‘And you too, Harry, I have so many questions. Where have you been all this time – why did Robson write and tell me you were dead?’

  ‘It’s not his fault, darling. He went off the information he was given; he acted with the very best motives,’ Harry told her.

  ‘I wanted to die too!’ Diana exclaimed. ‘There was nothing for me to live for without you.’

  Squealing Teddy, who was both hungry and restless, interrupted her passionate outburst.

  ‘I’ve got to feed him,’ Diana told Harry, as she settled herself in an armchair close to the fireplace.

  Standing with his back to the fire, Harry watched with tears in his eyes as the love of his life unbuttoned the top of her blouse and put Teddy to her breast.

  The noisy contented sound of his son made Harry laugh with joy. ‘You look like an image of the Madonna and Child,’ he exclaimed in wonder.

  ‘It doesn’t feel like that with this little one tugging hard at me,’ Diana said, grinning. ‘But I love it,’ she murmured, bending to kiss her baby’s head. ‘He’s a hungry chap,’ she added with a proud smile.

  Watching Harry gazing at his son, Diana beckoned for him to come closer. As he settled on the arm of the chair next to her, she lovingly leant her head against his chest. ‘There are so many, many questions I want to ask you.’

  Harry laid a finger softly on her lips. ‘Later, my darling, I’ll tell you everything,’ he murmured. ‘For now, just being here, with you and my son, is everything I want. It was all that I’ve hoped and prayed for, and sometimes wondered if I would ever experience,’ he finished with a catch in his voice.

  She nodded tearfully and they sat in sweet, peaceful silence: a little family reunited after months of sorrow, and, just for now, there was nothing in the world either wanted more than this perfect moment.

  When Ada returned with a loaded tray of tea and bread and butter, she found Harry with his arms encircled around his fiancee and his son. Leaving the tray on the table, Ada swiftly left the room. Closing the door behind her, Ada stood and smiled – Diana and Harry had a lot to catch up on.

  While Teddy slept in the nursery, Diana’s many questions were gradually answered.

  ‘Poor Diana,’ he groaned. ‘The agonies I must have put you through.’

  ‘I can’t deny it wasn’t hard, especially when you didn’t come back and I was faced with a solid wall of silence in the Ops Block. I felt very, very alone,’ she confessed.

  ‘But you found this wonderful place!’ exclaimed Harry, who had had a brief tour.

  ‘Sheer luck,’ Diana told him. ‘But you’re right, it is a wonderful place. I’ve felt happy and safe here, and I’ve made wonderful friends – Zelda, Ada and Gracie, people I would never have mixed with in ordinary life – but they’re women who have changed my life. I know that we’ll be friends forever,’ she admitted with tears shining in her cornflower-blue eyes.

  ‘I was helped by so many wonderful people too: we’ve both been fortunate, so blessed by strangers.’ Harry shook his head as he recalled the bravery of the very many men who had helped him navigate his perilous journey home.

  Gazing into Harry’s smiling face, poor Diana, still shell-shocked, simply couldn’t hold back her tears. ‘Oh, my darling,’ she said, as she started to cry all over again. ‘I was so frightened without you.’

  ‘Shhh, my love,’ he soothed as he gently rocked her in his arms and stroked her hair.

  ‘I didn’t know where to go, or what to do, or what I would tell Teddy about you when he was older. I was such an utter mess,’ she sobbed.

  Harry waited quietly until she was calmer. ‘We’ll be fine now, my darling, I’ve been granted leave and I promise I’m going nowhere without you and my son.’

  Diana looked up fearfully
. ‘How much leave?’ she asked tremulously.

  ‘Enough time to marry you and get to know my boy too,’ Harry replied with a lump in his throat.

  ‘Marry me?’ Diana said the words tentatively. ‘Remember what happened last time we made plans to marry?’

  ‘This time will be different,’ Harry promised cheerfully.

  ‘I won’t let you out of my sight for a second,’ she told him with a determined smile.

  ‘I don’t want to be out of your sight,’ he answered passionately. ‘I want to be able to touch you, feel you, kiss you, turn around and see you – I’ll never be able to get enough of you, sweet Diana Bishop.’

  Kissing her long, slender fingers, Harry asked nervously, ‘Are you sure you still want to marry the wretched man who put you through so much misery?’

  Diana gazed into his eyes that were full of uncertainty. ‘There’s nothing more in the world that I want, Harry. A lifetime with you and Teddy was something that I thought I had lost forever.’

  35. Arrangements

  Harry was given a guest room in the convent, where he was fussed over by all the nuns, while in her kitchen Sister Mary Paul made Harry nourishing meals ‘to put a bit of flesh on his bones’. Harry’s time in the convent proved useful in more ways than one. He quickly introduced himself to Father Ben, who was a mine of useful information when it came to Diana and Harry’s forthcoming wedding.

  ‘The nearest church is St Mary’s in Allithwaite Village,’ he told Harry, as they took a stroll round the convent gardens. ‘I know the priest there, Father Peter, and I’m sure he’ll be able to accommodate your wishes. You’ll need to have the banns read, of course,’ he added. ‘They’re usually read on three separate Sundays in the three months before the ceremony takes place.’

  Harry’s face dropped. ‘I’m on compassionate leave but I might be called back to London at any time. I was hoping we could get married immediately; then I can settle my family in a new home before I’m posted elsewhere.’

  ‘We live in strange times. I’m sure Father Peter has had many an anxious groom asking just the same question,’ Father Ben assured Harry, who gave the priest a grateful smile.

  ‘When I next part from Diana, I want to leave her and Teddy in a secure place,’ Harry said earnestly. ‘We’re a family now and I never want her to feel abandoned again.’

  ‘I quite understand,’ Father Ben said. ‘We’ll need to get you a Special Licence,’ he added. ‘While we’re waiting for it to come through, let Diana have this happy time with you, my son – God knows, she deserves it.’

  Diana was eager to introduce Harry to Teddy’s best friend, George.

  ‘They were born the same day, a few hours apart, and they’ve slept side by side in the nursery ever since. Look at them now,’ she laughed, as she pointed to the two little boys rolling around on the nursery mat, gurgling as they made grabs for each other’s tiny fingers.

  Harry watched the boys in delight. ‘They’re so strong,’ he exclaimed. ‘They can’t leave each other alone.’ He laughed as Teddy yanked at George’s glossy dark curls.

  When it came to feeding time, Harry popped George on to his knee and fed him with a bottle, while Diana breast-fed Teddy. Seeing Harry cradling George in one arm while he tried to steady the bottle in the other brought a smile to Diana’s face.

  ‘Heavens!’ Harry exclaimed as hungry George drained the bottle in no time. ‘This chap can put it away.’

  ‘Now burp him,’ Diana instructed.

  ‘How do I do that?’

  ‘Put a cloth over your shoulder in case he’s sick,’ Diana advised. ‘Now lay him against your shoulder and gently rub his back until he burps.’

  Looking as if he were holding the crown jewels, Harry cautiously rubbed George’s back, then chuckled as the little boy gave a series of burps.

  ‘Thank you for helping, darling,’ Diana said. ‘I try to feed them both together, but the bigger they grow the more demanding they get; sometimes it’s quite a juggling act,’ she admitted.

  Holding sleepy George close to his chest, Harry gazed into his big dark eyes. ‘Where’s his mother?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘She left when George was six weeks old; she hasn’t seen him since,’ Diana answered.

  ‘She must have been devastated?’

  ‘Oh, she was,’ Diana assured Harry, as she set about burping Teddy. ‘She adored George and would have kept him but for her family, who refused to have anything to do with a child of mixed race.’

  ‘Poor little chap,’ Harry murmured. ‘What will happen to him?’

  ‘Marie left him here to be adopted … but it’s not happened yet,’ she added sadly.

  ‘But he’s gorgeous,’ Harry cried. ‘Strong, healthy, bright and as good as gold.’

  ‘He’s all of those things and many more,’ Diana said passionately. ‘But prospective parents thought it only right that a child of colour should be brought up by parents of colour. Actually,’ she hotly blurted out, ‘I would happily raise George beside Teddy and call myself proud to be the mother of such a wonderful little boy – whatever the colour of his skin!’

  The Allithwaite vicar, who had been advised by Father Ben as to the urgency of Harry’s circumstances, agreed to marry the couple by Special Licence. Once Harry was sure of the wedding date, he suggested to Diana they went into Grange for a walk on the vast beach that stretched way out to the Irish Sea. Diana had been worried about leaving the babies, but Dora had allayed her fears with a wave of her hand.

  ‘Away with you! If I can’t handle two extra babies for a few hours I shouldn’t be in the job,’ she teased. ‘You’ve been cooped up here for weeks on end; take a break and have some fun with your handsome young man.’

  Hand in hand, the couple walked the short mile along the track into Grange, which, by comparison with quiet, isolated Kents Bank, was buzzing with activity. It was pleasantly exhilarating to be out among people going about their business, popping in and out of shops and stopping on street corners to pass the time of day with friends and neighbours. After walking along the esplanade in the gusty wind that brought colour to Diana’s high cheekbones, they hurried into the warmth of the Smugglers’ Arms Inn, where Harry ordered tea.

  Sitting by the crackling log fire, Harry mused, ‘This is the first time we’ve been really alone since the day I left you in Shelford.’

  Diana cocked her head as she reflected on the last year.

  ‘I suppose it is,’ she agreed.

  ‘We were happy in Shelford, weren’t we?’

  Diana gave a radiant smile. ‘Very happy,’ she assured Harry, who took a deep breath before unfolding his plan.

  ‘So, my darling girl, how would you feel about going back there?’

  ‘I would absolutely love to go back to Cambridge!’ she exclaimed. ‘It would be like going back home.’

  Harry waited for the waitress to set down her tray loaded with tea and toasted tea cakes, before he continued with a twinkle in his eye.

  ‘We’ll carry on where we left off,’ Harry said happily.

  Diana’s smiling face suddenly tensed as a thought occurred to her. ‘But your work?’ she asked fearfully. ‘Where will they send you next?’

  Harry gave a playful wink. ‘Derek Robson in the Ops Block is in the process of pulling a few strings; he’s hoping to recall me to Duxford’s viewing gallery. It’s not firmed up yet,’ Harry added hastily. ‘But Derek’s hopeful that it might be soon.’

  ‘So, you won’t be sent away?’ Diana gasped.

  ‘Not immediately,’ he assured her. ‘Oh, and there’s just one more thing about moving back to Cambridge,’ Harry said, smiling.

  Diana gave him a teasing look. ‘You seem to have covered everything, darling. ‘

  ‘With your permission I’d like George to join us in Cambridge too!’

  In floods of tears, Diana, completely overcome with happiness, had to be taken out of the cosy inn, where the drama of their intense conversation was attracting too much
attention. Once outside, Harry swung his fiancée into his arms, wiping away her tears with his kisses.

  ‘The last thing I wanted to do was to make you cry, my love.’

  Clinging to him, Diana laughed with joy. ‘I’ve never felt happier in the whole of my life. It’s exactly what I wanted!’

  ‘I know,’ he smiled. ‘I’d only got to look at you to see that.’

  ‘I was dreading parting them,’ Diana confessed. ‘Teddy and George love each other like brothers.’

  ‘Father Ben is already working on the adoption papers,’ he told her.

  Now that she was able to process what was going on, Diana’s brain started racing. ‘I’ll need to phone the farmer to see if the Shelford cottage is still vacant.’

  ‘It was when I was last there quite recently,’ Harry said. ‘It will need warming up. It might be a bit damp after being empty for so long.’

  Diana shook her head as if she could not quite take everything in. Tipping her small chin so he could smile into her cornflower-blue eyes, Harry said, ‘Invite everybody in the Home and the convent to our wedding, sweetheart – let’s make it a day of real celebration!’

  With her wedding day fast approaching, Diana went into a flat spin. She would have been content to walk down the aisle in her pale-blue WAAF uniform if Gracie, Ada and Zelda hadn’t taken her to one side.

  ‘I was going to leave the Home next week but now I’ll leave the day after your wedding – I wouldn’t miss you getting wed for the world,’ Gracie announced. ‘My last gift to you before I rejoin my mates in the shipyard is to do your make-up and hair on your wedding day.’

  Before Diana could open her mouth to protest Ada joined in. ‘And mine is to help you sort out what you’re wearing.’

  ‘And I’m doing the bouquets, corsages and buttonholes,’ Zelda chipped in.