Ruby's War
Page 16
‘Mrs Grey’s waiting,’ Alice said, as Ruby changed out of her old shoes in the pantry. ‘Said to tell you to go through when you arrived. Going with her to the school to wrap presents, I hear. If you’ve got some spare time, I could use it. Never mind wrapping presents. The older girls could do that. Always did in my day.’
The infant class was held in the red-brick building that also doubled as the church hall. When they arrived, Miss Conway was in the process of drilling the children who were taking part in the Nativity play. One group of infants were angels and the other shepherds. The pretty, dark-haired girl, wrapped in a blue shawl, was playing Mary, and the serious boy, who’d answered the door when Jenny had taken her to see Miss Conway, was Joseph. The girl from the rec, most of the other children from her class and the rest of the infants were in a ragged semicircle around the dusty upright piano. Ruby guessed that they must be the choir. When the children saw there were visitors at the door, they began to whisper and giggle. Miss Conway, who hadn’t heard the door open, walloped the thick strap on the piano’s open lid, sending an angry thrum shuddering through the instrument that made Ruby wince and the children fall silent. Then the girl from the rec whispered to her that they had visitors. The teacher looked at them crossly over her glasses, but when she recognised Mrs Grey, she smiled.
Ruby’s job was to cut oblongs of used Christmas wrapping paper and stick it on to the lids and sides of shoeboxes to hide the labels. There were fifty boxes, one for each infant. Ruby had hoped to be able to watch the rehearsal, but the paste was thin and most of the paper, from a bundle donated by parishioners, tore so easily that she could only listen to Mary telling the angel – the girl from the rec – that she would be the mother of Jesus.
Mrs Prendergast and Mrs Grey were sitting together at a small table next to hers. Mrs Grey was sorting through a collection of donated toys and sweets, before wrapping each small gift in paper or rolling it in cotton wool and placing it in a pile of gifts for boys or for girls. Mrs Prendergast then packed these into the boxes that Ruby had covered. She put each completed box in a stack, one for boys and one for girls. Then Douglas, a very thin evacuee boy with a bad cough, who was sitting at the table nearest the radiator, wrote out the labels from the school register and stuck them to the boxes.
When Miss Conway told the girl from the rec – whose name was Pauline – to go and put her wings on before they tried the speech again, Ruby listened to Mrs Prendergast and Mrs Grey instead.
‘I think we need to take charge, before things get out of hand,’ Mrs Prendergast said. ‘I’ve heard that the camp is already attracting a certain kind of interest.’
‘I know … Well, what I mean is, one’s heard that sort of thing goes on,’ Mrs Grey said, holding up a small knitted doll. ‘We know that these places exist in towns … in some areas. But not around here, surely?’
‘My husband was told by someone of rank in the police that it’s happening in his area. It was only a matter of weeks before women of a certain type were actually coming out of the nearby towns and hanging around the camp. Some very young girls too. It’s unfortunate. Their parents are working long hours on essential war work, and these girls are running wild.’
‘Do you think we could include some ball bearings in with the marbles?’ Mrs Grey asked. ‘I mean, I don’t think it would be considered unpatriotic. I haven’t got them from a factory or anything. Mr Watts had them in his workshop. There must be at least two hundred. He told me he’s had them for years. Do you think the little boys would be disappointed if some of them weren’t real marbles?’
‘On one occasion,’ Mrs Prendergast said, tucking more paper inside a shoebox, ‘two young girls were actually caught inside the camp. And the men had only been there a matter of weeks.’
Ruby was just beginning to take an interest in the conversation, when Pauline walked back on to the stage wearing a large pair of lopsided wings. When her friend giggled, Miss Conway forgot about the visitors and yelled furiously at the two girls, making the doctor’s wife spill the ball bearings on to the floor. As they bounced and rolled, the shepherds and angels broke ranks to chase them. By the time they were all collected, Miss Conway had declared an end to the rehearsal and sent the children out to play.
‘I wonder, Ruby, dear,’ Mrs Grey said, once the children had left, ‘could you help with a small party for some of the American officers?’
‘Not a party, Diana. I was thinking something a little more …’
‘Yes. Just a little get-together. A chat. An informal meeting … over tea …’
‘An informal meeting to coordinate the organisation of entertainment and welfare … that sort of thing. With your WRVS hat on, so to speak.’
‘I’ll get Alice to make a few cakes. We don’t need you to play, Ruby. I just need you to come and help out.’
‘Don’t drink all that brandy,’ Jenny said. ‘That’s for the cake.’
Granddad, who was sitting in the armchair, coughed. ‘Just a drop for my chest, Jenny, love.’
‘It’s cold in here, Ma,’ Sadie said. ‘If you’re thinking of putting the cake in this oven, we’ll need more coal on, and we can’t all have brandy.’
‘Can’t do that,’ Henry replied. ‘Don’t you read the paper? Output per miner’s gone down, and the coal ration’s being cut.’
‘You said, with Ruby here, we’d get extra units. Me an’ Lou’re freezing. I waited ages for a bus from work, and in the end we had to get a lift on this open lorry. I’ve not been warm since.’
‘If you two are cold, you can grate some of these carrots for the cake. I’ve usually got all my Christmas baking done well before now.’
‘My fault, Ma,’ Lou said, ‘with the extra stuff for the wedding.’
‘I’m not complaining, love. Bo brought us some dried fruit, and I got some on the black market.’
‘Seems like years ago. I can’t see his face. I keep trying to imagine him and I can’t.’
‘When did his ship leave?’
‘Four days ago. I should be grateful, I suppose. At least he’s not “on the pool”. Some get sent back as soon as their ship docks. They’ve no say; they can send them anywhere, and they have to go. At least he’s with the same captain and he says he’s a good bloke.’
‘Well that’s something, at least. Sadie, why don’t you make Lou a cup of tea? Then you can both give me a hand with the cake.’
‘They don’t care about them. It’s all the Royal Navy. They don’t care about anybody else. Merchant seamen know their safety doesn’t count,’ Lou sniffled. ‘There was some on the train, filthy and smelling of engine oil. Been picked up from an open boat. Lost everything. Only had the clothes they stood up in. Looked like they’d never slept for weeks.’
‘Well, at least they got home,’ Sadie said, pouring hot water into the teapot.
Ruby, who was checking the dried fruit in the colander for stalks, remembered the soldiers arriving from Dunkirk sitting in the front room at Everdeane, silently accepting cups of tea and sandwiches, and gazing out at the waves.
‘Wes doesn’t like the sea,’ she said. ‘After the ship coming over here, he said he never wants to go on a ship again. He’s afraid of being hit by a sub and drowning. He said—’
‘How long does it take to sort through a bit of fruit?’ Jenny snapped.
‘Stalingrad’s holding,’ Granddad said over his paper. ‘The Russians know how to deal with Jerry. Wouldn’t like to be there in winter. They know how to deal with Jerry all right, driving him out street by street, they are.’
‘Do you have to remind us how cold it is? Can’t you find something cheerful to say? Hang on; is that Bo I can hear? At least he’ll cheer us up.’
When Bo walked in, the room began to feel warmer. He emptied his pockets, dropped a small brown paper parcel on the table, and grinned.
‘What’s this?’ Jenny asked, picking up the parcel and untying the string.
‘Cinnamon. It’s real nice in biscuits.’
‘Mmm, it does smell nice,’ she said, pushing her damp hankie up her sleeve and sniffing one of the little sticks.
‘Alice said to ask if she can have some eggs for the cakes for the party,’ Ruby said, scraping up the stalks from the dried fruit and handing the colander to Jenny.
‘Does she say how much she’ll be paying for them?’
‘They’re for a party for the officers at the camp.’
Bo lifted one eyebrow. ‘The officers?’
‘Captain O’Donal, and Captain Leary, I think. They came to dinner. Mrs Grey says it isn’t really a party. It’s a meeting with her and Mrs Prendergast.’
‘That nosey old cow,’ Jenny said. ‘What does she want? Always sticking her nose in and looking down on everybody.’
‘It’s got to do with organising.’
‘Aye, well, it would have.’
‘Organising, entertainment and welfare.’
‘Bet it’s a dance and a kiddies’ party,’ Sadie said, getting up and taking Bo’s coat. ‘Bo and me can do that. Can’t we, Bo? I saw Father O’Flynn the other day and told him we’d do a party for the children, if we could have a dance for us. You try and find out what they’re planning, Ruby. You want to help, Lou? Oh, come on. It’ll take your mind off things, and Frank wouldn’t want you feeling in the dumps all the time, now would he?’
Jenny looked over at her daughter and then back to Bo. The night before, Nellie Lathom had collared her on her way home from the factory, pretending she was just coming out to close her front gate, but Jenny knew different. She’d asked her outright if Sadie was walking out with one of the black soldiers. Jenny had bitten back a sharp comment, and instead she’d said, ‘Our Sadie’s got lots of admirers, as you well know, Nellie.’
She smiled as she heard Bo making the girls laugh, cheering Lou up. If Sadie was taken with him who could blame her, when he was such a handsome young man: wide shoulders, lovely eyes and skin the colour of pale coffee. Jack Lathom was a nice lad, but he wasn’t what anyone could call good-looking, and Sadie was no fool. ‘He’s just a friend, Ma,’ she’d said, ‘same as Jack. Me being his girl is all in her head. And don’t go on about Jack and his uncle’s garage: who knows where we’ll all be next Christmas.’
She was right. And he worshipped her. You only had to look at him to see that. Nothing was too much trouble, and they would have really struggled without his help. Bo and the other lads had been a godsend, and with that pale skin, he could pass for an Italian.
‘Well, if they’re for Bo’s captain,’ she said, handing him a cup of tea, ‘we’ll have to see what we can do. What’s he like, love?’
‘Oh, Captain O’Donal’s a nice enough guy. He’s a northerner. Rumour is, his father was some big war hero. He means well, but lets the lieutenants push him around. Don’t know much about the other guy.’
‘How’s young Con?’ Granddad asked. ‘Not seen him for a bit.’
‘Con? He’s fine. We all are. We got our mail from home yesterday, and Con’s got a girl in town. He met her at a dance.’
‘You didn’t tell me,’ Sadie said. ‘What’s she like?’
‘I don’t know. I was with you, at the movies. Say, do you want to go dancing this weekend? The guys said the folks at the dance were real friendly.’
‘Does that mean he won’t come here to see us?’ Ruby asked, as her stomach suddenly jerked.
‘Of course he will,’ Granddad said. ‘He’ll want to help me and Michael work on the motorbike.’
‘You’d best try and keep your hands out of sight,’ Alice said. ‘Missus won’t like rough hands like that.’
The washing, particularly the scrubbing, had made the skin on Ruby’s fingers crack. Over the weeks, the dry openings had become deeper and wider, and now rinsing the clothes in cold water made her fingers sting. The splits didn’t bleed and gradually their crinkled edges had widened into dry, little mouths.
They were waiting for Mrs Grey to ring the bell for them to take in the tea. Ruby looked up at the wooden box on the wall by the kitchen door. It had a row of ten holes, one for each of the rooms in the house. When someone rang the bell in a particular room, a black disc with the room number on it in white would drop down over the hole. When the bell in the sitting room rang, the disc with number two on it would drop over the second hole. Number one was the front door and three was the dining room. The rest were for the bedrooms, except for number ten: that was Doctor Grey’s surgery. The discs made Ruby think of Beryl, a doll her father had bought her. Beryl was her favourite doll. She had yellow hair that could be combed into different styles and eyes that would close when she was put down to sleep. She hoped Auntie Ethel hadn’t given her away.
‘Come on, girl, wake up,’ Alice said sharply, as the bell rang, and the number two dropped over the hole on the box. ‘Get that tray, and don’t expect me to stay and help serve the tea. You’ll have to do it yourself.’
Ruby tried to hide her hands under the silver tea tray. Alice wasn’t in a very good mood. She’d hated all the extra work caused by Mrs Grey’s fundraising afternoons and had been hoping that Winifred, the eldest of her sister’s four children, might be taken on to help in the house over Christmas, but when she’d asked, Mrs Grey said that she would have to cope with the help Ruby could give her.
Alice followed Ruby into the living room with a plate of sandwiches and the glass cake stand. When Doctor and Mrs Grey took tea, the tray was put on the table next to Mrs Grey’s seat and she served herself and her husband. But today Ruby had to serve the guests, handing around the sandwiches, serving tea and waiting by the small table near the door to refill their cups and ask if they would like more to eat.
‘It’s a daft idea,’ Alice had said, as they’d been finishing off the little sponge buns with mock cream and candied fruit. ‘You could be helping me with the bedrooms. I need a willing girl to help with the housework, not someone who plays the piano and does a bit of waiting at table.’
‘You haven’t brought the coffee. Our American guests might want some,’ Mrs Grey said, as Ruby put the silver tray on the little walnut table near the sitting-room door.
‘Coffee wasn’t asked for, madam,’ Alice said.
‘Well I’m asking now. Captain O’Donal and Captain Leary will be here in about half an hour. I suppose it will be better to leave the coffee until they arrive. Ruby, you can bring the coffee and some hot water in at the same time. When Mr and Mrs Prendergast arrive, offer to take their coats and then bring them straight through. I’ll come out with you and welcome the American officers myself. If they have a driver, take him through to the kitchen. Alice, you can give him tea in there.’
‘I brought through all the cakes and sandwiches, madam, and I was due to do the bedrooms …’
‘I’m sure you can find something to give him. Give him what you and Mr Watts will be having.’
‘Mr Watts is in town, madam.’
‘Well, I’m sure you can find something, and then if you’re busy, give him the newspaper to read.’
‘Ruby can—’
‘Ruby can’t. She’ll be serving tea.’
After the door had closed behind Alice, Ruby noticed Mrs Grey’s shoulders sag.
The Prendergasts arrived a few minutes later and sat side by side facing Mrs Grey over the low table.
‘Are we not to have music today?’ Mr Prendergast asked, as Ruby handed him a cup of tea.
When he smiled, Mr Prendergast’s wet eyes caught the sunlight, and as his eyelids drooped over his protruding eyes, Ruby was reminded of a gull’s broken eggshells abandoned on the shingle.
‘Shall I draw the curtains, madam?’ she asked.
‘No. Don’t do that on my account, Diana, my dear,’ Mr Prendergast said. ‘It’s been such a damp day. We shouldn’t shut this little bit of sunlight out. Ruby and I will move
this chair,’ he said, handing Ruby the cushion from one of the easy chairs.
Ruby liked Mr Prendergast who, although he was a very important person, always remembered her name and often slipped her a shilling as she handed him his coat.
‘Reginald and I used the time on the drive over to discuss what we might say to Captain O’Donal and his colleague,’ Mrs Prendergast said, inspecting the tiny gold watch on her broad wrist. ‘What time are you expecting them, dear? I thought we should get our heads together and remind ourselves of what we planned to say.’
‘They should be here in about half an hour. Perhaps less.’
‘I think,’ Mr Prendergast said, taking out his pipe and tobacco pouch, ‘from what Pamela has told me, your plan for dealing with the problem is a capital one.’
At the sight of her husband’s pipe, Mrs Prendergast’s smooth forehead puckered.
‘Reginald feels we need to tread carefully,’ she said, ‘but we must make it clear what we expect.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ he said, clearing his throat and replacing his pipe and tobacco in his pocket. ‘Is the good doctor not joining us?’
‘No,’ Mrs Grey said, taking another cigarette from the box on the table. ‘He’s very busy, I’m afraid, poor dear. He was called out to a confinement last night and to a death the night before. Poor Mr Goodier, did you know him? Pneumonia. A blessing, really. My mother calls it “the old man’s friend”. Humphrey is at the hospital today. A serious case of blood poisoning. A child, I believe. And there’s talk of scarlet fever in town. So I don’t expect him back until very late.’
‘I know he has quite strong feelings … It’s very delicate. Don’t want to upset the Americans. Government fudged the issue, in my opinion. Dowler had the right idea. Good chap, Dowler. Sent notes to officers. Advice on how best to deal with relations with the black troops. Trouble is, can’t make them available to the civilian population. Too sensitive. Might upset the Yanks. Mrs Roosevelt: very keen on the black soldier. Political factors, my dear. Very complicated.’