‘Ah well, you know what they say – “time flies when you’re having fun”.’
She opened her mouth to pass some icy remark but then seeing the mischief twinkling in his eyes she promptly closed it again. Much as she hated to admit it, he had been very good company, although she would never have told him so.
They trailed through the streets of Lincoln with the rest of the crowd to the pick-up point and as they made their way across the treacherously slippery pavements it seemed the most natural thing in the world to hook her arm through his again.
‘I’ve enjoyed tonight,’ he told her as they jolted their way back to the camp in the jeep. ‘Perhaps we could do it again on our next night off?’
‘Perhaps.’ She answered in an off-hand manner, but in actual fact she had enjoyed herself just as much as he had, not that she would ever admit it, not even to herself.
For the next few days they saw little of each other except to say hello occasionally in the canteen. But Livvy was aware that he was flying most days and she found that it bothered her. And then one evening as she was coming off duty, she found him waiting for her with a grave look on his face.
‘Hello, is anything wrong?’ Just one glance at his face told her that something was amiss.
‘There is actually,’ he answered, taking her elbow and drawing her into the shadows. ‘I’ve had a letter from grandad today and … Well, I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but young Bobby ran away from Treetops when he heard about all the bombings in London on the radio. He went to check on his family, I dare say, only to find when he got there that they had died in an air raid. But that’s not the worst of it, unfortunately. Poor Bobby was killed too. They think he was probably trying to get back, but he got caught in a raid with his little dog just near the station. It seems they were both killed instantly when a wall collapsed on them.’
‘Oh no!’ Tears sprang to Livvy’s eyes as her hand rose to cover her mouth. ‘The poor little scrap.’
Giles nodded. ‘Apparently Grandad arranged to have his body taken back to Treetops and he’s going to be buried in Mancetter churchyard in two days’ time. He says in the letter that he felt it was the least he could do for little Bobby.’
Livvy gulped as she tried to take it all in. Bobby had been just a little boy and to die like that … all alone. She shuddered, then making a decision she told him, ‘I’m going to go and see my officer and see if she’ll grant me some compassionate leave. If I can go tomorrow, I’ll be there for the funeral. I have a feeling everyone will need some support. They were all so fond of the children, especially Edith.’
He nodded in agreement as a picture of Bobby playing with the horses back in the stables at Treetops flashed in front of his eyes. ‘Do you know what, I reckon I might try to do the same,’ he said. ‘It’s not a good time when we’re so many pilots down, admittedly, but it’s worth a shot. I’ll go and see my flight officer too and, if I do get leave granted, we could perhaps travel home together? Meet me back in the canteen in an hour so we can find out how we got on.’
An hour later, as arranged, they met in the canteen. By that time Giles had not been to bed for over eighteen hours and his eyes were gritty and sore from lack of sleep. He had only come back from a mission three hours before to find the letter waiting for him and after that sleep had been impossible.
‘I don’t know how I wangled it, but I managed to get a forty-eight-hour pass, it will mean I have to set off back here straight after the funeral but at least I’ll be there to show my respects and offer some support. What about you?’ Giles asked Livvy.
‘Same here,’ she said with relief. She could only imagine how upset her mother and the women back at home must be. And, although she wished it weren’t under these circumstances, she had to admit she was looking forward to going home and seeing her family. ‘I’ve arranged a jeep to run me to the station at eight in the morning. The train leaves at nine so you can come with me, if you like. But now why don’t you go and try to get some rest. You look awful!’
‘Thanks.’ He grinned wryly. ‘You sure know how to make a chap feel good about himself.’
Despite the awful news she found herself smiling. Rather than finding him arrogant anymore she was fast discovering that he actually had a very dry sense of humour.
‘Don’t suppose I could tempt you to come and bunk down with me?’ he teased.
She scowled at him and put her nose in the air. ‘Don’t push your luck otherwise you might find yourself walking back to Nuneaton.’ And with that she turned on her heel and marched away with her back ramrod straight, leaving him to stand there with a wide grin on his face. She was a feisty little thing, there was no doubt about it. And good-looking into the bargain.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
After what had happened, David decided to write to his parents and promise that he would try to get to see them, as soon as possible. Thankfully, they had had no idea that he had been on leave so he knew that they wouldn’t be too disappointed. It would mean that he could spend the rest of the time he had left with Kathy and attend the funeral. Everyone was upset, even the twins, although luckily they weren’t quite old enough to understand the finality of death.
‘But if Bobby has gone to heaven why can’t he come back sometimes to visit us?’ Thomas queried with tears trembling on his thick lashes. Sometimes Kathy thought he looked so much like Ben she was amazed no one else had picked up on it.
‘Because once they are in heaven God likes them to stay there safely with him,’ Kathy tried to explain inadequately.
Thomas snorted in disgust. ‘Then I think that’s very selfish of God,’ he exploded.
Daisy meanwhile had been listening with a worried expression on her face. ‘You told us that Patch our dog had gone to heaven,’ she told her mother accusingly. ‘But I saw George dig a hole and plant him in the garden like a flower. How can he be in heaven if he’s in the garden? And he never grew back neither,’ she ended accusingly.
Kathy was at a loss as to how better to explain but thankfully David saved the day when he asked, ‘Who wants to come for a walk to the shop in the village for some gobstoppers?’
‘I do!’ The twins chorused and Kathy flashed him a grateful smile.
Bobby’s body had been brought home and he was now lying in the day room at Treetops in a heartbreakingly tiny coffin until the funeral, which would take place the next day. Kathy was dreading it, as they all were. The telegram boys bearing tragic news were now a common sight in the town as they cycled about telling families that their loved ones had been killed in action, and yet the death of an innocent child seemed infinitely worse. At least the young men who had gone away to fight had had some sort of a life, whereas Bobby’s had barely begun.
Sighing, Kathy hurried away to get their warm clothes and as she glanced through the window she gasped with delight when she saw Livvy and Giles walking towards the lodge in their uniforms.
Heedless of the bitingly cold weather she raced outside and grabbed Libby in a fierce hug. ‘Oh, Liv, it’s so good to see you,’ she said as fresh tears started down her cheeks. She felt as if all she had done was cry ever since the terrible news about Bobby had reached them. ‘This will cheer Mum up no end. She’s up at the house at the minute. Edith is in such a state we don’t like to leave her alone at present. But come on in out of the cold.’
Giles touched his peaked cap as he strode on, while Livvy allowed herself to be dragged unceremoniously into the lodge.
‘Aunt Livvy.’ The twins raced towards her with cries of delight.
‘Hello, my lovelies,’ Livvy laughed. Then glancing up over their heads she was surprised to see David. ‘Hello, David. Now calm down and let me catch my breath, won’t you. And my goodness – how you’ve grown! I hardly recognised you.’
‘Bobby’s gone to be an angel in the sky with God,’ Thomas told her solemnly as he plugged his thumb into his mouth and Daisy nodded in agreement.
‘Come on, children. The shop wil
l be sold out of gobstoppers at this rate,’ David told them hastily, hoping to lighten the mood. ‘Let’s get on and then you can see your Aunt Livvy when we get back.’
Muffled up in their warm clothes, the children went off happily enough, and Kathy went to put the kettle on.
‘Little monkeys,’ she said ruefully. ‘I don’t think there’s anything they wouldn’t do for gobstoppers.’
‘That’s kids for you,’ Livvy agreed as she peeled her gloves off and looked around. It felt strange, but lovely to be back after being away so long. ‘But what’s David doing here?’
Kathy flushed prettily. ‘He just called in to see us last week on his way home to Yorkshire and somehow the twins persuaded him to stay.’
‘Did they now?’ Livvy grinned and raised an eyebrow. ‘And how do you feel about that?’
Kathy tried to shrug nonchalantly. ‘Well, we’ve always got on and been friends, haven’t we?’
‘Hm, I’d say from the way he was looking at you just now he thinks of you as a lot more than a friend.’
‘What about you marching up the road with Giles, then?’ Kathy retorted defensively. ‘I’d say you two looked more than a little chummy too.’
The two sisters glanced at each other and grinned.
‘Touché!’ Livvy said and then listened intently as Kathy told her about all that had been happening.
‘But what will happen to little Peggy now?’ Livvy asked with concern.
Kathy sighed. ‘John had a phone call from the welfare department in London that deals with war orphans and they’re going to come and see him once the funeral is over.’
‘Surely they won’t put her into an orphanage?’ Livvy was horrified at the thought.
‘Between you and me, I think they’d have a fight on their hands with Edith if they tried to,’ Kathy confided. ‘She’s intimated that she wants to officially adopt her, but I have no idea if that would be allowed.’
They went on to speak of what they had both been up to as they waited for their mother to arrive, which she undoubtedly would as soon as Giles told her that Livvy was home.
Overnight the snow turned to rain and they woke the next day to find the sky dark and heavy. It was now also treacherously slippery underfoot but when Livvy suggested to her mother over breakfast that it might be better if she stayed at home to avoid any nasty falls, Sunday almost snapped her head off.
‘I’m not quite decrepit yet, young lady!’
‘I wasn’t suggesting that you were,’ Livvy assured her hurriedly. ‘But funerals are never nice things and I thought you might prefer to stay in the warm.’
‘Then you thought wrong.’ Sunday began to plaster marmalade onto her toast as Livvy raised her eyebrow at Kathy across the table. She had certainly made a mess of that! However, by the time the meal was over Sunday was back to her usual good-natured self, and after glancing at the clock she told them, ‘You’d best get the children up to Treetops to Cissie, girls. The funeral is in two hours’ time and we have to get ready and get there yet.’
Unlike Sunday, Cissie was not keen to risk a fall on the icy paths, so she had volunteered to stay behind to take care of the twins and Peggy while the rest of them attended the service, as they had all agreed that the children were too young to see such things. And so, just over an hour later, with Cissie entertaining the children in the vast, warm kitchen at Treetops, Sunday, Kathy and Livvy waited on the doorstep for the hearse that would transport Bobby’s body to the church to arrive.
It was a solemn procession that wended its way to Mancetter Church following little Bobby on his final journey. John had insisted that the child should have the finest mahogany coffin that money could buy but, because Bobby was so small, it had had to be especially made and it was heartbreaking to see it and remember the child who lay inside whose young life had been cut short so abruptly. Edith was inconsolable and wept all the way through the service, but then so did most everybody else.
Eventually Bobby was laid to rest beneath the shelter of a yew tree in the churchyard. The last rites were read by a solemn-faced vicar and the sad procession made its way back to Treetops.
Cissie, in the meantime, had kept the children occupied as best she could but it had been no easy task. Although they had explained to Peggy that Bobby had died, she would not accept it and every single day she asked when he would be coming home. Bobby had been her hero, the one person in her who had always defended her and stood up for her. Many a time he had taken the beating their father had intended for her, or given her his food when there wasn’t enough for the two of them, saying he wasn’t hungry, and now without him she was bereft.
‘Time is a great healer,’ Sunday told Edith as she sobbed on her shoulder. ‘And one day you’ll be able to remember the joy Bobby brought you in the short time you had him, and smile.’
At that moment Edith very much doubted it. Already now she was fretting about what might happen to Peggy. One thing she was sure of, should the authorities try to take her away from them, she would fight them like a tiger.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ben dragged himself back to his hut, his eyes burning from lack of sleep, and the terrible sights he had witnessed that day.
Admittedly, unlike the last war when he had fought on the front line with the rest of the men, this time he was not in the thick of the fighting. His job was to keep the horses fit so they could pull the carts that moved the heavy guns and equipment wherever they were needed. Soldiers also used the horses when they patrolled the tricky desert terrain around them. But sometimes, when he needed to take the terrified horses into an area where there was heavy fighting, the sight of so many fallen soldiers, and the smell of cordite, blood and death, on top of the deafening explosions and the rattle of gunfire, brought back the dreadful memories of those nightmare years during the last war. He couldn’t seem to get away from it, even in sleep. On the rare occasions when he did manage to nap, his dreams were full of images of the beautiful animals he was tending dropping like stones, their nostrils flaring with panic as they frothed at the mouth with fear. Even though this time the horses weren’t often in the line of fire, the screams of those long-dead horses he had watched mown down on the battlefields of France echoed through his nightmares and brought him starting awake in a tangle of sweat-drenched sheets.
His biggest dread was that he might be confronted with one of the horses he had reared at Treetops, as he was sure they would have been requisitioned by now, but thankfully as yet that hadn’t happened, which was one blessing at least.
Only that evening he and an officer had almost come to blows when the man had mounted a young stallion that Ben was trying to keep quiet after the poor animal had nearly gone mad with terror when he had been taken into the battle zone. The animal had reared up when the officer had leapt onto his back and brought his whip crashing down on the terrified animal’s rump. Ben had snatched it from his hand and snapped it in two across his knee.
‘That won’t do any good,’ Ben had roared at him. ‘The poor beast is scared. You need to take a different horse tonight.’
The officer had been red in the face as he tried to bring the horse under control. ‘How dare you!’ His eyes had glittered with rage. ‘I could have you court-marshalled for that, you ignorant oaf! And as for this damn animal, if it’s not going to do its job then I’ll put a bullet in its head.’
Ben’s young assistant, a spotty-faced youth with thick glasses who had been unable to join up for the fighting because of poor eyesight, had raced across to calm the situation down, which was just as well because Ben had been ready to drag the arrogant officer from his saddle and beat him to a pulp.
‘I’ll see to this, Corporal Branning.’ He had pushed Ben towards the tent where the horses were kept as he grabbed at the reins and talked soothingly to the horse, and Ben had walked away with murder in his heart. As it happened, he wouldn’t have to confront that particular officer again. Both he and the horse had been shot by a sniper as they
patrolled through a ruined town on the edge of the desert and although Ben grieved for the poor horse, he felt nothing for the officer.
When Ben arrived back at the hut that was home to him and a number of other men he stared around despondently. It was almost as cold inside as it was out and the hard beds and thin blankets offered little comfort or protection against the biting cold, despite the smoky old stove that stood in the centre of it. His stomach was empty and growling with hunger, but Ben couldn’t be bothered to go to the mess to see what meals were available.
It hit him then, like a blow between the eyes, that he had no home to go to now. Nobody would care if he should die tomorrow and, deep down, he knew it was all his own fault. He had tried not to think of what he had done to Sunday and the family but tonight for some reason it was playing on his mind. Where were they now? he wondered. They would have been forced to sell Treetops, of that he had no doubt, so where would they be living? Was Sunday even still alive? She would be an elderly lady now. And what would his father think of what he had done to her if he were still alive? He shuddered to think, for Sunday and Tom had adored each other. She had never been the same since his father’s death, but it was too late to right the wrong he had done her.
The money he had stolen was tucked safely away in a bank doing no one any good, especially him. It had never brought him any joy, if truth be told, and certainly hadn’t protected him from the war. And Kathy! As he thought of her tears came to his eyes. He had taken advantage of her, thinking that when it became known it would hurt Sunday, but what about Kathy? He could only hope that Kathy had put him from her mind and moved on with her life. As guilt stabbed at him, he lowered his head into his hands and sobbed like a baby.
On the morning of David’s departure, the mood in the lodge was dark.
‘Please don’t go,’ Daisy sobbed as she clung to his leg with tears streaming down her chubby cheeks. ‘We loves you, Uncle David.’
Time to Say Goodbye Page 22
