An Uncertain Heart

by June Tate

  ‘Me likes ice cream. Want it now, Mummy.’

  ‘The man’s not here yet, so we have to wait.’ They had hired a man to come with his bicycle and cart to offer his wares too. The weather forecast had been for a warm, sunny day, so ice cream would be a welcome addition.

  At two o’clock, the gates were opened and the long line of people began to filter in. Helen was delighted to see so many had turned up. It would have been a disappointment if the attendance had been poor, also having a disastrous effect on the men who had worked so hard to put everything together. Instead the place became crowded in a very short time. The coconut stall was doing a roaring trade, the vegetable stall was selling quickly, more goods added from the extra hidden beneath the stall in readiness if business was good, and the ice creams were selling well.

  The cook was manning his cake stall which had a vast selection of small cakes as well as sponge cakes, fruit cakes and gingerbread men, which the children loved. On each stall was a charity box, which the customers were putting their small change in and as Helen noticed, some had placed paper money in them too.

  There was a small queue waiting to have their portraits done after seeing how well Tommy had drawn the first one, much to the delight of the lady who was first to sit for him.

  When James arrived with his horses, everyone looked on with interest and when he dismounted and put Rebecca on Valiant’s back and led her around on a lead rein, lots of the children clamoured for a ride too. The three horses were in use all afternoon.

  Raffle tickets sold well when the customers saw the prizes. There were bottles of wine, a couple of champagne, boxes of chocolates, bath salts, lavender water and pouches of lavender to put in your drawers, and vouchers for meals at the local pub, plus a star prize of a weekend at one of Cheltenham’s best hotels.

  Edward was running the raffle and Arthur Hurst had made the journey with his friend, Gerald, so all three trustees were there to see and take part in the day. The press had been invited and photographs were taken around the grounds, which would appear in the local paper’s next edition.

  When it was time to close, Arthur, with the aid of a microphone that had been set up, gave a speech, thanking everyone for coming, saying how important Richard Carson House was to the soldiers needing care, and urging everyone there to spread the word of the good work that was being done and the need for help with the donations to allow it to continue.

  Then it was time to clear up, with everyone dismantling the stalls. There was very little that remained unsold and so it was deemed a great success. Helen, James and the trustees dined with the men that night to celebrate the work they had all put in and to thank them for their efforts. Then they were given the following day off work as a reward. They all cheered at this and when the contents of the charity boxes had been counted and the sum collected was announced, the cheer was even louder.

  Rebecca, who had been allowed to stay up for the dinner had fallen sleep in James’s arms. The horses had been taken back to the stables earlier, fed and watered for the night, so the three of them could go straight back to the farmhouse. Everyone was worn out. Edward was playing host to the two other trustees, so Helen and James didn’t have to cater for them, and having settled Rebecca, they too climbed into bed.

  James gathered Helen into his arms and held her close.

  ‘What a terrific day this has been. My God, those men worked hard to bring it all together. It will give them such a boost. It was such fun out there with all the stalls. People really enjoyed it. I know I did.’

  ‘So did I and Rebecca certainly did, as did all the other children. Your rides proved to be very popular. Perhaps you should think again of opening a riding school, now you are so much better. After all, you’ve two good assistants to help you.’

  He thought for a moment. ‘Perhaps in the spring, I’ll certainly think seriously about it.’ He sighed. ‘Who would have thought, when I walked into that hotel so long ago and you joined me at the bar, that this day would happen? Here we are married, with a child. Me, running a business training horses and now you with a nursing home, caring for troops who suffered during the war and who have just produced a day that will be remembered by many for quite a while. It’s unbelievable!’

  ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Sometimes I wonder how it all happened, myself, and it could have been so different. I could have lost you on that operating table. That still haunts me when I think about it.’

  ‘That was then, darling. Now and the future is what is important. We have a daughter to raise in what I hope will be a better world and we have each other, and you with your work will be helping others to enjoy their future too.’

  ‘We have one person to thank for all this, Richard. He saved your life, and by leaving me his money he is the means of helping so many others.’

  ‘That’s his legacy, Helen. He would be so proud of you, I know I am.’

  ‘You forget, James, what you’ve had to endure and have overcome.’

  He frowned. ‘Let’s be honest, darling, it was Brian Dickinson who did that for me. I was deeply depressed when he arrived with poor Valiant who was all but dead on his legs. I was so incensed by the state of him and the cruelty he had suffered that I forgot my own feelings. Brian was the man who unlocked my depression and who set me on the road to recovery. Without his intervention, I’ve no idea how I would have ended up.’

  ‘Maybe, but you did recover and you learnt to cope with loud noises and confined spaces, to a great degree, but he didn’t do that – you did!’

  ‘Well, I owed it to him to do so, didn’t I?’ He yawned. ‘I am really tired, I suggest we get as much sleep as we can before Rebecca wakes in the morning. She was so tired, with a bit of luck, she’ll sleep later than usual.’ He leant over and kissed Helen. ‘Goodnight, darling. I’m so pleased the day went well.’

  Helen had just settled when she heard a noise from Rebecca’s room and climbed out of bed to go and see what was happening.

  Rebecca was asleep, cuddling her favourite toy rabbit, but she was making soft noises as she slept, obviously dreaming. Helen sat on her bed and patted her, making shushing noises, talking softly until the child settled. She sat for a while watching her, thinking of the number of times she’d done this for James during his nightmares. His, of course, had been more violent, but they now happened very rarely.

  She got up and, opening the curtain slightly so as not to disturb Rebecca, looked out over the field that was part of the farmhouse. The moon was shining in a clear sky. Nothing moved, it was silent, unlike many a night long ago, when the sound of gunfire filled the air. How lucky they had all been to have come through it. She thought of the men she’d nursed. Of the boy whose face had been so badly burnt, the soldiers returning after losing limbs. How did they cope, she wondered?

  Walking softly, she returned to her own room and looked down at James, now fast asleep, and silently thanked Richard Carson for saving the life of the man she loved, and for leaving her his money, which had allowed her to set up the house in his name. A testament to the great man himself, who had been her mentor and lover. She had no regrets about their relationship. He had told her she’d made him happy and she was glad of that, but now she had found the man with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life, who had made her life complete, who had given her a daughter. Together they would build a future, helping others to build one too.

  Acknowledgements

  With love as always to my daughters, Beverley and Maxine.

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  About the Author

  JUNE TATE was born in Southampton and spent the early years of her childhood in the Cotswolds. After leaving school she became a hairdresser on cruise ships the Queen Mary and the Mauretania, meeting many Hollywood film stars and VIPs on her travels. After her marriage to an airline pilot, she lived in Sussex and Hampshire before moving to Estoril in Portugal. June, who has two adult daughters, now lives in Sussex.

  By June Tate

  The Reluctant Sinner

  Born to Dance

  Brides of War

  The Docklands Girls

  An Uncertain Heart

  Copyright

  Allison & Busby Limited

  12 Fitzroy Mews

  London W1T 6DW

  allisonandbusby.com

  First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2017.

  This ebook edition first published in 2017.

  Copyright © 2017 by JUNE TATE

  The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978–0–7490–2138–2