by Rosie Clarke
‘No, Able! They would lock you up then,’ Peggy said, immediately anxious.
‘Better that than you should be hurt,’ he replied with a grim look. ‘I’d thrash him if I had two good arms, but I can still shoot my gun – and who is going to lock me up – a one-armed man – for self-defence of my wife and myself?’
Peggy shook her head. The last thing she wanted was Able arrested for killing a man who threatened her, but it warmed her to hear him say it and she knew that there were lots of eyes in the lane that would look out for strangers now. No one would get the chance to come at her by surprise again.
Shrugging, she went into the pub kitchen and joined Maureen at the workstation, telling her what had happened.
‘I don’t blame Able for saying he’d shoot him,’ Maureen said in outrage. ‘I’d take a rolling pin and batter him to death if he came anywhere near you when I was around.’
Peggy laughed, her doubts and fears banished. How could she be anxious when she had so many good and protective friends?
It was almost a week later that someone knocked at the back door of the pub. Peggy was cooking cakes with Maureen for the shop and Dot answered it. Hearing an indignant cry from their faithful helper, they both looked round and saw that she’d been roughly pushed aside by a large woman with a grim face. She was wearing a dark coat over an apron and her hair had been shoved up under a black felt hat.
‘You’re that Peggy with a queer name,’ she said, staring at Peggy in a belligerent manner, hand on hips and thin mouth drawn into a line. ‘What have yer done wiv my girl I want ter know? The bloody brat has run off again and I’ve no one to mind the shop!’
Peggy blinked at her, puzzled as to what she meant and then the penny dropped. ‘Are you speaking of Gillian?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know what the lying little bitch told you her name was, but it’s Jilly – Jilly Carr – and I’m her aunt. She’s supposed to work for me. I feed and clothe her – and the ungrateful girl ran off wiv me gold brooch and two pounds from the till.’
Maureen was about to say something, but Peggy shook her head at her. ‘I’m sorry, Madam, but I didn’t catch your name – who did you say you were?’
‘I can’t see what that has to do wiv it! I want me girl back or I’m orf to the police.’
Peggy’s eyes narrowed. ‘You say you’re Gillian’s aunt, though you call her Jilly – so have you spoken to her father about her?’
‘I haven’t spoken to that bastard for years,’ the woman said, ‘and I never shall – but Nate Parker told me he’d heard she was wiv that bloody Peggy wiv the foreign name, so I’ve come looking for her. I want her back and I ain’t leavin’ without her. If he gets his hands on her, he’ll wring her neck after what she done to ’im, so she’s best orf wiv me. I can handle that bugger—’
‘Obviously, I cannot give Gillian to you unless I know you’re really her aunt,’ Peggy said, flashing a warning look at Maureen, who looked as if she might burst.
‘I’m her Aunt Olive, ain’t I?’ the woman said in a belligerent tone. ‘I married a useless bugger named Jack Peacock, but he hopped it after ten years – went in the Army, I reckon. I run a grocers’ shop and I need Jilly to help me run the business and do a few other jobs.’
‘I’ll just bet you do,’ Peggy said, holding her temper by a thread. ‘What else did you expect her to do – all the housework, I imagine, and the washing-up, and how much did you feed her? When I found her, she was nothing but skin and bone and covered in bruises.’
‘She’s a lazy little bitch,’ Olive Peacock said angrily. ‘I had to tickle her with my stick to make her work.’
‘You disgusting woman!’ Maureen burst out, unable to hold her indignation any longer. ‘Just get out of here and don’t you dare come back again…’
Peggy held up her hand to stop her friend physically trying to eject the intruder. ‘I suggest you leave, Mrs Peacock. I have nothing more to say to you.’
‘Think you can keep her from me, do you?’ the irate aunt demanded. ‘I’ll have the law on you!’
‘Yes, you go down to the station and tell them I’m refusing to give you back your niece or tell you where she is,’ Peggy said with an icy smile. ‘I think that is a very good idea.’
‘What’s going on, Peggy?’ Able asked, walking into the kitchen accompanied by Tom Barton. ‘Is there any trouble?’
‘No, this lady was just leaving,’ Peggy said and Mrs Peacock glared at her, but confronted with two large men staring at her, she turned and left without another word.
‘Who was she?’ Tom asked.
‘I think I can guess,’ Able said. ‘Sergeant Poole was telling me Gillian had an aunt who is an unpleasant woman. She sent his constable off with a flea in his ear apparently when he asked her if Gillian had been there recently.’
‘She claims to be Gillian – or Jilly’s – aunt,’ Peggy said. ‘And she is a very nasty piece of work. Her name is Olive Peacock. What Gillian was trying to tell me before she died was that the person who had mistreated her that last time was Olive – her aunt. She knew the man Gillian stabbed after he’d abused her and claimed she was protecting her niece, but she beat that poor girl. Not Olivant and not Olly Want, but her Aunt Olive.’ There was a gleam in her eyes. ‘Maureen, please explain to Able what happened just now while I telephone Sergeant Poole. Mrs Peacock is in for an unpleasant reckoning.’
27
The letter from Shirley arrived the next day. Maureen read it eagerly. She had been worried that when her daughter got to college, she might begin to regret her break-up with Richard, but the cheerful tone of the letter was reassuring. Shirley had already made friends with other first-year students in medical school and since Richard was working in a local hospital as a junior doctor, she hadn’t seen him.
Please don’t worry, Mum. I’m feeling happy and I think I’m over Richard, or nearly. I thought I loved him and always would, but I’ve begun to see that if he’d cared for me, he wouldn’t have behaved the way he did – and he should have taken my side against his friend.
Other people are more considerate and thoughtful. I wrote to Keith as soon as I arrived and he wrote back immediately. He has been sent to Germany, where he will be stationed for the next couple of years, but when he gets leave, he’ll visit me. Keith is glad he is there because he has made contact with a charity his brother helped just after the war and he has volunteered to help by fundraising in his spare time.
He is a decent person, Mum, and I like him as a pen friend – and perhaps one day he might be more, but in the meantime, I am going out with friends in a group and if I like someone, I shall go out with them.
Tell Dad that I am loving my studies and I’m having fun – and I’m lucky, because some of my friends have to work hard to pay for lodgings, food and books. I’m able to pay for them with the money Gran left me and the extra Dad gave me. So, thank you all for everything.
Give my love to Matty and Gordy and I hope they are both well.
I love you,
Shirley
Maureen folded the letter and put it on the sideboard to show Gordon when he got home. She felt content as she fed Matty and Gordy their tea and started preparing the evening meal. She missed her daughter every day when she got home from working in Sheila’s kitchen, but now that she knew Shirley was well and happy, she smothered the wish that things had continued as they were. Shirley was growing up and she was entitled to follow her heart and attend medical school, even though her family was acutely aware of her absence.
When Gordon came home, he was feeling pleased with the world. He enjoyed a cup of tea while Maureen prepared their evening meal and read his daughter’s loving letter. He nodded and smiled, returning it her as she put their plates on the table.
‘She’s a good girl,’ he said, ‘and sensible, Maureen. I’m pleased she broke up with Richard. He didn’t treat her right and I’m glad she had the sense to see through him.’
‘I always thought she loved him,
’ Maureen replied, feeling anxious for her daughter’s bruised heart. In her experience, it took time to get over a first love.
‘She probably did for a time,’ Gordon said, frowning. ‘But she is still young and she needs to work hard. If he’d taken her side over this business, I should have let her get on with it, but if he let her down over one thing, he would do it again, and it’s just as well she found out before it was too late.’
‘Yes, I agree with that – as long as she isn’t breaking her heart over him.’
‘By the tone of her letter, I should say she is ready to put the past behind her.’
Maureen was silent. She’d had an unhappy love affair before she married Gordon and she knew how long it had taken to get over the disappointment. Richard had seemed the perfect partner for Shirley – but something had perked Shirley up a bit lately, though Maureen suspected a lot of it was for their benefit…
Shirley saw the man she’d thought she was in love with crossing the compound together with some friends and hesitated. Should she walk away and refuse to speak to Richard or would that be rude and childish? She had been so hurt and angry that she hadn’t listened to his apology, but now she’d begun to realise that the break-up had left a big hole in her life. He’d been her friend long before she’d thought of being his wife and it was the friendship she missed.
Deciding it would be foolish to walk away, Shirley waited for Richard to reach her. He nodded, his eyes searching her face.
‘How are you enjoying your first days at medical college?’ he asked, sounding for all the world as if there had never been a quarrel between them.
‘Very much,’ she replied but didn’t give him her usual smile. She wasn’t ready to go back to where they had been by a long way. ‘Are you settling into your last year?’
Richard had another year of studies at the school with several days each week spent assisting in the local hospital, and after that he would work full-time as a junior doctor until his finals, when he would decide which branch of medicine he wished to follow. When they were at the seaside, he’d spoken of making hospital work his career, whereas Shirley was working towards being a GP back in London.
‘Very well.’ He frowned. ‘I miss your letters, Shirley. I know you’re angry and you have the right – I shouldn’t have lost my temper as I did. What you did was probably the right thing, even though had you told me, I would’ve got your things back from Tosy…’
He was still defending Tosy! Or was he defending his own actions? Either way, it left her feeling more certain she’d done the right thing breaking up with him. She shivered. It was three coats colder up here in Durham than back home in London. If Shirley had known she might break up with Richard, she would have applied to a London medical school, but this had been planned as a great adventure so they could be together and she wasn’t going to pine over it. The King’s College Medical school in Durham had an excellent reputation and she was enjoying her studies – besides, it was only a few hours’ train journey back home at half-term.
Now, looking him in the eyes, she said, ‘She was in the wrong, Richard, but you took her side. I’m not angry any more,’ and as she spoke, she discovered her feelings of anger had faded to nothing. ‘It’s just that I am no longer sure that I can trust you—’ The expression in Richard’s face was one of shock and she thought some regret. ‘—I’m sorry. We can be civil to each other – perhaps friends, as part of a group – but the special feeling we had has gone.’
‘Not for me,’ he said instantly. ‘I still love you – and if you had ever loved me, you would feel the same.’
Shirley looked at him and saw the shock beginning to turn to anger and shook her head. ‘I believe that I did,’ she said quietly, ‘but you let me down, Richard. I can forgive that and be a friend but nothing more…’
Richard met her eyes, his own filled with stormy protest, but something he saw made him look away and she knew as he turned and walked away that he wouldn’t come back and plead with her again.
She had a hollow feeling inside as she walked towards the gates of the college and then two of her year’s students caught up with her, linking arms on either side.
‘We’re going for a drink at the pub,’ Steven said, grinning at her. ‘Mia is buying.’
Mia was a bubbly blonde, a little plump but with a beautiful face and a nature to match. ‘I won a few bob on a raffle ticket,’ she explained. ‘So, we might as well go and spend it.’
‘You buy the first round and I’ll buy the next,’ Shirley said and laughed. ‘If they don’t throw me out for being too young.’
‘They will never know,’ Steven quipped. ‘We’ll stand in front of you and hide you.’ Steven came from a working-class family and worked three nights a week in a restaurant to help pay his way at college. ‘I might manage a lemonade each.’
‘Two drinks are enough for me,’ Shirley told him, knowing he lived on a shoestring. ‘Let the girls pay this time. You can treat us to a slap-up meal when you’re a rich consultant.’
Steven grinned and agreed. ‘You’ll have to wait a couple of years, but never doubt it. I intend to be just that.’
‘I’m going to be a GP where I live,’ Shirley said. ‘I’ll enjoy being with the people I was brought up with.’
‘I want to work abroad,’ Mia told them earnestly, her face serious for once. ‘There is a huge need in some of the poorer countries and I’d like to be a part of helping families who have nothing.’
‘There are plenty of those in the East End,’ Shirley told her. ‘I’m sure the poverty there is every bit as bad as abroad, especially in some of the slum areas. The East End has a lot of people who came from abroad, during the war to fight. Some of them work hard and do well in grocery shops, factories and other places – but quite a lot never quite fit in and they suffer from poverty and bad housing. It leads to children with coughs and runny noses and women who can’t speak a word of English being isolated in their homes and not knowing where to turn for help. They need doctors in the clinics who can find interpreters for them and give them the help they need.’
‘You two are very serious this evening,’ Steven said. ‘Don’t knock earning money, Shirley. If you’d been brought up having to sleep top to tail with three brothers, you might be in a hurry to get out of the trap too.’
‘Yes, I was lucky,’ Shirley agreed. ‘My gran owned a small property and it was money saved from renting out that she left to me.’
Steven nodded. ‘I’d never begrudge it to you. I only wish I had it too,’ he said. His smile chided them. ‘Now, no more talk of business tonight. We came out to have fun…’
Shirley nodded and smiled. Steven was nowhere near as selfish as he pretended to be, and, after all, rich people got sick too, so if Steven wanted to earn money he could choose how and where he wanted to use his skill.
She squeezed his arm to show that she agreed and realised that she was happy, truly happy, for the first time since her quarrel with Richard.
28
‘He is beautiful, Jan,’ Ryan said as he held his son in his arms. ‘I was afraid to hope for a boy – and I wasn’t sure how I would feel about having another son – but now he’s here, he’s mine and I love him.’
Janet looked up at him, realisation dawning. Ryan had lost his first wife and two small sons in a bomb blast during the war. She hadn’t understood when she insisted she wanted a son, what he might be feeling, but now she did and it made her feel sad.
‘I’m sorry, Ryan,’ she said softly. ‘I didn’t think…’
‘Why should you?’ he asked with a smile. ‘The pain faded long ago, Janet, but the memory remains. I loved them and it hurt terribly when they all died, but now I have you and Maggie – and now my little Ryan.’
‘Is that name all right – your other boys were not named after you, were they?’
‘No, my first wife thought that might be confusing, so she chose her family names.’
‘We could call him James with Ryan as
his second name if you prefer?’
‘Whatever suits you,’ he said and smiled at her lovingly. ‘So, when do you want to go home to Scotland?’
‘Maggie is ready now,’ Janet told him. ‘However, I’d like to see Pip back in London and make sure he is all right.’
‘When are they moving him?’ Ryan asked.
‘Next Monday,’ Janet said. ‘We could visit on the Tuesday, because he is bound to be tired when he gets here – and then go home on Wednesday.’
‘We’ll wait until the weekend,’ he replied thoughtfully. ‘Once we’re back in Scotland, you won’t get to see your family much, so it’s best if you make the most of it while you’re here – do some shopping in the West End and treat yourself and Maggie.’
‘Mum said we should go tomorrow if I feel up to it,’ Janet said. ‘She wants to buy me a present – something nice to wear for when I get back to my right size. It will give me an incentive to lose weight.’
‘When you’re stronger, you can think about losing weight. In the meantime, you should go and enjoy yourselves,’ Ryan said. ‘I’ll look after Maggie and my son.’ His face lit up with pride as he spoke of his new son and Janet felt warmed inside. His love for her and the children shone in his eyes and she wondered how she could have been so foolish as to doubt him prior to their move to Scotland.
It had been a wonderful move as far as Janet was concerned. She saw her husband far more than she ever had when he worked in London and came home for a few days at the end of the week. Maggie was happier than before, perhaps because her mother was more content, though her friend Angus and his pony might have had something to do with it. The birth of Janet’s beautiful son was the icing on the cake and she felt as if a dark shadow had lifted from her.
‘We never had enough of this,’ Peggy said as they shopped in some of the West End’s best stores – Selfridges, Peter Robinson and finally a peep in Harrods, though they didn’t buy anything but a tiny box of chocolates there. Janet had found a perfect little dress and jacket, with the longer-length skirt that Christian Dior had brought out, though it had been made by a London maker, not the famous Paris designer. It was a midnight-blue silky material and fitted into Janet’s waist. ‘You might as well buy it,’ Peggy advised, even though it was a little too tight around the bust and waist. ‘You lost weight quickly after Maggie was born and I daresay you will this time.’
