by Daisy Styles
When Bella heard about Maudie’s imminent return, she didn’t, as her new friends expected, sigh with relief and make plans to rejoin her fellow trainees. Instead, she said, ‘I intend to continue working below stairs with you, if you’ll have me?’
‘How can you do that?’ Ruby exclaimed.
‘Don’t you have to finish your course?’ Ava asked.
‘Please don’t think I’m being big-headed,’ Bella begged, ‘but, in Maudie’s absence, I proved that I could study and cook. The Brig doesn’t have a problem with me helping out, as long as I keep on top of my work and –’ she blurted it out ‒ ‘I absolutely love being down here. We have great fun, and we make great food, which I love eating!’
‘We’ve loved it, too, our lass,’ Ava answered fondly. ‘Don’t know what we would have done without you, especially when it came to gutting those blasted hares!’
Looking suddenly self-conscious, Bella asked an awkward question. ‘Do you think Maudie will mind me being in the kitchen?’
‘No, not at all!’ Ava cried. ‘She’ll be thrilled to bits to have an extra pair of hands.’
‘She won’t think I’m posh and bossy?’ Bella asked shyly.
‘Probably, but she’ll get used to it,’ Ava teased.
Ruby’s face lit up as she realized that, with Maudie back and Bella helping out, they might finally reduce their long hours.
‘Maybe we’ll have a bit of spare time for canoodling!’ she joked, then asked, in all seriousness, ‘Have you got a boyfriend, Bella?’
Bella shook her head and shrugged dismissively. ‘Too busy,’ she replied. ‘And anyway, let’s face it, no man I chose would ever be up to scratch for my family. Only a crown prince or a head of state would bring a smile to their miserable faces!’
‘You’re pretty and clever ‒ you should have a boyfriend,’ romantic Ruby insisted.
Bella kept her thoughts to herself; the only man who’d ever made her heart skip a beat was Brigadier Charles Rydal, and he was nearly old enough to be her father.
‘I’d rather roast a goose or bake a pie – and eat it, of course!’ Bella retorted.
‘Well, if you’re that keen to stick with us, can I beg a favour?’ Ava asked, nervously watching the kitchen clock ticking its way up to four. ‘Can you help Ruby with tea while I run over to the stables to meet Tom for half an hour?’
‘Sure,’ Bella replied. ‘Is he checking the horses?’
Cheeky Ruby giggled, ‘More like checking out Ava!’ she joked.
Ava was already on her feet, heading for the back door. ‘Got to rush. It’ll be dark soon,’ she called over her shoulder.
‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!’ Ruby called after her, but the bang of the closing door announced that Ava was gone, winging her way across the icy yard to Mr Tom Benson.
11. Made with Love
It was wonderful to have Maudie back.
‘How’s your dad?’ Ava and Ruby asked as soon as she walked through the kitchen door.
‘Much, much better,’ Maudie replied, with a relieved smile. Draping her coat over a chair, she sat at the table, where she sipped the hot tea that Ruby had poured for her. ‘He’ll never regain full strength in his right arm, but he’s strong enough to argue about politics, his favourite subject,’ she said with a fond smile. ‘He’s worried sick about his relatives in Kiev. He’s not heard a word since the Germans took the city in September.’
‘It’s beyond human belief that the Germans just marched in and slaughtered thirty-three thousand Jews just because of their religion,’ Ava cried.
‘They can’t possibly kill all the Jews in Europe,’ Ruby murmured incredulously.
‘I think Adolph Hitler is evil enough to have a good try,’ Maudie replied angrily.
As a heavy silence descended, Ava lightened the mood by squeezing Maudie’s hand. ‘We missed you soooo much,’ she said.
Maudie, who looked tired after the anxious days she’d spent looking after her father, warmly returned her squeeze.
‘And I missed you, too. Can you believe, I missed my life of drudgery? I must have gone soft in the head.’ She pointed her forefinger at her smiling friends. ‘I blame you two for making below stairs a happy place.’
‘It’s even happier these days, now we’ve got extra help,’ Ruby told Maudie.
‘Has Timms agreed to peel potatoes for us?’ Maudie joked.
‘No, much better than that,’ Ruby cried. ‘We’ve got Lady Annabelle on board.’
‘Or Bella Wells,’ Ava corrected her
‘Didn’t she drop her posh title so she could join the trainees?’ Maudie recalled.
‘That’s right,’ Ruby said. ‘She noticed we were in a flat spin after you’d left; she walked into the kitchen, put on a pinnie and got stuck in. She’s a brilliant cook and she loves her grub, too.’ She chuckled. ‘If she fancies anything, like soup at the end of the day, she just pops into the larder, collects some vegetables and, before you know it, there’s a bowl of tasty, hot soup on the table with a bit of cheese on toast. Nothing seems to be an effort. Cooking’s as natural as breathing to her.’
‘She told us her parents never allowed her near the kitchen, they thought an interest in cooking was below her,’ Ava told Maudie.
‘What a bunch of snobs!’ Maudie scoffed.
‘Actually, Bella secretly spent a lot of time down here when she was little,’ Ruby informed her friends. ‘It was her escape from her nagging parents. When Cook was off, she’d mess about in the kitchen, trying out recipes. ’Course, Timms always shooed her back upstairs, but she always managed to sneak back down again.’
‘She sounds good news,’ Maudie replied, then added with a mischievous smile: ‘As long as she doesn’t take over my baker’s role, she’s more than welcome!’
Maudie turned her sparkling green eyes on her friends, who were busy lighting up their Woodbines. ‘So … what have you two been up to while I’ve been away?’
‘I had a lovely time with Tom,’ Ava answered dreamily.
‘Well, now I’m back and Bella’s joined the team, you should be able to grab a couple of hours a week to go riding,’ she said with a smile.
‘I’d love that!’ Ava exclaimed.
‘And what about you, Ruby’ Maudie asked.
‘I wish you’d teach me some more Polish, then I could get to know Rafal a bit better! We communicate mostly in stupid sign language.’
‘You don’t need words for kissing,’ Maudie giggled.
‘Rafal’s so shy,’ Ruby told her friends. ‘I think he’s frightened of kissing me.
‘So kiss him instead!’ Ava cried.
‘I don’t want to shock the poor lad by throwing myself at him,’ Ruby answered primly.
Ava nodded sympathetically. ‘It’s difficult, especially now there’s a war on; the news we hear, day in and day out, of death and destruction, loss and hardship, makes you think, why shouldn’t we grab life by the throat and enjoy every moment, because who knows what tomorrow might bring?’
‘My body’s a temple, according to Rafal,’ Ruby sighed.
‘And I’m taking it carefully with my handsome divorcee,’ Ava admitted.
‘What about you, Maudie?’ Ruby asked. ‘Have you ever had a boyfriend?’
‘Never!’ Maudie laughed. ‘There were boys at home that I kissed and cuddled, but I’ve never met anybody who took my breath away.’
‘It would have to be a very special man to catch you, Maudie,’ Ruby said fondly.
‘He’d have to be clever, strong and sensitive to handle you,’ Ava said, with a knowing smile.
‘And handsome and left wing and working class,’ Maudie chipped in.
‘We’re talking about a likely lover, not a politician!’ Ava joked.
‘That’s the trouble ‒ I want all of those things,’ Maudie answered truthfully. ‘I’m sure I’ll never find the right man, because I’m looking for Mr Perfect, and men like that just don’t exist.’
Changing the subj
ect, Ava asked, ‘How was the East End? Is the bombing as bad as we’re told?’
Cradling her mug of tea, Maudie shook her head sadly. ‘It’s like one big building site. Rubble everywhere, buckled metal, gaping holes, shattered churches, whole neighbourhoods razed to the ground, most of the kids have been evacuated now, thank God,’ she added fervently.
‘You must be worried sick about your parents?’ Ruby asked.
Maudie nodded. ‘I am, but they’ll never leave the East End. The community there is strong, and they watch out for each other, and they need to at the moment,’ she added grimly. ‘Oswald Mosley might be in prison, but he’s still got a lot of supporters.’
‘Prison’s the best place for the likes of Mosley ‒ behind bars and out of trouble,’ Ava said angrily.
‘It’s impossible to believe they openly support the Fascists,’ Maudie seethed. ‘Honestly, I could throw a brick at them!’
‘Don’t,’ Ruby warned. ‘You could finish up behind bars, too.’
‘While I was at home I saw a fight break out between some Mosley supporters and soldiers in uniform; the soldiers were so incensed, they just went for them. The police quickly broke it up, but it was ugly.’
Ruby glanced nervously over her shoulder. ‘Sometimes I think Lord Edward is a bit that way inclined,’ she whispered.
Stunned, Maudie stared at her. ‘Do you think he’s a fascist?’
Ruby dropped her voice. ‘I don’t know what he is, but he’s an odd bugger. Mum overheard him speaking German to one of his Cambridge pals. It’s the language of the enemy!’ she added in a shocked whisper.
‘Don’t be daft! I speak German, too,’ laughed Maudie. ‘And Polish and Yiddish. Does that make me the enemy?’
Still whispering, Ruby continued, ‘One night at the start of the war, before you came here, he was raving about the Nazis over dinner. He’d had a few but, nevertheless, the things he said shocked me.’
‘Like what?’ asked Maudie, wide-eyed.
‘How high-minded the Germans were, how focused and determined, not like us Brits, shilly-shallying about starting the war. He even said the government should take a leaf out of Hitler’s book.’
‘I don’t think so!’ Maudie retorted indignantly. ‘I’ll never understand how he’s managed to skip conscription.’
Ava reluctantly rose to her feet. ‘Come on, lasses, them apple fritters aren’t going to fry themselves, and Bella’s vegetable stew smells like it’s beginning to catch.’
Maudie took a spoon and dipped it into the bubbling pan on top of the Aga. Her eyes widened as she savoured the rich flavour of Bella’s stock.
‘You’re right. Bella’s very good,’ she said appreciatively.
Ruby chuckled as she dropped the battered apple rings into a pan of sizzling oil. ‘You can tell Maudie’s back ‒ politics is big on the menu when she’s around!’
As Ruby and Ava had predicted, Bella and Maudie got on like a house on fire. They’d met briefly before and had liked each other in a passing, casual way, but now they were working together their friendship blossomed. They were both young women with strong views. Sometimes, it was hard to get a word in edgeways when the two of them got going on politics, religion, the war, Hitler, Churchill, female conscription … the list was endless. They shared a bedroom and swapped notes on the books they were reading as they snuggled down at night.
‘Go to sleep!’ Ava often called out, as she tapped on the adjoining wall. ‘You’ll never get up in the morning!’
When Bella and Maudie cooked together, Ava and Ruby had to hide their smiles as both girls sparred to try to create more appealing meals from the rations and the food from the estate.
‘You’re giving me a headache,’ Ava complained. ‘A pie’s a pie at the end of the day. The people upstairs will wolf down anything we give them.’
Maudie threw up her hands. ‘That doesn’t mean we’ve got to be dull.’
‘Not when Peter’s picked up a couple crabs, which are right now sidling around the pantry,’ laughed Bella, who’d earlier seen Ava running screaming down the corridor, away from the scuttling crabs.
Ava threw an oven glove at Bella, who was doubled up with laughter. ‘Nobody told me there were crabs on the loose!’
‘It was one of the funniest sights I’ve ever seen.’ Bella hiccupped as she wiped tears of laughter from her face.
‘I can tell you one thing, the Brig’s loving Bella’s fine fare,’ Ruby said cheekily. ‘I think your wild-duck pâté is made with a dash of love.’
This time, it was a blushing Bella’s turn to whizz the oven glove across the room. ‘Shut up!’ she cried.
With four of them working in the kitchen, the girls did now get some time off. Ava wasted no time in arranging a few hours riding on Holkham beach one bright clear winter morning.
‘God, I’ve missed this,’ she said, as she and Tom trotted past fields where grey lagged geese honked and marsh harriers circled high overhead, hunting for voles in the ditches.
An icy cold wind blowing in from the east didn’t stop Drummer and Lucas breaking into a gallop and pounding across the wide sweep of the empty beach. Later, with the frisky horses safely tethered, Ava laid out the picnic lunch she’d prepared for Tom: boiled-crab sandwiches, hot coffee spiced with brandy, and mince pies. Delighted and surprised by the spread, Tom leant over impetuously and kissed Ava on the cheek.
‘Thank you,’ he said softly. ‘It’s a long time since somebody made a fuss of me.’
Ava blushed. She felt hot, even though the wind whistled around them as they snuggled down in the sand dunes facing the turbulent North Sea.
‘Hard to think, with all the peace and beauty around us, that soldiers are fighting on the other side of that sea,’ Tom said, as they rose from the shelter of the dunes and returned to their horses.
‘God help them,’ Ava said fervently.
As they trotted slowly back through the pine woods, pheasants flapped and fluttered in the undergrowth. They disturbed a sleepy owl, who hooted in the swaying treetops, and a deer with her baby shot out from behind a belt of trees, startling the horses, who snorted as they pawed the ground. When they reached the hall, Tom helped Ava dismount. This time, he held her in his arms.
‘Ava,’ he said, staring into her sparkling blue eyes. ‘I’m growing very fond of you.’
Even though she was supported in his strong arms, Ava felt her body going limp.
‘I know it’s complicated because of my divorce, and there will inevitably be scandal, but would you consider being my girl?’
Ava hadn’t a single doubt in her head. ‘Yes!’ she said, with ringing sincerity. ‘I can live with scandal for a good man like you.’
Seeing him standing speechless before her, with tears stinging his hazel eyes, Ava reached up and kissed him briefly on the lips. It was so good, she kissed him again. Sighing with pleasure, she clung to Tom for support.
‘I think I might faint!’ she giggled.
Tom gently lifted her chin. ‘You’re so beautiful,’ he murmured.
Before he could kiss her again, Lucas and Drummer, impatient for their supper and a warm stable, whinnied shrilly, their hot breath flaring in the frosty air.
‘I’ll see to the horses,’ Tom told Ava, as he reluctantly released her.
Dizzy and dazed by his kisses, Ava nodded.
‘See you soon, darling,’ he called, as he led the horses, clip-clopping, across the icy yard.
Ava hugged herself as she ran laughing to the kitchen door. ‘I’m Tom Benson’s darling!’
When Ruby had a night off, she took Rafal to see Gone with the Wind at the old picture house in Wells. Rafal hardly understood a word of the film, but it was clear he adored Rhett Butler. He had Ruby helpless with laughter as he mimicked him, and said, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!’
‘You don’t even know what it means!’ Ruby teased.
‘I know he fed up with stupid Scarlett woman!’ Rafal replied, looking into Ruby’s
dark eyes. ‘I never like this Brett with my Rubee,’ he said, and pulled her to him, he kissed her on the lips for the first time.
Astonished and delighted, Ruby closed her eyes and abandoned herself to this first glorious blast of passion with Rafal.
‘Bloody hell!’ she thought to herself. ‘Maybe we should watch Gone with the Wind a bit more often!’
12. De-mob Happy
With the code girls’ course coming to an end, Ruby wondered where they’d all go.
‘I looked into where I might be sent after my training,’ Ava said with a wry smile. ‘I tell you, these girls are needed everywhere! Tracking, signals, administration, interception, radar imagery, postal communications … I fancied myself in mapping,’ Ava said, and struck a pose, one hand on her hip, the other holding up her mass of thick, dark hair. ‘Imagine me in a utility suit, waving a stick around and shouting instructions.’ She dropped the pose and grimaced as she looked down at her cook’s uniform. ‘And what did I get? A cook’s pinnie and my dreams in pieces!’
‘Stop moaning,’ Ruby teased. ‘You might not have met Tom Benson if you were a code girl upstairs.’
‘I suppose that’s one good thing about being a skivvy!’ Ava laughed.
‘Won’t you be moving on soon, Bella?’ Maudie asked.
‘Actually, I’m staying here,’ she replied.
Maudie gave her a long, sideways look. ‘Why?’
‘To do further advanced code-breaking with the Brig,’ Bella answered, rather shyly.
‘Oooooh! Is that what you call it?’ mocked Ruby.
‘Training you up for spy work, eh?’ Ava joked.
‘Let the poor girl speak,’ Maudie cried, as Ava and Ruby started giggling.
‘He obviously can’t bear to lose you,’ Ava teased.
‘Put a sock in it, Ava,’ Bella cried. ‘The Brig’s almost old enough to be my father!’
‘You don’t look at him the way a daughter looks at a father,’ Ava remarked.
‘He’s keeping you here because he doesn’t want to lose a great cook!’ Ruby laughed.
‘We’re all brilliant cooks – the best in the world!’ Maudie added, with a dramatic flourish of her hands.
