The Road to Liberation: Trials and Triumphs of WWII

by Marion Kummerow

  “Roland was very fond of Cook. Didn’t he look after her in his will?”

  A furious expression took over Sam’s face.

  “I believe he did, Master Derek, but the Will hasn’t been read. Your mother kept putting it off. Said she would deal with it later.”

  Shame engulfed Derek, and sadness. He wished his brother had lived. Maybe they could have reconciled. He was grateful to Roland for looking out for Sally but curious why Sally hadn't told him his brother had visited. They didn’t talk about anything other than those children. The same children his brother had also tried to protect.

  Sam coughed. “Have I said too much Master Derek? My Sarah said I should keep my mouth shut.”

  “Not at all Sam. You’ve not only given a lifetime of service to this family, but you fought side by side with Father during the last war. You and Sarah deserve to spend the rest of your days in peace, not being forced to do things you are uncomfortable with. I’m rather tired now, as I’m sure you are. Tomorrow, if you could help me find more suitable clothes, I will call on Father’s solicitors. I will get this sorted, just have a little more patience, please.”

  “I’d do anything for you, Master Derek. You are the image of your father, God rest him. If you forgive the intrusion, I think your mother is dead wrong about your wife.”

  “You heard?”

  Sam nodded.

  “Miss Sally, she was very kind to us during the war. We wouldn’t touch the black-market stuff, not when so many of our men were drowning, trying to get us food. Your Sally, she sent my Sarah a parcel every now and again when she had a friend coming to London. She gave us eggs, some vegetables and the best blackberry pie I ever tasted. Don’t be telling Sarah that though.” Sam winked.

  Derek couldn't stop himself. He put his hand on the old man’s arm. “Thank you, Sam. I think I’ve been rather blind lately.”

  “You and the rest of the country, lad. We all thought liberation would free us all but it didn’t, did it? You can’t forget the things you saw and did. The scars you can’t see can be harder to deal with. I still have nightmares about what went on in my war. If you ever need someone to talk to, over a pint maybe, you just say the word.”

  “Thank you, Sam. I just might take you up on that.”

  39

  Derek found some letters from Sally in his room. Why hadn’t his mother sent them on to the hospital? He picked them up and went into his old room to read them.

  “Dear Derek,

  I hope you are feeling better. I tried to call the hospital to see if I could visit you but they said you were not allowed visitors. I hope this was true and not just your way of avoiding me.

  I have news of a sort. Harry wrote to say he has not found any members of his family alive. He’s traced most of them to a camp called Auschwitz. It’s somewhere in Poland. He hasn’t been able to trace Trudi, Liesl’s mother. He wrote to tell me to start the adoption process as he is worried Liesl and Tom might be sent back to live in Germany. He said he has been to some of the camps for displaced people and couldn’t bear it if his siblings ended up there.

  Rachel, the girl who lives with Maggie Ardle, she got a letter from her mother. Mrs. Bernstein survived the war but is trying to get to Palestine. She thinks her sons might have gone to live there. Maggie has written to suggest Ruth and Rachel continue to live with her. Rachel wants to study to be a doctor although she has mentioned she might volunteer overseas with the Red Cross first. Ruth wants to stay with Maggie and be near Tom. They are like brother and sister, that pair. At least, they fight like siblings.

  Oh Derek, how did we come to this? I love you and I don’t want a divorce. I want you to come and live at Rose Cottage and raise a family with me. I can’t give up the children and I beg you to reconsider. It’s not that I love them more than you. I do love them but even if I didn’t, they don’t have another home. They need me. Quite honestly, I need them too. They kept me sane when I thought I had lost you. If it hadn’t been for the children… well, I’m not sure I’d have been here when you did get back. I know what I am talking about is a sin but I was so desperately sad, it was so painful losing you when I got that telegram.

  The pain now is worse. Knowing you are alive and less than fifty miles away but not being able to see you or touch you is driving me insane. Please, Derek, I will beg if I have to.

  Give our marriage a chance.

  I love you,

  Sally.

  He held the letter tight, noting the places where her tears had smudged the ink. His kind, soft-hearted Sally. Her kindness was what attracted him to her, after the initial physical attraction. She went out of her way to be nice to people, to see the good in them. Her experiences, growing up illegitimate, in a place where everyone knew all about you, could have turned her into someone hard and uncaring. Someone filled with anger against the world. Someone like him.

  After a sleepless night, Derek got up knowing what he had to do. He dressed and walked downstairs to the kitchen.

  “Morning Cook, can I call you Sarah? Morning Sam. Are you free this afternoon?”

  The old couple looked at each other, Sarah’s eyes filled with fear.

  “Yes, Master Derek,” Sam answered, taking Sarah’s hand in his.

  “Sam please call me Derek. As of this moment, you no longer work here. I am going to get you the money Dad promised you and find you a place to live. You will stay here in the meantime. Sarah, if you can find someone to cook for mother, I will pay you to train them.”

  Sarah sat down. “You want to sack us.”

  “Not at all. I want you to retire. To live a little. Sam wants to go fishing. I aim to make that happen. I have to pop out for a while but while I’m gone, Sam could you clear out Dad’s old suits? Roland’s too. I want to take them down to the center. There’s far too many servicemen walking around in suits too big or small.”

  “Master, I mean Derek. It’d be my pleasure. We know a couple who are looking for work. He was with bomb disposal and lost a leg. His missus is a good cook, not as good as my Sarah but good enough.”

  Sarah looked fit to cry, so Derek hastily retreated. Whistling, he grabbed his hat and went in search of his solicitor.

  40

  He took a cab and asked the cab driver to take the long way down to Victoria, where his father’s solicitors were based. Derek couldn’t get over the damage. Almost every building seemed to have been hit by a bomb.

  “It’s going to take years to rebuild this mess, isn’t it?” Derek remarked.

  “It is but it’s a good reminder of what our families went through while we were off fighting. My Nellie had to send our kids down to Wales. Couldn’t visit them neither. I could tell you some stories of how hard it is to control them now they are back. What about you, got kids?”

  “My family lives in Chertsey,” Derek replied, staring out the window once more. “St Paul’s looks magnificent doesn’t it?”

  “Even Hitler couldn’t destroy that. Here you are, that’s the office you were looking for.”

  Thrilled to see Reginald Tones’ office in one piece, Derek paid his fare and gave the driver a tip to treat his kids.

  As he’d expected, Reginald was relieved to see him, confiding he found Mrs. Matthews rather difficult to please.

  “Don’t worry about Mrs. Matthews from now on, Reginald. I will invite her this afternoon too. I want her to know I am in charge now. She will live on the money father left for her or she can get a job. Or even marry one of the landed-gentry she is so keen on.”

  Reginald’s eyes nearly came out of his sockets but he didn’t agree or disagree.

  “I want you to look into something else for me. Do you think Dad’s firm could be sold? It would have to be on condition the current employees, Harold Echols in particular, be retained.”

  Reginald took off his glasses and laid them on his walnut desk. He rubbed his head as if to relieve a headache.

  “Certainly Derek, it is a valuable business but are you sure you want t
o sell?”

  Derek eyed up the solicitor, would he be interested in buying the thriving practice?

  “Absolutely. I spent five years planning my future and working as solicitor never entered my mind once. That was Dad’s role. Maybe Roland would have been happy in the office but not me. I’m a country boy at heart.”

  “Are you looking for a quick sale?”

  Derek caught the gleam in Reginald’s eyes. The cunning businessman was still very much alive behind the stately airs and grey hairs.

  Derek pretended to think about the question.

  “Only at the right price Reginald. You will earn 1% of the price for completing this work for me in addition to your usual fees. We can arrange for it to be paid privately if your business wants to acquire Dad’s old clients.”

  Derek smiled at the look on the solicitor’s face. The 1% would ensure he got the best price for the business.

  “Now, is there anything we need to clear up before the Wills are read this afternoon?”

  “No, I don’t think so. There is something else, Derek. You haven’t made a Will. You should. You left your wife unprotected by not having one in place when you went missing.”

  Derek sighed. Yet another reminder of his failings as a husband.

  “Can you draw one up in time for the meeting this afternoon?”

  “It’s complicated Derek.”

  “No, it isn’t and we both know it. Everything goes to Sally if anything happens to me. I want that airtight, no interference from my mother. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.”

  41

  Derek left the solicitors' office to return home and face the music with his mother. She wouldn’t be happy but he didn’t care. She didn’t love him, didn’t want him around. She never had; he was the spare son to ensure there was an heir if anything happened to Roland.

  Roland. How he wished he could tell his brother he missed him. Why hadn’t he made an effort to get to know him when he was alive? It was too late now.

  As he walked, he found himself watching children play in the bombed-out remains of people’s homes. A child, about Tom’s age, was kicking a ball, or something that once resembled a ball. He kicked it in Derek’s direction.

  “Kick it back, please mister.”

  “Haven’t you got a proper ball?”

  The child put his head to one side, looking at Derek as if he was an idiot. “Don’t you know there was a war on. Nothing in the shops for us kids. They used rubber and leather for other stuff.”

  Amused at being told off by a child, Derek remembered there were some footballs at home. They’d belonged to him and Roland. They were probably still there.

  “Will you be here long?”

  “Me? I live here. Over there!” He pointed at what looked like a pile of bricks.

  “Is your mother home?”

  “Why do you want my Ma? I ain’t done nothin’. I was just playing.”

  “You’re not in trouble, son. I want to ask her something. Or your Dad.”

  “He’s in the pub. He came back from the war but he left his brains behind him. Least that’s what Ma says.”

  Derek didn’t comment.

  “Ma, some rich fella, in a fancy suit, wants ya.”

  The boy’s mother came out of a door behind the rubble, a child on her hip, balancing on the bump of another pregnancy. She looked haggard and weary as if she carried the worries of the world on her shoulders.

  “Excuse me for interrupting you missus but I was wondering if your son could come home with me for a few minutes. I don’t live far away, just off Grosvenor Square.”

  Suspicion clouded her eyes. “What do you want with our Mikey?”

  “I have a football and some other things he might want.”

  “We don’t take charity mister. We may be poor but I’m an honest woman.”

  “It’s not charity. I’m moving to Chertsey and need to empty the house. He’d been doing me a favor.”

  “You sure?”

  “Please Ma let me go. I can protect myself. I’ll kick him hard if he tries anything funny.”

  “Go on then, pet, but don’t be long.”

  Mikey walked beside Derek as they made their way back.

  “You like living in the country?”

  “Yes, Mikey I do. I can’t wait to get back.”

  “I lived in the country when they sent us away. I didn’t like it. All those animals made such a racket I couldn’t sleep. I prefer it now we are back with Ma.”

  “Your mother seems like a decent woman.”

  “She is. She’d be better off if Da didn’t come back from the war. Any money she has, he just beats her and takes it. He goes down the boozer and spends everything. We ain’t got food but he gets to drink plenty.”

  “What public house?”

  “The one we just walked past. Why? Do you like drinking? Do you leave your kids hungry?”

  Derek was about to say he didn’t have children, but he did. Or at least he would have if Sally took him back.

  “No, lad. Right, this is where I live.”

  “Cor blimey, this is one house?” Mikey stood staring at the building. Derek tried to see it as the child did. It was large, but to him it was a prison and he couldn’t wait to get rid of it.

  “Yes, it is. Come inside.” Derek pushed open the front door waiting for Mikey to follow him. Mikey was too busy staring at everything to move. “Come on lad, Sarah, our cook, will have something in the kitchen. You can take some back to your mother and sister too.”

  “Are you Santa Claus or something?” Mikey asked him. Derek didn’t get a chance to answer, as his mother shrieked.

  “Good heavens above, Derek? What are you doing with that… that…? What’s he doing in my house?”

  “This is my friend Mikey, mother and I invited him to my house. I’m glad you’re up. We have a meeting at the solicitors this afternoon.”

  “Impossible. I have plans.”

  “Cancel them. You’re expected and the Will reading will go ahead regardless of whether you are there or not.”

  Derek didn’t wait to see his mother’s reaction. “Come on Mikey, let’s go down to the kitchen.”

  He saw Mikey poke his tongue out but didn’t say a word. He didn’t blame him. Mother had been rude.

  “Mikey Brennan, what are you doing in here?”

  “Sam. You live here?” Mikey’s eyes grew wider.

  “Sam, you know Mikey?” Derek asked, stating the obvious.

  “Sure, I do, I fought alongside his grandfather. A better solider you never did see, ain’t that right Mikey?”

  Mikey agreed before pointing at Derek.

  “He told me to come here and get a football. Then he said I could have some food and bring some home for Ma. I asked him if he was Santa Claus.”

  Sam burst out laughing as did Sarah. Sarah took out a bowl and filled it with soup. She put it on the table along with some bread.

  “There you go lad, eat up. I have apple-pie for afters.”

  Mikey didn’t need asking twice.

  “Sam, could you help me find Roland’s old football?”

  “Can show you exactly where it is, Derek. Come this way.”

  They left Sarah and Mikey happily chatting in the warm kitchen.

  42

  Derek followed Sam up to the attic. Once they were out of earshot, he asked him.

  “What do you know about Mikey?”

  “He’s a good lad but given how desperate things are for his family, he’ll fall in with the wrong crowd, soon enough. His Ma, Dee, is from Ireland. Mick her husband is a bad ’un. He came back from the war worse than he left. He beats her and the young ’uns too. Heard she’d go back to Ireland if she had the money. Has family back there.”

  “Mikey says his dad is always in what he called the boozer.”

  “That would be right. Only time he isn’t there is when they shut the doors and kick him out.” Sam pushed the door to the attic open. “There you are.”


  Derek tried the light switch, not expecting it to work, but it did. He whistled, as he looked around. It appeared nothing had been given away or thrown out since he was a child. In fact, some things looked old enough to have come from his mother’s family. Mother having grown up in this house.

  “Sam look at all this stuff. There must be two or three of everything. Grab that ball will you, Mikey will like that. Now, what could we give him for his sister? This?”

  Derek picked up a train set.

  “Won’t stay in her hands very long. Mick will sell it. Dee would be better off with some food, cans of something or other.”

  Derek scowled and put the train set back.

  “Sam, how well do you know Mikey’s mother?”

  “I told you, I fought with her father in the war. He was the best there was but the gas got him. He died not long after we came home. Your father gave the family some money. I’ve tried to look out for Dee and her kids ever since.”

  “Would she go to Ireland?” Derek couldn’t stop himself from helping the woman. Mikey was about ten or eleven, a victim of the war, like Tom.

  “You mean, run off?”

  “Yes. I can’t think of any other way to keep Mikey safe. The streets are no place for a boy and his mother, well she seems overwhelmed and tired.”

  “Worn out she is the poor woman. I think she’d go but being Catholic they don’t agree with divorce.” Sam fell silent.

  “What are you thinking?” Derek prompted.

  “She’s got brothers back in Ireland. She told me they would kill Mick if they lived nearby.”

  “So, maybe if we got the family to Ireland, we could leave Mick to her brothers.”

  “You’d have to buy the tickets and give them to Dee. If you gave anything to Mick, he’d sell it.”

  “You can do it. I don’t think Dee would take it from me.”

  Sam’s eyes glistened as he turned away, his voice funny. “You’re a decent man, Derek. Your father would be right proud of you.”