There is a Season

by There is a Season (retail) (epu

  Cathy also lent her the fur cape which Greg had bought her for their twentieth wedding anniversary. ‘You’ll be the Belle of the Ball,’ she said, and Sarah drove off full of anticipation and delight. The young man, Ronald, was waiting for her, and told her that she looked stunning.

  The Grill Room was in the basement, and there was a stand at the top of the stairs selling boxes of chocolate for men to buy to impress their partners. Ronald bought her a large box of Black Magic which she carried proudly down to the Grill Room.

  The dance floor was small but their table was close to it and Sarah felt very sophisticated as the waiter drew out her chair and handed her a menu. She found Ronald entertaining company as he talked about the various towns he had visited for his firm, and between courses they danced to an excellent band.

  The only flaw in her enjoyment was that as they danced Ronald held her very close and ran his hand down her back to press her buttocks, then kissed her and tried to thrust his tongue into her mouth. Sarah kept her lips firmly clamped together and fortunately the dance ended and they could return to their table.

  He also pressed his leg against hers beneath the table and tried to press her foot with his, but she quickly tucked her feet beneath her chair, chiefly worried about damage to her new sandals.

  These seemed only small drawbacks to an otherwise delightful evening, and Sarah was sorry when the dance was over. Ronald took her elbow as they stepped out of the door, and suggested that they should walk a little before calling a cab. It was a lovely evening, warm but with a fresh breeze, and the street was flooded with moonlight. Sarah readily agreed.

  She began to feel uneasy when he slipped his arm around her and squeezed her breast, but she was quite unprepared when he suddenly pushed her into a doorway and leaned heavily against her. His arm was still around her holding her close and the box of chocolates was digging in to her chest making it difficult to breathe, but she kept her lips determinedly closed and twisted her head from side to side as he tried again to thrust his tongue into her mouth.

  Sarah was so intent on avoiding his tongue that for a moment she failed to realize what else he was doing. He had fumbled with his trousers until his fly was unbuttoned, and was trying to drag her hand down towards it.

  She dragged her hand back and kicked at his shin, then gave him a sudden push which caught him off balance and made him stumble backwards for a moment. She used the breathing space to grip the box of chocolates with both hands and bring it down heavily on his head.

  It was a casket and quite heavy. The force of her blow made it burst and chocolates flew in all directions. Sarah squirmed away from him and, lifting her skirts, began to run up Parker Street towards Lime Street. She heard a shout of: ‘Bloody cheat’ behind her, and something about chocolates, but she ran on until she was sure that he was not following her.

  Her face felt sticky and one sandal was unfastened. When she reached the Steble fountain she dipped her handkerchief in the water and wiped her face, then fastened her sandal and walked on sedately, although casting many fearful glances behind her.

  She had intended to keep the episode from her mother but as soon as Cathy saw her she knew that something had happened. Sarah told her, carefully suppressing any mention of the unbuttoned fly. The experience had upset her and she stayed indoors the following day, but Anne came to see her, and Sarah told her the whole story.

  ‘I’ve learned my lesson,’ she said finally. ‘I’ll stick to our own crowd in future.’

  ‘And he seemed such a gentleman!’ Anne exclaimed.

  ‘Not when he was shouting after me about cheating him,’ Sarah said with a faint smile. But then she said seriously, ‘I feel cheap, Anne. He evidently thought he could buy me with a night out and a box of chocolates.’

  ‘Well, he thought wrong, didn’t he? No need for you to feel cheap, Sarah. He probably tries it on with every girl, but you were the one who crowned him with his chocolates.’

  Sarah smiled at her affectionately, and Anne said briskly, ‘You’ll be coming to the ceilidhe tonight, won’t you?’

  ‘I don’t think I will,’ said Sarah. ‘I feel really off colour. Nothing to do with last night, but my throat’s sore and I’m aching all over. I think I’ll go to bed early with some of Grandma’s jollop.’

  ‘Stay off tomorrow if you don’t feel better,’ Anne said. ‘I’ll tell Mabel.’

  ‘I’m sure I’ll be quite well again tomorrow.’

  It was fortunate that as she waved Anne goodbye she was unaware that before she was “quite well” again, her life and that of everyone she knew would be changed for ever.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Sarah went to bed early after taking some of her grandmother’s cough mixture and fell asleep almost immediately, but she woke a few hours later feeling as though she was on fire. Her throat, arms and legs ached, and the sheets on the bed were soaked with perspiration.

  Fortunately the double bed which she and Kate had shared had been replaced a few months earlier by single beds so her sister was undisturbed. Sarah dozed fitfully throughout the night, waking from time to time terror-stricken by strange dreams.

  When Cathy came in to call her for work she was horrified to see Sarah so flushed and almost delirious, and to discover the wet sheets.

  She gave her a drink of water then changed her bed and pyjamas and made her comfortable, before cooking breakfast for the rest of the family and getting them off to school or work.

  Greg came up to see Sarah before he left and was as alarmed as Cathy, although he concealed his dismay from Sarah. He turned her pillows and gave her another drink, smiling cheerfully, but when he went downstairs he told Cathy that he would call at the doctor’s surgery on his way to work and ask him to visit.

  ‘What do you think it is?’ she asked fearfully.

  ‘It could be rheumatic fever, and if so the sooner the doctor sees her the better. He’ll know the best treatment to prevent any trouble in the future.’ Cathy told Mick to call to tell her mother and Sally came over a little later.

  Sarah was again soaked in perspiration, and Sally helped Cathy to sponge her down, and change her pyjamas and sheets. Sarah refused food but had a raging thirst and drank numerous cups of tea and glasses of water.

  When the doctor came he told Sarah only that she must stay in bed for a while, but downstairs he told Cathy that she had rheumatic fever. It was important that she should stay in bed for several weeks, lying flat as much as possible, otherwise her heart might be permanently damaged.

  As the days passed the fever subsided, but all the skin on Sarah’s body gradually peeled, and the pain and stiffness in her arms and legs persisted. At first she was content to lie in bed, sleeping as much as possible and waiting for the medicine to bring relief from pain, but as she began to feel better she became depressed and frustrated at missing the dances and other activities she enjoyed so much.

  The family all spent time with her, and Anne was a frequent visitor. Otherwise Sarah spent hours reading. She read the newspaper more thoroughly than she had ever done, and worried about what she read.

  When John came to sit with her one night she asked him what he thought about the possibility of war. He said gravely, ‘I’m afraid it’s inevitable, Sar.’

  ‘You don’t think Mr Chamberlain can talk Hitler out of it again?’

  ‘No. I don’t know whether these politicians are incredibly naive or whether they just want us to think they are.’

  ‘Mr Chamberlain, you mean?’

  ‘Yes, and Prime Minister Negrin of Spain. Everybody else knows that this Non-Intervention Pact has been a farce, but he seems to believe in it.’

  ‘I don’t know what it is,’ she said honestly.

  ‘It was arrangement between other countries that they wouldn’t send arms to Spain. France and Britain kept it but Germany and Italy sent arms to Franco from the beginning. Negrin seemed to believe that if he sent the International Brigade home, Italy and Germany would pull out of Spain.
Anyone could have told him they had no intention of leaving – it was too good an opportunity for them to try out their tanks and air power.’

  ‘But it was before last Christmas when those men came home, wasn’t it? When you went to Lime Street to see them,’ said Sarah. ‘I didn’t think you worried about all that now, John.’

  ‘I just get disgusted sometimes, Sar, at the dirty tricks and the scheming. Mussolini helps Chamberlain by persuading Hitler to hold off last September, and then he gets his reward by Britain recognizing Franco in January.’

  Sarah looked puzzled. ‘But wasn’t it a good thing that Mr Chamberlain signed that pact? At least we’ve had this year.’

  ‘Yes, and now we’re much better prepared,’ he said. ‘Sorry about the moans. This isn’t the time to unload them, is it?’ He picked up her book. ‘What’s this you’re reading?’

  The next moment his mother plunged into the room, her arms full of ironed clothes. ‘You’re right, you shouldn’t be talking to her about your worries,’ she said angrily. ‘She’s not well enough. If you want to moan, do it to your father, but I thought you’d put all that out of your head.’

  John and Sarah were speechless with surprise for a moment, staring at their mother’s flushed and angry face, then Sarah said, ‘I asked John, Mum,’ and he stood up.

  ‘I’m going to the shop, Sar. What would you like?’

  ‘Could I have some dandelion and burdock please?’

  Cathy and John left the room and Sarah lay back on her pillows. I must have been very ill, she thought. I’ve never heard Mum speak to John like that before. Cathy put the clothes away then came back. Her sudden burst of bad temper was over, and she spoke cheerfully about Sarah’s progress.

  ‘Only one more day in bed, love,’ she said. ‘The doctor says you can get up on Friday, if you just sit in the chair at first.’

  ‘Friday! That’s the first of September, isn’t it? It’ll be three weeks on Sunday since this started. I’m dying to go back to the dances.’

  ‘You’ll have to wait a while longer. He’s only letting you up because you’ve done as he said so far. You can’t take any chances, love.’

  Anne came to see Sarah the following evening and Sarah told her that she was to be allowed up, and about her conversation with John.

  ‘I know,’ Anne said. ‘He’s disgusted with politicians. He says they only do what’s expedient, not what’s right.’ Sarah looked at her in surprise and Anne blushed. ‘We talk sometimes when we’re walking home from the dances. Not just me – our Joe as well,’ she added hastily.

  She smiled at Sarah. ‘We don’t half miss you at the dances. Everyone asks about you.’

  ‘I miss going,’ Sarah said with a sigh. ‘It’s only three weeks but it seems like years, especially with all that’s going on, the identity cards and gas masks, and the shelters being built. It’ll be a different world when I’m back in circulation. What’s it like in the shop?’

  ‘Terrible. Nothing but war, war, war from the customers, and Mabel agrees with everyone. I said to her, “Why don’t you say what you think?” but she just laughed and said it was easier to agree, and anyway the customer was always right.’

  ‘I wonder what they’ll do in the bakehouse if Billy and Norman are called up?’

  ‘I don’t know about that, but I tell you what I do know: they won’t go short of jam or mincemeat. You know that big high shelf round the shop, near the ceiling? It’s full of forty-eight pound jars of jam and mincemeat, and the rooms upstairs are so packed that there are cracks in the ceiling. Hetty says if it falls through, we’ll all be killed before the war starts at all.’

  ‘What’s she like, the new girl?’

  ‘Hetty? She’s all right, but of course she’s only temporary until you come back.’

  ‘Whenever that is,’ Sarah said with a sigh.

  Her friend said cheerfully, ‘I’m sure it won’t be long. I told Hetty about that fellow you went out with trying to put his tongue in your mouth, and she said it’s called a French kiss.’

  ‘Ugh!’ Sarah shuddered at the memory. ‘The French are welcome to it. Dad doesn’t like them, he’d rather have Germans.’

  ‘But he fought them in the last war, didn’t he?’

  ‘Yes, but he said the ordinary Germans are all right. French people made them pay for water for dying men, and they were supposed to be on our side! Oh, I do hope this is another false alarm, Anne.’

  ‘I’m afraid it isn’t,’ she said gravely.

  Sarah came downstairs mid-morning on September the first, and was surprised to find how shaky she still was. Her mother was machining blackout curtains, and told Sarah that they were already up in the parlour and two of the bedrooms. She was now making them for the kitchen and the girls’ bedroom.

  Josie came in a little later, looking pale and harassed. ‘I just don’t know what to do, Cath. Everyone’s saying it’s not right to keep the children here and they should be evacuated, but I’m worried to death about letting them go. I wouldn’t care if I was sure they’d let Eunice stay with the little ones, but she’ll be going with the school.’

  ‘Surely they’ll let the little ones go with her?’

  ‘But they might get split up when they get there,’ Josie said. ‘And our Danny – he’s fine about the bedwetting usually, but if he’s upset about anything he still wets the bed. I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘Some mothers are going with their children, aren’t they?’ said Cathy. ‘Mona Ashcroft is going with her baby.’

  ‘Mostly people with young ones,’ Josie said. She glanced at Sarah. ‘You know, I’d be only too glad to go, the way things are here, but I’ll have to be on hand for our Mary. And this wedding next week – Eunice is a bridesmaid for our Edie and she’s whingeing because she might have to go away and miss it, and Edie’s whingeing because she thinks her wedding might be spoiled and Bert might have to go away.’

  ‘Poor Mrs Meadows, she has got troubles,’ Sarah said when Josie had drunk a comforting cup of tea and left after some soothing words from Cathy.

  ‘Yes, and no one to share them with,’ Cathy said with a sigh. ‘Walter’s useless, and the sisters-in-law are keeping away in case they have to take any responsibility for Mary. I thank God for your dad and for Mam and my good family, Sarah.’

  Later they put the wireless on and heard that Germany had been bombing Poland since five o’clock that morning, and Britain had instructed the British Ambassador in Berlin to request them to stop hostilities immediately or else he would sever diplomatic ties. Sarah and Cathy looked at each other in dismay, but Mick, who had just come in, said cheerfully, ‘Hitler still thinks England won’t fight, but he’s got another think coming.’

  On Saturday rain fell heavily, and although Sarah came downstairs she stayed only a few hours then went back to bed. There was nothing on the wireless to distract her from the pain in her limbs or the heavy feeling of foreboding which pressed on her, only gramophone programmes and interminable news bulletins.

  There was to be an announcement on Sunday at eleven o’clock. Sarah came down at ten-thirty. At the advertised hour the sombre voice of Mr Chamberlain announced that no reply had been received after the ultimatum and Britain was now at war with Germany.

  ‘He seems upset, doesn’t he?’ Sarah said. ‘I feel so sorry for him, because he’s done all he can for peace.’

  Greg and Cathy were sitting together on the sofa. Neither of them spoke but Greg put his arm around Cathy and held her close.

  She went over to her mother a few minutes later and found her as composed as ever, but Josh’s face was grey and he was trembling. ‘Never thought I’d see it again in my lifetime,’ he mumbled to Cathy.

  Sally said briskly, ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen yet. No use crossing our bridges before we come to them.’

  Anne came to see Sarah in the afternoon. ‘It’s almost a relief that something’s happened at last. It seems to have been hanging over us for so long.’

/>   ‘But all men of eighteen to forty-one to be called up,’ Sarah said. ‘That’s practically everyone we know.’

  ‘Our lads are going to join the Irish Guards,’ Anne said. ‘Terry and Joe and Stephen anyway. Tony hasn’t made up his mind yet.’

  ‘We’re lucky, I suppose,’ Sarah said. ‘Mick’s too young and Dad’s too old, and John—’

  She hesitated, and Anne said quickly, ‘He’s not eligible, is he? He told me the government said a few months ago that men who had fought with the International Brigade would not be accepted in the Forces. I think it’s crazy. As though they were traitors! They were mostly just idealists.’

  Sarah hid her surprise and said only, ‘Mick’s enrolled in the messenger service already. All places of amusement are closed, they said on the wireless, dances and cinemas and so on. I wonder will the ceilidhe be on tonight?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ said Anne. ‘I’d better go, Sar. I saw Tony and Helen on their way to our house as I came here, and she asked me not to be long as there were things to discuss. I think they may be bringing their wedding forward. Helen looked excited.’

  ‘Edie Meadows’ wedding is next Saturday,’ Sarah said. ‘It was going to be a big do but I don’t know what will happen now.’

  ‘I should think they’ll go ahead,’ Anne said. ‘Unless something happens before then.’ They looked at each other nervously, then Anne picked up her gas mask and said with determined cheerfulness, ‘I wonder, will the brides having to carry these to the altar or wear them for the service? I’ll suggest it to Helen and Tony.’

  She left and a few minutes later Cathy came in to the kitchen. ‘Our John is walking back with Anne,’ she said. ‘He came up just as she was leaving. I’m sorry to leave you on your own but everyone’s out in the street.’

  ‘Where’s Dad and everyone?’

  ‘He’s gone down to the First Aid Post, and Mick’s in his element,’ Cathy said. ‘He’s already carried a few messages. He’s on duty until eleven o’clock tonight.’