The Bomb Girls' Secrets

by Daisy Styles

  As the rapturous couple kissed and the entire canteen applauded, Ian looked across the table at Kit, who looked so lovely in her new pink dress with her silky dark hair falling around her slender shoulders. Would the day ever come when it would feel right to propose to Catherine, he wondered; or would he always be waiting for the moment when they found Billy?

  Showered with homemade confetti, the newlyweds were driven away from the Phoenix in Malc’s car.

  ‘What’s happening now?’ asked giggling Violet.

  ‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ Malc chuckled as he pulled up at Clitheroe Station, where he handed an envelope to Arthur.

  ‘Get the train on Platform 2 – be sharp now!’

  Once settled in an empty carriage, Violet and Arthur opened the envelope, in which they found their hotel reservation and ten pounds in cash.

  ‘It’s like a dream,’ Violet said as she wiped tears of gratitude from her eyes.

  Arthur shook his head in disbelief. ‘I’ve never known such generous people,’ he murmured. ‘The Bomb Girls’ Swing Band and the Phoenix munitions workers have made our wedding a day to remember for the rest of our lives.’

  Violet snuggled up close to her new husband. ‘And the best bit is yet to come,’ she whispered. ‘Just you and me, all alone, Mr Leadbetter.’

  Pulling her into his chest, Arthur laughed as he joked, ‘I’m a sick man, Mrs Leadbetter!’

  Nuzzling his neck, Violet giggled, ‘Don’t you worry, I’ll take very good care of you!’

  40. Mother Gabriel

  Because of the urgent need for fuses, a temporary shed was set up, where the workers could get on with the vital job of filling the fuse cases which – now that the Phoenix was operational once more – were urgently needed on the bomb line.

  ‘It’s a relief not to be in the original filling shed,’ Gladys admitted to Kit as they worked their shift the week of Violet’s honeymoon. ‘The thought of standing on the spot where poor old Ivy died makes me cringe.’

  ‘I suppose we’ll have to get used to it,’ Kit said as she smoothed the fine grey gunpowder with her fingers before stuffing it into the fuse case.

  Gladys looked up and smiled at Kit. ‘I wonder how the honeymooners are?’ she said with a smile.

  ‘Blissful, knowing those two love-birds,’ Kit replied fondly.

  After a few minutes’ silence, Gladys cautiously asked, ‘Any more news about Billy?’

  Kit shook her head.

  Curious about Kit’s last visit to the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, Gladys asked, ‘What’s Mother Gabriel like?’

  Kit thought for a few seconds. ‘Holy – and very bossy,’ she replied with a dismissive laugh.

  Kit might not have been quite so flippant had she known that at that precise moment Mother Gabriel and Sister Clare were disembarking at Heysham Port.

  ‘Glory be to God!’ exclaimed Sister Clare, who’d never travelled further than the outskirts of Dublin and was having trouble negotiating the wobbly gangplank.

  With her wimple as white and starched as it had been when she boarded the ship in Dublin, Mother Gabriel walked through the crowd, which parted before her like the Red Sea. A porter hurried forward with their cases, then, bowing at the nun as if she was royalty, he led the two women to their compartment on the train bound for Manchester.

  Ian McIvor, in his office, yawned as he went through the notes for his next case in court. As he absently leafed through the papers before him, the telephone on his desk shrilled out.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Somebody to see you, Mr McIvor.’

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘A Mother Gabriel.’

  Ian literally reeled when he heard the Mother Superior’s name.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Very sure,’ his secretary replied.

  Smoothing down his hair in an effort to look presentable, Ian hurried to the door.

  ‘Mother Gabriel, come in …’ Words failed him when the Mother Superior entered, followed by Sister Clare, who held a big bouncing baby boy clasped in her arms.

  Without being asked, Mother Gabriel seated herself in a chair, then nodded to the younger nun to do the same. All the while Ian could not take his eyes off the child.

  ‘Billy,’ he said as he struggled to find his voice.

  Mother Gabriel nodded. ‘Himself. I found him,’ she announced.

  Ian stared at the tired little boy, who had his mother’s stunning dark looks and full soft mouth.

  ‘Is he all right?’ he asked anxiously.

  ‘The poor wee thing is starving!’ Sister Clare cried. ‘Would you be having a drop of warm milk I could give him?’

  After Ian had instructed his secretary to heat up some milk, he hurriedly returned to his office. Not waiting on courtesies, Mother Gabriel said, ‘Where is the mother?’

  Rather shaken by the speed of events, Ian replied, ‘At the Phoenix factory in Pendleton.’ Realizing that the nun would have no idea what he was talking about, he quickly added, ‘Nearby.’

  As if in a rush to get things over and done with, Mother Gabriel said firmly, ‘The child needs to be with his mother.’

  ‘Of course, of course,’ Ian agreed. ‘But first won’t you tell me how you found him?’

  ‘That’s for the mother to hear before anyone else,’ Mother Gabriel replied.

  Ian nodded in agreement with her sentiments. Kit should be the first to hear Billy’s story.

  ‘I’ll take you to her just as soon as he’s finished his milk.’

  After Billy hungrily polished off the warm milk, Ian assisted the two nuns into his car; then he took hold of Billy. As he held the infant in his arms, the child gazed up at him and smiled. In that moment Ian’s heart melted – Billy had the same brave smile as Catherine and the same enchanting dimple in his cheek.

  ‘Hello, mister,’ Ian whispered. ‘I’m going to take you to someone who loves you very, very much.’

  Ian rather reluctantly handed the gurgling Billy to Sister Clare, then climbed into the driver’s seat and set off for Pendleton with his heart pounding in his ribcage.

  Frantically trying to remember which shift Kit was on, he drove to the cowshed, which was empty but warm and cosy with heat from the fading wood-burner, which Ian immediately stoked up.

  ‘And where exactly are we, Mr McIvor?’ Mother Gabriel asked as she stared around the simple dwelling.

  ‘This is where Catherine lives with the other Bomb Girls,’ he explained.

  Thinking that the German enemy might be just around the corner, Sister Clare cried out in alarm, ‘Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’

  Ian held up his hands to calm her. ‘Bomb Girls is just the common name for the munitions girls who build the bombs,’ he explained. ‘They’re conscripted women who work for the government.’

  ‘Might it not be a good idea, Mr McIvor, for you to have a word in private with Miss Murphy?’ Mother Gabriel asked. ‘We don’t want her fainting away in shock when she meets her son.’

  ‘My thoughts entirely, Mother Superior,’ Ian said as he all but ran out of the cowshed.

  Pacing the entrance hall where the workers clocked off, Ian was in a frenzy of joy and anxiety. Eventually the hooter sounded for the end of the shift, and Kit and Gladys appeared amongst a crowd of noisy laughing girls.

  ‘Ian!’ Kit cried in surprise.

  ‘I need to speak to you,’ he said as he drew her aside. ‘Catherine,’ he started. ‘There’s been a development.’

  Hurrying quickly out of the factory and up the track, Kit said, ‘I’m parched. Let’s go inside and you can tell me, whilst I make the tea.’

  ‘Catherine, if you would just slow down a minute,’ Ian panted as he tried to keep up with her. Kit, who was eager to get home, strode ahead.

  ‘Catherine!’ he yelled as he ran to catch up with her. ‘Just let me –’

  But it was too late: Kit was at the cowshed door. Turning, she said with an apologetic smile, ‘Sorry, sweetheart, if I don�
�t have something to drink I’ll faint clean away!’

  And, pushing open the door, she walked in.

  As long as she lived Kit would never forget the sight of Billy sitting propped up with pillows on the old battered sofa. Reeling, she grasped the doorpost for support.

  ‘Billy!’ she gasped.

  Right behind her, Ian caught her before she fell. Struggling free of his grasp, Kit rushed forwards. ‘My son! My boy, oh my sweet babby!’

  With tears streaming down her face, she scooped up Billy and held him close.

  ‘You’ve grown,’ she said as she both laughed and cried.

  ‘I should hope so too!’ Sister Clare declared. ‘He’s a big boy now, not far off a year old.’

  Billy grabbed a strand of his mother’s long dark hair, which he chewed. Yearning to kiss and familiarize herself with every part of his small body, Kit knew instinctively that this was not the time to overwhelm him. Instead, swallowing back tears of utter joy, she smiled at him and said, ‘Hello, Billy. I’m your mammy.’

  Even though Kit wanted to hold on to Billy, he struggled to get down on the ground.

  ‘He’s really enjoying crawling,’ Sister Clare told Kit, who thought how strange it was that the young nun knew more about her son than she, his mother, did.

  Kit set Billy down on the floor, then watched, enchanted, as he got on to all fours and started to crawl very quickly towards the door.

  ‘He wants to go for a walk!’ Kit laughed as she hauled the adventurous little boy back.

  ‘He knows no fear,’ Mother Gabriel observed. ‘A miracle, considering all that he’s lived through.’

  As Billy set off once more for the door, Mother Gabriel called to Sister Clare, ‘Why don’t you take the child for a little walk on the moors, whilst I have a word in private with his mother?’

  Kit opened her mouth to protest – the last thing she wanted was to lose sight of Billy – but Ian quickly said, ‘Good idea. It’ll be dark soon and we’ll have to think about finding Billy something to eat.’

  After putting a warm woolly jumper on the struggling impatient child, Sister Clare carried him outside, leaving Mother Gabriel with Ian and Kit. Gladys, who’d silently come in and tactfully kept in the background throughout the reunion, quickly said, ‘I’ll just pop down to the canteen to see if they’re serving anything for supper that we could feed Billy.’

  Kit gave her a grateful smile. ‘Thanks, Glad,’ she said appreciatively.

  When they were finally alone, Mother Gabriel began.

  ‘Your father’s dead, child – may God have mercy on his soul,’ she said as she crossed herself.

  Kit remained impassive; her only thought was that her father was safer dead than alive.

  ‘At least he made his peace with the Lord before he slipped this mortal coil,’ the nun added solemnly. ‘And he did try to help us find young Billy in the end, for all the good it did.’

  ‘Possibly the only decent thing he’s ever done in his whole miserable life,’ Kit conceded bitterly.

  In a lather of curiosity Ian asked, ‘Tell us how you found him?’

  Mother Gabriel grinned. ‘Sister Clare followed O’Rourke.’

  ‘In her wimple!’ he cried. ‘Surely he must have suspected something?’

  ‘We dressed the poor girl up in ordinary clothes,’ the Mother Superior explained. ‘She looked quite smart, actually,’ she added with an amused smile. ‘It was the only sensible thing to do in the end. Time passing could do the child harm, so we had our so called legal adviser followed.’ She said O’Rourke’s title with contempt. ‘There were plain-clothes policemen on the job too; it was quite a palaver,’ she said with a hint of a smile. ‘But it was Sister Clare who discovered Billy with O’Rourke’s sister in the Liberties. He wasn’t hidden in the wardrobe,’ she assured Kit, who’d grown pale as the story unfolded. ‘He’d been fed and decently clothed, but he was a very frightened little boy indeed.’

  Kit gripped Ian’s hand as she stifled a sob.

  ‘Did O’Rourke’s sister just hand him over without an argument?’ Kit gasped.

  ‘It wasn’t quite as simple as that,’ Mother Gabriel retorted. ‘We had the help of the Garda in the end; they seized the child and arrested O’Rourke and his sister, who are both at present in police custody.’

  ‘Best place for them!’ Kit seethed.

  ‘He’ll go to gaol for his crime,’ Mother Gabriel announced with relish. ‘Have no doubts about that.’

  ‘I’m delighted to hear it,’ Ian said as he crossed the room to shake the old nun by the hand. ‘I admire your tenacity, Mother Superior!’

  Kit also shook the hand of the woman she had fought against for so long.

  ‘Thank you, Mother Gabriel, for bringing my son home to me,’ she said as tears brimmed in her eyes; then she added thoughtfully, ‘I still can’t believe that Da had such a change of mind,’ Kit mused. ‘What could have turned him about like that?’

  ‘Guilt,’ Mother Gabriel replied. ‘He told me you’d cursed him the last time you visited him and your sister, Rosie, roundly cursed him too; she said he was no different from the traitor Judas Iscariot himself. Being evicted and seeing his home go up in flames must have been a blow too.’

  ‘And having his entire family turn their backs on him,’ Kit added sadly. ‘He’s ruined so many lives, including his own.’

  ‘Well, he’s paid for it, God rest his soul,’ Mother Gabriel sighed as she crossed herself. ‘I for one would never have known peace if I had not returned the child to his rightful mother. It was an evil, wicked deed, what your father tried to do, which brought a bad name to myself and the Order of the Sisters of Mercy. It had to be rectified in the eyes of the Lord,’ she concluded.

  Keen to hear all the facts, Ian persisted in his questioning. ‘What about the Garlands?’

  ‘I wrote to them myself, once the police prised the address out of Mr O’Rourke, and informed them they’d been misled by his false promises. To be fair to them, they were very much in the dark about the particulars. Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge now,’ the tired nun said as she rose stiffly to her feet. ‘Be sure to get the boy baptized as soon as possible. He is a child of sin born out of wedlock, so it’s important he joins the blessed in the sacrament of baptism.’

  Kit bit back her tongue – a child of sin indeed! ‘I will pray for you, Mother Gabriel,’ she promised.

  ‘I’m after thinking I’ll be needing all the prayers I can get for that awful crossing home,’ Mother Gabriel joked. ‘It’s not natural in the eyes of God to be floating on cold dark waters for hours on end!’

  Sister Clare came back with Billy, whose little cheeks were as red as apples after his outing on the moors. Smiling, she handed the child to his mother, who buried her face in his warm neck.

  ‘Here’re his nappies,’ Sister Clare said as she set down a bag on the table. ‘And a few clothes and his dummy and bottle – and teddy too,’ she said with tears in her eyes. ‘He’s a lovely boy, and a tough one – take good care of him.’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry – I will!’ Kit retorted with a happy smile as she held her baby close.

  After Ian left to drive the nuns to Clitheroe Station, Kit gazed at Billy, who wound a hank of her hair around his fist.

  ‘You’re back my precious, you’re home with Mammy, and I’m never ever going to let go of you again.’

  Gladys picked up food and milk for Billy from the Phoenix canteen; then she ran across the dispatch yard to Edna’s blue van.

  ‘You’ll never believe it!’ she cried. ‘Billy’s with Kit in the cowshed!’

  ‘Never!’ cried astonished Edna.

  Gladys laughed with joy as she said, ‘Come and see the little lad when you shut up shop!’

  When she got back to the cowshed, Gladys was delighted to find Kit bathing Billy in the sink. Pink, warm and blowing bubbles, he looked a picture of health and happiness.

  ‘He is soooo beautiful,’ Gladys sighed as she gazed at his g
lowing smiling face.

  ‘He’s a miracle,’ Kit murmured in wonder. ‘A complete miracle!’

  Gladys warmed up the food she’d picked up in the canteen. ‘Mashed potatoes, carrots and a bit of mince gravy – will that be all right?’

  Kit was no better informed about solid food than Gladys. ‘I’ve only ever breastfed him,’ she giggled.

  ‘Well, let’s see what Billy has to say about his dinner!’ Gladys declared.

  Kit dried Billy in a big warm towel, then she got him into a white nightie that looked more suitable for a girl.

  ‘I’ll hold him on my knee,’ she told Gladys as she balanced Billy on her lap, ‘whilst you feed him.’

  ‘Open wide!’ laughed Gladys as she offered Billy teaspoons of food, which he polished off with great enthusiasm. When he grabbed the empty plate and tried to lick it, the girls knew for sure that supper had gone down well.

  ‘I brought some milk too,’ Gladys told Kit. ‘Just in case he needs a bottle in the night.’

  ‘Whoops!’ laughed Kit as she felt a warm dampness spreading across her lap. ‘I forgot to put a nappy on him!’

  Full of food, Billy was also full of energy. He wriggled and giggled as Kit put on his terry-towelling nappy with great difficulty.

  ‘I’ll get the hang of it in time,’ she told Gladys, who was laughing at her efforts to hold Billy down so she didn’t prick him with the nappy pins.

  ‘He was so little when I left him and now he’s a big bouncing cheeky boy!’ she said as she swept him up and danced around the room with Billy in her arms.

  The door opened and Ian walked in to find Kit spinning around in circles with gurgling, giggling Billy. He gazed with love at his happy girlfriend and realized he had never seen her so radiant in all the time he’d known her. Tired from her exertions, Kit flopped on to the sofa, where she cradled the now sleepy and very contented baby. Ian sat down beside her and took the boy’s small hand, which he softly kissed.