The Evacuee War

by Katie King

  The telephone trilled at Tall Trees after everyone had gone to bed that evening.

  Late-night telephone calls rarely brought good news, and it was only by chance that Peggy was nearby as she’d realised that she hadn’t wrung out her stockings that were soaking in the scullery.

  And so it proved; this was most certainly not good news.

  It was a distraught Barbara telephoning from the Jolly public house, only a street away from number five Jubilee Street, with desperate news – Ted was missing.

  What her sister was saying was such a shock that Peggy struggled at first to take in the meaning of Barbara’s words, and for a second she felt wobbly and had to grab the back of Roger’s chair in his study for support.

  Barbara – her voice full of panic and fear – gasped out that a bomb had fallen in the early hours of the morning on a ramshackle warehouse at the docks, and by chance Ted had been nearby, on his way home from his nightly stint on the river ambulance. He’d charged into the building to check for people inside, whereupon the warehouse had collapsed without warning. And poor Ted hadn’t been seen since.

  Peggy could only gulp with horror at her sister’s words. This was terrible news to hear, and she wished she was in Bermondsey as she felt too far away to be much help or able to give Barbara the support and comfort that she needed.

  Barbara sobbed as she went on, ‘It’s been chaos and I’ve not been to bed for thirty-six hours as I’d spent the night after a full day’s work helping in a mobile canteen for bomb teams up near the Elephant. There’s been so much damage everywhere, and so it hasn’t just been that building on the docks. But we’ve searched everywhere – all the regulars at the Jolly have joined in – but we can’t find Ted anywhere. I held back from calling you all earlier as I thought we just had to find him, for better or for worse, but it’s getting on for nearly twenty-four hours now, and so I think you’re going to have to tell the children what’s happened. I fear we must all prepare ourselves for the worst outcome.’

  ‘Oh Barbara, what a calamity,’ cried Peggy. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Peggy heard a noise behind her as Barbara let out a pent-up breath of tension, and she turned to see Connie and Jessie standing side by side, drawn to Roger’s study as if by black magic, their eyes dark with trepidation and their arms around each other.

  ‘Barbara, hold on, the children are here already,’ Peggy said.

  Peggy put the telephone receiver down on the desk and turned to face the twins, a hand on each of their shoulders.

  ‘I’ve bad news, and you’re both going to need to be very strong and grown-up. There’s no easy way to say this, but poor Daddy is missing,’ Peggy told them quickly. ‘But the fact they’ve not been able to find him yet could be a good thing, rather than not, please do remember that. You need to talk to Mummy, but don’t be scared if the call is short – she’s having to borrow the telephone at the Jolly and I expect other people need to use it too.’

  Peggy stepped back to stand in the study doorway to give the children a little privacy. She knew her sister would have heard what she said to her niece and nephew.

  The twins held the phone between their ears so that they could both listen at the same time to what their mother was telling them, the crowns of their heads touching as they made sure to catch every word.

  Then Peggy flew up the stairs to break the news to Roger and Mabel. She knew they’d be very cross if Peggy didn’t alert them to the unfolding crisis. Aside from it meaning the twins would need extra care, both Roger and Mabel had become very fond of Barbara and Ted, and Peggy was certain they would be distressed at the thought of him being missing.

  Used to dealing with all manner of crises, because as a rector Roger could get called upon at any hour of the day or night when awful things occurred, he and Mabel rose magnificently to the occasion, haring downstairs in their dressing gowns and slippers.

  Mabel went to make hot drinks for the twins that she told Peggy she would lace with a spoonful of precious sugar for the shock, while Roger and Peggy both hovered in the doorway to Roger’s study to wait for the twins to finish talking to their mother.

  The twins were still listening in horrified silence, too shocked just then even to cry, and then Roger shepherded them into the kitchen, leaving Peggy to pick up the telephone receiver once more to say to Barbara, ‘I’ll be with you as soon as I can. You try and get some rest now as you must badly need it, and you won’t be helping anyone if you make yourself ill with exhaustion.’

  It was advice that Peggy found impossible to follow herself, and she lay in bed tossing and turning for hours after the call. The thought of Ted possibly dead was sickening.

  Worse was to come though, as the next morning the twins’ beds were empty and they were missing, Peggy discovered at six o’clock when she went to whisper to them that she was going to London and she would give their love to Barbara.

  A hastily written note had been left on the kitchen table.

  ‘We have gone to look for Daddy,’ it said. The twins hadn’t needed to add anything further.

  Chapter Eleven

  Although ordinarily it was Connie who came up with a plan, and Jessie who dutifully followed in her wake, this time the plan was Jessie’s.

  After they had finished their cocoa, the twins had gone back to bed but neither had been able to sleep, even though Jessie had left the boys’ dorm and had snuck into Connie’s bed, the twins taking tremendous comfort in being with each other at this traumatic time.

  After a long while, when dawn wasn’t too far away and he thought Connie might have dozed off, Jessie got up as quietly as he could.

  ‘What are you doing?’ muttered a sleepy-sounding Connie. ‘It’s still dark.’

  ‘Connie?’ he whispered. ‘Go back to sleep. I’m going to go back to Bermondsey. I know I can find Daddy.’

  ‘You’re not going!’ hissed Connie, instantly alert. ‘Mummy and Daddy would be furious if they thought you were even thinking of it. And Peggy too.’

  ‘Want to bet that I’m not going?’ said Jessie, cross now that he’d let his sister know what he was about to do – he should just have said he was going to the lavvy. ‘I don’t care what the grown-ups think.’

  ‘In that case, you’re not going on your own,’ Connie said, already fumbling for her own clothes. ‘I’m coming too.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘No! Connie, no. It’s too dangerous.’

  ‘YES.’

  Connie was clearly not going to let him slip off easily without her, Jessie could tell.

  He realised he was going to have to give in and so to save face, he muttered grudgingly, ‘Oh all right. I suppose two heads are better than one. We’ll have a lot of things to work out.’

  ‘You’ll be glad I’m there, you’ll see,’ said Connie with a confidence her brother didn’t share.

  ‘Shake a leg then. We’d better get a move on, before Peggy is about, as with our luck Holly will have her up early,’ said Jessie, and even in the dark he thought he could detect his sister nodding.

  They knew they were about to have an adventure of the sort their aunt wouldn’t countenance for a minute, and she would definitely put the kibosh on their plans.

  ‘Let me write a note,’ Jessie added, after they’d carefully crept down the stairs, paying great attention to avoiding all the creaky floorboards, ‘we don’t want anyone to worry.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Connie said in as convincing a way as she could muster. ‘They won’t mind too much, as long as we leave a note.’

  Neither twin believed that for a second.

  And as the first hint of the coming dawn lightened the sky to the east, the twins snuck out of the back door – each with a slice of bread and dripping, and their rain macs’ pockets bulging with things they thought might be useful – almost tripping over a snoozing Porky who was lying on the other side of it. Luckily the piglet didn’t wake, although Milburn watched them go, his head over the stable doo
r on the other side of the yard and his ears pricked with interest at the unusual activity.

  The pony let out a soft breathy sound.

  ‘He’s wishing us luck,’ said Connie.

  ‘Let’s hope we don’t need it,’ Jessie answered. ‘And fingers crossed he doesn’t call to us.’

  The twins glanced at the window overlooking Milburn’s stable door, which was where Peggy slept. Milburn had a very piercing neigh when he wanted, and if he really let rip, Peggy would definitely be woken.

  ‘Shhhhhh,’ Connie whispered to the pony, and quietly Milburn watched them jog around the house, the soft soles of their summer sandals making barely a sound on the stone flags of the back yard.

  Once outside the garden gate, the twins ran at full speed down the road away from Tall Trees, their faces determined. As far as they were concerned, it was unthinkable that they wouldn’t return to London when their father needed them.

  They reached for each other’s hand and then they ran all the faster.

  It was a long way to go, even though they weren’t totally sure of the way, and they wanted to be there as soon as they could.

  Chapter Twelve

  ‘We have gone to find Daddy.’

  No matter how Peggy stared at the piece of paper weighted down under the salt cellar on the kitchen table, she couldn’t make the words mean anything else, other than the twins had done a bunk and now were, well, who knew where?

  ‘This is terrible,’ said Peggy to Roger a few minutes later, after she had charged noisily up to his and Mabel’s room clutching the note, ‘Barbara’s never going to forgive herself, or any of us, should they come to harm. How on earth do Connie and Jessie think they are going to get to London? They’ve no money, no maps and very likely no idea of how trains or buses work, or the main roads heading there, and they’re completely unused to embarking on long journeys all by themselves. And they won’t know the telephone numbers of the Jolly or Tall Trees either if they run into trouble, I’ll be bound. And I bet they’ve not thought of food or drink. They’ll be cold and tired, and this will make them easy prey for anybody with malicious thoughts …’

  ‘Peggy, calm down, dear. Do try not to catastrophise,’ said Roger sensibly as he interrupted her panicky train of thought, reaching a little wearily for his dressing gown and slippers; still heavy-headed with sleep, it didn’t feel very long since he had taken them off. ‘Both of them are resourceful children, remember, and we must take heart from the fact that Jessie and Connie are together – that will make them much less vulnerable, as I’m sure they won’t let themselves be separated from one another. Still, I think you must catch the next train to London. I’ll drive you over to Leeds to speed up your journey a little as it will save you changing trains. You go and get ready, and I will telephone the police to report Connie and Jessie’s absence from their billet.’

  Mabel told Peggy that she would be happy to look after Holly for the next few days, adding Holly could ‘help’ her with the parish accounts.

  Peggy thanked Mabel profusely as having someone else care for her lively daughter would give her one less thing to worry about during a long train journey and, following that, what was likely to be a very stressful and difficult time.

  She was almost certain that Mabel’s jokey comment about Holly ‘helping’ might be something Mabel would regret uttering, as looking after Holly was a lively business and it was difficult to do much of anything when she was in full flow, and so Peggy very much appreciated the always busy Mabel’s selflessness.

  Peggy knew too that Holly would find it less disruptive to stay put in Harrogate, although the mere thought of them being separated for a few days gave her a real pang. It was the first time they had ever been parted, and Peggy hoped she wouldn’t miss Holly too much, and vice versa.

  It wasn’t long before she was packed and ready to go, and was ruffling her daughter’s hair as she told Holly that she must be a good girl for Mabel.

  Holly took no notice whatsoever of her mother’s words; she was already much too intent on what Mabel might be about to give her to play with before she went to wake the rest of their children for their breakfast before school.

  Mabel had also promised that she would telephone June when it was a bit later to explain the situation, and tell the school about the twins’ absence. Peggy realised that she had felt so anxious about Ted and Barbara, that she hadn’t even thought about letting both June know she wasn’t going to be at work for a while, or informing the school. She sighed that she wasn’t better at coping in a crisis.

  Still, Peggy was standing ready by the car clutching a basket containing a change of clothes for herself as well as for each of the twins by the time Roger came outside as he tried to remember which of his pockets held the keys to the car. If the worst came to the worst and there had to be a funeral, Peggy had made sure that these outfits would do, but she had felt too at sea to sort through other clothes to take, telling herself that what they stood up in would have to be rinsed out overnight should they get grubby.

  They drove to Harrogate station, but there was neither hide nor hair of the twins, and they then drove along various bus stops, and then the main road out of the town, but however much Peggy peered around, it remained resolutely twinless.

  ‘Let’s head for Leeds,’ said Roger, and Peggy nodded in agreement.

  Once the suburbs of Harrogate dropped away, Peggy realised it felt unusual to be going anywhere by motor, as Roger rarely drove anywhere these days. Petrol was firmly rationed, and in order to save the car for emergencies he ordinarily drove a well-behaved Milburn in the trap for his run-of-the-mill parish visits, or else he walked or cycled. And when he was required to go to Leeds, he nearly always went by train. The fact that he was driving Peggy to get the direct train showed that he thought Jessie and Connie missing was a circumstance that mustn’t be ignored.

  ‘I’m so thankful to you for taking me to Leeds, Roger,’ said Peggy after Roger told her the police had promised that they would keep an eye out for the twins. ‘We must all be a nightmare for you and Mabel, I do know that, especially when you have both been so terribly kind to all of us evacuees. I don’t know what we’d have done without you. And we’ve repaid you by bringing the police to Tall Trees on more than one occasion, and the less said about the set-to between James and Bill the better, and now there’s this.’ She sounded at the end of her tether, Peggy knew, and as her bottom lip began to wobble, it was a struggle to hold it all in.

  ‘There, there, Peggy, please don’t take on so. It’s my pleasure to be able to help,’ Roger replied. ‘You just concentrate on the best way of finding Connie and Jessie.’ There was a pause, and then Roger added, ‘I have to say though that life is never dull when your family is about!’

  Peggy gave a tiny smile. She did feel bad for the disruption that she and her loved ones had brought with them to Tall Trees, and she felt very, very worried, both about the twins’ whereabouts and regarding what might have happened to Ted. None of it was nice to feel, and Peggy was full of an extra twist of dread as to what the next few days might bring.

  But to distract her from these maudlin thoughts, Roger began to speak about Gracie and Kelvin’s marriage, proving to be remarkably sanguine about the whole matter.

  ‘Um,’ said Peggy after a while, finding it very difficult to follow the conversation, her nerves feeling so shredded.

  But she didn’t want to appear rude when Roger was being so nice, and so she rallied to say, ‘Gracie wrote me such a sweet note. And I thought as I read it that she’s braver than me, and perhaps I should take a leaf out of her book, and so this is why I’d already planned to go to London, although leaving at this godawful time is a bit earlier than I’d expected. Gracie made me feel that I need to move things forward in my own life myself. I hadn’t planned on having to give chase to Jessie and Connie though, or feeling so concerned about Ted.’

  ‘This will all work out, Peggy, you’ll see.’ Roger had such a compassionate tone
in his voice that it quite undid Peggy, especially when he added, ‘And the fact there wasn’t another telephone call from Barbara during the night might well be a positive sign.’

  Peggy blinked quickly a couple of times as she pretended she needed to poke about in her possessions in the basket on her knee, after which she had to clear her throat.

  Then, to her relief, Roger lightened the mood a little by adding, ‘I’m not sure how easy Gracie will find it once she has got her knees under the table alongside the fearsome Granny Nora though.’

  ‘Agreed,’ said Peggy, and she and Roger shared a smile, a smile that was distinctly feeble in Peggy’s case.

  There was no sign of the twins at Leeds station, and Peggy felt flat with disappointment.

  She hadn’t realised she had been hoping against hope that they would be there, but in the sense of crushing defeat caused by their absence Peggy saw that indeed this must have been the case.

  ‘I wonder if Jessie and Connie have tried to cadge a ride with somebody by sticking their thumbs out, and are trying to get to London by road instead, in which case their trail will be hard to follow. But to do that would be quite an undertaking for them, especially with all the road signs taken down and me having locked away all our maps, and so I think you should take the train anyway to London, as it could be you’ll be more help to everyone if you are there,’ said Roger.

  Roger bought Peggy a train ticket, and then he began to escort her to the platform the London-bound train would be leaving from in just a couple of minutes.

  ‘I don’t know what to do for the best, Roger,’ cried Peggy as they crossed the station concourse, her voice tight with disappointment that the twins were nowhere around. ‘And I don’t know what Barbara would want me to do. Should I stay in Harrogate, or get to London? I really hope—’

  And then she let out a cry that made Roger visibly jump, followed by screams of ‘Jessie! Connie!’ at the top of her voice.

  ‘Peggy!’ came an answering screech.