With the delicious Easter tea over and done with and not a crumb remaining of the hot cross buns, the men in the family set to with the washing up while the women waved goodbye to Pat, who wanted to get back to her husband, and Vera, who was none too keen on taking a walk.
‘Let’s take Georgina to see the window display in Woolworths,’ Freda said as she tucked her arm through Sarah’s. ‘The woollen chicks look so cute in amongst the eggshells and straw.’
‘Here, darling, let me push my beautiful granddaughter. I don’t get to see her nearly enough,’ Irene said as she took control of the pram. ‘I must say, this knitted cover is delightful. Is it your handiwork, Freda?’
‘No, I worked on a pink blanket for the little bed that Alan made. It’s ready for when she is big enough. This is all Maureen’s doing. She does have a clever nanny, don’t you, my sweetie?’ Freda said as she leant over and tickled the little girl under the chin, before realizing what she had said. Alan’s mum, Maureen, was a lovely lady but Irene could be a little prickly at times. She felt Sarah nudge her side but it was too late, the words had been said.
Fortunately Maureen was at hand and heard Freda speak. ‘My goodness, don’t look too close, Irene, or you will see where I dropped a stitch. If anyone is clever, it is you for finding such a smart new pram for our little angel. Why, there’s nothing new to be found for youngsters these days.’
‘You’ve all been so generous with gifts for Georgina. I’m truly grateful and I know Alan is too,’ Sarah added quickly.
‘Actually, the pram isn’t new,’ Irene admitted nervously.
‘Well, blow me down with a feather,’ Maisie declared before putting her hand to her mouth as she realized what she had said. It was common knowledge that Irene always purchased the best products and the word second-hand was never found in her vocabulary. ‘I’d never have known,’ she added quickly.
‘I wouldn’t have purchased it from just anyone,’ Irene said, pulling on leather gloves before taking control of the pram. ‘Lady Clairmont, from the golf club, had bought the perambulator for her daughter to use when she came to visit. Sadly her daughter has taken the children to Canada for the duration so it has had little use.’
‘Lucky for our Lady Georgina,’ Sarah said with a grin. ‘Fancy you riding in a pram meant for royalty.’
Irene sniffed. ‘Hardly royalty, Sarah. Lady Clairmont’s husband made his fortune in industry. Do you think we should start our walk before it gets dark?’
Maisie grinned at Sarah as they linked arms and followed the entourage of women down the road of bay-fronted terraces towards the town of Erith. ‘She never changes, does she?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. I feel she has mellowed in some ways. Look how she is with Georgina and she loves wearing those siren suits you made for her so that she’s just like the rest of us when we are down in the Anderson shelter.’
‘Has she always been posh?’ Maisie whispered as Freda joined them.
Sarah laughed. ‘I’ve never really known her any other way. Mum just wants what is best for Dad and me. I’ve not long realized that.’
‘I like your mum, Sarah. You get what you see with her and she’s always there for you regardless of whether she’s wearing a fur coat or not,’ Freda said wistfully. ‘You are lucky to have such a caring family.’
‘Have you heard anything from yer mum?’ Maisie asked. They’d met Freda’s brother, Lenny, not long after Freda started work at Woolworths but knew little of her mother.
‘Not a peep since I left home in 1938. We were never close, especially after my dad died and she took up with her current husband. As you know, I send her a few bob in a Christmas card but there’s never a word from her. Lenny sends her money since he’s been in the navy, but she’s not replied to him either.’ Freda shrugged her shoulders in dismissal. ‘That’s life, I suppose.’
Sarah felt so angry. It wasn’t fair that Freda should be treated so badly by her mother. Freda was such a sweet girl and everyone who met her said what a delightful person she was. ‘We are your family now, Freda, so no need to be sad. Why, Georgina looks on you as her aunty and you are her godmother, just as Maisie is. Even Nan treats you just like another granddaughter. You too, Maisie,’ she added.
‘We were certainly lucky the day we bumped into you at Woolies,’ Freda said, a smile brightening her face. ‘Goodness knows what would have happened to me if I’d not been told they were advertising for staff for the Christmas period and decided to turn up on the off chance they would take me on.’
‘And looking like a right ragamuffin, gawd luv yer,’ Maisie said, giving her a hefty shove with her elbow. ‘Look at you now,’ she added, so proud of how Freda had turned into a pretty young woman.
Freda stopped and spun around. ‘All thanks to you two,’ she said as her pretty floral skirt flew out from her neat waist. ‘Have I said thank you for passing this on to me, Sarah?’
‘Only about ten times,’ Sarah laughed. ‘It’s best going to you as the waistband is just too tight since I’ve had Georgina.’
‘And taking it in means there were a few scraps of material for the patch pocket on your blouse,’ Maisie said, admiring her handiwork.
‘Well, I’m grateful to both of you,’ Freda said, making one more delighted spin as they reached the end of Alexandra Road and turned left towards the shop-lined streets that formed the centre of Erith. ‘I owe you lots of favours for this and will look after Georgina any time you want to go out. You too, Maisie, when the time comes.’ She almost skipped as she went ahead to join Ruby, who was chatting to Betty as they followed Maureen and Irene with the pram.
Sarah noticed a shadow pass over Maisie’s face. ‘It’ll happen soon enough, Maisie,’ she said softly. ‘You’ve not been married a year yet.’
‘But I ’ad that scare at the end of last year. What if I can’t ’ave kids? I’d never forgive myself. David wants them even more than I do.’
‘It’s not going to happen if you keep worrying. I remember Maureen saying that to one of the women at Woolworths and she’s had three since then. So, you never know what’s around the next corner, do you?’
‘I s’pose yer right,’ Maisie said although she didn’t look convinced.
‘Look, Alan’s taking me to the pictures tomorrow evening. Why not come with us? There’s a musical on at the Odeon. It’s a Busby Berkeley. You like them.’
Maisie shrugged her shoulders. ‘Ta, but no thanks. David is back on duty the day after so I really want to make the most of having him to myself if we are ever to ’ave a kiddie of our own.’
Sarah flinched. Even now she wasn’t used to the way her friend spoke sometimes. ‘We’d best hurry up, the others are so far ahead of us.’
‘You’ve certainly done wonders with your window display, Betty. Wherever do you get your ideas, let alone the materials?’ Irene said as she stood gazing into the windows of F. W. Woolworths. Even with the crisscross of sticky paper over the windows, to limit damage if enemy action should shatter the glass, the wonderful Easter scene could be seen.
‘All praise must go to Freda,’ Betty replied proudly. ‘She has such wonderful ideas. Head office sent a photographer down last week to take a photograph for the staff magazine. We’ve not featured in The New Bond since Sarah was carnival queen in 1939. The journalist interviewed Freda about her ideas so I do hope it is published. Staff need a boost at the moment with this awful war going on for so long.’
‘I certainly agree with you there, Betty. In fact, that is why I accompanied George this weekend. We are house hunting,’ Irene said.
Sarah, who was standing just behind, shrieked with glee. ‘You’re moving home?’
‘It’s hardly home, Sarah. Our home is in Devon, not Erith,’ Irene corrected her daughter.
‘Why now?’ Ruby asked. She was trying to keep a straight face as the relief that Irene was not taking Sarah and Georgina back with her was hard to hide.
‘George is to work more hours at Vickers in Crayford, so it makes sense for us to move up this way. We will rent a house for now and let our own home out to one of his colleagues. I accompanied George to make sure he found something presentable.’
‘There’s an empty house near me in Crayford Road,’ Maureen suggested.
‘I saw an advert in the tobacconist for rooms in West Street,’ Freda added.
Irene wrinkled her nose. ‘No, I was thinking of somewhere in Crayford close to St Paulinus Church. It would have to be something tasteful.’
Maisie grinned at Sarah. ‘What was that we were saying about snobs?’
‘Shush, she will hear you,’ Maureen hissed. ‘I’m sure wherever you live you’ll make a beautiful home for George,’ she said, turning to Irene. ‘Crayford isn’t far for you to visit the family.’
‘Or for them to visit me,’ Irene smiled through thin lips. ‘It will be a novelty to have my daughter step over the threshold of her parents’ home once again.’
Sarah didn’t know what to say. Her mother had never understood why she’d preferred to move to Erith and work in Woolworths rather than stay in Devon and be introduced to umpteen chinless offspring of Irene’s friends at the golf club. Maisie, however, had plenty to say.
‘Come off it, Irene. Sarah’s had a lot on her plate since moving here. She has an important job and a baby, and don’t forget that her husband was missing in action for a good few months. Besides, most of her family live in this neck of the woods now . . . and she always sees her dad when he’s working at Vickers.’
Irene adopted an injured expression and sighed. ‘I suppose I am only your mother, Sarah.’
‘For goodness’ sake, Irene, I thought we were here to look at the window display, not talk about your social arrangements,’ Ruby snapped. ‘I for one think it is exceptional and if the people at Woolworths decide to publish a photograph, I’d like a copy to frame and hang at home if that is possible. I’m very proud of all of you. Now, shall we move on and take Georgina to watch the boats on the river before it’s time for her tea?’
A rather subdued group of women followed Ruby, who had taken over the pushing of the pram containing her great-granddaughter. Chin held high, she marched across Pier Road and down the High Street to the banks of the River Thames.
‘I love coming here,’ Maureen said as she breathed deeply, taking in the river smells. ‘I feel so lucky to live in Erith. I couldn’t imagine moving away. Even with the barrage balloons hovering over the river and the threat of air-raid warnings at any time, it is still a great place to live.’
‘I’m with you there, Maureen,’ Ruby agreed. ‘I’ll be here until they carry me off to join my Eddie at St Paulinus.’
‘Oh, Nan, don’t be so miserable. That won’t be for many a year,’ Sarah admonished Ruby as she lifted her daughter from the pram and held her up to see the busy river. ‘Look, Georgie, boats!’
‘Ships, Sarah, they are ships,’ Irene said, ‘and how boring they look all painted in the same awful grey. However can anyone be excited about such a scene? It’s just the same boring river it has always been.’
Georgina replied by excitedly chuckling and pointing as a nearby tug sounded its horn, which made the women laugh.
‘I do wish the grandchildren were here with us. I do miss them. They must have grown a foot at least since I last saw them.’
‘It’s safer for them down in Cornwall, Ruby. Look at how close the farm was to those incendiary bombs that landed at Slades Green sidings last year. If it hadn’t been fer some of the locals putting out the fires, the whole area would have been blown sky high,’ Maisie reminded Ruby.
Ruby nodded thoughtfully. ‘You’re right there, Maisie, but it doesn’t stop me missing them.’
‘Perhaps you could visit them,’ Freda suggested.
‘What? All the way down in Cornwall? It might as well be the end of the earth for all the chance I’d get to travel there,’ Ruby laughed. ‘No, I’ll just have to wait until the war is over and Pat brings them home,’ she added, looking sad.
Freda gave her landlady a big hug. ‘Never say never, eh, Ruby?’
‘I’ll keep it in mind, love, but for now all I can think about is a nice cup of tea. I don’t know about you lot but I could do with putting my feet up for a while.’
‘Let’s get Georgie back in her pram. I don’t think she can walk all the way home just yet,’ Sarah said, as she lifted her daughter. Georgie immediately started to grizzle as she preferred to toddle unsteadily, holding on to her mum’s hands.
‘Georgina is a perfectly good name. I see no reason for you to shorten it, Sarah,’ Irene sniffed, as she headed away from the river and up the High Street.
The women were quiet as they headed back to Alexandra Road with Georgina still complaining in her pram. Ruby had just put her key in the front door of number thirteen when they spotted Vera, Ruby’s friend from up the road, heading towards them. Maisie, who had taken over pushing the pram, steered around the woman, intent on getting the child inside the house and cheering her up.
‘You’re quite a hand at looking after a kiddie, Maisie. I’m surprised you haven’t got one of your own by now,’ Vera said pointedly. ‘Our Sadie is courting and I’m sure she will have a family as soon as she’s walked down the aisle. In wartime it’s a woman’s duty to bring more children into the world to make for a better future for our country.’
Maisie lowered her head and dashed into the house, only stopping to let Freda take hold of the pram. Sarah rushed after her friend and closed the front door. Ruby could hear Maisie’s sobs from outside the house.
‘Why, Vera Munro, that is the most hurtful comment I’ve ever heard you say,’ Ruby scolded her neighbour. ‘Why don’t you stop to think before you open your big mouth and let your words spew out? For all you know Maisie may have problems and words like yours can hurt someone’s feelings.’
‘Is she having problems then?’ Vera asked with interest.
‘It’s none of your business if she is. Not that she is having problems,’ Ruby added quickly in case Vera probed even more. ‘Now, what can we do for you?’ she asked, folding her arms across her chest and giving the woman a hard stare.
‘I just thought I’d pop down and spend a neighbourly hour with you,’ Vera said.
‘I’m in no mood to be neighbourly,’ Ruby said, with a stony expression. ‘So, you can go back home to your Sadie and her young man. You must have a lot to discuss if there is a wedding in the offing.’
For a moment Vera looked puzzled before turning away and heading back up Alexandra Road to her own house.
‘Well I never. That woman has the nerve of the devil sometimes,’ Ruby huffed as she opened the front door that Maisie had pulled shut behind her. ‘As for her Sadie, the girl only volunteered for war work to get away from Vera, and if she does have a young man he must have met her in a blackout!’ She hurried into the house leaving Irene, Maureen and Freda lost for words.
‘So, George, how are things at Vickers?’ David Carlisle asked as he passed a pile of plates to Alan to put back on Ruby’s dresser. He was aware that careless talk cost lives, as the posters were always reminding them, but with just himself, George and Alan on washing-up duties while Bob Jackson and his son spent half an hour in the garden sorting out the weeds from the vegetables, he knew it was safe to talk.
‘More work than we can cope with at the moment, David. Even taking on extra staff we are pushed to meet the demands the government has set. That’s what made me decide to move up this way, rather than travel back and forth from Devon so much. Apart from petrol rationing, it’s hell travelling. I’ve wanted to move home for a while now but our Irene would miss her social life, committees and the golf club.’
‘The war comes first, George,’ David replied. ‘I’ve been trying to talk Maisie into moving in with my mother, but she won’t leave Erith and her friends or her job.’
‘She’s safe here, David, and Ruby will look out for her,’ Alan pointed out. ‘She’s near enough family.’
‘Even though we live several streets away? There are times when I’m away and I hear about air raids and can’t stop wondering if she’s all right. Maisie is my life and I don’t want to lose her,’ David said desperately.
‘We all feel the same, lad, and it makes no difference where our family is. We can only work to get this war over and done with as soon as possible.’
Alan, who had been washing up at the sink, placed the last cup on the draining board and dried his hands on a towel hanging behind the kitchen door. ‘I’m thinking of putting in a request to go back on active duty for that very reason. I don’t feel I’m doing enough at the moment.’
George, who had pulled his pipe from his pocket and was about to place it in his mouth, stopped what he was doing. ‘Why, Alan? You are doing an admirable job teaching young pilots to fly. Why would you want to put yourself in danger again?’
Alan sighed. ‘I don’t feel as though I’m doing enough in this war. I’m not blowing my own trumpet when I say that I’m a good pilot and if we are to win this war, we need good pilots who can go out there and beat the enemy at their own game.’
‘Now’s not the time to discuss this. The women will be home anytime soon and we don’t want them upset, do we?’ David said.
‘That sounds like them now. I’d better help them in with my daughter,’ Alan said as he left George and David alone.
‘I don’t like to ask but is there anything you can do?’ George said.
‘As you know, George, I can pull strings in my job, but I’m not sure I can put Alan in a safe job. And anyway, is anyone safe in this war?’
Leaving instructions to chase the men out of the kitchen and put the kettle on, Ruby entered her front room to find out what the problem was with Maisie. She had a good idea why there were so many tears, but wanted to get the news herself from the horse’s mouth. ‘Now, what’s going on here? You left me to sort out Vera and that wasn’t nice, was it?’ she said with a smile.
Sarah, who was sitting next to Maisie on an overstuffed sofa, looked at her nan with worried eyes. ‘Why is Vera Munro so horrid, Nan? There was no need for her to pry into Maisie’s private life like that. None of us would ever ask such a question and we are all friends.’
‘She’s a nosy so-and-so, that’s why, and never happy unless she’s poking her nose into other people’s business. She’ll never change,’ Ruby huffed as she pulled back the heavy green velvet curtains and let some light into the room. ‘That’s better,’ she declared, looking approvingly around her ‘best’ room, ‘although the aspidistra looks a bit on the dry side. Remind me to give it some water, Sarah love, and perhaps when you’ve time you’d wipe the leaves over with a drop of milk. They seem to have lost their shine.’
Sarah nodded in agreement as she continued to hug Maisie, who was still sniffing into her handkerchief. ‘I’ll do that shortly, Nan. Can you tell me why Vera Munro is your friend if she is so nasty to people? You don’t usually give people like her the time of day.’
‘I always give her the benefit of doubt, love. Vera’s had a hard life and if anyone is entitled to be bitter then it’s her.’
Sarah was puzzled by Ruby’s words. ‘I don’t understand, Nan. You are always calling her names and hardly a day goes past without you both having words. How can you still be friends?’
Ruby sat at the other side of Maisie and brushed away a few stray hairs that had stuck to the girl’s tear-stained face. ‘Vera’s not had a good life, but she is a good woman underneath all her nosiness. Have you ever wondered why her granddaughter, Sadie, lives with her?’
Sarah screwed up her nose as she thought hard. ‘No, I’ve never given it much thought. It’s always been just Vera and Sadie living up the road. Not that we ever see much of Sadie. What happened, Nan?’
‘Let’s just say that Sadie’s mum was no better than she ought to be. She preferred to entertain men down at the docks rather than earn a decent living and that’s how she met a sticky end. Vera was always a strict mother, perhaps that’s why Doris went off the rails as she did, but that was no reason for people to turn their backs on Vera. That’s why I’ve stuck by her all these years.’
‘Oh, Nan, that’s such a sad story. No wonder Vera is like she is. I’ll do my best to put up with her from now on as long as she doesn’t overstep the mark with my friends. Thank goodness Sadie had Vera to take care of her. No child deserves a mother like Doris.’
Sarah’s words brought on another wave of sobbing from Maisie.
‘There, there, love. Don’t let on so. You’ll have your babies one day and what beautiful kiddies they will be,’ Ruby said, enveloping Maisie in her arms. ‘Ignore Vera and her sharp words. I’m right? That is what has upset you? Now, I’m going to get you a hot drink. That’ll see you as right as rain in no time,’ she continued, pulling herself up and stretching her back. ‘You sit there a while and chat with our Sarah,’ she added, patting Maisie’s shoulder gently.
Sarah waited until Maisie’s sobs subsided and she’d wiped her eyes.
‘Nan’s right, Maisie. You’ll make a wonderful mum.’
‘I don’t deserve to have kiddies. You know what happened just before Christmas.’
‘If you mean you lost your baby, it can happen for many reasons. It don’t mean you don’t deserve to have another child.’
Maisie’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘But it does. You see, I was no better than Vera’s daughter. I used to earn money from men just like she did and now I’m being punished.’