Victory for the East End Angels

by Rosie Hendry

  Turning off the Minories, and riding in under the archway into Station 75, her bicycle wheels bumping over the cobbles, she knew she’d done the right thing coming back here rather than going straight home. Seeing the familiar sight of her fellow crew members busy doing the daily checks and preparations of the ambulances was just what she needed.

  ‘Aye, aye, look who’s back . . . Mrs Munro!’ Sparky shouted having spotted her as she dismounted and leaned her bicycle against the garage wall. ‘Welcome back.’

  ‘Frankie!’ Winnie yelled from where she was balanced on top of a ladder, cleaning the back of her and Rose’s ambulance. She quickly climbed down and rushed over to her, folding her in a warm embrace, closely followed by Trixie who’d been sleeping in the ambulance cab and was woken up by the noise.

  ‘It’s good to see you.’ Bella gave Frankie a hug. ‘Welcome back.’

  ‘I’ve missed you,’ Rose said. ‘Did you have a lovely time?’

  Frankie smiled. ‘It was wonderful.’ She sighed. ‘I’ve just seen Alastair off at Liverpool Street station, he . . . ’

  ‘Come on.’ Winnie put her arm through Frankie’s. ‘You need some tea. I’ll go and put the kettle on. Bella and Rose can join us.’

  Frankie didn’t protest and allowed Winnie to march her up to the common room.

  ‘I know how it feels, so sit yourself down and I’ll make the tea.’

  Frankie did as she was told and sat down on the battered old sofa and looked around at the familiar common room with its mish-mash of furniture and evidence of the crew members who served there: their books, knitting and sewing, Sparky’s newspaper collection. It felt like being wrapped in a warm, comforting blanket, which she needed right now.

  ‘There, drink that up.’ Winnie placed a mug of tea on the table beside the sofa and sat down beside her. ‘It’s utterly horrible waving them off, isn’t it? There’s not much I can say that will help you, just to keep yourself busy.’

  Frankie smiled at her friend. ‘It’s such a bump coming back to reality after our honeymoon, goin’ from bliss to waving him off . . . ’

  ‘Is there any tea for us?’ Bella said as she and Rose came in.

  ‘Over by the sink.’ Winnie nodded to where she’d left their drinks in the kitchen area. ‘So where did you go? We’ve all been wondering.’

  ‘The New Forest, a colleague of Alastair’s has a cottage there which he loaned us. It was lovely, right in the middle of nowhere – a world away from London.’ Frankie sighed, remembering the cosy cottage where the short winter days hadn’t mattered as they were too wrapped up in each other to notice, snuggling up in front of the big fire enjoying being together. ‘It was bliss.’

  ‘Over too soon?’ Bella said.

  She nodded. ‘The war pulled us back, but for a little while at least we could forget all about it.’

  ‘Your wedding was lovely,’ Rose said. ‘And Station Officer Steele hit it off with Josie. She went back to her house after you’d left, for tea and a chat. Josie said they had a great time talking.’

  Frankie smiled at the thought of Josie and the boss hitting it off, two people who were unlikely to have ever crossed paths. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘In a meeting at headquarters. She’ll be pleased to see you back,’ Winnie said. ‘Station 75 hasn’t been the same without you, Frankie. We’ve all missed you.’

  ‘Thank you. If I can’t be with Alastair, then I’d rather be with all of you.’ Frankie smiled at her friends. ‘You lot won’t let me get all maudlin, will you?’

  ‘Certainly not!’ Bella said. ‘We don’t let Winnie and now we shan’t let you either.’

  Frankie laughed, glad that her friends were straight talking and that she could rely on them to see her through when times were tough, just as she did for them.

  Chapter 15

  Frankie and Rose hurried along Matlock Street, taking care to avoid the puddles, eager to get home out of the cold April rain which was soaking into their coats and making them shiver. They’d been shopping, the pair of them working as a team and going to separate shops to save time, otherwise it took twice as long for one person to do the job, with all the queuing. Opening the door of number 25 they went inside and quickly peeled off their coats, shaking them briskly outside before hanging them on the pegs to dry.

  ‘I ain’t going out—’ Frankie began but stopped at the sound of a man’s voice coming from the kitchen, followed by Ivy’s throaty laugh.

  Rose had heard it too, her eyes meeting Frankie’s. ‘Who’s that?’ she whispered.

  Frankie shrugged, memories of the last time she’d come home and found Ivy entertaining an American GI flooding back to her. Was her step-grandmother up to her old tricks again? Who had she got in there this time and what had she been doing?

  ‘Let’s go and find out.’ She picked up the shopping basket and went down the hall, Rose following behind. Pausing by the door, Frankie could hear the man’s voice more clearly, her stomach knotting as she heard his American accent. Blasted Ivy, the woman couldn’t be trusted . . . She took a deep breath and prepared for battle then opened the door and marched in.

  The American GI, who’d been sitting at the table, immediately jumped to his feet looking startled, but at the sight of Rose standing beside Frankie, his face broke into a wide smile. ‘Erika!’ He rushed over to her and took hold of her hand in both of his. ‘Gee, it’s good to meet you at last.’

  His use of Rose’s real name shocked Frankie but she quickly realised that this was no GI picked up in some pub by Ivy, but one of Rose’s cousins who were now both serving at American airbases somewhere in East Anglia.

  ‘John!’ Rose’s face was flushed with delight. She’d never met him before, only seen photographs sent by her uncle from America. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were coming otherwise I’d have been here to meet you.’

  ‘It’s no problem, I didn’t know I was getting a forty-eight-hour pass until yesterday. Ivy here has been looking after me.’ He grinned at Ivy, who gave the handsome young man one of her rare smiles.

  ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Ivy got up from her chair and headed for the door. ‘I’ve got some shopping to do of me own.’

  ‘Thank you, ma’am, for looking after me while I waited, I sure appreciated it,’ John said.

  Frankie stepped to one side to allow her step-grandmother to pass but the woman blanked her, not saying anything or even looking at her.

  ‘This is Frankie, who I work with at Station 75,’ Rose introduced her.

  ‘Good to meet you, Frankie, I’ve heard lots about you in Erika’s letters.’ He held out his hand to her.

  She shook his hand. ‘All good, I hope.’

  ‘Absolutely, my cousin thinks the world of you,’ John said.

  ‘The feeling is mutual.’ Frankie smiled at Rose. ‘I’ll put the kettle on, and we can have some tea.’

  When they were all settled at the table, with the brown earthenware teapot brewing the tea, Frankie could see the resemblance between the two cousins: both had brown hair and the same blue eyes, although John was a great deal taller than Rose.

  ‘So where are you staying?’ Frankie asked as she poured out three cups of tea.

  ‘At the American Eagle club, it comes highly recommended.’ He grinned at Rose. ‘I wasn’t sure if you’d be on duty there. I asked and they said you only volunteer there on Wednesday afternoons.’

  Rose nodded. ‘They’ll look after you well. What do you want to do while you’re in London?’

  ‘Well, I was kinda hoping you might want to come out and show me around, that’s if you don’t have to work or need to do something else. I know I’m springing this on you.’

  ‘You’re lucky it’s my day off, so we can go and see the sights.’ Rose smiled. ‘It’ll be fun.’

  ‘How about you, would you like to join us, Frankie?’ John asked. ‘You’d be most welcome.’

  ‘Thank you, but no, I’ve got some things I need to see to here.’ Frankie took a sip of he
r tea.

  ‘So, what do you think of England, then?’ Rose asked.

  John put down his teacup. ‘It sure is different from New York. The villages around the base are tiny and there are so many things that are odd to us and take some getting used to. You know every GI is given a book to help us understand things better. I have to keep reminding myself to ride my bike on the left-hand side of the road when we go to the village pub.’ He smiled. ‘But it sure is beautiful and quaint. I’ll get used to it by the time the war’s over, however long that is.’

  ‘I thought you got to go home after your tour of duty,’ Frankie said.

  ‘That’s only for the fly boys, the airmen – after they do so many missions they can go home; the rest of us ground-based crew are here for the duration,’ John explained.

  Frankie knew from Rose that John worked in the control tower on his base, while his older brother was a pilot. She hoped he was lucky enough to survive his missions and get the chance to go home, because so many didn’t.

  ‘I’ve brought something.’ John reached down to a bag on the floor beside his chair. ‘I hope you can both make good use of these.’ He pulled out some cans of peaches, Spam, bars of Hershey’s chocolate and four pairs of stockings.

  Frankie stared at them for a moment. ‘They ain’t from the black market, are they?’

  ‘No, they’re from our PX stores on base; us Americans aren’t so rationed as you guys. I thought you would appreciate them.’

  ‘We certainly do, thank you very much, it’s very kind of you.’ Frankie picked up a pair of the stockings. ‘These are like gold dust, we won’t have to use the gravy browning now, Rose.’

  John frowned. ‘Gravy browning?’

  Rose laughed. ‘With stockings in short supply, some girls resort to painting their legs with a solution of gravy browning to make it look like they’re wearing stockings when they’re not.’

  ‘And draw a line up the back of their legs for the seam,’ Frankie added.

  ‘In that case, I’m sure glad to provide you with the real thing!’ John laughed. ‘You can keep the gravy browning for your cooking.’

  Chapter 16

  ‘It must be like a child waiting outside a sweet shop for your little dog,’ said the woman who was standing behind Winnie in the queue snaking down the pavement from the butcher’s shop.

  Winnie smiled at her. ‘You’re absolutely right, she’s always on the lookout for a bone, if the butcher’s got any going spare, but she’s very good and always sits outside the shop waiting for me.’

  Trixie, sensing that they were talking about her, got up from where she was sitting beside Winnie’s basket and wagged her tail at the woman, who responded by stroking her soft, golden ears.

  ‘She’s a lovely little thing.’

  ‘She’s not just a pretty dog,’ Winnie said. ‘She’s a working dog, comes to work with me at the ambulance station and has saved people’s lives, sniffing them out where they’ve been buried in the rubble of their bombed houses.’

  ‘Then she thoroughly deserves any bone she gets from the butcher. I hope he has one for her today.’

  Trixie, who’d been enjoying the attention from the woman, suddenly changed her composure from relaxed to full alert, her attention drawn to something further down the street, and before Winnie could do anything let out a short, sharp bark and tore off, dodging around the various queues outside the parade of shops.

  ‘Trixie!’ Winnie shouted, abandoning her basket and place in the queue and tearing off after her. ‘Trixie, come back here!’

  But the little dog ignored her, and Winnie had only gone a short way down the street when she came to an abrupt halt as she recognised a familiar figure striding towards her with Trixie in his arms.

  ‘Mac!’ Winnie stared at him for a few seconds, seemingly rooted to the spot in shock, but quickly recovered herself and ran towards him, throwing her arms around him. Pulling back, she smiled happily at him, drinking in his handsome face, her eyes meeting his beautiful dark blue ones. ‘Trixie sensed you were coming.’

  Mac smiled and stroked Winnie’s cheek tenderly. ‘She’s a clever girl, but we’ve always known that. It’s so good to see you.’

  Winnie nodded, her throat suddenly tight with emotion. She was delighted to see him, but she knew what sudden returns from the army like this heralded – embarkation leave. Mac was being sent away soon, although he could probably never admit it, especially because of where he would be going. The thought of what he would be facing made her stomach ache . . . She took a deep breath and gave herself a mental shake – for however long Mac was here she mustn’t let what was to come in the weeks and months ahead spoil it. Now was the time for some stiff upper lip and making the most of each day, of every single moment with him, without worrying about what the future held.

  ‘Come on, let’s get you home.’ Winnie linked her arm through Mac’s and they started to walk back along the street.

  As they neared the butcher shop, the woman to whom she’d been talking called out to her. ‘You’ve left your basket, and I’ve kept your place in the queue.’

  ‘Thank you, but I’ll forget about the shopping for now,’ Winnie said, picking up the basket. ‘My husband’s just come home.’

  ‘Wait,’ Mac said. ‘Let’s get the shopping. I’d like to do some normal things for once, it’ll make a nice change from army routines, and if we don’t buy anything then what can we have for our tea?’

  ‘All right, but queueing for rations isn’t very exciting,’ Winnie said as she took up her place in the butcher shop queue again, with Mac beside her.

  ‘As long as I’m with you, that’s all that matters,’ Mac said. His comment earned him a lot of admiring looks from other women standing in the queue, but Winnie didn’t notice as she only had eyes for her husband.

  Winnie turned on to her side, enjoying the sight of Mac sleeping in her bed. It was late afternoon and with the house to themselves, Connie out at some Red Cross meeting and Bella doing her voluntary work packing POW parcels, they’d taken advantage and spent a delightful afternoon of lovemaking, making up for the months apart they’d had to endure. Now Mac was sleeping peacefully, while Winnie had only dropped off for a short while, spooned in his arms, but she’d woken up with a start, her mind racing with questions that she knew she’d have to ask him before she’d allow herself to settle and enjoy what time they had together. Try as she might to block out what was to come, her patience was limited, and she preferred to be forewarned because, as the saying went, she was then forearmed.

  She reached out and softly traced Mac’s face with the tip of her finger, travelling along his jawline and then over to his lips. Her touch made him stir and he opened his eyes and looked at her, before breaking into a wide smile and pulling her to him and kissing her gently.

  ‘I dream about waking up with you,’ he said as he hooked a strand of her honey-blonde hair behind her ear.

  ‘I wish I could wake up with you every morning.’

  Mac’s eyes held hers. ‘One day, we will.’

  He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

  Winnie laid her head on his chest and listened to his heart beating, its rhythm strong and regular. ‘Can I ask you something?’

  ‘Of course. I might not be able to tell you the answer though.’

  ‘You know what I’m going to say, don’t you?’

  ‘I have a very good idea. I know you well, Winnie.’

  ‘Indeed you do, so tell me – are you on embarkation leave, and if you are then when are you going? And where exactly?’ Now it was May, and with the weather gradually improving, Winnie, like the rest of the British population, was expecting the long-awaited invasion of France to happen sometime soon. Mac’s unexpected leave tied in with that theory.

  Mac raised his eyebrows. ‘You know I can’t tell you that and I honestly don’t know, that’s all I can say. You know how it is, the job I signed up for and what it involves, so when the time comes I’ll have
to do it.’

  Winnie rolled off his chest back on to her side, propping her head up on one elbow to look at him. ‘Well I had to ask, didn’t I, and you’ve told me enough to tell me but without actually saying anything that would get you in trouble with the army.’ She paused for a moment, reaching out to grab hold of his hand. ‘When you do parachute in, will you at least take a gun with you? Please.’ They’d talked about this before several times: Mac’s refusal to bear arms of any kind because of his conscientious objector beliefs scared her; he’d be going into enemy territory with no means of defending himself while facing enemy troops who most certainly did have weapons and wouldn’t hesitate to use them.

  He squeezed her hand. ‘You know the answer to that one as well. I haven’t changed my mind. When I go in, I’m going as a medic not a fighting soldier. That’s what I believe is right for me.’

  Winnie’s throat ached, and her eyes stung with tears. Part of her wanted to shout at him for being so obstinate and ridiculous that he wouldn’t even carry a small pistol, but another part of her admired his convictions and strong beliefs that he wasn’t prepared to carry weapons at all because he simply believed that he could not kill another human under any circumstances.

  ‘I understand, but I had to ask and it’s only because I love you so much and want to keep you safe.’

  ‘I know, and I promise you I won’t take stupid risks, I have every intention of coming home to you so that we can enjoy waking up next to each other for the rest of our lives.’

  Chapter 17

  ‘It was lovely.’ Rose smiled at Frankie as they walked along the street, enjoying the fine June evening after the smoky darkness inside the pictures. ‘It whisked me away for a while.’

  Frankie put her arm through Rose’s, her stride matching her friend’s. They’d just been to see the musical comedy film Higher and Higher on their night off. ‘I know just what you mean, it felt like a whole different world from wartime London.’