30. Latin Lessons

Anxious that her interest in the new arrival might have drawn too much attention, Matron avoided any further visits to Heather and her rude, unsociable mother. However, it was pleasing to see that Isla was a picture of health and would no doubt soon be discharged, leaving charming little Heather in Matron’s tender care. Percival was also enthusiastic about the new arrival. Courtesy of the grateful Bennetts, who fawned on their new son (no longer plain Tom but Rupert with a title), they’d provided Percival with two new clients. One of them definitely wanted a son, so Heather was out of the question, but the second couple had stated that the sex of the child was unimportant but good breeding was essential.

‘Well,’ Percival thought smugly. ‘Nobody could fault Baby Ross’s breeding; she might have been born on the wrong side of the blanket, but she has good blood running through her veins and she’s probably got a fine brain too.’

Telling the eager (and wealthy) childless couple that they might have a little bundle of joy by Christmas, Percival sat back and, like Matron, eagerly awaited Isla’s departure.

While Shirley made preparations to start her postulancy, she was under the convent’s wing and, though she lived in constant fear of Matron, who gave her looks of sheer malice every time she passed by, Shirley was, to some extent, freer than she’d ever been before. Though nobody asked her to, she still continued devotedly to wash, mop, polish and scrub Mary Vale’s floors daily, but she always made sure she had time for her schoolwork, which now, with her heart set on joining the religious order, was more important to her than ever. Robin was ecstatic to have his friend Shirley back in the schoolroom.

‘Come and sit here,’ he begged tapping the bench next to him.

‘We’ve missed you so much,’ Gloria said with genuine warmth.

‘It was boring, just me and Mum!’ cheeky Robin added.

Gloria gave her irrepressible son a mock-glare before she addressed Shirley. ‘So, is there anything special you want to study now that you’re back?’

‘Bomber planes and submarines,’ Robin suggested with a hopeful smile.

‘That would be fun,’ laughing Shirley agreed. ‘But, now that I’m hoping to be a nun, I need to really improve my reading and writing, and maybe you can teach me Latin too?’ she asked in all innocence.

Gloria burst out laughing. ‘Heavens! You really have got the bit between your teeth!’ she exclaimed. ‘I can do as much reading and writing as you want but, sadly, Latin’s way beyond me, sweetheart,’ she admitted.

Robin’s green eyes all but fell out of his head when he heard that Shirley wanted to be a nun. ‘Are you going to wear a big nightie like Merry Paul?’ he asked in amazement.

‘Oh, I do hope so, sweetheart, if the convent will have me,’ Shirley answered in all sincerity. ‘Though I have to prove to the Reverend Mother who’s in charge of the convent that I’m good enough and clever enough to be a nun, and it takes years and years; you’ll be a teenager by the time I’ve taken my final vows,’ she joked.

Robin’s green eyes lit up. ‘I’m going to join my dad when I grow up. I’ll drive tanks and bomb all the Germans who get in my way,’ he announced with a heroic swagger.

Gloria’s face clouded at the very thought of her little boy going to war. ‘It will all be over with by then,’ she said firmly. ‘Daddy will be home and England will be at peace.’

‘Will you have had the baby by then?’ Robin asked.

Gloria and Shirley looked at each other, then fell about laughing.

‘Heavens above, I hope so,’ Gloria cried. ‘Otherwise it will be the longest pregnancy in history!’

Bringing order back to the classroom, Gloria said, ‘Are you really serious about becoming a run, Shirley?’

The girl nodded. ‘I’ve never been more serious about anything in mi life.’

‘But won’t your parents try and put a stop to it?’ she persisted. ‘After all, you’re very young.’

‘Sister Ann said that if they try to stop me, the convent can write to the police and tell them what my stepfather did to me. The police won’t believe me, of course – they’d never believe a girl like me – but my stepfather still won’t like the idea of the police being involved.’ Her eyes shot to Robin, who was hanging on her every word. ‘That’s enough of that for now,’ she said briskly. ‘Come on, young man!’ she added, as she recalled Robin’s words from the past. ‘Time to start learning me!’

With Heather’s formal adoption form, as well as her file, safely removed from her office to her own private suite, where it was secreted away alongside Bertie’s and Tom’s files, Matron turned her thoughts to other pressing matters. When Isla and her sharp-tongued grandmother were gone, the path would be clear for her and Percival to proceed, though the return of Shirley niggled Matron, who had thought she’d successfully got rid of the sly little minx. The girl was now apparently intent on becoming a nun, and Matron could only hope that the stupid thing might have forgotten anything she saw the night she stole Tom away. Anyway, Matron comforted herself, if Shirley did decide to talk, who would believe her? Matron had thoroughly covered all her tracks; there was nothing to arouse suspicion; and if the little madam did snivel, she would roundly accuse her of lying and deception.

Emily and Gloria spent as much time as they could spare with Isla, who was kept busy looking after her daughter and who, they knew, they would soon have to say goodbye to. In the privacy of her own room, Emily confessed to Gloria how sad she would be when Isla left Mary Vale.

‘She’s a marvellous woman,’ she told Gloria. ‘Clever but not big-headed, educated but not a show-off, funny and honest. I’ll miss her so much.’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Gloria replied. ‘We’ll just have to make sure we keep in touch – maybe we could visit her once she’s settled back home in Windermere?’

‘We’ll have to take our cue from her,’ Emily said sensitively. ‘If she’s just getting over parting from Heather, us two bouncing up might bring back painful memories.’

Gloria gave a sigh. ‘I suppose so,’ she said. ‘But I can’t bear the thought that we might not see each other again.’

A tap at the door interrupted their conversation. ‘May I come in?’ Ada called.

‘Of course,’ Emily said, opening the door to a grinning Ada, who, over the months they’d all been together in the Home, had become more of a friend to them than their ward sister.

‘Oh, it’s nice to get away from work, even if it is just for five minutes,’ Ada cried, as she flopped on the nearest vacant bed, where she kicked off her brogues and removed her starched cap, so that her long hair could hang loose and free. ‘So, ladies, come on, tell me your news.’

Emily gave her a big, excited smile. ‘I’ve heard back from George’s parents, a Christmas card this time – they want to meet me soon.’

‘Wonderful!’ Ada cried. ‘Any more news of George?’

Emily looked disappointed. ‘Nothing new. What with all the talk about the Winter War and the Soviets attacking Finland, I’ve been worried sick. The trouble is not knowing where George is or where he might be. I worry about every bit of news that comes up: is he fighting the Hun or the Soviets?’ she said with a desperateness in her voice. ‘I feel so stupid and helpless not knowing.’

Ada quickly moved to restore her friend’s spirits. ‘At least you’ve got his parents, Em, that’s something. It means you’re part of George’s family,’ she said enthusiastically, as she gratefully accepted the mug of hot tea that Gloria had brewed on the little electric hotplate they kept in their room.

‘And I’ve had news of Stan,’ Gloria told Ada. ‘Like Em, I don’t know exactly where he is. He mentioned in his letter that they were desperate for more back-up troops, so I’m guessing that means he’s in the thick of it somewhere.’

‘Well, now that conscription’s covering men from nineteen to forty-one, there are bound to be thousands more troops deployed,’ Ada said. ‘Though nineteen seems young – thank God my little brother’s only eighteen – I couldn’t bear to see him go marching off to war.’

‘So you do have a young man in your life?’ Gloria teased.

‘Well, I suppose my brother is a young man,’ Ada conceded. ‘Though I always think of him as a kid,’ she said with an indulgent smile.

‘Ada’s married to her job,’ Emily joked.

Ada looked thoughtful as she sipped her tea. ‘I’ll have you know I’ve had boyfriends,’ she admitted. ‘They’ve just never come up to scratch.’

‘You’re a woman with high standards,’ Emily laughed.

‘I think we’ve all got high standards when it comes to men,’ Gloria murmured. ‘I couldn’t bear to live with a man who didn’t love his country, even though I never stopped nagging poor Stan about being too patriotic. What a cow I was,’ she said sorrowfully, recalling their bitter disagreements about Stan joining up.

‘Stop scourging yourself, woman!’ Emily cried. ‘I would have willingly laid down in the road and been reversed over by a tank if it would have stopped George from flying over enemy territory.’

‘We’re a couple of hypocrites,’ Gloria continued. ‘We want peace in our time but we’d prefer it if somebody else’s fella did the fighting.’

Ada laid aside her empty cup. ‘Moving on to an entirely different subject – can you believe Shirley is hoping to become a nun?’

‘I don’t know why it never crossed her mind before,’ Gloria said. ‘She’s as innocent as the day the world was created.’

Cheeky Em couldn’t stop herself from smiling. ‘I wonder what name she’ll take if she does make it through?’

A mischievous smile played around Ada’s full, rosy-red lips. ‘Possibly Sister Mopalot!’

‘Or Sister Brillo Pad!’ Emily laughed. ‘Nobody cleans better than our Shirley; she could go straight to heaven on that basis alone.’