‘Gill, I don’t suppose you want to have a double wedding, do you?’ Daisy had been home at the hall for two weeks and plans for her wedding to Johnny in September were gathering speed. Gill was staying for a long weekend on her way home for a week’s leave. ‘I know we’re still at war with Japan, but the feeling seems to be that it won’t last much longer.’
Gill shook her head. ‘It’s sweet of you to ask, Daisy, but I must get married at home. Luke understands.’
‘Of course. Have you fixed a date?’
‘Not exactly. There are a few things to sort out first – especially with his grandfather. We still don’t know if the old man meant what he said when Luke joined up against his wishes.’
Daisy sighed. ‘No, I can’t guess either. All I know is that he is very good at harbouring a grudge for years.’ She paused and then said, ‘But you’ll need to go home, won’t you? You’re the only one to take over your family’s farm.’
Gill nodded. ‘Yes, there’s a lot of thinking to be done and talking to my folks – and Luke’s.’ She stood up. ‘But now I’m going to walk down the lane and see that reprobate Harry Nuttall.’
‘Give him my love and ask him to come and see me.’
As Gill left, Daisy was thoughtful. She was sitting in the parlour, on her own for the moment, gazing out of the window, but her conversation with Gill had left her pondering. Slowly, she reached for the writing pad and pen on a small table beside her. She had been writing to a few of her ATA colleagues to hear the latest news and what they all planned to do now that the ATA would be disbanding before long. Rumour had it that it would be about November. But now, she chewed the end of her pen, a little uncertain as to how to word a very important letter. And then she began to write.
After several attempts she finished her missive, put it in an envelope and sealed it. Unable to get to a post office herself, she would have to entrust it to someone. But who? Of course, she thought – Gill! She would keep Daisy’s secret.
As Daisy hobbled into the Great Hall for dinner with the family that evening, Henrietta had an announcement to make. ‘Philippa is coming home tomorrow morning. Just for the weekend.’
‘She should be finishing soon, shouldn’t she?’ Robert said, as he held the chair out for Daisy to sit down at the table.
Henrietta laughed. ‘Well, if I knew exactly what she was doing, then perhaps I’d be able to tell you. But as I don’t, I can’t.’
They all laughed and sat down as Wainwright began to serve the meal. Inevitably, the conversation turned to wedding plans.
‘Your dress is coming along quite nicely,’ Alice said, ‘but just as when I made Pips’s dress, no one else is to see it until the day. What about your bridesmaid’s dress, Gill?’
‘I’m very happy for you to make it, Mrs Maitland, if you’ve time. I’m going to pick two or three patterns for your approval whilst I’m at home this week. If I find anything I like, I’ll post them to you.’
‘What about fabric?’
‘I’ll leave that to you.’ Gill pulled a face. ‘It all depends what’s available and what we can get on our coupons.’
‘Several of the villagers have already offered clothes coupons for Daisy and you. Mrs Cooper, Mrs Dawson and Peggy, as you might expect, but there have been others too.’
‘Everyone’s so kind,’ Daisy murmured.
‘It’s something wonderful for them to look forward to, Daisy,’ Henrietta said and chuckled as she added, ‘But of course, the whole village will expect to attend the wedding.’
‘Oh Granny, we can’t fit everyone in here,’ Daisy said, waving her hand to encompass the huge room where they were sitting. ‘I know it’s big, but not that big.’
‘We could have a marquee on the front lawn. The croquet lawn would have been more suitable but since that’s been ploughed up to grow cabbages . . .’ She sighed, wistful for the loss of her lovely lawn.
‘Don’t worry, Granny, we’ll soon have it back to how it was,’ Daisy said.
Henrietta glanced at her. Daisy still hadn’t told any of them what she intended to do after her marriage, or, indeed, what Johnny was going to do after he was eventually demobbed from the RAF, though that might not be for some time yet. Neither he nor Luke had any idea when they might be able to leave.
‘We didn’t plough up the front lawns because we let the horses graze there, though the grass is a bit of a mess now.’
‘Jake will sort that out and we won’t need it to look pristine if we’re going to site a marquee there,’ Daisy said reasonably.
‘What are you going to do after you’re married?’ Robert asked bluntly.
‘In the short term, we’ll both be going back to what we do now. There are rumours that the ATA will be disbanded towards the end of the year, but we’ve no idea when Johnny – or Luke, for that matter – might be demobbed. I think it might take some time.’
‘But what about after that?’
Daisy grinned at him and tapped the side of her nose. ‘All top secret, Daddy. We’re still talking about things. All I can say is that you’ve no need to worry and I think you’ll all be happy with what we decide.’
‘There’s always a home here for you both,’ Henrietta said, ‘but I think you already know that, don’t you, Daisy?’
‘I do, Granny, but thank you.’
‘But if you do come to live here to help your granny run the estate,’ Robert persisted, ‘what’s Johnny going to do?’
Daisy chuckled. ‘That’s what we’re discussing, but don’t try to wheedle it out of me, Daddy, because you’re not going to.’
The family all laughed and then settled down to enjoy their meal together.
All the evacuee children who had come to Doddington had returned home except for three: Bernard, who was still living with Peggy and Sam, and now Harry too, and the twin girls staying with Conrad and Florence Everton.
Florence was tearful most of the time, though she tried to hide it in front of the girls. Every day took her closer to the day she dreaded; when she must say goodbye to the children who had become her life. She couldn’t have loved them more than she did if she had given birth to them.
But the days passed and no word came about the twins.
‘I suppose,’ Conrad said reluctantly, ‘we ought to make some enquiries. We can’t just leave things hanging.’
‘Can’t we?’ For a moment, there was hope in Florence’s tone and then it died. ‘No, you’re right,’ she said reasonably. ‘It’s not fair on their family.’
‘I’ll have a word with Mrs Maitland since she was in charge of the billeting.’
Only a week later, Henrietta received a letter from the authorities in London. In the late afternoon, when she knew Conrad would have finished his house calls for the day, she asked Jake to drive her to their cottage. ‘It’s just that bit too far to walk when it’s raining. I don’t think I’ll keep you waiting too long.’
‘It’s no problem.’
‘I’m conscious of the fact that you have been out with Robert on his rounds all afternoon and you still have the horses to tend, but this is important for Florence and Conrad – indeed for all of them.’
Answering her knock, Florence led her into the small front parlour. She could hear the girls laughing and shouting in the bedroom upstairs.
‘Conrad’s playing with them. A noisy game of Snap, I think. I’ll just call him down.’
Moments later, holding the letter in her hand, Henrietta said, ‘The authorities in charge of the placement of evacuee children have written to me enclosing a letter from the girls’ maternal grandmother, a Mrs Wright . . .’
Florence bit her lip and clutched Conrad’s hand.
‘It seems,’ Henrietta went on, ‘that their father was reported missing, presumed killed, during the D-Day landings and now, it appears no trace can be found of their mother either. Mrs Wright says that the last of the V2 rockets fell where her daughter was living at the time and it has had to be concluded that she died in the attack, even though no trace of her has ever been found.’
‘Oh poor little mites,’ Florence whispered. ‘They’re orphans.’ She turned towards her husband with wide eyes. ‘Oh Conrad, could we . . .?’
Conrad touched his wife’s arm. ‘Let Mrs Maitland finish, darling.’
‘Mrs Wright says,’ Henrietta said, referring to the letter again, ‘that she lives on her own and is too frail to care for two lively youngsters. There is an aunt – their mother’s sister – but she has four children of her own, has been widowed by the war and feels she cannot undertake to care for any more children. The family have all agreed that the twins should be adopted, rather than be sent to an orphanage, though they do ask that the adoptive parents should take the children to see them once in a while. They don’t want to lose touch entirely.’ Henrietta looked up. ‘Do you want to apply to adopt them?’
‘Yes!’ Florence and Conrad almost shouted the word simultaneously without even deferring to the other. Then they glanced at one another and burst out laughing.
Henrietta chuckled and handed the letter to Conrad. ‘Well, that seems perfectly clear. You’d better take this and contact the person who’s sent Mrs Wright’s letter on and see how you should proceed.’
Tears flooded down Florence’s face, but now they were tears of joy. ‘Thank you, Mrs Maitland, thank you so much. You don’t know what this means to us.’
Henrietta stood up to leave. ‘Oh, I think I do, my dear. I think I do.’
Daisy was now well enough to return to Hamble and planned to see her superior officer about leaving the ATA.
‘I’ll see her as well,’ Gill said over the telephone. ‘I can’t wait to get back and help my dad. I expect it’s the same for you, isn’t it? I think they’ll release us, don’t you?’
Each day during her time at home, Daisy had watched out for the postman. The family surmised she was waiting for letters from Johnny, but they were wrong. She was anxious to receive a reply to the letter she had written some weeks earlier when she’d first arrived home; a letter she didn’t want any of her family to see.
Two days before her departure, it came. She slipped it into her pocket and then gave the rest of the mail to Wainwright. There were always quite a lot of letters received at the hall for various members of the family.
When she read the letter in the privacy of her bedroom, she smiled. It was the answer she’d hoped for.