For Better, For Worse

by June Francis

  Beryl stared at her. ‘So, what are they going to play with now?’

  ‘They can have some orange juice and look at a couple of Simon’s old Dandy and Beano comics. He’s moved on to The Wizard and the Adventure comics now he’s older.’

  ‘Do you still get on well the pair of you now he’s reached a difficult age?’

  ‘We rub along fine the three of us,’ replied Grace. ‘I just hope there won’t be a war that lasts long enough for him to be called up.’

  Beryl frowned. ‘What about our husbands?’

  ‘I know, it’s a worry. Ben’s promised he won’t volunteer, but if he’s called up, he’ll have to go.’

  ‘I bet we don’t get many volunteering this time.’ Beryl placed a hand on her bump. ‘I tell you, I wouldn’t be having this baby if the prime minister hadn’t come back from Germany waving that bit of paper and saying we’d all have peace.’

  ‘I suppose he tried his best because nobody wants to go to war.’

  ‘Dad thinks there’ll be a war. Mam’s just worried her precious son will be called up.’

  ‘It’s going to be a different kind of war to the last one. The air force will play a major role, that’s what Ben says.’

  ‘Davy agrees—’

  The women looked at each other, both thinking the same thing about falling bombs. Beryl then watched as Grace poured tea into two cups and gave the children their juice and comics.

  It fell silent, but the peace did not last for long, as Sammy ripped one of the comics and Irene landed him a smack and snatched the comic from him and held it up for her mother to see.

  ‘Look what he’s done, Mam. He’s a naughty boy, isn’t he?’

  ‘It’s only an old comic,’ said Beryl, lifting her crying son onto her knee.

  ‘It’s Simon’s and he collects them,’ piped up Irene.

  ‘You shouldn’t have hit Sammy,’ Beryl said. ‘It’s you that’s naughty.’

  ‘These things happen,’ said Grace. ‘It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have given them Simon’s things. Some paper and crayons would have been more sensible.’

  ‘It’s too late now,’ said Beryl. ‘Look at the red finger marks on Sammy’s arm.’

  Grace looked and saw that the marks were already starting to fade. ‘He’ll live,’ she said.

  ‘Of course, he will, but that’s not the point. You should punish her.’

  ‘I think this is six to one and half a dozen to the other,’ Grace said. ‘Let’s forget it. Another biscuit, have a chocolate one, Beryl.’

  Beryl said, ‘Don’t— I think it’s time we get going.’ She put her son down and stood up.

  ‘Don’t be like that,’ said Grace. ‘I don’t want to fall out with you.’

  ‘I don’t want to fall out, either, but let’s call it a day for now.’ Beryl put on her son’s coat and buttoned it up.

  Grace held out the chocolate biscuit she had intended on giving to Beryl. The boy took it and crammed it whole into his mouth. The cousins looked at each other and broke into giggles.

  ‘Kids,’ they burst out.

  Grace and Irene saw them out and waved them off before going back into the kitchen and the warmth of the fire. Grace sat down and reached for her unfinished tea.

  ‘Can I have a choccie biscuit now, Mam?’ asked Irene in a wheedling tone.

  ‘You were naughty,’ said Grace severely.

  ‘So was he,’ said her daughter.

  ‘That’s no excuse,’ Grace rested her head on the back of the chair and closed her eyes. She was exhausted by the visit, but at least for a short while she had managed to forget about the possibility of war.

  She could not forget, though, that Dougie was out of prison. She started worrying about whether he might come around and pester her when Ben was at work. She was reluctant to mention Dougie to her husband, as Ben got all hot under the collar whenever his name was mentioned, but decided it was something she could not keep from him. As it was, it was a good job she had decided to mention it to him, as Irene babbled to Ben about the naughty little boy who had visited with his mammy that day. Ben raised his eyebrows and gazed at Grace, so, over dinner, she told him of Beryl’s visit, and her being due again in June. Grace stood, as though to clear the table, and then added the news that Dougie was out of prison.

  Ben frowned. ‘I’ve been thinking about his being released, as I thought it might be around now. Let’s hope he doesn’t stay in Liverpool. If he does… and dares to show his face here – if I’m out of the house, you’re best informing the police and have them warning him off. I can’t be here all the time, protecting you and the kids…’

  ‘I’m praying he’ll return to London,’ she said.

  ‘If he’s heard about the IRA setting bombs off there, I doubt he’ll go,’ said Ben. ‘Anyway, I’ll telephone your uncle and tell him if Dougie starts making a nuisance of himself, my next stop will be the police.’ Grace agreed that was the sensible action to take, and tried not to think about Dougie.

  * * *

  Her mind was easily distracted, because a few days later, at the beginning of March, there were other worrying things to occupy her as Germany invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. This expansionist move broke the Munich Agreement that Chamberlain had secured with Hitler in Munich last September. Within days Chamberlain broadcasted to the British nation that Herr Hitler could not be trusted to keep his word. Britain warned Hitler against invading Poland, saying they would declare war on Germany if he did. A few weeks later on the 1st April, the Spanish Civil War ended, and the fascist, General Franco was on the winning side which meant that Hitler could withdraw the forces he had supplied to the fascists in Spain. Preparations for war were set in motion and the Royal Armoured Corps was formed and the Women’s Royal Naval Service, which had been disbanded after the Great War, was set in motion again.

  During the school holidays, Simon was one of the volunteers turning up on a Lancashire beach to fill bags with sand. Cities and towns expected to be bombed from the air by the Luftwaffe and some construction workers were put to work building air-raid shelters, and councils began to make plans for children to be evacuated. Simon had already told them he was too old to be ferried off to the countryside, as he believed he could be of some use in Liverpool if the city was bombed. The King and Queen visited Canada and the USA. The Military Training Act was passed for men between twenty and twenty-one who were to undertake six months’ military training.

  Grace’s fears came to a head at the beginning of June when tragedy struck close to home in Liverpool Bay. Something went horribly wrong on a recruits’ trial for the submarine HMS Thetis and the lives of ninety-nine men were lost. Grace wept bitterly for the grieving families, especially for the mother and sisters of one of the young men: Syd, who had grown up in the next street along from her, whose father had lost his life in the last war, when his ship was torpedoed by a U-boat in the Atlantic. She remembered fondly that Syd had been the first boy to try to kiss her, before Dougie had rudely intervened on the doorstep. Grace knew she was not alone in feeling a growing sense of horror as the misery of war promised to unleash itself – the devastation caused by the deaths of so many Merseyside mariners during the Great War was still fresh in the city, and the people of Liverpool were now filled with dread at the thought of being denuded of their young men once more when war was to come.

  * * *

  Soon after this tragedy, a visit from Beryl’s Davy lifted Grace’s spirits. Davy had called by with the welcome news that Beryl has given birth a day or so ago to a healthy girl whom they had named Elizabeth after the princess. Beryl was doing well and Grace made arrangements with Davy to visit the mother and baby the following day. She asked Milly to watch Irene for a few hours so that she could help Beryl, undistracted, during her visit.

  Grace had taken with her some of Irene’s early baby clothes, thinking they could come in handy for Elizabeth and save Beryl and Davy some money. She was busy sorting out the clothes and showing them to Beryl whe
n she was surprised by the sound of her aunt calling her daughter’s name from downstairs.

  Her mother snatched the clothes away from Beryl’s outstretched hands and said, ‘You don’t need cast-offs from the likes of her. She betrayed your brother!’

  Beryl glared at her mother. ‘Keep your nose out, Mam. Besides, there’s some really pretty dresses amongst those, and I appreciate Grace giving them to me for Elizabeth, so—’

  ‘How dare you speak to me like that, you ungrateful little madam,’ spluttered Polly. ‘After all I’ve done for you. Marion warned me that you might try and make friends with this one again.’

  ‘What have you done?’ countered Beryl. ‘Dougie’s always been your favourite.’

  ‘I’ve brought you up, haven’t I?’ snapped Polly.

  ‘That was your duty. I didn’t ask to be born,’ said Beryl. ‘And I bet I had to wear cast-offs…’ she muttered sulkily.

  ‘I think I’d best be going,’ interrupted Grace. ‘I’ll see you another time, Beryl.’

  She hurried from the room and placed the bundle of baby garments in the parlour on her way out for Beryl to find later. Shaken from her encounter with Polly, and not sure what to make of the intensity of the older woman’s anger, she ran down the street, not wanting her aunt to catch up with her and resume her shouting in the street.

  It was as she turned the corner, and was looking over her shoulder, that she almost collided with Dougie. She swerved to avoid him, and drew herself up short, but he managed to catch hold of her arm.

  ‘If it isn’t my dear cousin,’ he drawled, digging his fingernails into the pale skin of her upper arm, below the sleeve of her summer tea dress.

  ‘Let go of me,’ Grace gasped, breathless with rushing.

  ‘How unfriendly, and such a pretty one still, too, I see,’ he murmured, leering slightly and catapulting her tight against him, so she could feel his breath on her face. ‘Although, I’m not so surprised you don’t want to see me after the way you behaved, putting me behind bars. First you play with me, throwing yourself at me for years, then you reject me when you think your next gravy train has arrived. Though I can’t see why he’d want to marry used goods like you—’

  ‘You deserved it, Dougie,’ she said, struggling to free herself. ‘You’re a bully – just like Hitler!’

  Instantly, he slapped her across the face. ‘Don’t you compare me to him!’

  She swore at him. ‘Bugger off, you beast,’ she shouted up into his face.

  Dougie was so taken aback at her outburst – so unlike the quiet Gracie he thought he knew – that his grip slackened, and with a hand to her stinging cheek, Grace fled.

  Chapter 26

  By the time Ben arrived home from work, the red marks of Dougie’s fingers had faded, although Grace’s cheek was still slightly swollen. She hoped no one would notice, as she made the evening meal. She had felt quite proud of herself for shocking Dougie into letting her go, but it had taken her some time to calm down when she’d got back to the house, and Grace had been careful to lock the front door, in case Dougie had decided to follow her. After agonising over a pot of tea by the fire, Grace had come to the painful decision to not mention her encounter with Dougie to her husband. She felt too on edge to talk about it properly, and she knew that Ben would confront her family immediately about Dougie’s behaviour. The encounter with her aunt Polly at Beryl’s had also upset Grace, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for further confrontations – not just yet in any case. She knew it was most likely inevitable, but again found it hard to dismiss the kindness of her aunt’s family following the years after her mother’s death; this was just something that Ben would not understand. However, the idea of omitting the truth to Ben just didn’t sit comfortably with her; she tried to tell herself that Ben had only instructed her to call the police if her cousin approached the house, and technically Dougie hadn’t done that…

  * * *

  The violence and anger of that day continued to play on in Grace’s mind over the coming weeks, as her sense of unease about not being completely honest with Ben grew. However, her personal troubles diminished, as the sheer scale of world events threw a shadow over their daily lives.

  Meanwhile, as Britain prepared for war with Germany by getting more women involved in the forces, and by creating the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, on the other side of the world the Imperial Army of Japan blockaded Britain’s trading ports into Northern China.

  The Mersey Ferries stopped the ferry from Liverpool to Rock Ferry on the Wirral and the women’s land army was reformed to work in agriculture. Towards the end of August, army reservists were called up and the Civil Defence Service was put on the alert.

  On 1st September, Germany and Russia invaded Poland and at eleven o’clock, the prime minister broadcast the news to the nation. Operation Pied Piper was put into operation, and so began the evacuation of children from the main cities into the countryside. Grace had known about evacuation because Jane and Milly had spoken about it. Neither wanted to be parted from their children, but Milly’s mother and stepfather had suggested that Milly and the twins stay with them at their house in Dublin, But she was reluctant to do so, not only because she did not want to leave Jimmy, but in August another IRA bomb had been exploded in Coventry and there had been five fatalities and seventy people injured. Jimmy’s mother had suggested that the twins stay with her in New Brighton. Jimmy and Milly decided that she would have to stay with them in New Brighton, having decided that the two children would be too much for his mother to cope with and that Jimmy would stay over there at the weekends. Jane and her two children were to accompany Kyle and the staff from the orphanage with the orphans to a manor house in the Lancashire countryside. Grace and Ben decided to stay in Liverpool with Irene. On 3rd September, Britain declared war on Nazi Germany.

  * * *

  After that during the next fortnight, several events took place so that Grace found it difficult to remember in what order they happened. Mobilisation of the armed forces began and the National Service Act for men between eighteen and forty-one was passed by Parliament. The new BBC Home Service was people’s lifeline to news, as were the newspapers. Within days a blackout was enforced, and the British Expeditionary Force sailed for France. The British civilian liner, SS Athenia, was torpedoed and sunk by a Germany U-boat and ninety-eight passengers and nineteen crew were killed. Aircraft carrier HMS Courageous was torpedoed and sunk with a great loss of life in the Western Approaches.

  ‘The Royal Air Force has bombed the port of Wilhelmshaven,’ said Ben, as he came in from walking Fergie during the last week of September. ‘Hopefully, it will go some way to preventing the German U-boats wreaking more havoc on Allied shipping and invading us.’

  Grace glanced up from mashing potatoes. ‘Jane told me that Andrew had heard that the prime minister has formed a war cabinet.’

  ‘He should have listened to Churchill and done that ages ago,’ complained Ben.

  ‘Churchill is to be the First Lord of the Admiralty,’ Grace said, pleased that Jane was able to update her on the latest news, as she added a knob of butter to the potatoes.

  ‘Good, he has some experience of what is needed from the Great War,’ said Ben.

  His words were of some comfort to Grace, but Ben’s face was serious as he sat at table. ‘I hate to upset you, luv, but I’ve heard that all pets are having to be put down.’

  ‘You’re joking,’ Grace cried, reaching out and stroking Fergie.

  ‘I wish I were, but apparently they could prove a worry when the bombing starts, and feeding them will be a problem, too. Sooner, rather than later, rationing will come into force, and having enough food to feed people isn’t going to be easy with German U-boats stopping our food supplies getting through.’

  ‘But we couldn’t do that with Fergie… I couldn’t give him up to be put down!’ protested Grace, tears in her eyes.

  ‘I don’t see how we have any choice. We have a dog licence, so that will be on
record.’

  ‘Can’t we hide him somewhere?’ she pleaded.

  Ben covered her hand on the table with one of his. ‘Don’t you think lots of dog owners will want to do that? Anyway, where do you suggest?’

  Grace could not think of anywhere, but then she had an idea. ‘Presumably, they won’t be putting down dogs for the blind. Maybe I could pretend to be blind?’

  Ben gazed at her and his lips twitched. ‘Grace, you’re not thinking straight. Blind people are registered, as are the dogs.’

  Grace banged her fist on the table. ‘Oh, why do you have to have a sensible answer for everything?’

  ‘Because your suggestions won’t work,’ he said gently. ‘We all have to make sacrifices in wartime, and this is just the start.’

  ‘Damn Hitler and the Nazis!’

  Ben nodded. ‘Anyway, let’s just carry on caring for Fergie as long as we can. Who’s to say, the scheme might only be carried out for so long, and then the men might be called away to do something more vital to the war effort.’

  Grace sighed. ‘I hope you’re right. Anyway, where’s Simon?’

  ‘Probably at one of his mates’, discussing which service they’ll join when they’re old enough to be called up,’ said Ben grimly.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Grace. ‘I hope to God the war will be over by the time he’s eighteen.’

  ‘That’ll be 1943,’ murmured Ben. ‘We’ve a helluva fight ahead of us if that’s to happen and we’re to come out victorious.’

  ‘Rule Britannia,’ Grace said softly. ‘Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.’

  Ben came around the table and reached out and drew her close to him. ‘That’s the spirit. We’re all in this together, and no doubt, just like the last war, we’ll get through the fight.’

  Chapter 27