Homecoming

by Ellie Dean

  Part Four

  * * *

  23

  Cliffehaven

  Peggy breathed a sigh of pleasure as she woke in the large first-floor front bedroom that December morning and regarded the spacious and attractive surroundings in which she now slept. Unlike the room on the hall floor, there was plenty of space for her big old furniture which had taken on a rather stately air since being brought up here, and it was lovely to have her elegant dressing table and stool back from Cissy’s old room. She’d placed it beneath the window, so she could look out at the view as she put on her make-up.

  She yawned and stretched luxuriously before dragging on Jim’s dressing gown to ward off the cold as she went to open the new curtains. The sky was overcast and promising more rain, but nothing could dampen her spirits today, for the work on Beach View was finished, and Bob was finally coming home for Christmas. With that delightful prospect ahead of her, she pushed her feet into her old slippers and padded out onto the landing to Daisy’s room. Opening the door, she peeked in to find that she was still sleeping, and so took the opportunity to once again admire the room that had once been Sarah and Jane’s and which had been transformed by Ron’s hard work.

  There were two single beds so Daisy could have a little friend to stay, the floorboards had been sanded and varnished, one of the walls was painted white, the others covered with nursery-rhyme wallpaper which went beautifully with the pink curtains. The old chest of drawers and bookcase had been painted white, as had the skirting board and window frame. There were soft, colourful rag rugs on the floor and a large wooden box for her toys.

  Peggy smiled and left the door ajar. Daisy loved her room, and Charlie was just as pleased with his, for now he’d taken over the double front room on the top floor, he had space for a desk and chair to do his homework, plenty of shelves for his numerous books and trophies, and a large cupboard in which to stow all his clothes and sports kit. There were two single beds up there too, for he was making friends and sometimes brought one home to stay the night.

  She tiptoed past Danuta’s room, not wanting to wake her after she’d been out all night tending an elderly patient, and listened at Cordelia’s door before using the bathroom which had a new bath, basin, window frames, lino and a coat of paint. Danuta and Cordelia had decided to remain in their old rooms, but both had been given fresh wallpaper and paint, and Peggy had found some lovely curtain material at the Sunday market which she’d paid one of the factory machinists to run up for her for both bedrooms.

  Going past the stair-lift minutes later, Peggy admired the new dark red runner and landing carpet, and the freshly replastered walls and ceilings which had been painted white along with the bannisters, making the whole place look much bigger and brighter.

  She wandered into her dining room, which had sprigged wallpaper above the dado rail, and pretty yellow paint beneath it which went with the heavy gold-coloured curtains she’d spent a fortune having dry-cleaned. The chimney had been swept, the crack in the marble surround repaired, and Ron had found a simply gorgeous chandelier in a house clearance, the crystals of which shot rainbows of colour into the room as the morning sun came through the wide bay windows.

  She gazed at the smooth varnished floor, the family photographs and brass candlesticks on the mantelpiece and her mother’s ornate mirror above them. She’d had such fun going through all the things in the attic and under the stairs, and had found a great many treasures that had lain hidden there since before the war. The two armchairs had been repaired and covered with rich cream velvet, and an Egyptian rug lay in front of the brass fender, making everything look most luxurious.

  However, money had become very tight after all the changes she’d made in the basement and kitchen, so there was little she could do about the battered dining table and the mismatched chairs, but a white linen cloth would hide the scratches and burns, and once it was decorated with holly and candles, no one would notice.

  Peggy padded back into the hall and across the repaired red and blue Victorian tiles which now gleamed richly. In place of the rotting and pitted front door there was now a very smart one with coloured glass panes at the top which Frank had found abandoned but unscathed at the back of a bombed-out house. He’d sanded it down and painted it dark blue, then attached the lovely brass knocker and letterbox fittings he’d found in a junk shop.

  Outside, the stucco walls and front steps had been repaired and painted, and the electrician had wired in the two lamps Rosie had discovered in one of the many boxes she’d stored in her cellar. They’d once graced the front of her parents’ private hotel, and she’d kept them out of a sense of nostalgia, but was delighted to see them put to good use again.

  Peggy crossed the hall, barely glancing into the room that she and Jim had shared for so many years, for she’d turned it into another spare room with two single beds, and the minimum of furniture, which left it looking a bit impersonal. It had proven to be surprisingly large once that huge double bed and old dark furniture had been transferred upstairs, and Daisy’s cot relegated to the attic. New window frames, curtains and lino made it look fresh and welcoming.

  She opened the door to her kitchen and felt the familiar thrill of pleasure she always got when she walked in here. How clean, bright and spacious it was now the old larder had been torn down, and the huge chest of drawers moved up to Charlie’s room. The window had been extended to let in more sunshine in the afternoons, and spread the length of her new wooden worktops, drainer and refurbished sink. Frank had replaced the old cracked tiles with new bright yellow ones, and there were white painted cupboards and drawers beneath the surfaces that Ron and Frank had made out of wood they’d accumulated over the years – and in the place of the old corner shelves stood a sparkling white refrigerator.

  It had been a surprise gift from Anne and Martin and was her pride and joy. She never tired of opening the door to see the light come on to illuminate the modest amount of food she had stored inside.

  The range still sat in the fireplace, for although she would have loved a modern gas cooker, it wouldn’t have been able to heat the water and radiators. But it had had a fresh coat of blacking, the hotplate covers had been replaced, and a man had come round to give it a thorough service. The two old armchairs were past it, really, but everyone had protested so vehemently when she’d threatened to throw them out, that she’d had Sally make some new loose covers for them so they didn’t look quite as shabby, and she’d replaced the bulky old wireless – which Charlie now had in his room – for the modern one Cissy had sent down from London, which sat on a low table near the chairs.

  Peggy filled the kettle from one of the shining brass taps over the sink and placed it on the hob. There was new yellow linoleum on the floor, and Charlie had sanded down the kitchen table and chairs in his spare time and painted them all white. Because those chairs had always been a bit hard to sit on for very long, Peggy had taken a leaf out of her sister’s book and made seat cushions with the left-over yellow gingham from the kitchen curtains.

  She took a deep breath of the lovely smell of fresh paint and, with a smile of quiet satisfaction, went down the concrete steps to the basement.

  She almost had to pinch herself at the transformation down here, for gone was the old sink, mangle and boiler, and an archway now led into what had once been Charlie’s room. This bright, white space was now home to more worktops and cupboards which hid the new boiler and all her mops, brooms, buckets and cleaning materials. There was a new stone sink with brass taps – and in pride of place beneath it was her twin-tub washing machine.

  She touched it lovingly as she regarded the new linoleum, the light switches and the floor-to-ceiling cupboard which now housed her ironing board and fancy electric iron. The washing machine and iron were being paid for by instalments, but they were worth every last penny, for now Saturday mornings were much freer, and she’d at last been able to donate the hated mangle and old-fashioned irons to the WVS.

  But the real tran
sformation was in the front basement room which had become the repository for junk ever since her boys had been evacuated, and Peggy still thought she must be dreaming every time she opened the door.

  The plumber had fitted a pristine white lavatory and basin which gleamed in the sunlight pouring through the narrow rectangular window. Frank had half-tiled the room and painted the rest white which made the blue of the tiles really stand out. Blue linoleum covered the floor and Danuta and Stanislaw had very generously given her a bale of hand towels in exactly the same colour. A blind could be rolled down over the window, and there was a radiator to keep the room warm and free from damp.

  ‘Peggy? Are you down there again? Surely you know what it looks like by now?’

  She laughed and hurried back to the kitchen. ‘I certainly do, Cordy, but I just can’t resist looking at it all.’

  Cordelia tutted and picked up the doll Daisy had just dropped. ‘I don’t know, Peggy Reilly, you’re like a child in a sweet shop. I dread to think how much it all must have cost.’

  Peggy kissed her cheek. ‘Not as much as it might have done if I’d had all the changes I wanted,’ she said lightly before hugging Daisy. ‘Good morning, darling. Isn’t it a lovely day?’

  Daisy frowned and hitched her doll under her arm. ‘It’s raining, Mum.’

  ‘Is it?’ She glanced out of the window and giggled. ‘I suppose it is, but it feels as if the sun’s shining in here now it’s all so lovely and bright.’

  She quickly poured some cereal into a bowl as Daisy clambered onto the kitchen chair and added just enough milk to make it edible. The rationing was really beginning to bite now, with potatoes and bread at a premium because of the wet summer and autumn they’d had, and even though there were fewer of them to feed, it was becoming more and more difficult to be imaginative with what she could get in the shops. Christmas was only two days away, and she’d been fretting over how on earth she’d manage to put a decent meal on the table even though the others were helping out with food stamps and odds and ends.

  While Cordelia made the pot of tea, Peggy grabbed an umbrella and went outside to see if there were any eggs this morning. The hens had been a godsend all through the war, but recently they hadn’t been laying as well, and it was becoming a real worry. She found three brown eggs in the laying box, scattered some food about and locked the coop before dashing back inside.

  ‘The hens only gave us these this morning,’ she said, placing the eggs carefully in a crock on the drainer. ‘I’m wondering if they’re getting old and past it.’

  ‘Well, we have had them for a good many years,’ said Cordelia, briskly stirring the tea leaves in the pot. ‘Perhaps they need another cockerel to liven them up?’

  ‘No fear,’ replied Peggy. ‘Adolf was a holy terror, and I’m not risking my hens getting mauled about again.’

  Cordelia thumped the teapot on the table and sat down. ‘Talk to Ron,’ she said. ‘He’ll know what to do.’

  Peggy looked at her sharply. ‘Are you all right, Cordy? Only you seem a bit put out this morning.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said dismissively. ‘It’s this cold, damp weather getting into my bones which makes me cross. Things are difficult enough without the arthritis flaring up in my hands again – and we’re only in December. I dread what the next few months will bring us.’

  Peggy accepted her explanation, but suspected her being out of sorts had more to do with the loss of her nephew and Philip than with her arthritis – although it did always flare up at this time of year.

  ‘Will you be all right looking after Daisy while I go shopping?’ she asked tentatively. ‘Only, with Bob due to arrive today, I need to finish stocking up on things for Christmas.’

  ‘I’m neither senile nor helpless, Peggy,’ Cordelia retorted. ‘Of course I’ll look after Daisy. But instead of you standing in queues for hours, you should get Charlie to help you.’

  ‘Organising my Saturday morning for me, Cordelia?’ teased Charlie as he came in looking still half-asleep. He slumped into a chair and eyed the rain which was lashing across the garden. ‘It’s not going to be much fun on the rugby pitch this afternoon,’ he said gloomily.

  ‘It won’t be much fun queuing either,’ said Peggy. ‘But if we do half the list each, it shouldn’t take too long.’ At his reluctant nod, she went through her list. She’d do Alf the butcher, Fred the Fish and Sam the greengrocer because there was always a chance that these old pals might slip her something extra from under the counter. Charlie could do the bakery and the Home and Colonial.

  She found the appropriate food stamps and counted out enough money to cover his share of the shopping. ‘There should be enough there, but if there isn’t forget a couple of the tinned stuff,’ she said. ‘I can just about manage without them.’

  Charlie nodded, his mouth full of cereal.

  Peggy arrived back at Beach View almost three hours later, cold, wet and thoroughly fed up. The car had refused to start for some reason, and she’d had to lug her shopping home after standing about in the teeming rain for half the morning only to discover there were to be no surprises from under the counter, and little choice in the meat and fish. Sam the grocer was charging an arm and a leg for potatoes which she really begrudged, but then Ron’s spuds had rotted in the ground, so she’d had little choice in the matter.

  She pulled off her sodden hat and coat, shook them out and left them on the coat rack in the basement with her umbrella. Trudging up the steps with her shopping, she hoped the kettle was on as she was gagging for a cuppa and a fag after that ordeal.

  ‘Hello, Mum,’ said Charlie cheerfully. ‘I managed to get nearly everything on the list, but was a halfpenny short for the tin of baked beans, and that new chap at the Home and Colonial wouldn’t let me off it although I promised to go straight back and pay it.’

  ‘Tight as a tick that one,’ said Cordelia with a grimace, looking up from Daisy’s colouring book. ‘Doris’s Ted might have been a gambler and womaniser, but he was always fair with his customers.’

  Peggy began transferring the butter, cheese, fish and meat to her new refrigerator, placing the bottle of Daisy’s free orange juice next to the milk in the door compartment. The fresh vegetables and five-pound bag of potatoes went into her new rack on the worktop. She lifted the lid on the bread bin to find Charlie had managed to get two loaves.

  ‘I hope you got more packets of tea and cereal, Charlie. The speed we get through them is astonishing.’

  ‘They’re all in the cupboard with the marmalade and tins of Spam and pilchards.’ He grinned at her as she sat down to her cup of tea and lit a cigarette. ‘I’m still trying to find my way round this kitchen, and keep forgetting we don’t have a larder. We’re so posh now; poor Dad will think he’s come to the wrong house.’

  ‘I doubt that,’ said Peggy wearily. ‘He’ll be so glad to be back with his family he probably won’t notice. It’s us he won’t recognise,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘If Bob’s changed as much as you, then he’ll have a hard time of it. And of course Daisy was just a babe in arms when he left for India.’

  ‘What time is Bob due to arrive?’ asked Charlie. ‘We kick off at two-thirty, so if he’s early enough he might come and watch me play.’

  ‘Well, he might,’ said Peggy doubtfully, ‘but he’s not in until three and if it’s still raining hard I expect he’ll come straight here.’

  Charlie snorted. ‘Bob’s used to being out in all weathers, so a bit of rain won’t bother him.’ He pushed back from the table, grabbed his gabardine mac and tweed cap, and picked up his holdall containing his rugby kit. ‘I’m having lunch with Grandad and Rosie, so I’ll see you after the match.’

  He clattered down the steps and banged the back door behind him, making both women roll their eyes. ‘It’s like having Ivy and Rita in the house again,’ said Cordelia with a soft smile before she bent once more to help Daisy colour in her picture.

  ‘Wasn’t there any post this morning?’ asked Peggy, feel
ing somewhat refreshed by the tea and the sit-down. ‘And where’s Danuta? She can’t still be asleep, surely?’

  ‘She went off to Cliffe to be with Stanislaw as he’s got his first physio session without the walking sticks today. The only thing in the post was an electricity bill.’

  ‘Oh well,’ sighed Peggy. ‘I expect Jane and Sarah are busy dealing with things in Singapore, and Rita will have only just reached Australia. As for Ruby, if the weather’s closed in as badly as she feared, I doubt any post will be able to get through. I do hope all of them are all right, Cordelia. They’ve each of them had huge changes to deal with just lately.’

  The afternoon post came just as they’d finished their lunch of onion soup and toast, and Peggy hurried back from the hall. ‘There’s a letter from Rita to both of us; one from Ruby, and one from Jim,’ she said excitedly, placing them on the kitchen table.

  Cordelia relaxed back into the armchair with a drowsy Daisy on her lap. ‘You read Rita’s out to me, Peggy. I don’t want to disturb Daisy by hunting for my glasses.’

  Peggy eagerly tore open the letter which had been posted over a week before. ‘Their address sounds very exotic,’ she said. ‘Pandanus House, Warratah Road, Ravenshoe, Queensland.’

  She scanned the first few lines to ensure that Rita wasn’t as depressed as Ruby, and then began to read it out to Cordelia.

  Dearest Peggy and Grandma Cordelia ,

  Well, here we are in Australia at last, and it’s all so wonderful, I hardly know where to begin. We docked in Brisbane which is a lovely small city between the sea and a wide river, with huge parks full of silvery-barked trees called ghost gums which have leaves that shimmer and shiver in the slightest breeze. There are parrots of every colour, black swans, and long-legged ibis strutting about, and some of the birdsong in the morning is so beautiful it almost brings me to tears .

  Pete arranged for our luggage to be sent up to his parents’ place by road train – that’s what they call the enormous lorries hauling numerous trailers that go at huge speed all over the country carrying everything from freight to cattle – so we could ride our motorbikes along the highway which runs parallel to the coast all the way to Cairns .