Victory for the East End Angels

by Rosie Hendry

  ‘It does feel very different in here, so quiet and still with everybody gone, I— Ouch!’ Winnie rubbed her swollen stomach. ‘This one’s very lively today, that must have been an elbow jabbing at me.’

  ‘You’ll be able to concentrate on getting ready to have the baby now,’ Station Officer Steele said. ‘You will let me know when you’ve had it, won’t you?’

  ‘Of course, and actually I was rather hoping that you would be his or her godmother.’

  She stared at Winnie, quite taken aback by the request, but then she smiled at her. ‘I would be delighted to, thank you very much for asking me.’

  ‘Thank you! I thought the baby would need someone sensible to look out for it. You know I’m not always the most level-headed of people, and you’ve prodded me back into line on more than one occasion.’ She grinned. ‘And there’s every chance I will need that again while I’m struggling to be a decent mother, my own hasn’t set the best example and I’m determined to do better. I’m not going to leave the care of my child to a paid servant.’

  Station Officer Steele leaned forward and put a hand on Winnie’s arm. ‘You will make a splendid mother, I have no doubt about that, but I’m very happy to help you in any way I can. Your baby is very lucky to have you and Mac as its parents.’

  Winnie’s eyes shone with tears and she nodded. ‘Thank you, don’t mind me, I’m so prone to crying these days, Connie tells me it’s because of the baby.’

  ‘Right, it’s time to go.’ Violet Steele stood and put out her hand to help Winnie up. ‘I’m glad you came back. It’s making leaving that bit easier. I’ll just get my bag from my office and then I’m ready.’

  A few minutes later, they were standing outside in the courtyard where the garage doors stood locked, with the ambulances and cars inside ready to be taken away to wherever they would be used next.

  ‘Well this is it. Goodbye, Station 75, it’s been a pleasure . . . ’ Station Officer Steele’s voice wavered, and she was grateful that Winnie tucked her arm through hers; then, with Trixie trotting by their side, they walked out under the archway towards the road for a final time. Stopping by the pavement they both turned and looked back for a few moments before turning left and walking off together towards the rest of their lives.

  Chapter 65

  Frankie stood by the kitchen sink nursing a cup of tea in her hands while she stared out through the window at the back garden. The beautiful sunshine outside contrasted with the odd sense of loss that she’d woken up with and which had settled heavily in the pit of her stomach. For the first time in over four and a half years, she didn’t have a job to go to — she wasn’t needed at Station 75 any more. It had closed and that part of her life was now gone for ever. Her close friendships with Winnie, Bella and Rose would carry on, but it wouldn’t be the same as when they’d spent their days working together.

  She gave herself a mental shake, of course she’d miss working at Station 75, but it was more important that the war was over, something they’d all longed for during the long years of hardship. The fighting had stopped, at least in Europe, and people would be coming home again, that was what mattered. And it had already started — Josie’s children had arrived home yesterday, her friend so delighted to have them back again. Stanley was due back any day now as well, and Alastair would come home when the army finally decided they no longer needed his services. Life never stayed the same, it was always changing, and she should grasp this new change wholeheartedly.

  In the meantime, Frankie thought, as she drank the last of her tea, she needed to occupy herself. She could start by digging over the part of the vegetable bed where she planned to plant the potatoes.

  Outside, she took tools from the shed and got to work, thrusting a spade into the soil and stamping down on it before levering it up with a clod of soil and turning it over, then repeating the process again and again.

  Stopping to catch her breath a few minutes later, she went over to the hen coop where the girls had been watching her, squawking loudly at her, making it clear that they wanted to come out and help her as they’d done many times before, delighting in scraping around looking for worms and grubs that she unearthed.

  ‘Come on then.’ She opened the chicken-run door and they shot out, running over to where she was digging and starting to scrape in the earth, their feet working rapidly. Whenever one of them found a worm, she would swallow it down quickly before the others could steal it. They were completely focused on what they were doing, making happy ‘tuk-tuk’ noises whenever they struck lucky.

  Frankie watched them for a few moments, smiling at their antics, and then began to dig again, this time having to take care that the hens didn’t get in the way as they attentively watched every turn of the spade. One of them even jumped onto it, balancing on the blade as Frankie turned over the soil.

  ‘Their eggs will be a rich yellow after eating all them worms,’ a deep voice called across the garden.

  Frankie spun round and dropped her spade at the sight of who was standing on the back doorstep. ‘Stanley!’ She rushed over to him, throwing her arms around him and squeezing him tight.

  ‘Welcome home!’ she said, stepping back to look up at him, marvelling at how tall he was now. She still wasn’t used to the transformation from small boy to tall young man that he’d undergone since he’d been evacuated back in 1940. ‘It’s good to see you. You should’ve let me know you were coming back today, I’d ’ave come to meet you at the station.’

  Stanley grinned. ‘Thought I’d surprise you.’ ‘

  ‘Well it’s the best of surprises.’ Frankie tucked her arm through his. ‘Come on, I’ll go and make a cup of tea and we can ‘ave a good catch-up.’

  Sitting outside on the back doorstep in the warm sunshine a short while later, with their steaming cups of tea, Frankie smiled at Stanley. ‘It’s ’ard to believe it’s over, ain’t it? No more bombing, no more air raids or V rockets. It’s finally safe for people to come ’ome again. You know, when Grandad ’ad you evacuated back in 1940, I never thought it would take this long for you to come back again.’

  ‘Me neither.’ Stanley took a sip of his tea. ‘But I’m glad he sent me.’

  Frankie nodded. ‘It was the right thing to do, ‘aving you safe was important.’ She sighed. ‘It’s just you and me left now Grandad and Ivy are gone.’

  They sat in silence for a few moments, Frankie thinking of her grandad and wishing he was still here to see Stanley finally come home.

  ‘Rose will be pleased to meet you when she gets back from shopping. She’s moved into what was Ivy’s room so your old room is ready for you. Have you thought what you want to do next? Where you’re going to look for a job? I’ve been thinkin’ perhaps you could do something like you’ve been doing, get a job in one of the parks, looking after them. Or you might want to do something completely different, there’s a lot more choice ’ere than in the countryside.’

  Stanley took a sip of his tea and then looked at her, his blue eyes troubled. ‘The thing is, I don’t want to come back here to live. I’m really sorry, but I want to stay in the countryside. I love living there and doing my job . . . It’s what I want to do. I’m planning on going back in a few days.’

  Frankie stared at him, not wanting to take in what he’d just said, an icy coldness drenching the happiness that his arrival home had brought. For a few moments she struggled to speak. ‘Since when?’

  ‘When I came back for your wedding I felt . . . so out of place here, like it wasn’t my home any more. The streets and buildings closed me in, I ain’t used to that any more. I like the space and the green, to hear birds singing and fresh air. And I love working in the garden and I don’t want to swap it for city life. I didn’t know that till I came back here. I always thought I’d come home here after the war, but I’ve changed since I left here. I’m sorry, I know you must be disappointed.’

  She nodded, swallowing against the lump that had formed in her throat. She’d never thought this would
happen, a Stepney boy turning into someone who preferred to stay living in the countryside rather than return to his home in the streets where he’d been born and spent the first ten years of his life.

  Ever since he’d been evacuated, she’d been imagining him coming home again one day when there was finally peace; all through the years of bombing, losing Grandad and putting up with Ivy, always it had been with a view to Stanley coming home. But now that dream had suddenly been popped like a balloon; he didn’t want to come home. She could make him stay, as she was his guardian now that Grandad was gone . . but as much as she wanted him to be here, she wouldn’t do anything to make him unhappy. There’d been enough unhappiness in the world, life was precious and should be enjoyed.

  ‘Say something,’ Stanley blurted out. ‘Are you angry? You look shocked.’

  ‘I am shocked. I never expected this to ’appen. Why did you come back? You could have just told me in a letter.’

  ‘That wouldn’t have been right, and you could stop me if you want to, I suppose.’ His eyes were anxious.

  ‘I could . . . but I ain’t going to. If you really feel that you want to stay there, and you have somewhere to live and a job, and most importantly if that makes you happy, then that’s what you should do.’

  He reached his arm around her shoulder. ‘Thank you. I’ve been really scared about telling you.’

  She leaned her head against his. ‘I’m glad you did come here to tell me, it would ’ave been worse finding out in a letter.’ She sighed. ‘Both our lives are going to be different to how we imagined they would be. If you’re not coming back here to live, then I might not be here for much longer either.’

  ‘Where are you going?’ Stanley asked.

  ‘If you don’t need me here, then I’m going to volunteer to join UNRRA.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘It stands for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, UNRRA for short. They work in the camps housing the thousands of displaced persons who were imprisoned by the Nazis or shipped from their homelands and made to work as slaves. They look after them and help them return to their homes or go to new ones. You must have heard about what happened in the camps?’

  Stanley nodded. ‘I read about it in the paper. It was horrible, how could they treat people like that?’

  ‘I don’t know, but that’s why we had to fight them. And I want to go and help now Station 75’s closed, and as you’re not coming back here.’

  ‘It won’t be an easy job.’

  ‘I know, but I want to do something, Stanley. After working in the ambulance service I don’t want to go back to sewing clothes in a factory until Alastair comes home. I want to do something useful.’

  ‘What if I had been coming back, you’d have stayed here then?’

  ‘Yes, but I’d have found something else to do helping people.’

  His eyes met hers. ‘So, me staying living in the countryside ain’t all bad then?’

  ‘No. I want you to enjoy life and if that’s what makes you happy, then that’s the right thing to do.’ She smiled at him. ‘I want you to know that when this is all over, when I come home from being away and Alastair’s demobbed, you’ll always have a home with us if you want it. It might not be here in Matlock Street because where we’ll live will depend on where Alastair gets a job, but wherever it is you will always be welcome, Stanley.’

  He nodded. ‘Thank you.’

  She stood up and held out her hand to him. ‘Come on, while you’re here you can help with the garden, you know a lot more about gardening now than I do.’

  Chapter 66

  Bella stared out of the train window at the passing countryside. She was enjoying being able to see miles off into the distance after the confined views of London and drinking in the subtly different shades of green painted across the hedgerows, woods and fields. The Norfolk landscape was beautiful, glistening, green and fresh-looking. Spring was clearly in full swing across the fields stretching out under a perfect duck-egg blue sky dappled with small puffs of cloud. As they passed by a field where Land Girls were hoeing, the young women stopped work and waved at the train – Bella waved back.

  ‘Who are you waving at?’ Winnie asked, looking up from the letter she was writing to Mac.

  ‘Some Land Girls,’ Bella said. ‘They’re still working. I doubt they’ll be demobbed for a while yet, unlike us.’

  Frankie looked up from the drawing she was doing. ‘Even though the war’s over there ain’t no change in people needing to be fed.’

  ‘Or rationing either,’ Winnie added. ‘It’s going to take a while for the country to get back to normal.’

  ‘We’re well off compared with many, at least we’ve still got our homes and country.’ Frankie tapped her pencil on her sketchbook. ‘Unlike those poor souls who’ve been in the concentration camps, how many of them don’t have a home to go to any more?’

  ‘But they’ll get help,’ Bella said. ‘After what they’ve been through they won’t be turned out with nowhere to go.’ She smiled at Frankie who had seemed serious and troubled about something lately. She planned on having a quiet talk with her friend while they were away to see what the matter was – perhaps she was worried about Alastair.

  They fell into silence again, Winnie went back to her letter-writing and Frankie to her drawing while Bella returned to watching out of the window, the air blowing in making her feel refreshed. It would have been lovely if Rose could have been here too, but she’d decided to stay at home in case any news arrived about her parents, and that was quite understandable.

  ‘Can you smell it?’ Bella leapt to her feet and stood by the open window, sniffing the air. ‘It’s changed, it’s got the scent of the sea.’

  ‘With a dash of coal smoke added,’ Winnie said. ‘You’ve been like a cat on a hot tin roof since we left Norwich, Bella. We’re supposed to be on holiday and relaxing.’

  Bella turned to her friend and smiled. ‘I’m excited about seeing the sea, I’ve only been to the seaside once before.’

  ‘Me too.’ Frankie stood up and joined Bella by the window. ‘I loved it.’

  They stayed by the window, craning their necks for the first sight of the sea, and as the train began to gently descend through some woods and bend around the side of a hill, they were rewarded with the first sight of blue glinting off to the horizon.

  ‘Look!’ Bella pointed excitedly to the sea glittering like diamonds in the sunshine.

  Winnie got up and joined them at the window. ‘It looks beautiful. We’re going to have the most marvellous holiday together.’ She put her arms around Frankie and Bella’s shoulders as the train rolled along the track towards their destination.

  ‘We’ve got a sea view!’ Bella rushed across the room and pulled up the sash window, letting in the scent and sound of the sea. She and Frankie were sharing a room in the hotel they’d booked right on the seafront, while Winnie had opted for the room next door – she wasn’t sleeping so well now as the baby often kept her awake at night and she didn’t want to disturb the others.

  Frankie came over and stood beside her. ‘We’ll be able to ’ear the sea in the night.’

  ‘And wake up to the sight of it in the mornings.’ Bella smiled at Frankie, linking her arm through hers. ‘This is just what we needed, a holiday by the sea, in the sunshine and fresh air, don’t you think so?’

  Frankie nodded but didn’t say anything, just stared out of the window, her face not giving anything away. Bella looked at her for a few moments before returning her gaze to the sea. There was definitely something up with Frankie, she thought, she wasn’t usually so quiet or serious looking, whatever was on her mind was clearly weighing her down. When you were worried about something, it did that to you.

  She, on the other hand, was fit to burst with happiness and was planning to tell her friends about her and Stefan’s engagement while they were here, after keeping it to herself since he’d asked her. If it hadn’t been for Stefan having to
return to West Malling soon after he’d asked her, they’d have announced it at Station 75 on VE Day, but going back there on her own after saying goodbye to him, she’d decided to keep it to herself for a while. There’d been so much going on, first with VE Day, then the closing of Station 75. She’d just wanted to savour the excitement and happiness, let it sink in before she shared her news.

  ‘Knock, knock,’ Winnie said, coming in the open door. ‘You’ve got a sea view as well. Isn’t it splendid? I’ve tried out my bed and can see the sea from it so should be quite happy lying there awake, watching it in the moonlight.’ She came and stood the other side of Bella.

  ‘Perhaps the sea air will tire you out more, so you sleep better,’ Bella suggested.

  Winnie put her hand on her large belly. ‘It’s not me that’s keeping me awake, it’s this one who prefers to sleep all day and dance all night!’

  ‘It won’t be for much longer,’ Frankie said. ‘After we get back from here, you’ll only have a couple of weeks before it’s due and then it’ll be keeping you awake in a whole different way.’

  Winnie laughed. ‘Then I should make the most of it being safely tucked away inside here.’ She stroked her stomach. ‘Who’s for a paddle? I’m dying to get down on that golden sand and cool off my hot feet.’

  Chapter 67

  A wave washed up the golden sand and then back again until it collided with the next incoming wave. Winnie stood mesmerised, her bare feet sinking slightly into the saturated sand, watching the play of the sea coming in, rolling back, the wave edges decorated with a frothy lace of bubbles. She sighed happily – being here was complete bliss.

  She began walking again, enjoying the sensation of splashing her feet through the water and the touch of firm sand under the soles of her feet while spring sunshine warmed her back. They’d been here in Sheringham, on the north Norfolk coast, for several days now and had fallen into a gentle routine of walks, talking, laughing and had plenty of time to just potter around doing what they each enjoyed. For Bella, that was reading beside the sea, sitting up on the high bank of stones on the shoreline overlooking the sand. Winnie could see her now, buried in her book, while Frankie was off somewhere around the town sketching whatever took her fancy. She’d done a fine drawing of the town from the top of the high cliffs to the east yesterday. But for Winnie, her favourite pastime had become paddling in the shallows when the tide went out far enough to reveal the golden sands. The sea was still cool, it made her gasp when she first went in, and it was far too cold for her to swim. So she’d contented herself with paddling which was quite delightful once she’d got over the initial surprise of the cold water.