Sarah fell silent.
‘Are you thinking of your Alan?’
‘Yes. He could have been there, Nan. The man on the wireless said our planes were flying over the Channel trying to protect the ships.’
‘He’ll be fine, love. Have you heard from him lately, since he told you how pleased he was about the baby?’
Sarah burst into heartrending sobs, covering her face with her hands. ‘Oh, Nan, I don’t know what to do.’
Ruby dropped the blanket to the floor and reached over to put her arms around her granddaughter. ‘There, there, love. Whatever is wrong?’ She rocked her in her arms until the tears subsided.
Sarah gulped and rubbed away the tears with the corner of the bed sheet. ‘I haven’t heard from Alan. Not since I wrote about the baby. I just said he’d written and was happy as I didn’t want Maureen to worry. Now, with all this news from Dunkirk, I don’t know what to think.’
‘You silly girl. You shouldn’t have kept this all to yourself,’ Ruby soothed her granddaughter. ‘Why, he’s probably training and working all hours, God knows where, and his letters just haven’t arrived yet. Now, you settle yourself down and try to get some sleep. No more secrets. I think we’ve had enough of them for one day, don’t you?’ Ruby pulled the covers up over her granddaughter’s shoulders and tucked her in. Turning out the light and pulling the door to, she wondered why Alan hadn’t been in touch and prayed he was safe.
Alone in the dark, Sarah’s fears multiplied. How could she tell her nan that she thought that Alan didn’t love her anymore? No one else seemed to notice how much he had changed at Christmas. He’d met new people who came from a different world from his new wife and family. The news of the baby must have been too much. Would she ever hear from him again? Did he still love her?
‘Tuck in, and then you can listen to what I have to say.’ The faces round Ruby’s table looked apprehensive as they watched her dish out portions of porridge from a large saucepan. ‘This’ll stick to your ribs and keep you going until dinnertime.’
Maisie placed a hand over her bowl and removed a cigarette from her mouth with the other hand, blowing smoke away from the pan. She’d been chain-smoking since appearing downstairs still in her dressing gown and unwashed. If she was surprised to see Lenny at the table, she didn’t say so and hardly acknowledged him when Freda made the introductions. ‘Not for me, ta. I’m off out as soon as I’ve got meself ready. I’ll get something then.’
‘But, Maisie, you didn’t eat anything yesterday. Why not take yourself back to bed? I managed to get a nice bit of brisket yesterday, and I’m going to make it into a pie so it’ll stretch a bit further. You’ll be ready for that by dinnertime. They don’t expect you at Woolworths today, so you can take it easy.’
Maisie glared at Ruby. ‘I said I’m going out. I’ve got things to do.’
‘If you want to wait until tomorrow, Maisie, I can come with you if you like? It’s my day off, so we can go wherever you want.’ Sarah tried to pacify her friend. ‘You’ve had an awful shock. Perhaps you should rest a little more today.’
‘I said I’m going out. Why can’t you all just leave me alone?’ Maisie rose to her feet. ‘I’m off to get meself dressed.’
Ruby raised her eyebrows at Sarah. It was better to let the girl alone. She wasn’t herself at the moment. ‘As you please, love. Just remember we’re here if you need us.’
Maisie stubbed out the remains of her cigarette and lit another. She nodded to Ruby and left the room.
‘Right, you lot, stop your gawping and finish your porridge. We’ve got things to do. As soon as we’ve cleared the table, we are going to write down everything you know about this chap Trevor Whiffen.’
‘His name is Tommy Whiffen, Mrs Caselton, but I don’t know what good it’ll do. I’ll be off out of your hair this morning. I shouldn’t have come here in case I was followed.’
‘Trevor, Tommy, it doesn’t matter to me what his name is as long as he pays his dues and you two young ones aren’t in fear of your lives. As for you heading off, Lenny, you can just stay where you are. I have plans for you, young man.’
Freda and Lenny spent an age at the table writing down anything they could think of about Tommy Whiffen and his gang. From time to time Ruby would stop to ask a question. How did Lenny first know of their crimes? Did they force Lenny to do wrong? Did he try to escape their clutches? What really happened on the night of the warehouse robbery?
By the time the midday meal was ready, Ruby had read through every word that Lenny and Freda had written and decided there was nothing more to add. Against his wishes Ruby had even insisted he wrote down why and how he’d escaped from prison and what he’d been doing in the time he’d been on the run. ‘Be as honest as you can, Lenny, and the authorities will do their best to listen to you,’ she advised as she put a plate on top of Sarah’s dinner ready for her to heat over a pan of boiling water when she returned home from work.
Ruby had invited Maureen as well, as she was worried the woman would feel lonely with Sarah staying at number thirteen to care for Maisie, but Maureen assured them she understood and was taking herself off to the pictures with her neighbour, so they weren’t to worry. All the same, Ruby did worry, as Maureen was family now, even though Sarah had not heard from Alan since Christmas. Whatever was that lad playing at? There was so much going on in their lives that Ruby’s head was in a spin. She didn’t know what to think.
‘Authorities, Mrs Caselton? I don’t want anything to do with no authorities. It’s them what put me behind bars to begin with,’ Lenny said as he piled his fork with cabbage, which his own sister had grown in Ruby’s garden.
‘What put you behind bars, young Lenny, was that Tommy Whiffen forcing you to tell lies on his behalf. Now, you can stay here tonight and then tomorrow we will walk down to the police station and you can hand yourself in. We can show them what you’ve written and let the police look into this sorry mess and sort it out once and for all.’
Lenny dropped his knife and fork onto his plate with a clatter. ‘What? Me go back to prison? No, I’m sorry, Mrs Caselton, but I ain’t going back there – not for a million pounds.’
‘No one is offering you money, Lenny. If you go back to prison for now, then this Tommy Whiffen won’t be wanting to harm Freda. You will be safe as well. Once the police know the truth, the right person will be locked up and then you will be set free. Now, eat your dinner up before it gets cold. We need to get you a haircut so you look presentable for tomorrow. Your clothes are washed and ironed, and you can keep the bits you’re wearing now.’
Lenny bent his head over his dinner and muttered, ‘Yes, Mrs Caselton.’
Freda looked at her brother and wondered. What was Lenny thinking right now?
‘Sit yourself down, Sarah. You look all in. Your dinner will be warm before too long.’
Sarah kicked her shoes off and rubbed her ankles. ‘Thanks, Nan. I worked through my lunch hour. What with Maisie off and us being short-staffed, I just had a sandwich with Betty in the office. How is Maisie?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine, love. She hasn’t come home since this morning. It’s nearly seven o’clock. I hope she’s all right.’
‘Do you think we should go out and look for her, Nan?’
‘How would we know where to start?’
Sarah shook her head. ‘I have no idea. Whenever she wasn’t going to work, she went out with me and Freda, unless she went to Woolwich to buy fabric at the market. I don’t think dressmaking is on her mind today. Do you think she’s done something silly?’
Ruby shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t think so, love. She’s made of stern stuff is our Maisie.’
‘But she’s been so down since Joe joined up, and it was only yesterday that she collapsed in Woolworths. We shouldn’t have let her go out on her own.’
‘We had no choice in the matter, Sarah. She made it quite clear she didn’t want our help. We couldn’t very well follow her, could we? We will just have t
o wait for her to come home. I only hope she isn’t too late. I’m fair exhausted after last night and Lenny turning up like that. Young Freda’s been right embarrassed about what happened. I told her not to be so daft. She really should have told us everything sooner. We may have been able to help her. She’s not got a shift tonight, so I suggested she take Lenny to the pictures. It’ll cheer him up before he goes back to prison. It’s a shame, though, as Nelson has really taken to the lad.’
Sarah almost choked on her cup of tea. ‘What? He’s going back to prison? How did you manage that, Nan?’
Ruby went to the sideboard and pulled out pages of paper covered with Lenny and Freda’s handwriting. ‘Read that while I get your dinner. I’ve explained to Lenny that if he goes back to prison, we can get the police to sort the mess out and I think they might let him out. It’s obvious the lad was set up, and there’s enough on that paper to lock Tommy Whiffen up for a very long time.’
Sarah scanned the sheets of paper, and although she was surprised at what was written there, she couldn’t help think that Nan was rather optimistic that Lenny would be let out of prison so quickly.
Sarah was just finishing off a knitted bootee when there was a sharp knock at the door. Ruby, who had been dozing in her armchair, jumped and dropped the newspaper she’d still been holding. ‘It must be Freda and Lenny. Why didn’t they use the key that’s hanging inside the front door?’ she said as she pulled herself to her feet and headed towards the hall.
‘We took the key off the string, Nan, in case Mr Hitler broke in. Remember?’ Sarah grinned to herself. They’d pulled Nan’s leg for ages about that. ‘Don’t forget the blackout.’
‘Goodness, Vera, whatever are you doing banging on my door at this time of night? It’s nearly ten o’clock.’
Vera hurried into the room gasping for breath. ‘I thought you ought to know. It’s Maisie. I ran all the way here.’
‘My goodness, Vera. Calm yourself down and take a few deep breaths. Now, what about Maisie? Has there been an accident?’
‘No, much worse.’
Sarah felt her head spin as she rose to her feet. Whatever had happened, she had to get to her friend as soon as possible. ‘Where is she, Mrs Munro?’ Sarah wanted to scream with impatience as Vera eked out the dramatic moment, putting her hand to her heart and breathing deeply.
‘Maisie Taylor is at the Prince of Wales with a couple of soldiers and she’s the worse for drink.’ Vera looked from Sarah to Ruby to make sure they had both absorbed her scandalous news.
‘When you say she’s the worse for drink, exactly what do you mean, Vera?’ Ruby demanded.
‘What I mean is that if someone doesn’t sort her out, I think she will be in a sorry state tomorrow and may not know whose bed she wakes up in.’ Vera looked like the cat who’d got the cream.
‘Now’s not the time to gloat, Vera. Maisie doesn’t know if she’s coming or going at the moment. She needs friends, not people who are going to question her morals.’
‘Hear, hear, Nan. I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to find my friend and bring her home where she is welcome.’ Sarah headed for the front door, only stopping to slip her feet into her shoes.
‘I’m right behind you, love. Vera, I’ll thank you not to come gloating at my front door, thank you very much.’
‘I came to tell you she was in trouble,’ Vera moaned as she followed them out of the front door.
Sarah and Ruby could hear a piano playing loudly as they crossed the road to the Prince of Wales public house. Sarah was reminded of the night of the Woolworths Christmas party, when she first danced with Alan, how he’d held her in his arms and sung softly in her ear. They’d been back to the pub a few times while they were courting, and each time Sarah felt the pub held a special place in her heart. Somewhere she would visit when she was a grandmother and could tell her grandchildren about the day she fell in love with their granddad.
Stepping over the threshold of the busy pub, Sarah expected to be shocked by whatever it was that Vera had seen Maisie doing. Instead, she found her by the piano swaying in time to the music. Granted, alongside her were a couple of soldiers, but there was nothing untoward happening. Trust Vera to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Maisie spotted her friend by the door and called her over: ‘Come and ’ave a drink and meet me friends Henry and Ollie. They used to work with my Joe. They all enlisted at the same time. Small world, innit?’
Sarah pushed through the crowd, and as she approached Maisie, she could see that her friend had indeed enjoyed a few drinks but was still in control of her faculties. Henry and Ollie shook her hand politely and offered her a drink. Sarah declined. The pub was too smoky and noisy for her liking. Henry found a chair, which she gratefully accepted.
‘We were sorry to hear about Joe,’ he told Sarah. ‘He was a nice bloke, salt of the earth so to speak. When we met his missus in here, we didn’t like to leave her alone in case she felt poorly, like. We didn’t know where she lived, and she made it clear she didn’t get on with her mother-in-law. Not that many of us liked her much either.’
Sarah warmed to Henry straight away. What a gentleman he was. ‘Maisie lives with my nan now.’ She indicated to where Ruby was sipping a glass of port and talking with Ollie. ‘I think we need to get her home to her bed. The poor love is still in shock. She only heard about Joe yesterday. We have no details of what happened. Would you know?’
Henry shook his head. ‘Sorry, love, I wish I could help you. We haven’t seen Joe since we enlisted. I reckon he went off to France and probably copped it over there. Ollie and me was sent off to be drivers up north. We drew the lucky straws.’ He looked sad. ‘A bloody shame about Joe. I ’ope my missus never has to go through what his wife is going through right now.’
Sarah nodded. Perhaps her Alan was consoling another man’s wife just like Henry and Ollie were.
‘Would you like me and Ollie to walk you ladies home? She’s a bit maudlin and I can see that you ain’t in any position to steer her in the right direction much.’
‘That is very kind of you. Thank you, Henry.’
Henry turned to where Maisie was leaning against the piano and humming to the music. ‘Come on, my dear, time we were getting you home.’ He reached out to take her arm.
Maisie pulled away. ‘I want to sing a song,’ she said in a slightly slurred voice. ‘You’ve all gotta sing along with me.’ She leant over and whispered into the pianist’s ear. He nodded and changed the tune to something Sarah recognized. It was a sad song of lost love. ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’.
Maisie stepped in front of the piano and made lots of shushing noises until all fell quiet. After a few bars everyone started to sing, but above them all Sarah could hear Maisie’s plaintive voice. She could see the haunted fear in her friend’s eyes as Maisie realized she would never again see her Joe.
Maisie started to sob and sank to her knees, but still she sang clear and loud of the man who had gone from her life forever.
‘. . . I’ll see you in my dreams . . .’
Henry and Ollie helped Maisie to her feet, and Sarah picked up her bag and coat. More than ever she prayed that she would not have to endure the heartache that her friend was experiencing at this moment. ‘Wherever you are, Alan, and whether you want to come home to me or not, please stay safe,’ Sarah prayed.
‘Where is he? Where’s that lad got to?’ A red-faced Ruby rushed to the bottom of the stairs. ‘Freda? Get yourself down here now.’
Freda appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, rubbing her eyes, as Ruby slammed a blackened kettle on the stove. ‘Is there anything wrong, Mrs Caselton?’
‘Get yourself into the front room and tell me if you can see that brother of yours.’
Ruby followed Freda and watched as she pulled back the heavy blackout curtains, allowing early morning sunshine to flood the room. ‘Oh my God! But he was here last night. I saw him go to bed.’
They both stared at the settee, where Lenny�
��s blanket had been neatly folded on top of a pillow. Apart from that there was no evidence that he had been staying at number thirteen.
‘The few bits and bobs that he had have all gone. He’s scarpered,’ Ruby said sadly. Her initial anger had gone and was replaced with sadness that Lenny hadn’t hung around long enough to clear his name.
Freda shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry. He never gave me any idea he would do this. He seemed happy enough at the pictures last night, and even when we went for a bag of chips afterwards, he chatted away like he usually does. What an idiot.’
‘Fear’s a strange thing, Freda. No doubt alone down here in the middle of the night, he had second thoughts. Fear can do funny things to the mind. Perhaps we were expecting too much of him to face the police and most likely go back to prison.’
‘I’m embarrassed that Lenny has caused so many problems. He has left me in the same state as before he appeared and inconvenienced people that I think of as my family. I love him dearly, but right now I could ring his blooming neck.’
Ruby thought for a moment. ‘But Lenny hasn’t left us in the same situation.’ She pulled open the drawer of the sideboard and removed the sheets of paper upon which the brother and sister had so patiently noted everything of importance about Tommy Whiffen and his gang. ‘With this we can still have the bugger locked up and then you and your Lenny will be safe to go home.’
Freda took the papers from Ruby’s hand and placed them back into the sideboard, firmly closing the drawer. ‘I know you mean well, Mrs Caselton, but I think it’s too late for that. The police will want to know why we entertained an escaped prisoner under your roof. They won’t care that you think he is innocent. They may not even be interested in what Lenny wrote. Then where will we be? They could charge you and me for hiding a criminal, and perhaps Sarah as well, and that isn’t a good thing in her condition, is it?’
The Woolworths Girls Page 25
