Swearing Allegiance (The Carmody Saga Book 1)

by Jana Petken

  At first, Jenny felt only a slight tremor under her feet, but then she noticed glasses and ashtrays sliding and vibrating on tabletops. Having no idea what was going on, she gauged the other drinkers’ reactions. Most of them were already rushing outside. In a somewhat bewildered state, she searched for Mabel and Sandra, who had left her for a moment to refill their glasses with beer.

  “Jenny! Jenny, it’s a Zeppelin! C’mon outside and see it!”

  Jenny heard Mabel’s voice but couldn’t see her. She was being pushed along with the crowd towards the door.

  “Over ’ere!”

  Turning around, she caught a glimpse of Mabel behind her, a tumbler full of beer in her hand, spilling as she was knocked and nudged in the chaos.

  “See you outside!” Jenny shouted back.

  After everyone swarmed into the street, Jenny was surprised to see that no one was taking cover or trying to run. Instead, they stood watching as though hypnotised. A policeman riding a bike blew his whistle. Sitting on his chest was a notice board attached to a piece of string that was tied at the back of his neck. “Take cover,” it read. Jenny stared upwards at the sky with her mouth gaping open. There it was – the first one she’d ever seen. The Zeppelin’s dark outline, enhanced by a concentrated blaze of searchlights from the ground, was a spectacular sight, enemy or not, she admitted. She suffered no panic or fear. Indeed, the sight was so horribly fascinating that she felt spellbound – almost suffocating with emotion, hysterically ready to laugh or cry.

  Overwhelmed, she stepped back from the area where the majority of the people had congregated, and pressed her body against the pub’s facade. Watching not one but at least three or four airships pass overhead, she wondered if perhaps the Germans were giving the British a lesson in air superiority. They were certainly impressing her!

  Craning her neck, she saw the Zeppelins heading east, away from the area entirely. This was confirmed when the crowd cheered and yelled insults at the retreating Germans. The noisy celebrations, however, obliterated the sound of one Zeppelin, which had found its targets.

  Thirty-six bombs were dropped in the space of ten minutes. Hitting West Ferry Road first, the bombs dived to the earth with astonishing speed. The train station at Norway Street and homes in Greenwich were quickly engulfed in a gigantic pyramid of red and orange flames. The glares lit up the streets and gave a ruddy tint even to the waters of the Thames. Then the Deptford dry docks were struck by a barrage of bombs hitting the ground one after the other. And in those first brief minutes, Jenny, glued to the spot, glimpsed a flash of blinding light and then felt burning heat engulf her head.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Shattered glass sprayed inwards, filling every corner of Minnie’s parlour with sharp fragments. The soft red glow of dusk streamed through an inch-wide crack that stretched from the top of the front wall to the bottom. Dust from mortar and bricks, still falling from a house opposite, covered the room in a fine mist. And with the force of the blast, upturned chairs on the floor lay broken.

  Farther along the street, houses were falling like dominoes. Sandstone roof tiles crashed to the ground with deafening thuds, blowing up a cloud of smog that wafted in through Minnie’s glassless windows. Flames grew brighter and seemed to be more intense towards the corner and beyond, in the direction of Deptford.

  Kevin’s body lay limply on the floor on top of Minnie. In the split second before the bomb hit the earth, his instinct had been to shield her. Stunned, with ears ringing and a bloody nose, he moved cautiously in an effort not to hurt Minnie or cut himself on the glass that was strewn across the ground.

  Kneeling, he looked around. Enshrouded in dust, all he could hear was a high-pitched ringing in his ears. “Is everyone all right?” he shouted.

  “Some bloody homecoming this is,” Danny groaned.

  Upon a quick examination, Kevin was relieved to see that Minnie appeared unhurt. “Minnie, can you sit up?” he asked her.

  With a painful moan, she allowed Kevin to help her into a more comfortable sitting position against a wall.

  “Oh, God, where’s my Susan?” she mumbled, then choked back a sob.

  “Are you in pain?” Kevin asked her.

  “No – just my hip, when I fell. Where’s Susan? Susan!”

  Danny still appeared dazed. His face was bloodied from a cut above the eye, the same eye that was battered in the tannery months ago. John looked as though he’d been blown across the room. Slouched awkwardly with his back against the wall and his legs trapped beneath his backside, he was covered from head to foot in black dust.

  “John, are you all right?” Kevin asked.

  “I don’t know. One minute I was sitting over there and the next I flew across the room.” Patting down his body and appearing to search for wounds, he then said, “It’s a miracle, but I’m in one piece.”

  “You’ve had a shock, Minnie. Don’t move. I’ll find Susan,” Kevin said, standing on shaking legs.

  Danny, still sitting on the floor and looking slightly befuddled, waved Kevin out of the room, saying, “Go. I’ll help Minnie to a chair.”

  Outside, the hallway appeared relatively undamaged. The front door was mostly intact, except for the top half, which had lost its glass panel. The stairs leading to the top landing and the window which was situated halfway up the stairs against the back wall of the house had not been affected. The only other sign of damage was on the passageway wall, where a gas lamp in a bracket had smashed.

  “Mrs Carmody!” Kevin shouted, entering the kitchen. Two kidney pies were still on the shelves of the portable heating oven, sitting in front of an open grate. Smelling the burning pastry, Kevin wrapped kitchen cloths around his hands, lifted the oven from the grate, placed it on the floor, and then called out again. “Mrs Carmody, where are you?”

  He stood there mystified. Where could she go? The kitchen was tiny, with no back door. That was at the end of the hallway. His eyes then caught sight of another door. He opened it, instinctively knowing it was a pantry, and there he found Susan, huddling behind a half-full sack of coal in the corner.

  Staring up at him, her wide-eyed gaze was like that of a questioning child. Her hands, clamped over her mouth, shook so much that she looked as though she were tapping her lips with them. Kevin got down on one knee in front of her, careful not to scare her. She was obviously in shock, and he wasn’t even sure if she recognised him.

  “It’s all over, Mrs Carmody. There are no more bombs. You’re safe now.”

  “What if they come back?”

  “They won’t. I promise.”

  “Oh, if only my Robert were here. He’d know what to do,” she sobbed, after Kevin encouraged her to lower her hands from her lips. “I can’t seem to move my legs!”

  “That’s because of the fright you’ve had.” Gently he straightened one of her legs, which had been trapped beneath the other. “See, they’re fine.”

  After some persuasion, Susan allowed Kevin to escort her back into the parlour. Clinging to Minnie as soon as she saw her, Susan sobbed, “Jenny has not come home.”

  Danny and John headed towards the front door.

  “Where are you two going?” Kevin asked them.

  “To look for our Jenny, of course. She might be hurt,” Danny said irritably. “Minnie said she works at the Deptford dry docks. I’ve just had a look outside, and there’s a concentration of flames coming from that area.”

  Susan sniffed. “God only knows what kind of trouble she could be in. It’s not like her to be late home.”

  “Glancing at the two women, who looked to be in desperate need of some comforting words, Kevin felt torn between helping them and finding Jenny.

  “I’ll go with you, Danny,” he decided rather quickly. “John should stay here and look after your mam and granny. There’s bound to be an evacuation order of the street. The structure might not be safe for them to stay …”

  “Who put you in charge? Jenny is my fiancée! I’ll be the one going, not you,
” John said harshly to Kevin.

  “It’s all right. Let him go with me,” Danny said. “Kevin’s a doctor, and I’m betting there will be poor souls down that road needing his attention. Be a good man and look after my family, will you?”

  “Tell her I love her!” John said in a theatrical voice.

  Susan told Danny, “I would prefer it if you stayed.”

  “Mam, John is staying to help you. Don’t start that again.”

  Minnie, still trembling, threw her daughter a scathing look. “This is not the time for your silly nonsense, Susan. “John is a part of this family, whether you like it or not.”

  Ignoring Minnie, Susan said, “Just bring her straight back, do you hear me, Danny? We’ll go to Uncle George’s house in Woolwich. I’m not staying here a minute longer until the army engineers assure me that it’s safe to be under this roof.”

  Danny said, “Right, we’re off. We’ll see you at Uncle George’s with Jenny before you know it …”

  Having seen only minor structural damage to Minnie’s house, Danny and Kevin were visibly taken aback at the utter devastation to the less fortunate homes sitting at the end of the street. At the junction leading to a normally busy thoroughfare, the two men suddenly halted.

  Covering his mouth at first, Danny then dragged his fingers across his lips and down to his chin. “Damn, Kevin, it’s like Dublin all over again,” he said.

  People were packed into the centre of the road. A complete block of houses had fallen down like a pack of cards, and fires were visible in every direction. Kevin did a 180-degree turn and couldn’t see a single piece of ground that wasn’t destroyed or covered by broken concrete.

  Injured men, woman, and children crawled torpidly on the ground. Some lay moaning, whilst others were desperately searching through the stacks of rubble, looking for loved ones. Amidst the chaos, two London fire brigade trucks arrived. Kevin, already tending to a child with a deep head wound, lifted his head at the sound of bells ringing above the crackle of fires, which were spreading to less damaged houses. Behind the trucks came an open lorry, carrying volunteers from the Royal Engineers demolition section. The newly invented respirators and Brodie-style military helmets with a half-inch red band around them were becoming a familiar sight during air raids.

  After doing what he could for the young boy, Kevin strode hurriedly through the crowd towards the soldiers and presented his credentials.

  “Where are the ambulances?” he asked a corporal getting off the lorry.

  Noticing that Kevin was a captain, the soldier saluted before speaking. “Two ambulances are coming right behind us, sir. We think it’s a good bet that the Germans were targeting the dry docks and munitions factories up the road in Deptford and Woolwich. The medical crews are bound to head there first. We don’t have enough ambulance trucks to go around tonight, not this side of the river.”

  “How far behind you, were they?”

  “Not far. Military command warned us about the airships’ approaches and the directions they were taking. I think we probably set off before the last of the bombs had even dropped out of the Zeppelin’s underbelly.”

  Kevin took in the scene again. His eyes found Danny at the other side of the street, attempting to free someone who was trapped. Jenny came to Kevin’s mind. He knew roughly where she worked, and his instincts screamed for him to leave where he was and search for her. But they also told him that his duty was to the injured lying right in front of him – and that to leave them would be gross negligence on his part.

  “Corporal, what do you have in the way of bandages and other medical supplies?” he asked.

  “Not much. We have a few bits and pieces, but most of that stuff is carried by the ambulance drivers.”

  Kevin dismissed the man and hurried across the street to Danny, now frantically trying to pull someone else out of a building’s remains. Spreading his arms wide in helplessness, Kevin said, “Danny, go find your sister. I’m staying here. I want to come with you, but I can’t leave these people.”

  If any animosity had been left between the two men, it had evaporated in the moments after the explosions.

  Danny nodded in agreement. “I can see that. When you eventually get finished here, go to my Uncle George’s house. Do you know where it is?”

  “I was there with Jenny a couple of weeks ago.”

  With that said, Kevin went back to the wounded, whilst Danny ran towards the blazing fires around Deptford.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  With no idea exactly where Jenny worked, Danny ran from street to street inside Deptford’s dry dock area. He had run most of the way from Greenwich, starting at the dock where the famous ship the Cutty Sark was berthed. Being familiar with the area from his childhood adventures, he had then saved some time by taking a shortcut through Pepys Park, which had a long but straight path from one end to the other. Afterwards, he’d crossed a couple of streets, dodging some that were alight, and others that were already cordoned off by the military and Fire Brigade. Finally, he reached Deptford Strand.

  Looking left and then right, he was unsure of which direction to take. Ahead of him, the warehouses and depots were in flames. Some had been completely destroyed; others were still burning brightly. He had no reason to suppose that Jenny was actually inside any of those buildings, he kept telling himself, for according to his mam, his sister should have been home hours ago and had no business still being in this vicinity. He halted to watch a particularly strong blaze gaining strength in a fierce wind. He tried to think logically. Assuming that Jenny had long since finished work, where would she go? Straight home. She was a good girl, for all her annoying habits.

  At a junction, Danny stopped walking again. Shocked, he sucked in his breath and stared, mesmerised at the sight of so many people congregated in this one road. What looked like the remains of large buildings, which had presumably once stood opposite his position, had been completely demolished. Still burning, the edifices were surrounded by a horde of civilians, fire trucks, ambulances, and soldiers desperately trying to rescue people. Danny didn’t recognise this particular street as one he’d ever frequented, but the sheer volume of injured people in such a small space led him to believe that at least one of the buildings must have been a warehouse, depot, pub, or restaurant – somewhere open to the public.

  Danny watched a man with a face as black as coal, torn clothes, and cuts to his face stumble across the street. “What were those buildings?” Danny asked, rushing up to the man before he’d reached the pavement.

  “One was a uniform depot and next door was the pub I’ve been going to all my adult life.”

  After thanking the man, Danny ran across the road. A terrible thought crossed his mind. Hopefully his sister was at home and he was chasing his tail looking for her. But what if she wasn’t? Would she have gone into a pub or to some other social gathering? A girl who’d never attended more than tedious tea parties and ladies’ charity functions with Mam in tow? Without thinking further, he shouted her name. “Jenny Carmody! Has anybody seen, Jenny Carmody?”

  Most of the firemen, blackened figures of soldiers in uniform, and women still wearing their hats atop dishevelled hair were oblivious to his booming voice, and those who did hear him said, “No, mate.” Regardless, he kept shouting Jenny’s name.

  Ambulances were parked close by. He went to each one, looking intently at the injured people being treated in and around the trucks. Someone gripped his arm. Turning abruptly, he stared into the face of a young woman about Jenny’s age. She was shivering. Her teeth chattered. Her eyes were bright with tears and distress. The skirt, blouse, and camisole she wore were ripped to shreds, and her skin was lashed with deep welts. Yet she seemed oblivious to her half-naked state or her injuries. Still wearing the same tattered jacket he’d worn the day he left Dublin, Danny took it off and put it around her shoulders.

  “Thank you,” she said in a pitifully soft voice. “Are you lookin’ for Jenny?”

  “I am
. She’s my sister. Have you seen her?”

  Sobbing softly, at first the woman appeared to be having difficulty speaking. “She’s hurt,” she eventually managed to say. “They’ve taken ’er away in an ambulance. We got separated. I crossed the street to get a better view of the Zeppelins, and after the bomb fell, I found her burning – her hair … Burnin’, she was! I’m so sorry...”

  Danny felt as though someone had just yanked the contents of his belly up through his throat and out of his mouth. He vomited. He had run most of the way from Greenwich on an empty stomach. Apologising, he wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve and asked, “Is she badly hurt?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “Do you know where they’ve taken her?”

  “To the ’ospital at Shooters Hill. I’m lookin’ for my friend Sandra. I can’t find her. She was with Jenny and me.” Pointing to the collapsed building, she cried, “I think she might be under there.”

  Shortly after that, Mabel’s father arrived at the scene. Holding his daughter and stroking her hair, he seemed just as upset as she was. “Are you sure you’re not hurt, love?” he asked Mabel for a second time.

  Mabel was still crying. “Yes, Da, I’m fine, but I’m worried about Sandra,” she sobbed.

  “I’ll take you home to your mum, and then I’ll come back here to look for her. They look as though they could do with all the help they can get. Are you staying?” her father asked Danny.

  “I’m not sure.” Danny faced not one but three dilemmas. If he stayed there, he might not find out what had happened to Jenny until morning. If he went to his uncle’s house to collect his mother, he wouldn’t have all the facts regarding Jenny’s injuries; his mother would be hysterical by the time they got to the hospital. But if he went straight to the hospital, his mother and granny would worry frantically about him.

  After mulling the choices over in his head, he said goodbye to Mabel and her father, telling them that he was going to walk from Deptford to Shooters Hill, where the Brook War Hospital was situated. His family might be worried about the length of time it was taking him to bring Jenny home, but he couldn’t face them without knowing if his sister was alive or dead.