by Katie King
‘I expect you’re glad to be back in the peace and quiet of home,’ said Peggy wryly.
Roger gave the tiniest snort of mirth at this but he couldn’t disguise his mouth twitching into a smile, and so Peggy wondered if it might be going to be all right between them after all.
She put the teapot down in front of her hosts, and Mabel organised the teacups.
‘How is Jessie?’ asked Roger.
‘It’s hard to say, but he looks quite badly hurt as he’s covered head to toe with bruises and cuts, and two of his fingers have had to be splinted; he’s concussed too. That’s what we know about anyway. But at least he’s stable, and James thinks it more a case of superficial injuries and that he needs time to recover and for the pain to lessen, rather than there being anything seriously wrong. The poor love, his head is swollen though almost to the size of a marrow, and his eyes are slits. If one didn’t know that was our Jessie lying in bed, then I think he would be impossible to recognise,’ said Peggy.
She added that she had spoken to both Barbara and Ted, and so if it was all right with Roger and Mabel, then they would come up in a couple of days for just a single night, timed to coincide with the twins’ birthdays, although if Jessie’s health deteriorated before that, then of course they’d like to come sooner.
‘Ted is training to be a river ambulance man, as every indication is that London will be targeted soon, Barbara told me, and ideally he needs to finish his training before he can come. And Barbara is doing a first-aid course tomorrow and the next day as there’s going to be a system that if people are bombed out of their houses, then the walking and talking will be sent to reception centres by the air-raid wardens to be out of the way of the emergency services at the scene, and so Barbara is learning what might face her as she’s going to be one of the people who will help out in the reception centres. As always seems to happen, Jessie’s hospitalisation couldn’t have come at a worse time for them,’ Peggy explained. ‘Anyway James let me telephone the Jolly from his office and fortunately he was on hand to explain to them that he’d given Jessie a mild sedative, and would do the same tomorrow as this will give Jessie’s body a chance to start the recuperation process, and so for them to visit in a few days would give Jessie a chance to get over the worst and then he’d enjoy seeing them more when the initial pain has had time to lessen slightly. James did warn them that poor Jessie looked more badly hurt than he was, and they must be prepared for him looking quite shocking.’
Mabel and Roger asked quite a lot of further questions about Jessie, and then Peggy reciprocated by enquiring about Tommy and the police station. She realised how tense she had been when a feeling of relief flooded through her when Mabel reported that it seemed that, although Tommy had been kept there for a while, he had been (it looked like) exonerated of blame, and meanwhile the rest of the Hull gang had been picked up by the police. These lads were going to be held in custody until later that night, but really this was a bit of sabre-rattling on the part of the police, who wanted to give them a bit of a scare, as it looked like they’d get a caution rather than be sent to court, unless Ted insisted that they be charged.
The desk sergeant had told Roger that they all came from very difficult backgrounds, and none of them had been lucky enough to find good billets in Harrogate and so their evacuation had been a bit of a disaster really, even though it might well have given them a respite from worse conditions back at home in Hull. The sergeant didn’t think they were bad lads as such but more that they hadn’t had the benefit of parents who cared much about them, while their billets just wanted the money from the government for their keep, and for them to be out of the house all day.
‘I said I wondered if there was a way where rather than giving them a police record, which won’t help them get jobs when they are older, they could instead be instructed to do something for the community as punishment,’ said Roger. ‘That way something good would come out of what has happened, and perhaps one or two of them might discover that rather than always acting the goat and looking for the worst, there can be a good feeling to be got through doing something for somebody else. We left it that I would have a ponder about what sort of thing perhaps they could do, and I’m glad Ted is coming to see Jessie as I’d like to talk to him about it. But it’s not easy to know quite what they could do, seeing as they’re only twelve and thirteen.’
‘Thirteen? Twelve… Goodness, is that all? I thought that lad looked older. But this means they’re still nothing more than children themselves!’ Peggy was shocked as she thought again of the horrific extent of Jessie’s injuries that these boys had caused.
They all sipped their tea contemplatively, and then Peggy said, ‘I do feel bad in general about what’s just happened. We have so imposed on the kindness of both of you already, and yet while we try our best, all we seem to do is make trouble for you and cause you more work.’
There was a pause in the conversation, filled by a new burst of Porky’s calling.
‘I found some biscuits on t’ way ’ome,’ said Mabel then, reaching into her handbag for a brown paper bag. ‘You’d best ’ave one before t’ kids get wind. Or mebbe two.’
And with that Peggy knew that she and the other evacuees weren’t going to be asked to sling their hook and leave Tall Trees. Well, not just yet, at least.
Chapter Twenty-eight
All things considered, the twins ended up having a surprisingly nice birthday, even though the children had discovered the day before that James had had to award the prize for the biggest number of bags for his patients’ possessions to the local boy-scout troop.
Jessie had been allowed to come home from the hospital that morning, and Roger had gone over in the car to fetch him.
The sunny weather came back after a couple of muggy and grey days, and so Tommy, Larry and Aiden were allowed to lug the small sofa from Roger’s study out into the garden for Jessie to sit on. James had been very firm that Jessie wasn’t to run around or do much at all for the next few days, and he was to be in bed and asleep by eight o’clock – that was the deal if Jessie were to be allowed to go home, and there were to be no arguments about it, otherwise he’d be kept in hospital for a few days more.
To bolster James’s point, Peggy reminded Jessie that school would be starting in a week and if he didn’t take care of himself he might be forced to miss the start of term at his new school and so by the time he would be able to attend he wouldn’t know where his classroom was, or what his timetable was, and so he’d feel on the back foot in comparison to his classmates. To judge by his frown, Jessie clearly didn’t like the thought of this, and so Peggy thought he’d do his best to get better before the new term began.
Connie said she didn’t want to celebrate her birthday until Jessie was back once more at Tall Trees, even if it meant she had to move her ‘official’ birthday to another day for this year. And to make sure Jessie got enough rest and could lie in the next morning, he could sleep in her room, and she could top and tail with Angela. Connie looked much happier when James announced that Jessie would be able to be at Tall Trees to blow out his birthday candles after all, although it had been close-run.
As Jessie wasn’t coming home first thing, which meant that Connie’s ‘birthday’ wasn’t allowed to start yet, as a treat the others insisted that they did her morning chores for her. And then, they said, she was to be allowed to ride Milburn all day (if she wanted) without having to take it in turns with anybody.
Connie asked Peggy if she could go out on her own on the little chestnut – it was the first time any of the children had done this, and Connie was by no means the best in the saddle and so it was quite a big ask for her to make.
‘Please, please,’ Connie wheedled. ‘I promise on Porky’s life that I’ll only go up to the top of the pretty lane and back again, and I won’t go anywhere else, and I won’t trot or canter. Please, Aunty Peggy.’
Peggy smiled as the ‘aunty’ was only employed when the twins had been naughty or t
hey really wanted something. The ‘pretty lane’ as Peggy and the twins called it was one of Peggy’s favourite places to be too and when Gracie was over at the packing depot of a summer’s evening Peggy would often lay Jack and Holly side by side in the perambulator after tea and walk there, enjoying the dramatic countryside that dipped and rose on either side of the stone-walled lane, and, best of all, the gentle downhill slope almost all the way home. As it was Connie’s birthday and because she’d been very good over the summer, Peggy agreed to her taking Milburn for a solo ride, even though privately she felt anxious about this as knowing their luck just at the moment Connie would probably fall off and injure herself, Peggy thought to herself gloomily. But it was also true that Connie was growing up and she couldn’t be kept in cotton wool for ever, Peggy knew, and so this would count as one of the small but necessary steps of Connie gaining for herself a little independence on her road to becoming an adult.
Connie’s ride went off without a hitch, despite Peggy’s concerns, with both her and Milburn impeccably behaved. Connie’s huge grin of achievement when she rode into the back yard exactly an hour after she had left, and Milburn’s jaunty turn of her head to see if Peggy had a treat for her, made Peggy very glad that she had agreed that Connie could take the pony out.
Milburn had just been given a drink and untacked, when Roger edged the car slowly into the yard. He helped Jessie climb slowly out of the vehicle, and from there straight out into the garden where Jessie sat down cautiously on the sofa, which had been placed in the shade under one of the tall trees that had given the rectory its name.
Mabel and Peggy winced to one another when they saw how gingerly Jessie was moving, and how very bruised and swollen he still was with the white of one eye now revealed as a deep magenta, and what a pronounced limp he had. He did look much better than he had that first day in hospital, however, and so Peggy told herself to be thankful for small mercies. But it took him a terribly long time to totter his way over to the sofa, supported by Roger, and then carefully lower himself onto it.
As the children gathered around Jessie, soon sitting cross-legged on the grass before the sofa and excitedly chattering away and wishing him ‘Happy Birthday’, there was a demanding snort and a small squeal and Porky, who would now follow the children around very much like a little pink dog with russet-edged ears, asked to sit up on the sofa beside Jessie too, which made Jessie smile and pat the cushion beside him as encouragement to the piglet to climb up. Peggy could see the way this was going as it was hard to deny Jessie anything just at the moment, and so she had to run and get an old towel as although Porky was very clean, only doing his droppings in one corner of the yard when let outside and with the weather having been too hot for his trotters to be muddy, she didn’t quite trust the porker that much. And even Bucky the cat, who was never particularly friendly with anybody other than Larry (although when Peggy had been lying ill in bed just before Holly was born, he had deigned to have the odd paddy-pad snuggle now and again), jumped up onto the back of the sofa. Close to Jessie’s head, the black and white tom crouched down with his front paws tucked under, the soft fur on his chest vibrating with audible purrs.
All in all, it was a pretty formidable ‘welcome home’ committee, and although Jessie looked tired, his weary smile that he couldn’t seem to lose showed that he was undeniably pleased that he’d been so missed by everybody.
The twins had been told that Barbara and Ted would be telephoning at five o’clock, and that they’d asked if Jessie and Connie could bear to wait until then to open all their presents, which they agreed to.
Of course, Roger and Mabel and Peggy knew that Barbara and Ted would, train delays notwithstanding, arrive earlier in the afternoon as a surprise, and so they were looking forward to seeing the look on the twins’ faces when they saw their parents walk into the garden.
Dinner in the meantime was a sandwich picnic on the lawn, and then both Jessie and Connie looked up as they heard unexpected voices singing strains of ‘Happy Birthday’, to see Ted and Barbara walking around the corner with Ted carrying a string bag bulging with some wrapped presents and Barbara parading a birthday cake.
Connie leapt up, with a loud cry of ‘Mummy! Daddy!’ clearly forgetting to act as old as she could, but Ted and Barbara had to cut across her hellos when they saw Jessie trying to struggle painfully to his feet with, ‘Don’t get up, Jessie, we’ll come to you.’
After Ted and Barbara had been hugged and kissed, at last the twins could have a proper version of ‘Happy Birthday’ sung, and everyone joined in quite raucously. And then, with all the other children doing a one-two-three to set them off, Jessie and Connie opened their presents.
Jessie went first. He was given a Frog Penguin model aeroplane kit of a Spitfire and some new larger plimsolls from Ted and Barbara; a selection of tiny pots of paint and a couple of small paintbrushes so that Jessie could decorate his model aeroplane to look as authentic as possible, from Peggy and Holly (Peggy being rather proud of herself for tracking them down in these straightened times as they had proven devilish hard to find); a wall poster detailing the various types of aeroplane from Connie, with Peggy’s help, and a pocket-sized thesaurus from James. Jessie had to take a breather at this point, as he was finding it all a bit much and his bottom lip was starting to wobble.
Then Ted said ‘chin up, old man’ and he rallied with a ‘thanks, Daddy’, and slowly a broad smile grew as Jessie opened the rest of his presents, which were a selection of boys’ comics and some gobstoppers from the other musketeers; a jigsaw of a Hawker Hurricane from Gracie and Jack; a tin of toffees bought from a whip-round for Jessie’s birthday by the patients on the corridor of Jessie’s room at the hospital – none of whom would let on where the sweeties had come from, which made Ted and Roger mouth ‘black market’ and ‘fell off the back of a lorry’ to each other, as they tapped their forefingers to the side of their noses – and a new set of pencils, a fountain pen and some blue-black ink for ‘Big School’ from Roger and Mabel.
‘Thanking you all,’ said Jessie, and then opened his mouth to say something else, but nothing came out as he’d got too distracted by reading the assembly instructions on the box of the model Spitfire kit.
Connie had waited not very patiently for Jessie to finish with his presents before starting on hers, and naturally her present-opening was a much more hurried and businesslike affair but then that was Connie all over, in contrast to her brother’s more gentle approach.
Peggy realised that Jessie was worn-out after his injuries, and of course he’d always had the tendency to get a bit overemotional when tired. Peggy glanced at her sister, who looked back with the sort of expression that suggested she was thinking the same, at which Peggy mouthed ‘bless them’, followed by ‘shall I get a blanket and pillow’, at which Barbara nodded in agreement.
Connie was also given the fountain pen, ink and pencils by Roger and Mabel, as well as Enid Blyton’s The Naughtiest Girl in the School by James; girls’ comics and gobstoppers by the musketeers; a wooden-backed bristle hairbrush and hair ribbons by Peggy and Holly; a jigsaw of children dancing around a maypole from Gracie and Jack; the Chapstick and the money for Connie and Aiden to go to the flicks together from Jessie, helped out quite a lot by Peggy; plimsolls and a selection of clothes from Ted and Barbara. Connie was growing more than Jessie just at the moment and so they had had to take more of a practical cast with her present, which Barbara apologised for, although Connie looked thrilled all the same, especially when she spied how enviously Angela was looking at some of the new garments.
‘Come and have a look at what we got,’ said Jessie to his friends, and Connie made room for them to gather round.
Once Jessie had had a blanket tucked over his knees and had been persuaded to shuffle down on the couch so that he was almost lying down, the adults left the children to it and got Mabel’s ancient deckchairs out and sat in the sun. It was very convivial and relaxed, with somebody getting up now and again to have a s
liver of cake, make more sandwiches or tea and homemade lemonade, Gracie having managed to scrounge a couple of lemons from somewhere (which caused black-market nose-tapping again), and with the babies on a tartan rug being encouraged by everybody as they were both doing their best to start crawling.
Ted and Barbara deposited Porky on the ground from the sofa – he wasn’t a happy piglet – and spent some time perched next to Jessie, Barbara with her arm around him, as they asked him what had happened, after which they said they were going back to their deckchairs and that Jessie should try to have a snooze if he could manage it as he had to remember he was still getting better and so he needed lots of sleep as this would make him enjoy his birthday evening a bit more.
To everyone’s surprise, and once Porky had resumed his rightful position at Jessie’s feet, the pair of them did manage to doze off despite all the activity and chatter around them, although after a while the children got Milburn tacked up and backed into the trap, to take Roger and Ted on a Grand Tour. Gracie said she’d better get ready for the guns that evening, and so this left Mabel, Peggy and Barbara looking after Holly, Jack, and Jessie.
‘How do you think he is?’ Peggy asked her sister, nodding her head towards Jessie, who was now lying flat out on the sofa, sound asleep with his mouth flopped open.
‘Well, I was glad I’d been warned how terrible he looks, as I’d have been truly sickened otherwise, and I admit there was a horrible moment that I thought I’d drop their birthday cake when I first caught sight of his injuries as it really made me catch my breath, especially that eye. But now that I’ve spoken to him, I feel a little reassured. He is worn out though, and so I am wondering if he ought to do half-days for the first week at school next week,’ said Barbara keeping her voice very quiet.
