by Annie Groves
‘“Life’s short, we should all have what fun we can whilst we can” types you mean? Yes, I thoughtso too,’ Katie replied as she and Gina left the Rooms.
They were out longer than they had anticipated, agreeing that there was so much to enjoy in Bath that it would need far longer than a mere weekend to see it all.
When they came across a shop tucked down a pretty Georgian street, with a sign in its window advertising ‘Good-quality second-hand Ladies’ Garments’, Gina urged, ‘Do let’s go in.’
The aroma of good scent and mothballs inside the shop reminded Katie of the smell from the trunks in which her mother kept all her stage costumes.
‘Just look at this.’ Gina lifted the long skirt of a pale grey silk gown embroidered with darker grey bugle beads.
‘You’ve got a good eye,’ the woman behind the counter told Gina. ‘It’s real silk, that is.’
‘Why don’t you try it on?’ Katie suggested.
‘Only if you try something as well,’ Gina agreed, going back to the rail and picking out a pretty floral-patterned silk tea dress with a soft peach background. ‘This will suit you perfectly.’
Half an hour later, flushed and happy, the two girls left the shop carrying their new purchases. In addition to the grey silk, Gina had bought a beautiful cream satin blouse and Katie was the owner of the peach tea dress and a darling little navy-blue knitted cardigan with white banding and white bows on the pockets.
‘You’d never get anything like this in London any more,’ Gina justified their extravagance.
They agreed that it was time for them to head back to the hotel. However, somehow they took a wrong turning and by some small miracle, as they happily agreed, they found themselves in a cobbled street that led to an open area with a pretty green on which was being held a small fair. Eager shoppers were clustered around the stalls. After sharing a mutual look of enthusiasm, the two girls headed for the nearest stall, Gina’s eyes widening with delight as she pointed out to Katie the basket filled with what looked like long ribbons of coarse lace.
‘Do look at this. It’s so pretty.’
With trimmings of any kind so very hard to come by, Katie was as enthusiastic as Gina.
‘It’s called “tatting”, my love,’ the elderly woman managing the stall told them in a broad country accent. ‘I make it myself.’
‘How much is it?’ Katie asked.
‘Fourpence a yard. Or fivepence if you want the wider one.’
‘It would be silly not to buy some,’ Gina told Katie, ‘even if we don’t need it now. It’s so pretty and would trim up an old blouse beautifully.’
Having both bought four yards of the tatting, the girls moved on to stall selling second-hand books and prints.
‘Gina, do come and look at this.’ Katie showed Gina several prints of Regency ladies in elegant gowns.
‘Oh, what a marvellous find!’ Gina enthused, happily parting with five shillings for four of the prints after some brisk bargaining with the stall holder.
Arm in arm the two girls went from stall to stall, learning as they did so that it was an annual event and that a lot of the stall holders had come into Bath from the country to sell their home-made wares.
‘We could walk down to Pulteney Bridge after church tomorrow and explore round there,’ Gina suggested as they strolled back to their hotel still arm in arm, pausing every now and again to admire the tranquil beauty of the city and its wonderful buildings.
‘I’d love to,’ Katie told her.
Gina smiled. ‘You know, I can say now that I was a bit worried after I’d suggested we do this. It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment suggestion, and afterwards I wondered how we’d actually get on. I don’t know about you but I can honestly say I can’t think of a woman friend I could better have enjoyed today with.’
‘Me neither,’ Katie agreed. She certainly couldn’t imagine Carole enjoying Bath. She’d have been complaining that she couldn’t see any dance halls.
Luke would have liked Bath. How easily and dangerously the treacherous thought slid serpent-like into her head and her heart.
It was still daylight but getting chilly now, and both girls started to walk more briskly.
‘I’m glad we saw that notice for Sadler’s Wells outside the Theatre Royal, and booked seats for tomorrow night as well as what we’re seeing tonight,’ Gina continued. ‘I don’t about you, but I’m not really one for sitting in a cocktail bar.’
‘The theatre will be an ideal way to finish offthe day,’ Katie agreed, glad she had brought along a dress suitable for going out in the evening.
Katie could tell that Gina had a well-to-do background, not just from her accent but also from her clothes. Katie’s mother adored clothes and had taught Katie how to recognise good-quality fabrics. Thus Katie suspected that the simply navy jacket Gina was wearing was cashmere, and her pearls real. Not that Katie was the kind who wanted to compete with other girls, but naturally one didn’t want to let the side down.
‘How do you rate our chances of getting a decently hot bath?’ Gina asked as they re-entered their hotel.
‘Small, unless we’re quick,’ Katie answered wryly, eyeing the largish group of junior naval officers clustered in the hotel lobby, and, since one of them was collecting keys, concluding they were also hotel guests.
‘You’re right,’ Gina agreed, whilst Katie determinedly pretended not to notice that one of the naval officers, fair-haired, tanned and blue-eyed, was eyeing her appreciatively.
Somehow they managed to skirt round the men without indicating that they were aware of the flow of compliments they were sending their way, such as, ‘And to think I thought it was only Wrens that had good legs’, ‘I do like a girl with brown curls’, ‘And pretty eyes’, ‘And red lips’, to reach the stairs to their rooms.
Dinner, as both Katie and Gina agreed, was rather better than they had feared. Unused to a choiceof three courses, they decided to skip the soup and have a pudding instead. Their main course of lamb with new potatoes, carrots and cabbage was actually lamb, and not the mutton that everyone had learned to dread, and if the Bakewell tart that followed it was more stodge than jam, at least it was filling.
Katie was glad that she’d worn her dress when she’d seen that Gina was also wearing something appropriately dressed up, in brown jersey with a cowl neck, which made Katie wish she were tall enough to carry off a style so smart.
Rationing being what it was, Katie had borrowed an evening cape from her mother, bought originally in the twenties, the black silk heavily embroidered with bugle beads. It was an elegant item and one Katie had decided to bring with her only at the last minute, but when she saw the approving glance Gina gave it she was glad that she had.
They left the hotel in plenty of time for the theatre, taking their time and chatting happily as they strolled. The city was busy with people also obviously dressed for an evening out.
At the theatre they had to queue for a little while before they got inside and were shown to their seats in the circle.
Sadler’s Wells would no doubt put on a good show tomorrow night, Katie acknowledged, as she heard other people around them talking about the ballet company as they settled into their seats, but she couldn’t help reflecting that the Campion twins, Sasha and Lou, had they been with her, would nodoubt have been complaining that ballet was dull compared with their own favourite jitterbugging.
The musicians would be first class, of course, and Katie wondered if any of her father’s fellow musicians and friends would be part of the orchestra.
The show they had come to see was enjoyable and entertaining.
‘That was lovely,’ Gina sighed happily when the company had taken their final bow, and the orchestra had played ‘God Save the King’.
Katie agreed as they turned to file out. It was a bright clear evening, the air cool, but the mood of those clustering around the theatre lobby and the area outside it warm, as people praised the performance.
‘What
a beautiful night,’ Katie couldn’t help saying softly as she looked up at the stars, a sudden attack of melancholy gripping her. Such a night was surely meant to be enjoyed by those in love, like some of the couples she could see, standing as close together as they could, holding hands, in some cases a woman’s head leaning on a strong male shoulder, intensifying Katie’s own feelings of loss and sadness. When Luke looked up at the stars, did he ever think of her, and if he did, was it with sadness and regret, and perhaps a wish that they were still engaged? No, of course not.
Snap out of it, Katie warned herself, her breath escaping in a soft whoosh of shock as someone behind her stepped back and bumped into her so hard that she almost lost her balance.
‘I say, I’m most awfully sorry. Are you all right?’ The man who had swung round to apologise washolding her arm to steady her, recognition lightening his expression. ‘You’re the girls from the hotel, aren’t you? The Lansdowne? I saw you there earlier.’
It was the young naval officer with the fair hair and the nice smile.
‘We are staying there, yes,’ Gina confirmed, stepping in with a cool nod.
The young officer was still holding on to her arm so Katie gave it a little shake and told him firmly, ‘Thank you, I’m fine.’
The blue eyes twinkled. ‘Ah, yes, your arm. I’m still holding on to it. My apologies, but it is a very pretty arm. Are you heading back for the hotel now? If so, may I escort you both?’
‘I think we can manage to find our way back quite safely unescorted,’ Gina told him drily,
He took his dismissal with good grace, releasing Katie’s arm and smiling at them both as they turned to leave.
‘I hope I didn’t do the wrong thing,’ Gina asked Katie a few minutes later as they walked down the otherwise empty street. ‘You might have wanted his company. He was very personable, I have to admit.’
‘No,’ Katie assured her, stiffening as they both heard the sound of anti-aircraft batteries rattling out gunfire.
The air-raid siren that followed the gunfire had Katie’s stomach churning, bringing back as it did memories of the Liverpool blitz.
‘Don’t worry,’ Gina began, ‘they’ll be heading for Bristol. You can—’ But her voice was drowned out as a chandelier of incendiary bombs showereddown so close at hand that the explosions that followed shook the ground.
Both girls looked round, automatically seeking the nearest shelter.
‘Not that way,’ Katie warned Gina as she looked back towards the theatre. ‘Any shelters there will be packed.’
‘Where then?’
‘I think there was one in the next street.’ Katie reached for her hand. ‘This way.’
Down towards the river they could hear the sound of further bombs exploding, the sticks of incendiaries followed by the telltale whine of the much bigger and more destructive high-explosive bombs. It was said that such a bomb landing in an enclosed space could blow a person into a thousand pieces, and yet at the same time there were those found dead after a bombing raid with no mark on them at all, the impact of the bomb having fatally damaged their internal organs.
Red tracer bullets lit up the sky.
‘Get down,’ Katie screamed at Gina, pulling her with her as she dropped down flat as close to the gutter as she could get, whilst machine-gun fire from the bomber she had just seen over the top of the houses hit the road as it flew over them, reminding her of the dreadful incident she had witnessed in Liverpool when a German pilot had raked an entire busload of people with bullets.
‘We’ve got to find a shelter,’ said Gina as they scrambled to their feet.
‘They seem to be concentrating on bombing down by the river,’ Katie pointed out, duckingautomatically as yet another bomb exploded close at hand, sending plumes of dust and debris up into the air.
They had, of course, passed street shelters on their way to the theatre, but she couldn’t remember just how far apart they had been. It made sense, though, to head back to their hotel because that was away from the area which the Germans were bombing, and had a reinforced cellar as its air-raid shelter.
Katie could hear someone running up the street behind them and when she turned round she saw the young naval officer coming towards them.
‘Thank heavens you’re both all right. I was worried about you,’ he told them. ‘Come on, the nearest shelter’s a couple of streets away. No, get down,’ he commanded, grabbing them both and pushing them down, just in time to duck out of the way of another Dornier spattering the road with bullets.
‘It looks like Kingsmead’s taking a hell of a pounding, which means they’re probably after the gas works,’ he informed them, once they had scrambled back onto their feet, raising his voice as a fire engine came racing past them.
At an ARP post on the corner, a warden broke off instructing a young messenger to shout out to them, ‘There’s a shelter next street but one, and look lively.’
They broke into a run. Above them the night sky was alive with the noise of the German Dorniers and the threat of death. That clear bright moonlight Katie had been admiring such a shorttime ago was now not something beautiful, but to be feared, allowing the German bombers to find their targets.
They had just reached the far end of the street and were about to cross over when a Dornier appeared over the chimney pots, flying so low that Katie thought he must clip them, so low that she could see the pilot inside the glass cockpit. Gina gave a small gasp of shock, but the plane sped over their heads, leaving them unharmed. Katie turned to watch it. A stick of incendiaries burst into fire, the men from the ARP post running out to smother them with sand. Katie heard the telltale whine and tried to warn them but it was too late. The highexplosive bomb that had followed the incendiaries made a direct hit on the post. From the ARP post to halfway down the road the glass was blown out of the house windows and covered the street, bright and shiny in the moonlight. Just like the glass over which Luke had carried her that night they had first met when the Germans had bombed the Grafton Dance Hall.
Automatically Katie started to move towards the ARP post, only to be dragged back by the lieutenant.
‘It’s no use,’ he yelled, his voice rough and raw against her ear. ‘We can’t do anything to help them. Come on …’
Katie knew he was right. In the clearing dust she could see that where the post had been there was nothing, and that the house next to it had been ripped open from its attic to the ground, like a dolls’ house with the front taken off, only nolittle girl would ever have allowed her dolls’ house to look like this house did, with its furniture falling out, soot blackening walls and huge gaping holes in the remaining walls.
In the moonlight Gina’s face was devoid of colour, her expression fixed rigid with shock. Her own face must look the same, Katie knew.
It was like some dreadful nightmare in which you were fleeing from a terrifying horror, Katie thought, as behind them the bombs continued to fall, making her think that if she looked back, like Lot’s wife, terrible fate would overcome her.
‘I’m sorry, girls, but you’re going to have to go on without me.’ The lieutenant was holding his arm, his fingers covered in blood from the spreading stain darkening his jacket.
‘You’re hurt.’
Katie and Gina looked at one another, both shaking their heads as they said together, ‘We aren’t leaving you here.’
‘I’m afraid you’re going to have to. Ruddy glass seems to have cut an artery.’ As he smiled at them, he pitched forward. Both of them grabbed hold of him and lowered him to the floor.
‘I’ve done some first-aiding,’ Gina told Katie. ‘I can probably put a tourniquet on his arm, if we can find something to use as a bandage and—’
‘Here.’ Katie immediately removed her waist slip and then delved into her handbag for the pencil she always carried with her.
‘Clever you,’ Gina approved. ‘From now on I shall make sure I always have one with me. Can you help me get his jacket off? We’ll have to bequick
, he seems to be losing an awful lot of blood.’
They were, and he was, and he had also lost consciousness, but Gina was steadfast and determined, and somehow as she concentrated on doing what she could to help her, Katie was able to forget about the bombers overhead and their own danger.
‘It’s a bit make-do-and-mend, and we’ll have to keep loosening it to make sure he doesn’t end up with gangrene. It will be best if we stay here and don’t try to move him, I think, in case the tourniquet doesn’t hold. He’s lost such a lot of blood already. But if you want to find a shelter—’
‘And leave you here on your own? Don’t be silly. We’re probably as safe out here as we are anywhere else,’ said Katie, with more conviction than she actually felt.
‘There’s bound to be someone along soon, a policeman or an ARP warden,’ Gina agreed.
The sound of the bombers had receded, but the sights and smells of the destruction they had caused were all around them, fires burning brightly into the night sky.
‘It smelled just like this in Liverpool when it was bombed,’ Katie said quietly. ‘I hate this war, and what it’s doing, destroying families and lives. I’m sorry … it’s just that earlier tonight, when we came out of the theatre, I couldn’t help thinking about Luke. We were engaged, but then he broke it off. I keep telling myself that I must stop loving him, but somehow I can’t. Some people seem to think that you can just transfer your feelings fromone man to another, but I can’t. Luke will always be the man I love.’
Katie hadn’t intended to speak so openly, but somehow their situation had brought the words to her lips, as though if they were killed sitting here in the gutter, with a possibly dying man between them, it was Luke’s name on her lips and Luke himself in her heart that she wanted to be her very last breath and her very last thought.
‘I know what you mean. We weren’t engaged, but, well, John and I both knew that it was just a matter of time, but the trouble was we didn’t have any time. He was in the navy, and his ship was torpedoed, no survivors.’
