‘I have a thermos of cocoa and the leftover sausage rolls from the teashop that we would have had for our supper if we hadn’t been full up from the vegetable pie Katie made,’ Rose added as she took Lily’s other arm and with Katie’s help pulled Lily to her feet. They headed out of their house and down the gravel path to the end of the garden. ‘Mind the steps here,’ Rose said, shining her torch at the short flight of steps that took them down into the Anderson shelter. Pulling the door to behind them, she quickly lit a couple of candles while they sorted themselves out.
‘If there are any rats, I’m going back to the house and taking my chances,’ Lily muttered as she heaved herself down onto one of the benches running the length of the shelter. It was padded enough to make a bed if they had to stay the night. A bunk bed was set into the other side, with an upturned wooden box between the beds forming a table.
‘I’ll sort out the hurricane lamp, and then we can save the candles for later,’ Rose said as she fiddled with the temperamental light. ‘Put your feet up, Lily – you don’t want your ankles swelling, do you?’ she said, helping her friend to manoeuvre in the small space.
‘Thanks for reminding me,’ Lily huffed. ‘I feel like a beached whale as it is, and none of my clothes fit me anymore. I’m fed up with wearing matronly smocks over my skirts and dresses that won’t do up. I’ll be glad when I’ve had this kid and can fit back into my clothes again,’ she sighed.
‘It can only be a matter of weeks now,’ Katie said. ‘It would have helped if you’d gone to see the doctor,’ she added, pulling out her knitting. ‘At least we’d have had a proper date for this little one’s arrival.’
‘What’s the point? Joyce and Flora have told me what to expect, and I have the name of a midwife who will come in when I’m ready to give birth. I don’t want people fussing.’
‘I’ve never known anyone not want to know when a baby is due or to plan ahead. If it weren’t for your friends, you’d not even have any clothes or a pram. At least Mildred said she’d paint the little bedroom, and Flora has a cot up in the attic that she kept from when holidaymakers used to stay at Sea View.’
‘I didn’t know Mum was so involved,’ Rose said with a bitter tone to her voice.
‘You’ve not been here to see her when she visits,’ Lily spat back. ‘Don’t you think it’s time for you both to kiss and make up? Why, a bomb could wipe out everyone at Sea View before you can say Bob’s yer uncle, and then how would you feel?’
They fell silent. Thinking of Lily’s words Rose tried to imagine what it would be like if her mum was to pass away before they’d had time to discuss what she’d found in the leather attaché case. Perhaps, she thought, it was time she allowed Flora a chance to explain what had happened in the past.
Katie was thinking of her Jack. She’d not seen him since just after their wedding day, and had hoped that she would be able to write to let him know she was expecting his child; but Mother Nature thought otherwise, so she longed for the day when he came home on leave. In his last letter he’d said how pleased he was about Mildred’s kind offer, and mentioned how much he liked the sea and that he might well change career to become a fisherman once the war was over – that was if she agreed. Of course she did, she smiled to herself in the dimly lit shelter. She was still thinking of their future when a crash so loud it shook the foundations of their shelter made the friends jump out of their skins.
‘Bloody hell, that was close,’ Lily said, sitting up and grabbing Rose for comfort. ‘How far away do you think they are?’
Katie went to the door of the air-raid shelter and stepped outside. ‘Oh my God, the sky is full of planes. I can see . . .’
‘Katie!’ Rose screamed, and pulled the girl’s limp body back inside the shelter, quickly pulling the door to behind them.
‘Was she hit – is she dead?’ Lily asked with a sob. ‘I couldn’t bear it if . . .’
‘No, it looks as though she just fainted. Something must have frightened her.’
‘Isn’t a sky full of German planes scary enough?’ Lily asked as she shook Katie and rubbed her hands. Eventually she stirred and began to mumble incoherently.
‘Katie, love, whatever’s the matter?’ Rose asked, putting her arms around Katie as she tried to stop Lily slapping the girl so much. ‘Did you see something in the garden that frightened you?’
Katie nodded. ‘I spotted something up near the house. It was when the searchlights swept over the sky and lit up the house for just a moment. I thought . . . I thought I saw someone. Do you think the invasion has started?’ she asked fearfully, looking back towards the closed door of the shelter.
‘It seems rather strange if it has. Surely they wouldn’t invade while the Luftwaffe’s bombing the daylights out of us?’ Lily said. ‘Perhaps it’s one of those looters we keep reading about. They steal from damaged properties and when people are down the shelters.’
‘Why, that’s downright despicable,’ Katie said, brushing herself down. ‘I have wedding presents in the house, and I’ll be damned if anyone’s going to pinch them.’ She reached for the door, opening it just as another crash came from nearby and shook them again.
‘Come back in,’ Rose begged. ‘It’s not worth getting killed for a few kitchen items and a set of flannelette sheets, is it? If you’re that worried, I’ll replace them myself. That’s if the mysterious shadow was a burglar.’
‘I’ve been called a few things in my life, but never a burglar,’ a familiar voice came from outside the shelter. ‘Watch out – I’m coming in.’
‘Oh, Mildred! I’ve never been so relieved to see a familiar face,’ Rose said as she turned up the light in the lamp after lowering it when the door was opened. ‘Whatever are you doing out in an air raid?’ She gave her friend a hug after shifting up on the bunk to make room for her.
‘I’d dropped off some fish to friends, and we got talking. I was halfway home when the air-raid siren started to wail. I had the choice of coming to you or getting home and going down the tunnels. One look towards Ramsgate told me I should come here.’
Rose shuddered. She knew in her heart of hearts that the town where she was born, and where she’d lived a happy childhood, was where she should be right now. ‘I hope everyone got down to the tunnels in time. The enemy planes seemed to be overhead seconds after the air-raid sirens had stopped.’
‘It was quite a sight as I came along the cliff road, I can tell you. I had to resist the urge to turn off the engine and sit and watch. Our guns are doing a valiant effort to blow them out the sky, but from what I could see, they are not effective. I just hope Manston had time to get their planes up and away from trouble in time. This must be the fifth day in row the Germans have gone after the aerodrome.’
‘So they are heading for Manston again?’
‘From what I can see and hear, they are. Sadly Hitler didn’t let me know what his plans were,’ Mildred grinned, doing her best to cheer up the girls.
‘I’m so glad we have our little house and this Anderson shelter,’ Katie said. ‘I dreaded going into the tunnels under Ramsgate. The one time I went with Flora, we’d only gone into the main tunnel a few hundred feet before I was feeling frightened. To have to go through that maze of tunnels and huddle together, not knowing what was going on outside, would scare me to death.’
‘If it’s that or die, you’d soon get used to it,’ Lily muttered. ‘I’m wondering if my stepfather managed to get himself to safety or not.’
Katie reached out a hand in the gloom and gave Lily’s arm a squeeze. ‘He probably did.’
‘Not if he was pissed out of his skull, he wouldn’t. Half the time he had no idea what he got up to while he was drunk,’ she added bitterly.
There was silence in the shelter for a few seconds while they thought about Lily’s words. ‘You mean he knocked you and your mum about?’ Katie asked, with a hint of anger in her voice.
‘Yes, and more. Mum worked her fingers to the bone to keep a nice house and make sure
the rent was paid on time. That lazy slob did nothing.’
‘What I don’t understand is, why didn’t we know about this? We would sit side by side in school every day, and you were the best-turned-out kid – and you seemed to be the happiest,’ Katie said. She reached for the flask and started to pour hot cocoa into the enamel cups they kept ready for times such as these.
‘My mother was aware that people would talk if they knew our home was not a happy one. She decided that whatever happened behind our front door, we should keep a united front and appear in public as if nothing was wrong in our life. Granted George would stagger home three sheets to the wind, but as long as we carried on and the nets were kept white and the doorstep clean, then all was right in our little world. My mum would look at you and Flora and how you coped after your dad died, and decided that we should be the same: respectable, liked by the local community, and be as close as we could . . .’ Lily’s words caught in her throat.
‘Oh Lily,’ Rose said with a harsh laugh. ‘There was my mum flogging her guts out trying to be a pillar of the community as well. It’s quite funny really, when all the time Mum was hiding a secret from everyone, and that included me. I do wonder why people are so quick to hide their real lives from others?’
‘Because we are ashamed of our pasts, or perhaps we just want to make a fresh start,’ Mildred said, banging her empty mug down on the makeshift table. ‘Just remember, you have a lot to be grateful for. Whatever secrets they had, or whatever they hid from prying eyes, was all done for the best – and it was for your benefit. Some kids weren’t so lucky. Are you forgetting that Katie here never knew her parents? It’s not just your generation, you know. I wasn’t too lucky when they handed them out, either,’ she added, but didn’t elaborate.
‘Don’t feel sorry for me,’ Katie said as her friends started to apologize. ‘I’ve got a lot to be grateful for. I’m married to my Jack, and I know we will have a happy future together – once this war is over and done with,’ she added, as the earth shook and they were nearly deafened by another explosion. ‘We just need to get through this,’ she continued cheerfully. ‘But can you tell us what it is that your mum has done? Or would you prefer not to share it?’
‘You always manage to look on the bright side, don’t you, Katie?’ Rose said. ‘I wish I could.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I found out that General Sykes is my real father. All I know about the circumstances is that Mum met him while she was working on the stage.’
‘Oh, that is so romantic,’ Katie said. ‘I barely remember the General, but he seemed very nice. One of the nicer nuns at the children’s home told me that no one is completely bad, and I try to remember that whenever someone is unpleasant or if I feel they have secrets.’
‘You’re a good kid,’ Mildred said in a choked voice. ‘We could all learn from you.’
‘I’m no angel, Mildred,’ Katie giggled, embarrassed at the way the conversation had gone. ‘Lily, can I ask you something?’
‘Fire away; I’ll answer if I can.’
‘If things were that bad with George’s womanizing and cruelty, why did you and your mum not leave him?’
The girls all ducked again, coughing because of the dust shaken up in the shelter, then waited for the noise to subside before Lily answered. ‘I’ve often wondered why we didn’t. Mum was a proud woman, and as I said before, she didn’t want anyone knowing what went on behind closed doors. I asked her once why we didn’t just pack up and leave. It was after he’d been free and easy with his fists when he came home from the pub, and Mum had lost her temper and thrown his dinner out the back door. She told me that when you married someone, you had to take the good with the bad. Besides, we had nowhere to go. Nan was alive at that time but mum would have died rather than gone cap in hand to her. When Mum first knew she’d made a mistake marrying George, Nan had told her she’d made her bed and now must lie in it. She certainly did that all right.’
‘What a horrid thing to say,’ Mildred all but exploded.
‘She’d not had a good life herself,’ Lily said, ‘so Mum forgave her in time, and it was never mentioned again. If anything, it made Mum more determined to put a brave face on everything. Do you know, I think she loved George in her own funny way. She begged me, when she knew she didn’t have long left, to stay and look after him. I couldn’t really say no, could I? It took a lot for me to walk out when I did and come to stay with you. Then to have this house . . .’ She couldn’t speak any more.
‘Oh Lily, I reckon if Mum had known, she’d have given you both rooms at Sea View,’ Rose said, giving her friend a hug. ‘I can’t believe you’d been going through that all these years, and we didn’t know a thing.’
‘It just shows my mum’s plan to keep our business to ourselves must have worked,’ Lily said, giving a short laugh. ‘But I know she was grateful when I was allowed to stay overnight at your home and we slept top to tail in your bed, as the holidaymakers had taken all the spare rooms.’
‘I remember that. We earned pocket money helping Mum with the breakfasts and pushing suitcases to the train station in an old pram. That was a lovely summer.’
‘Oh yes, your mum wrote to the children’s home and convinced them to let me stay as well for a week,’ Katie said. ‘Your mum is lovely, Rose. I wish things weren’t so strained between the two of you.’
Rose felt terrible. Here were two of the most important people in her life, who hadn’t had the best of upbringings, and she was the only one left with a mother and she was refusing to discuss their differences. She was starting to feel quite uncomfortable about the situation and didn’t know how to answer Katie.
Lily, who could feel the tension in the air, broke the ice. ‘Blimey, I could do with a glass of beer or something. I’m parched after all this talking.’
Mildred rummaged through the pockets of the large mackintosh she was wearing over her overalls, and pulled out a bottle of brandy. ‘Empty the dregs out of your tin mugs and we can have a drop of this to warm us up.’
‘And I have sausage rolls,’ Rose declared, making them all chuckle, thinking that when the opportunity arose she would try to make her peace with her mum.
‘Hasn’t the all-clear sounded yet?’ Rose asked, waking from a troubled sleep. ‘How long have we been down here?’
Katie switched on her torch and looked at her wristwatch. ‘It’s two o’clock in the afternoon. We’ve been down here for over twelve hours. I feel like hell,’ she said, standing up and trying to stretch in the confined space before lighting one of the candles. ‘How do you feel, Lily?’
‘My ankles have swollen up like balloons, and I need a wee. Before you say it, I’m not going in that bucket again. If the pair of you hadn’t caught hold of me I’d have fallen off last time.’ She caught her friends grinning, and burst out laughing. ‘You’d not have laughed if it had spilt all over your feet! Oh, I could kill for a hot cup of tea.’
‘You and me both,’ a grumpy voice came from beneath a blanket where Mildred had covered herself and been snoring gently until the girls started to talk.
‘Do you think we could risk going up to the house and replenishing supplies?’ Katie asked. ‘The enemy activity hasn’t been around here for a couple of hours. I’ve been counting the time between explosions, a bit like we used to count the seconds between thunder and lightning.’
‘What do you think, Mildred?’ Rose asked the older woman.
‘I think we’d be mad to attempt it, but I’m game if you are,’ she replied. ‘I suggest me and Rose go first, and see how the land lies.’
They all agreed, and Lily said, ‘Do you think you could empty the bucket? It’s starting to make me heave.’
Mildred roared with laughter. ‘I’ll take it with me. When you’ve worked on a fishing boat as long as I have, a bit of a smell is nothing.’
Lily placed a hand over her mouth. ‘Please don’t talk about it, as I can’t cope even thinking about smells and the like. But if you can bring me back something to ea
t, I’ll be ever so grateful.’
Rose collected the flask and the mugs, trying to remember the requests for candles from Katie, along with another ball of wool. They headed out of the shelter and hurried towards the house.
‘I can see a few slates missing off the roof – and a back bedroom windowpane has gone,’ Mildred reported as she looked up at the house. ‘Not too bad, considering what we’ve been listening to. I’ll go round to the front and see if there’s any damage there.’
Rose let herself in through the back door while Mildred headed around the side of the house. ‘Oh no,’ Rose cried out as she looked through from the kitchen to the front room and could see Mildred standing where the front door used to be.
‘Don’t worry – it’s been blown clean off its hinges. Half the front wall has gone, but apart from that we’ve been lucky. Others haven’t fared so well. Three doors down have lost most of their roof, but at least it didn’t catch fire.’
Rose shuddered. ‘There but for the grace of God . . .’ she started to say, until she saw the thunderous look in Mildred’s eyes.
‘If there was a God, he wouldn’t have allowed this to happen,’ she spat out. ‘I’ll get some tools from the shed and secure the front while you sort out drinks and food for the girls. Then get yourself back down that shelter as quickly as you can. The all-clear hasn’t sounded yet, so goodness knows what could happen before it does.’
Rose didn’t need any second bidding, and quickly raided the cupboards, She gathered bread, a lump of cheese and the remains of a large pork pie she’d rescued from the teashop. Never had she been so grateful that they were allowed to bring home food that would have gone off overnight. Often she gave her staff the remaining food, but for some reason the pork pie had not been taken. She made a mental note to ensure all her staff had food to take home each night, even if she was a little over-generous with Joe Lyons’ stock. She hated to think of any staff going without if they had to put up with another night like this.
The Teashop Girls Page 27
