In the summer of 1934, Daisy gained the highest possible result in all subjects in her School Certificate.
‘How clever you are, darling,’ Alice said, hugging her. ‘Thank goodness you take after your father and your Aunty Pips.’
‘Oh Mummy, don’t say that. You’re clever too.’
‘Perhaps with my needle and thread, but I was never very good at school.’
‘But you had to leave at twelve to go into service, didn’t you?’
Alice nodded. ‘There was no chance in my family of staying on any longer than the school-leaving age. Even the boys had to leave and go into my father’s business, though William refused and came to work here at the hall.’
‘Did he? I hadn’t known that.’ Daisy chuckled. ‘He even stood up to Granddad before the war, then?’
‘Yes, he did. But then there were Bernard and Roy to work alongside my father – and Harold too.’
‘And now there’s only Luke to carry it on.’
Alice pressed her lips together and nodded. ‘But at least he was allowed to stay on long enough to do his School Certificate.’
‘But not his Higher.’
Alice sighed. ‘In your grandfather’s estimation, he doesn’t need it.’
‘But what if he ever decides he wants to do something different?’
‘I don’t think he will, do you?’
‘Probably not, but I really think Granddad should allow him to have some time off now and again. If he doesn’t . . .’ She left the words hanging in the air, but they both understood her unspoken meaning.
Johnny had become an infrequent, though regular, visitor to the hall, much to Luke’s – and Harry’s – disgust.
‘What’s he think he’s doing?’ the younger boy asked. ‘Daisy belongs to us.’
Trying to be reasonable, Luke said, ‘She’s allowed to have other friends.’
‘But not boys. What if he falls in love with her? What then?’
With an insight beyond his years Luke said, ‘Harry, we can’t monopolize her. If we try to, we’ll drive her all the more towards him.’
‘You think so?’ The twelve-year-old couldn’t yet quite understand his older brother’s meaning. ‘But he’s always here.’
Luke laughed. ‘Not really. It just seems like that to us, but don’t forget, we’re here all the time – and besides, I don’t think he’ll try going riding with us again, do you?’
Now Harry laughed too.
‘So, have you been following the news about your little corporal?’ Robert asked as he and Pips sat either side of the chess board set up in the drawing room on the first floor of the hall. The room, known as the Blue Drawing Room, was a long rectangle with windows looking out over the rear gardens. On either side of the white marble fireplace, ornate cabinets held Henrietta’s precious china and at the far end of the room stood Alice’s tapestry embroidery frame. Henrietta’s bedroom walls were lined with fine tapestries and it was Alice’s pride and joy to keep these in good repair. Now it was where she sat to work on a hassock to send out to William for the church in Ypres.
Pips had just brought Daisy home after a three-week stay with them in London and now she was enjoying a few days at home with her family; riding, seeing friends and beating Robert at chess.
Pips sighed. ‘George says Hitler’s trying to get very cosy with Mussolini. Evidently, he admires him and some of the news that is emerging is, frankly, terrifying. Anyone that voices the slightest criticism of him just – disappears.’
‘And now Hindenburg has died, the way to total power for him seems to be clear.’
‘He didn’t waste any time, did he? Soon after the old man’s death, Hitler announced that there would no longer be a president, and then he proclaimed himself Führer and Reich Chancellor. He also appointed himself as Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces and demanded an oath of unconditional allegiance to him from officers and men alike.’
‘Not to Germany?’
‘No – to him personally. From what George has hinted, it seems that very soon Hitler will be in complete control of Germany.’
‘It’s frightening,’ Robert murmured as he picked up a chess piece and moved it on the board. ‘Anyway, let’s forget about him. I need to concentrate if I’m to win this game. You’ve beaten me the last two times. I can’t have that.’
Pips chuckled and moved a piece too. ‘Check.’
In September, Daisy began her studies in the sixth form at school and, with the leaving age now set at fourteen, Harry had almost another two years to do – much to his disgust. He hated school and couldn’t wait to begin working full time in Len’s workshop. He was there whenever he could be; after school, Saturday mornings and during the school holidays. To everyone’s surprise, Len granted both boys and Sam a full Saturday off once a month, though he reduced their wages accordingly. Sam, who couldn’t afford to lose the money, decided not to take the offered extra free time. But for the boys it was a heaven-sent opportunity to spend a whole day with Daisy.
The families settled into a routine in both London and Doddington. For Pips and George, the highlight of the following year, 1935, was the wedding of Rebecca and Matthew in August. It was a very quiet affair; neither wanted a grand ‘do’ and there were few relatives on either side. Rebecca had not come to know the other members of the Maitland family, nor even the Brooklands set, and so it was a small party of twelve that attended the morning service in a church which Rebecca attended regularly near the hospital. Afterwards, they gathered in a local restaurant for lunch.
‘It’s a shame you’re giving up your career,’ Pips said, as they wished the couple every possible happiness.
‘I’m not entirely. I took your advice and made some enquiries about private nursing. I’ll be working part time helping an elderly lady quite near to where we’ll be living.’
‘That’s wonderful. I’m so glad.’
Pips and George visited Lincolnshire often and always made sure they were there for the youngsters’ birthdays at the beginning of December. Christmas, they had decided, should now be spent alternately between the Maitlands and Rebecca and Matthew, but they always travelled to Lincolnshire on Boxing Day to be there for Harry’s birthday. They stayed on to raise a toast to the New Year, but the hopes of the villagers of Doddington for 1936, along with the rest of the country, were dashed. It was to be a year of sadness and disappointment for many. In January, King George V died and his eldest son, Edward, succeeded him. In March, Hitler openly defied the Treaty of Versailles and marched into the Rhineland, although he then offered a twenty-five-year peace guarantee.
‘That won’t be worth the paper it’s written on,’ Robert said gloomily. ‘That is, if it is even written down.’
In the summer, Daisy passed her Higher School Certificate with the expected ‘flying colours’.
‘So,’ Henrietta asked her as they sat around the dinner table celebrating Daisy’s achievement with champagne. ‘What are you going to do now?’
‘I’ve been accepted into the Studley Horticulture and Agricultural College in Warwickshire.’
‘Oh darling, how wonderful,’ Alice said. ‘That was your first choice, wasn’t it?’
Daisy nodded. ‘It was set up by Lady Daisy Warwick and it’s an all-women’s college.’ Daisy grinned saucily. ‘No distractions!’
The family all laughed, but then listened attentively as Daisy went on. ‘You can do a three-year course for a Diploma in Horticulture, but two years ago they began a three-year degree course for a BSc in Horticulture. So, that’s what I’m going to do.’
Henrietta frowned. ‘That sounds all well and good, Daisy, but it’s not exactly agriculture, is it? Will it be useful on the estate?’
Daisy grinned. ‘Actually, in time I’d like to extend the horticultural side of things here, if you’re agreeable, but the college has a farm and a dairy herd and offers a course in agriculture, so I’m going to do that alongside the degree course.’
Alice frowned. ‘That sounds like an awful lot of hard work. Don’t take on too much, Daisy.’
‘She’ll cope,’ Robert said, confidently.
Word soon spread around the village – thanks to Bess Cooper – that Miss Daisy was going away to a grand college housed in a castle in Warwickshire.
‘You’ll be an awful long way away for weeks at a time,’ Luke said dolefully. Daisy hadn’t waited for the gossip to reach him, but had gone herself to the workshop to tell him.
‘But once my course is finished, I’ll be back here for good, won’t I?’
‘Yes, I suppose so.’ A worried frown still creased his forehead.
‘I’ll write.’
Still, that didn’t seem to wipe away his anxiety. ‘You – you might meet – someone.’
Daisy laughed. ‘I’m hoping I’ll meet a lot of people and make some new friends. You wouldn’t begrudge me that, would you?’
‘Well, no.’ Luke wriggled his shoulders, feeling foolish now. Two years older than Daisy, Luke now had definite romantic feelings for her. There were one or two girls in the village who’d made no secret of the fact that they’d like to ‘walk out’ with him, but his heart belonged to Daisy and he believed it always would. And then there was Harry. If he still persisted in his childhood declaration that he was going to marry Daisy one day, Luke could see a family feud looming. He stared at Daisy, trying to read her mind. She grinned back at him, her eyes as affectionate as ever, but he could detect no real romantic love blossoming there. Perhaps, he comforted himself, she was still a little young and her head was so filled with her upcoming college course. He’d just have to be patient. At least Johnny Hammond hadn’t been posted anywhere near where she was going to be.
As Daisy planned her further education, Harry, too, left school. On the morning that he was due to start work as a full-time employee of Len’s, he walked jauntily down the road towards the workshop. It felt good to be a working man now. No more ‘little boy’ jokes from Luke and at least he had a job to go to. Many of his contemporaries, who had left school that summer, had still not been able to find work. Times in many parts of the country were still hard, but here in Doddington, there was employment for everyone.
‘’Lo, Harry.’
Harry glanced around and saw Kitty Page swinging on the front gate of the cottage where she lived with her parents directly opposite Len’s workshop.
‘Hello, Kitty,’ Harry said and sauntered across the road. ‘I’m starting work this morning. Full time.’
‘I know. Mam said. I’ve been watching for you comin’.’
Harry grinned at her. She was a pretty little thing with blond curls and bright blue eyes and about the same age as he was.
‘Have you left school an’ all?’
Kitty nodded. ‘I’ve got an interview with Mrs Maitland at the hall tomorrow to be a kitchen maid.’
Harry grinned. ‘Good luck, then. My Aunty Betty, my mam’s sister, works there. She’ll look out for you.’
‘I’ve got summat for you.’ Kitty held out a four-leafed clover, twirling it between her thumb and forefinger. ‘To bring you luck.’
‘Aw, thanks, Kitty. Wherever did you find it?’
‘There’s a patch of clover in the field just outside our back gate. I’ve found one there before.’ That was true, but she didn’t tell him it had taken her hours of careful searching to find this one for him.
He fished in his pocket and pulled out a shiny, new leather wallet. ‘Me dad bought me this for starting work. I’ll keep it in here.’
‘Wait a minute.’ Kitty jumped down from the gate and ran up the path and into the cottage. She emerged a moment later with a piece of paper in her hand. ‘Put it in this,’ she said, folding the paper over. ‘It’ll keep it better. It’ll be like flower pressing. Me mam showed me how to do it.’
Gently, he pushed the piece of paper, now with the clover laid flat inside its fold, into one of the compartments of his new wallet.
At that moment a roar from Len came from the other side of the road. ‘Time you was at your work, boy. Never mind your flirtin’.’
With a swift grin at Kitty and a saucy wink, Harry turned and, hands in his pockets, strolled across the road.
‘Morning, Mr Dawson. What are we doin’ today, then?’
Len’s only answer was a low growl and a baleful glare at Kitty, who waved and smiled prettily.
The night before she was due to travel to Studley, Daisy received a phone call.
‘Daisy? It’s Johnny. Just ringing you to wish you well for tomorrow – and guess what? I’ve been posted to Duxford. It’s about a hundred and twenty miles from where you’ll be, so I’ll be able to get to see you on my motorcycle.’
‘Johnny – that’s marvellous.’
‘I’ve got a seventy-two-hour pass next weekend, so I’ll come and see you then.’
Daisy replaced the receiver thoughtfully. Some instinct told her not to mention Johnny’s proposed visit to any of her family – and certainly not to Luke or Harry.