She flew up the entry as if there were wings on her feet as the expensive leather suitcase that Fliss had loaned her bounced off the walls, then at last she was through the yard and going into the kitchen. Straight away her eyes were drawn to Ariel who was sitting in her father’s chair quietly crying into a large white handkerchief. Brian had been sitting at the kitchen table but he instantly stood up and after snatching up his crutch, he limped across and took the case from Adina.
‘What’s going on here?’ Adina asked, as Ariel shot out of the chair and flung her arms about her sister.
‘Oh Dina, I’m so glad you’re here,’ she sobbed.
Adina hugged her for a moment before holding her at arm’s length and asking softly, ‘Now calm down and tell me what’s wrong. And where is Papa?’
Ariel took a deep shuddering breath. ‘He . . . he’s gone, Adina. During the night. Brian arrived this morning to open the shop and found him here in the chair. He had died in his sleep. The doctor thinks his heart just gave out.’
Adina reeled away from her as every vestige of colour drained out of her face. And yet deep down, she wasn’t really surprised. She had not been able to shake off a terrible sense of foreboding ever since Ariel had phoned the evening before, and now she knew why. Brian hastily pulled out a chair and Adina sank down into it, still unable to utter a word. Now there was only herself and Ariel left, and it was a lot to take in.
‘We’ve arranged the funeral for tomorrow,’ Brain told her gravely. ‘I hope that’s all right? Your father is upstairs and I have washed him just as Ariel told me to, as I am the closest he had to a male relative now. We have also sat shiva for him throughout the night and written his name in the Book of the Dead.’
Adina nodded. She felt as if she was caught in the grip of a nightmare, and yet she knew inside that this was real. Her father was gone to join her mother and Dovi. And then at last they came, hot scalding tears that spurted from her eyes and threatened to choke her, and there was nothing more to be said as she and Ariel clung together.
The following day they found themselves once more in the Jewish section of Witton Cemetery, and Ezra was laid to rest next to Freyde his beloved wife. The funeral was a solemn affair attended only by themselves.
For days the sun had blazed down from a cloudless blue sky, but on the day of the funeral the heavens opened. Adina stood with her sister, tears and rain on her cheeks. She had not even had the chance to say a proper goodbye, and now she could only pray that if there really was an afterlife, her loved ones were finally reunited in paradise.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
That night, Ariel and Brian brought little Freda with them and spent the night with Adina in the shop. She could not face staying there on her own and when she begged them to stay, they were happy to oblige her.
‘What shall we do with the shop now?’ Ariel asked as they sat down to a meal that none of them really wanted. The whole place felt strangely empty as they stared around at their parents’ familiar things. Adina could still clearly remember the day they had all arrived there and her father’s many trips to the secondhand shops. She recalled him coming home with the chairs and the sideboard, and the way her mother had exclaimed with delight at sight of them before setting to and polishing them until she could see her face in them. Each and every piece in the room had little monetary value and yet they were all priceless.
‘I don’t know,’ she told her sister as she poured herself another cup of tea and moved her uneaten meal away. ‘There was a note from the landlord pushed through the door when we got back from the funeral to say that he’ll be calling to see us in the morning.’
‘Huh, he didn’t waste much time, did he,’ Brian said in disgust. ‘I dare say he’s worried he won’t be getting his rent.’ He then swallowed nervously before glancing towards the two sisters. He had been hoping to wait a while before putting the idea that had been growing in his mind to them, but now it seemed that he hadn’t a moment to lose or the opportunity might be gone for ever. ‘In actual fact I’ve been thinking about the shop,’ he said quietly, and when his wife raised a questioning eyebrow he hurried on, ‘Well, the thing is, I don’t want to appear that I’m cashing in on your father’s death, but I’ve really enjoyed working in it. It’s something that I can do that isn’t too physically demanding, and now that little Freda is here we need our own place to live. My parents have been wonderful, of course, but I thought . . . I mean, I wondered, how about Ariel and I take the shop on?’
‘Us!’ Ariel’s eyes almost popped out of her head, but then the more she thought on his suggestion the more it made sense.
‘If you were to ask me, I think it’s a wonderful idea,’ Adina said calmly. She knew how much Brian fretted about not being able to do some of the things that he had been able to before he was injured in the war. He desperately wanted to feel independent and provide for his family, and here was the ideal opportunity.
‘Why don’t we talk to the landlord about it tomorrow if you’re serious?’ Ariel suggested, and her husband’s whole face lit up.
‘You’re on,’ he said with a determined nod, and the women then rose and began to clear the table as he sat there with his head brimful of ideas.
The landlord, Mr Braithwaite, a tall gangly man with bushy eyebrows and a huge grey beard, actually thought that Brian’s plan was a brilliant idea, and after discussing the rent they shook hands on it and the landlord left promising to return with the necessary paperwork the following day.
‘I’m going to make this work, you just see if I don’t,’ Brian told his wife excitedly. ‘I thought we could introduce some hardware,’ he went on. ‘You know – brushes and bowls and things like that. There’s no one else sells them around here, so I think they’d do well.’
Adina slipped up to her room leaving the couple to their dreams and lay on her bed staring sightlessly off into space. It was strange to think that Ariel would be living in her old home again, but oddly fitting somehow – and she hoped that the little family would be happy there. At least some good would have come from their father’s death, if it gave them a place of their own to live.
After lunch that day Adina went for a walk. She desperately needed some time to herself to put her thoughts into some sort of order and come to terms with her father’s death. She found herself walking towards Stockingford and was soon approaching the gates of Astley Hall. Peering into the grounds, she felt a pang of sadness. The Nissen huts were almost empty. Many of the prisoners of war had been returned to their homelands, and now the grounds that had once rung with the sounds of men’s chatter appeared to be little more than a ghost town.
As she stared at the deserted dwellings, it was hard to believe that almost ten thousand people had lived there throughout the duration of the war. She had no doubt that many of them would have returned home to find that their loved ones had perished, just as so many of the English had. She stood for a long while remembering the times she had come to these very gates to wait for Karl. The memories were so vivid that she almost expected him to walk up to her at any moment, enchanting her with the dimpled smile that Dottie had inherited. But he didn’t come, and after a while she turned and retraced her steps with a heavy heart.
It was as she was heading back to the shop that an idea occurred to her. Perhaps it would be worth visiting the school where she had used to work? Karl had promised to send his letters to Mrs Downes, the Headmistress there, and who knew, she might just be in for a pleasant surprise if there was one there waiting for her that Mrs Downes hadn’t yet had time to forward on to her.
Some time later she came away from the school with very mixed emotions. Mrs Downes, who was thrilled to see her and to hear how her friends the Montgomerys were, had informed her that yes, indeed a letter addressed to Adina from Germany had arrived at the school some weeks ago, but she had forwarded it on to the London address almost immediately. So why haven’t I received it? Adina wondered, although she was thrilled to know that Karl had writte
n. Perhaps it had been lost in the post? She consoled herself by thinking that even if this was the case, if Karl had written once he would surely write again, and she went on her way in a greatly heartened mood.
The next four days passed in a blur. Ariel and Brian were busily transporting their possessions from his parents’ house to their new home, and Adina was happy to babysit for little Freda while the others excitedly rushed backwards and forwards in a friend’s old van. They had precious little to bring apart from their clothes and their personal possessions, but it didn’t really matter as they were inheriting the furniture that Adina’s family had managed to amass.
Freda was a placid little soul and soon had her auntie wrapped around her little finger. Each time Adina cuddled her she missed her own child even more, and although she was willing to wait until Ariel and Brian had settled in, now that the funeral was over she was keen to get home to Dottie. Brian had signed all the necessary papers with the landlord and was busily adding stock of his choice to the shop, which his friend Paul was happy to fetch for him, much to Ariel’s amusement.
‘Do you know, Dina, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Brian so happy,’ she told her sister as the latter expertly changed her niece’s nappy. ‘This is just what he needed to give him some purpose in life again. He’s been so frustrated since he came home from the war. Although, of course. I would rather it hadn’t been at the expense of our father’s death.’
‘You mustn’t think of it like that.’ Adina tickled her niece’s chubby arm as Ariel sat her up. ‘Papa would have wanted you to be happy despite the fact that you had your differences in the past.’
‘Differences is putting it rather mildly,’ Ariel snorted. ‘Papa always thought of me as the wayward one of the family, whereas you were his favourite. But then I’m glad we were on speaking terms again before he passed away.’
The young woman realised with a little pang of guilt that she had always been jéalous of Adina. Her sister was the quiet, studious one who never answered back or disobeyed her parents, while she herself had rebelled, especially since coming to England, where she considered her father’s strict religious beliefs were unnecessary. That was why it had come as such a shock when Adina had confided that she was seeing a German prisoner of war.
Suddenly catching hold of Adina’s hand, Ariel stared down at the band of steel on the third finger. ‘You must still miss Karl very much,’ she said. ‘Do you think he will ever come back now?’
‘I don’t know,’ Adina admitted as she lifted Freda and handed her a Farley’s rusk.
Glancing furtively towards the door that led into the shop, where the two men were busily rearranging the stock, Ariel suddenly whispered, ‘Can you keep a secret?’
Adina nodded.
‘Good, then I’ll tell you – and you’ll be the first to know. The thing is I think I’m going to have another baby. But I don’t want to tell Brian yet until I’m completely sure.’ Her eyes were sparkling.
‘Why, that’s wonderful news,’ Adina exclaimed, and then they suddenly became solemn as the same thought occurred to them both at the same time. It was the neverending circle of life: a birth and a death, just as it had been since time began.
More than ever now, Adina longed to tell Ariel about her own baby, but something held her back. Perhaps it was because she felt Ariel had enough to come to terms with at present, what with their father’s death, a new baby on the way and starting up their own little business. But I will tell her soon, she promised herself. The next time I come to visit I shall bring Dottie with me and tell her everything. She then hurried over to the sink to fill the kettle. The men were long overdue a tea-break, and if she knew her brother-in-law at all, he would soon be shouting for one.
That evening, Adina strolled down to the phone box in Riversley Road and dialled the Montgomerys’ number. She could hear the phone ringing in London and waited impatiently for Beattie or Fliss to pick it up. But after at least five minutes when no one had answered she pressed Button B to return her pennies and stepped out into the night with a frown on her face. She knew without a doubt that Mrs Montgomery would never answer the phone. She hated it with a vengeance and almost jumped out of her skin every time it rang. Beattie could well have gone home by now, but why hadn’t Theo or Fliss answered it? It suddenly occurred to her that they might have been up in the nursery settling Dottie down for the night, and feeling slightly better, she set off back in the direction of the shop with a spring in her step. She had wanted to tell them that she would be home the next day. She was aching to hold Dottie again now, and as Ariel and Brian had now settled in, she could see no point in delaying going home any longer. But never mind; she would just turn up and surprise them.
The next morning, Ariel clung to her with tears in her eyes. ‘You will come again soon, won’t you?’ she pleaded. ‘You are all the family I have left now.’
Adina hugged her. ‘That’s not quite true,’ she pointed out. ‘You have Brian and Freda too.’
She then turned to Brian who was jiggling his daughter up and down on his one knee, and a pain pierced Adina’s heart as she saw his trouser leg pinned up. The stump that was all that was left of his other leg was a reminder of how cruel the war had been to so many. Not that Brian complained. He was a cheerful chap, and Adina knew that he would look after his wife and his little family. She was leaving her sister in good hands.
‘I er . . . I’ll run you to the station if you like?’ Paul now piped up as he flushed with embarrassment.
Ariel bit down on her lip to stop herself from grinning. Brian’s friend had a crush on Adina; there was no doubt about it. He could hardly take his eyes off her, and stumbled about like a lovesick puppy whenever he got so much as a glimpse of her. Not that it came as any surprise to Ariel. Adina had developed into a very attractive young woman. Today she was wearing a pale blue cotton flowered dress that was cinched into her slim waist before billowing out into a flared skirt, and she wore her hair loose about her shoulders, which was very flattering. The funny thing was, Adina didn’t seem to realise how attractive she was, which Ariel supposed was part of her charm.
‘There’s no need really,’ Adina told him graciously. ‘I don’t want to put you to any trouble.’
But he almost fell over in his haste to snatch up her case. ‘It isn’t any trouble, really,’ he gushed, careering out of the door. ‘I’ll wait for you outside while you say your goodbyes, but take as long as you like. I’ll get you there in plenty of time to catch the train, I promise.’
Once he had disappeared from view, Ariel chuckled. ‘I reckon you’ve got an admirer there,’ she teased.
Ignoring the comment, Adina bent to kiss her niece’s smooth cheek. She didn’t want another man in her life, although Paul was a nice enough chap. Her heart still belonged to Karl and she knew that it always would.
‘Now you be a good girl for your mummy and daddy,’ she told Freda as the child cooed with delight and tried to grab the buttons on her dress. ‘And you take care of yourself and don’t get overdoing it,’ she warned Brian.
‘I will, and just remember, you’re welcome here anytime,’ he told her.
‘Thank you. Now I’d better get going so this woman of yours can take that little scamp off you, so you can go and open your shop.’
Ariel followed her to the shop doorway where Mrs Haynes was also waiting to say goodbye with Sarah clutching her hand. It was wonderful to see the girl looking so well and happy again.
‘Hurry up an’ come home, luvvie,’ their neighbour urged her as she planted a sloppy kiss on her cheek. ‘I ain’t none too happy about you bein’ in London. My old man reckons it’s a den o’ vice down there.’
‘Oh, don’t you get worrying about me,’ Adina replied with a smile. ‘I’m a big girl now and well able to look after myself.’
‘Hm, well, just make sure as you do,’ Mrs Haynes retorted as she and Sarah waved.
Adina climbed into the front of the van with Paul, and then after one
last kiss from her sister they were off. On the way to the station Paul was painfully quiet, not sure quite what to say now that he finally had her all to himself. Adina was glad of it; she had so many thoughts racing through her head that she was in no mood for conversation.
Once they arrived at Trent Valley railway station he carried her case onto the platform for her then stood there tonguetied as she smiled up at him.
‘Thank you so much for the lift, Paul,’ she said. ‘And also for all the kindness you’ve shown to my sister and brother-in-law this week. I really don’t know how they would have managed without you.’ She stood on tiptoe and pecked him on the cheek, and colour immediately flooded into his face.
‘I er . . . I’ll be seein’ you the next time you come visitin’ then?’ he said hopefully, and when she nodded he turned and hurried away, fingering his cheek where she had kissed him and vowing to himself that he wouldn’t wash it for a week at least.
Once the train had pulled in and Adina had settled into a carriage, she stared from the window. She was full of so many emotions she didn’t quite know which one to think about first. Overriding everything was deep sorrow at the loss of her father – and yet it was tinged with a bittersweet joy, for she hoped that he was with her mother and brother and was happy again now.
She was delighted for Brian and Ariel, who now had their own little shop to run, and she had the feeling that they would make a thriving business of it, for Brian was full of enthusiasm and determined to work hard. She grinned as she thought of what he would say when Ariel told him that they were to have a new addition to the family. She had no doubt that he would be delighted at the news – and so he should be, if the new baby turned out to be half as adorable as little Freda. And of course there had been the exciting news that Karl had written to her. The letter might even be waiting for her when she got home. And then her thoughts turned to Dottie and for the rest of the journey she struggled to control her impatience. She could hardly wait to see her and to hold her in her arms.
A Band of Steel Page 31
