The girls that worked with Peggy and Violet advised them to go to Madame Amie’s Dancing Academy in Chain Walk, which was just the other side of Birchfield Road at the very end of Albert Road. ‘She does the waltzes and quick steps, and that,’ one of their workmates said. ‘But they teaches you fun things as well like the swing, kangaroo hop and the jitterbug.’
‘And what on earth are those, when they’re at home?’ Marion asked that evening when they told her this.
‘They’ve come from America,’ Violet said. ‘This girl was telling us the jitterbug is banned in some dance halls, and that some places seem almost afraid of it.’
‘I am not sure that I like the sound of this jitterbug,’ Marion said with a wry smile. ‘Maybe I should come with you as a chaperone.’
‘Mom! Sarah cried. ‘Mary Ellen and Siobhan want to go too, and Aunt Polly don’t mind.’ She made a face and then went on, ‘Orla played it up to come too, but Aunt Polly said no. I mean, she ain’t fourteen yet.’
Marion hid her smile at her daughter’s indignation, speaking as she was from the lofty age of fifteen herself, with Mary Ellen and Siobhan seventeen and fifteen, but she made no mention of that. What she did say was, ‘I was joking, Sarah. The time is past when I would be afraid of a dance. It’s probably just a bit too lively for a lot of us old ones. I think you get little enough enjoyment in your lives at the moment and you’re only young the once.’
And so every Wednesday evening, just before seven, the girls would be seen scurrying up Albert Road to their dancing class. Often at the weekend they would practise what they’d learned that week. They even got Richard up a time or two to partner one of them and didn’t seem to care a jot about his two left feet.
This was the part that Richard liked best because he was very attracted to Violet, and had been almost as soon as she had come to live with them. He knew she thought of him as a young boy, but as he grew older his feelings for her grew stronger and he inveigled his way to sit by her as often as possible and was always asking her opinion on things. In fact, one of the reasons he had been so upset about not having a uniform for the Home Guard straight away was his need to impress Violet. One of his workmates, far more skilled than Richard about the opposite sex and matters of the heart, had assured him that women went a bundle for any man in uniform.
However, he had a uniform now and he had to admit that it had made little difference. Not that Violet was unkind or anything; it was more that she was disinterested. In fact, Violet was well aware of Richard’s preoccupation with her and his lovesick eyes following her everywhere, and so was Peggy, and they had laughed about it, though gently.
‘The point is,’ Violet said to Peggy one day, ‘he is sweet and I do like him, but not in the way he wants me to like him.’
‘I think it could become quite awkward, anyway,’ Peggy said. ‘What if you did become emotionally entangled and then had a fallout or something. It could make living with the family really difficult.’
‘I know, but as I said, I don’t feel that way about him anyway.’
‘I think it’s best not to get involved anyway till the war is over,’ Peggy said. ‘Look at those pilots we met and were quite keen on. Both of them died in the Battle of Britain.’
‘Yeah, and we might never have known if one of their friends hadn’t seen us waiting for them outside the Globe and told us,’ Violet said. ‘Bloody shame it was as well. They were really nice, and so young.’
‘All the pilots were young,’ Peggy said. ‘Good job we didn’t get really attached. I’m not letting myself get tangled up with anyone again till this blessed war comes to an end.’
‘I think I’ll tell Richard that,’ Violet said. ‘It will let him down gently.’
So when Richard plucked up the courage to ask Violet if she wanted to go to the pictures, she said, ‘I’d love to Richard. We all would.’
That wasn’t at all what Richard had in mind. ‘I meant you and me on our own,’ he said. ‘Or do you think I’m too young?’
‘It isn’t that, Richard,’ Violet said. ‘It’s nothing to do with you at all. I do like you very much, but I just don’t want to get serious with anyone at the moment. I have seen the heartache some of the girls at work have suffered. Anyway, your mother might not like us to go out together as we live in the same house and everything.’ Then she caught sight of Richard’s crestfallen face and added, ‘I’m sorry.’
Richard was bitterly disappointed, but he knew that Violet’s reasons for refusing him had been valid ones and so when she said, ‘We can still go to the pictures, though. Rebecca is showing at the Globe. It’s Alfred Hitchcock so we girls might need a big strapping man with us in case we get scared,’ even he had to smile.
‘You lot don’t scare easy,’ he said. ‘But I might as well, I suppose.’
The film was good and they all enjoyed it, though it was not the date Richard had envisaged. Often at weekends Mary Ellen and Siobhan would come down to practise dancing, and they would all get Richard up to partner them, so he sometimes got to hold Violet tight in his arms. There was always a lot of fun and laughter at these sessions and Marion found the dancing quite entertaining to watch, though she marvelled at the energy they all had. The jitterbug in particular was very invigorating and fun, and she could quite see why the young girls would enjoy it so much.
There were air raids over the next few months but they were light and weeks apart, and none came near Aston. Marion became more hopeful that the raids were petering out, especially as the days passed and the grey low clouds and the icy blasts of winter were being replaced by clearer skies and spring sunshine. Everyone was looking forward to Easter and, after that, Tony’s eleventh birthday, and so when the sirens rang out again on Wednesday 9 April, in Holy Week, everyone thought it would be another short, sharp skirmish.
It was half-past nine, but the children hadn’t been in bed long because it was the Easter holidays, and Marion was tempted not to rouse them. The last few raids had been so slight and sporadic there had been little point in going to the cellar.
When she suggested staying where they were, though, Richard frowned. ‘I don’t know, Mom,’ he said. ‘Listen to the drone in the sky.’
Marion listened to the rumble getting louder every minute and she shivered as Richard said, ‘I don’t think it’s worth taking a chance. Anyroad, didn’t you say you promised Dad?’
Marion had. She looked at Sarah, Peggy and Violet. ‘What do you think?’
‘Well,’ Peggy said, ‘I’ve no desire to go down to the cellar, but as Richard said, maybe it’s best not to take chances.’
‘Yeah, I feel the same,’ Violet said. ‘Anyroad, if it is a short sharp one like the last few we will be back here in no time.’
‘And a promise is a promise,’ Sarah said.
Marion gave a groan and got to her feet. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘You’ve convinced me. Sarah, will you see to the twins, and, Richard, can you see that Tony is up and carry the blankets down for me?’
‘Yes, ‘Richard said. ‘That’s no problem, but get a move on. There certainly seem more planes than there have been in the last few raids.’
The children grumbled initially, but when they heard the first crashes the twins at least were anxious to get underground where the frightening sounds would be somewhat muffled. Tony was trying very hard to be brave, especially as Richard said before he left, ‘All right, Tony it’s up to you now. Remember you’ll be man of the house once I enlist so you take care of everyone down here.’
Tony felt puffed up with pride. Richard had told him that before, and it had made Tony feel a bit scared but also excited. After all, he was very shortly going to be eleven and not a baby any more, so when Richard said, ‘Think you can do that?’ he said with all the assurance he could muster, ‘Course I can.’
Tony took the other blankets from Richard as he spoke and then with a cheeky grin said, ‘Best get yourself away if you’re going.’
Richard smiled as he cuffed his young brother lightly around the head. ‘I am going, so you all look after yourselves.’
‘Who is he talking to, anyroad?’ Marion said as the door closed behind her elder son. ‘He’s the one going out in the teeth of the raid, not us. We at least have a cellar to shelter in, and at least it’s not as cold down here as it has been.’
‘No,’ Violet agreed. ‘But there’s a sort of dampness in the air just the same.’
‘There is,’ Marion agreed as the first bomb blasts were heard. ‘I think I will light the paraffin stove anyway.’
Everyone was all right at first. The planes seemed far enough away not to trouble them, and they played dominoes or chatted together. Then, as the droning rumble got nearer, Peggy opened her gramophone and wound it up, and soon the stirring music of Glenn Miller filled the cellar.
The sounds of the raid almost overhead could still be plainly heard, though, and when there was one terrific explosion very close, Missie gave a yelp.
‘We are really safe in here, aren’t we?’ she asked her mother.
Tony felt sorry for his young sister because he saw she was really scared and so before his mother could find an answer, he said, ‘Course we are. Have been so far, ain’t we? Anyroad, Dad always said we’d be as safe as houses in the cellar, dain’t he, Mom?’
‘He did,’ Marion said as confidently as she could. She realised now that this was no quick skirmish but another full-blown attack. She listened to the scream of the ever-descending bombs and the ack-ack guns barking into the sky, and she felt fear clutching at her as some bombs fell extremely close and shook the cellar walls.
She tried to hide her fear from the others and instead delved into her shelter bag. She had a packet of biscuits she gave to the children to share and she poured tea for the adults with hands that shook.
‘I really did think we were over all this,’ Violet said.
‘And me,’ Sarah agreed. ‘It’s awful isn’t it? Just as you start to relax it starts all over again.’
‘Oh God, I hope you’re wrong about that,’ Peggy said. ‘I’d hate to think that this is the forerunner of another blitz.’
‘So would I,’ Marion said. ‘And there’s no way of knowing. We’ll just have to wait and see, though it’s nerve-racking waiting for the sirens to wail out night after night.’
‘Richard said some of the lads he works with listen to someone called Lord Haw-Haw,’ Tony said. ‘And he says what’s going to happen sometimes. He don’t do it in a nice way or anything, though. Richard said he’s horrible.’
‘He is, Tony, and a traitor. He takes pleasure in terrorising people, prophesying what the Luftwaffe have planned next. I would never listen to him on principle.’
‘Quite right too,’ Peggy said. ‘People aren’t supposed to listen to him, anyroad.’
‘I don’t see why anyone does,’ Sarah said. ‘I don’t think it will do morale any good. I mean, through all these raids and everything we’ve got to keep thinking that we’re going to win this war, and from what Richard told me this Lord Haw-Haw doesn’t help.’
There was a sudden shattering explosion right beside them. The cellar walls shook and Marion saw mortar dribble out from a few of the bricks. The adults looked at other in sudden fear and the children’s eyes looked as if they were on stalks.
‘God, that was close,’ Peggy said.
‘Yes,’ Marion said, and to Tony and the twins: ‘You must be worn out. It would be better if you could sleep for a wee while.’
‘I don’t think I could sleep,’ Magda said. ‘It’s too scary and noisy.’
‘I couldn’t either,’ Tony said. ‘Them planes are all round us, and above us and everything.’ Peggy packed the gramophone away as she said, ‘I wonder if them ack-ack guns ever shoot any of them planes down. It doesn’t seem to make any impression on them.’
‘Maybe it’s just done to make us feel better,’ Tony said. ‘Like fighting back, you know.’
‘It doesn’t make me feel any better,’ Missie said.
‘Come on,’ Marion urged. ‘Let’s sit on the settee together and I’ll read you a story.’
Marion had a big book of bedtime stories that Bill had bought when he had been home, and with the twins either side of her and Tony sitting cross-legged on the mattress, Marion began to read. Snuggling against their mother, with the lateness of the hour and her soothing voice, the twins soon grew very drowsy. Three loud bombs dropped in quick succession and very close jerked them awake.
Then Magda sat upright and said, ‘What’s that pong?’
Marion sniffed too and she knew what it was straight away. ‘Gas!’ she cried. ‘Get out, quick.’ She knew it was better to take their chance outside, even in the raid, because gas was a certain killer.
They all knew speed was essential and were soon pounding up the cellar steps, Marion behind them all. She was almost at the top when she remembered the lit paraffin stove. She knew when the cellar filled up with enough gas it would cause a massive explosion. She would be all right for a few minutes, as long as she could hold her breath, she told herself as she turned without a word to the others and began to go back down the steps.
Tony had been directly in front of his mother and the only one to be aware of what she had done. He opened his mouth to tell Sarah or one of the others but then he shut it again. He knew Richard wouldn’t have let his mother return to a gas-filled cellar all alone and he had charged him that night to look after them all and so he followed her. By the time he had reached the bottom of the steps Marion had sprung across the room and turned off the tap of the stove. Her lungs felt as if they were bursting and she knew she had to get up the steps quickly, but as she turned she saw Tony and she felt fear grip her as he opened his mouth and said, ‘What’re you doing?’
Marion let out the breath she had been holding and cried in alarm, ‘Get out of here, quick. Run! Go on!’
She saw Tony put his hand to his head and begin to cough and retch as poisonous fumes filled his lungs. He swayed on the steps and she fought to reach him through cloying blackness as she too began to cough and splutter, stinging water streaming from her eyes.
‘Tony, run,’ she pleaded huskily, but he was doubled over, choking as he fought for air and seemed incapable of doing anything. Desperately she groped for his hand, intending to drag them both up the steps. But it was too late. She felt a burning in her lungs and then blackness suddenly surrounded her and she fell into a heap on the floor of the cellar.
Outside, Sarah, though desperately worried about her mother and brother, and frightened by the bombs still cascading around them, had her hands full trying to prevent her sisters from going back into the house. They were shouting and screaming at her, and trying to push her restraining hands away. She didn’t know what to do; none of them did.
She was incredibly relieved to see an ARP warden walking towards them, alerted by the noise the twins were making.
‘What’s up?’
‘My mother and brother are inside,’ Sarah cried in panic. ‘We smelled gas.’
Events moved swiftly after that, and when the stretchers with the unconscious forms of Marion and Tony were brought out of the cellar there was an agonising wait for an ambulance. It was probably five minutes or less but it seemed longer as the family stood in the street in the middle of the air raid.
The bell of the ambulance had never been such a welcoming sound, and when the stretchers had been gently placed inside, the driver said, ‘One of you had better come with us. We’ll make for the General Hospital as it’s closest, but we could be directed anywhere.’
Sarah wasn’t sure where her duty lay – to go with her mother and brother or care for her sisters – and Peggy, seeing her dilemma, said, ‘You go with Marion and Tony, Sarah. We’ll take care of the girls, don’t worry. I think our first priority is taking shelter somewhere.’
Sarah nodded dumbly and watched them all being shepherded away by a warden while she climbed into the ambulance and the doors shut behind her.
Many fires made it nearly as bright as day, and as the ambulance moved through the streets, Sarah could plainly see the black arrows of death shrieking down from the droning planes. The never ending rattle of the guns seemed to make no impression on them. She heard shouts and screams and cries, heard the ringing bells of the emergency services, saw buildings exploding in clouds of dust, or crumple with a shuddering thud, and the ambulance driver trying to negotiate potholes, buckled tramlines and piles of masonry and debris spilled into the roads.
When they reached the General Hospital, it was to find that it had been bombed too and parts of it were extensively damaged. Doctors and nurses, as well as patients, had been killed or badly injured, and some were still trapped. The ambulance was directed to Lewis’s, a big department store close by, where the cellar had been offered for the injured. An acrid smell hit Sarah’s nose and lodged in the back of her throat as soon as she entered the building. As she watched the ambulance men carry the stretchers down the wide staircase, she noted each side of it was crammed with blood-stained clothing.
She had been told to remain where she was, but she leaned forward to look down and saw the stretchers almost covering the floor. Many of the faces were a reddy brown colour from the brick dust, and most patients were obviously badly injured. She noted the doctors and nurses moving amongst the stretchers, stopping now and then to minister to a patient. There were so few of them, though, to deal with so many people, and they had so few facilities that any medical attention would have to be minimal. Sarah trembled in fear; her mother and Tony had both been incredibly still since they had been lifted out of the cellar.
She wasn’t aware how long she had been there when her Aunt Polly joined her. ‘Peggy and Violet took the twins to Atkinson’s Brewery, knowing they’d find me there,’ she said in explanation. ‘They were trying to find Richard and alert Mammy and Daddy when I left. I came here to support you.’
‘Oh, I’m so glad you did,’ Sarah said earnestly. ‘I’m so frightened, Aunt Polly.’
‘I know, pet,’ Polly said. ‘It would be hard for you to feel any other way. I suppose there is no news?’
Sarah shook her head.
‘So what actually happened?’ Polly asked.
‘We smelled gas and Mom told us to get out quick,’ Sarah said. ‘And we did. Least, I thought Mom was behind us. I don’t know what made her go back down to the cellar. Tony must have followed her because she was lying on the cellar floor and Tony was at the bottom of the steps. That’s what the ambulance men said, anyroad.’
‘But they got them out real quick?’
‘Yeah,’ said Sarah. ‘But was it quick enough? That stuff is terribly poisonous.’
There was no answer to that, and the words hung in the air.
Richard had arrived before they saw a white coated doctor coming up the steps towards them. Sarah noted his grave eyes and the black bags beneath them.
‘Whittaker?’ he said questioningly and Richard stepped forward.
‘I am Richard Whittaker.’
‘I am very much afraid that we have been unable to save your brother,’ the doctor said. ‘He had inhaled too much gas.’
Richard’s stomach gave a lurch and behind him he heard his aunt gasp and begin to cry. ‘Dead?’ Sarah burst out. ‘Tony is dead?’
‘It was too late. I am so very sorry,’ the doctor said.
Richard’s head was reeling, his mind shouting a denial. ‘And my mother?’
‘She is holding her own at the moment.’
‘Can we see her?’
‘There would be no point. She’s still unconscious,’ the doctor said. ‘Come back later today. We will likely know more then anyway. You can see how we are placed at the moment.’
They could, of course, and numb with shock they made their way outside. It was full daylight now and though the all clear had sounded they were hardly aware of it and as they made their way up Corporation Street they saw devastation all around them. They smelled the smoke still swirling in the air from the many fires that were raging all around the city and saw the mangled and crushed remains of what had once been shops and offices.
They were almost too shocked to talk. They each had their own memory of Tony, and Richard in particular felt ashamed of the number of times he had lost patience with his young brother. He was so young to lose his life, and Richard felt as if he had a sharp ache in his heart.
‘I can only imagine Marion’s pain when she knows of this,’ Polly said brokenly.
If she survives. Sarah didn’t say the words but they hammered inside her head and she knew that though she was heartbroken over Tony’s death, she would be lost altogether without her mother.
From Victoria Road they looked over a sea of rubble. Here and there piles were still smouldering, sending curls of grey smoke into the air. Many others had people scrambling over them, moving bricks and charred and fractured roof beams to see if there was anything worth salvaging from the mounds that had once been their homes. Richard, Sarah and Polly clambered over fallen masonry, often hearing glass splinter under their feet, and tried to avoid curling hoses still dribbling into the gutters, and sodden burst sandbags bleeding onto the pavements. Yet their feet dragged for they didn’t want to take such bad news to those at home.
Marion’s life hung in the balance for some days. She didn’t regain consciousness until Easter Sunday morning. The doctor had worried that there might be brain damage, so as soon as the hovering nurse noticed movement she went over to her. ‘Mrs Whittaker,’ she said with a wide smile wreathing her face, Tm so glad you are back with us.’
Marion had a terrific pain in her chest and her throat was so swollen it hurt her to swallow. She had no earthly idea where she was. She opened her mouth to ask the nurse but all that came out was a croak and the nurse brought her a glass of water, lifting her and supporting her while she drank it. ‘Now,’ she said. ‘I expect you want to know where you are. You’re in Lewis’s basement. The General Hospital was bombed and you had to be brought here. What can you remember?’
Marion cast her mind back and, in a voice still husky from the effects of the gas, she said, ‘There was a raid, and Magda smelled gas, and I had to go back to the cellar to turn off the paraffin stove. Tony, my son, followed me. How is he?’
The nurse had thought she would become inured to death, as she had been a nurse since 1938, but she’d never been able to come to terms with the death of a child and so she felt extremely sorry for Marion. She bent her head and busied herself tucking Marion in as she said, ‘Doctor will explain everything to you.’
‘So when can I see him?’
‘I’ll see if he’s free now, if you like?’
‘Please. I would be most grateful.’
‘Your parents are here too.’
‘My parents?’
‘Well, your father has been here hours and now your mother has joined him,’ the nurse said. ‘In fact, someone has been here all the time you were unconscious. You seem to have a very loving and supportive family.’
‘I have,’ Marion said simply. ‘And I know it.’
The nurse was glad that Marion had that support because her grief when the doctor told of the death of her son was so profound and deep it was painful to witness. Marion was filled with anguish and despair. Tears streamed from her eyes in a torrent and sobs shook her body as she remembered with shame every occasion she had shouted at Tony, or sent him to bed without his tea, or even beat him with the hairbrush.
And then she felt strong arms around her and her father was saying, ‘Oh, my darling girl …’
‘Daddy, oh, Daddy,’ Marion cried, clutching at him, glad of the solid bulk of him. ‘I can’t bear it, Daddy.’
‘You can, Marion,’ her father said firmly. ‘The others need you and you will not be on your own. Aren’t we all heartsore about the poor boy’s death?’
‘I didn’t know it would hurt this much,’ Marion cried. ‘I never thought anything could hurt this much.’
‘No, and maybe you will have a better understanding of the agony I have suffered over the years,’ Clara said, appearing on Marion’s other side. ‘But in your case your son’s death could have been prevented, if you had heeded my warning about those gas pipes.’
‘Clara!’ Eddie gasped, shocked to the core. ‘How can you say such a thing?’
‘Because it’s true,’ Clara said, and added almost gleefully, ‘and if Marion examines her conscience she will know I’m right.’
‘You are going home,’ Eddie said unusually firmly to his wife, ‘where you can cause no further mischief and upset.’ He took his daughter’s hand and looked into her eyes, which were like pools of sadness in her head. ‘You take no heed of this. Tony’s death is not your fault.’
Marion, though, was racked with guilt. She’d known what Tony was like. Why hadn’t she made sure that he was safe on the pavement before going to turn off the stove? Whichever way she looked at it, she had led that young boy, her own son, to his death, and she wondered if she was ever going to forgive herself.
Polly, who came to see her with Pat later, would have none of it when Marion told them of her parent’s visit.
‘I was afraid of an explosion,’ Marion said. Tm disgusted with myself. I was putting the love of my house over the safety of my son.’
‘But, Marion, it wouldn’t just have been the house, would it?’ Pat said. ‘If it had exploded it would have killed, or at least badly injured, the kids outside. What you did saved the rest of them. Yours wasn’t the only gas pipe fractured that night, you know. The whole area has been evacuated until they can repair the pipes and they must make sure any build up of gas has dispersed before they’ll allow you back. The others are camping out in a school hall on the Lozell’s Road for now. No, Marion, Tony’s death was an accident. It was tragic, and there’ll probably not be a day when we won’t miss him and wish he was still here, but if anyone was responsible it was the German bombers.’
‘Do you really think that?’
‘I know that,’ Pat said firmly. He thought for a fleeting moment of Bill, out in God alone knew where, unaware of the grievous blow his family had been dealt. He remembered the day they had enlisted, when he said it would tear the heart out of him to lose just one son, and Pat’s heart burned for him. ‘Bill needs to know,’ he said to Marion. ‘I could write to him, if you would like me to.’
‘Would you, Pat?’ Marion said gratefully and her eyes filled with tears again. ‘He will be so upset and there’ll be no one near him to give him any support.’
Pat knew no support in the world would lessen this blow for Bill, but he didn’t share that with Marion; he just told her to get well and strong again, for all the family was pining for her.
Marion saw that herself when her older children came to see her, their eyes red-rimmed in their ravaged white faces. They seemed shrouded in misery. Peggy and Violet, who also came, were little better, and yet the hospital wouldn’t think about discharging Marion until she could go back in her own house, which didn’t happen until Thursday.
She arrived in the afternoon to a house cleaned from top to bottom by Polly and Sarah, who had taken time off from work.
Later that day Marion said, ‘You know what tortures me, Polly?’
‘What?’
‘D’you think Tony knew I loved him?’
‘Of course he did.’
‘He might not have done,’ Marion said, and her eyes were sombre. ‘I mean, I never said I did.’
‘Well, it ain’t summat you have to say, is it?’ Polly said. ‘They just know, don’t they?’
‘I don’t know,’ Marion said helplessly. ‘Our mam didn’t love us, did she?’
‘Our mam was one on her own.’
‘Yeah, but was she, though?’ Marion said. ‘When I think back all I ever seemed to do was tell Tony off. It was just that I was worried that he’d go to the bad. I mean, he got up to some pranks.’
‘Yeah, him and Jack together.’
‘Thick as thieves, they were, and that’s what I thought they were turning into when they stole that coal. I was frightened to death then and yet I never laid a hand on him that time. He reduced me to tears and it shocked him to bits to see me so upset. I knew he’d never do anything like that again.’
‘Yes, because he cared about your good opinion of him,’ Polly said confidently, ‘because he loved you and knew that you loved him. Believe me, Marion, you never told Tony off unless he deserved it, and he would know that too.’
‘I did love him, you see,’ Marion said. ‘I loved him desperately, like I do all of them. I wish I could have told him just the once. It’s awful if you don’t feel loved by your mother.’
‘You’re thinking of our mam again and how she behaved,’ Polly said. ‘And you can never compare yourself with her. Her love shrivelled up when she lost Michael, and she had none left for anyone else. Your love was freely given to all your children and they’re all a credit to you – and I include Tony in that, God rest his soul.’
‘D’you know, I have been wondering why he followed me down that cellar,’ Marion said. ‘And I think it was because Richard had told him that he’d be man of the house when he enlisted.’ She smiled ruefully. ‘Tony was very impressed by that and that night I think he was sort of looking out for me.’
‘See, what did I tell you?’
‘Oh, Polly, you are good for me.’
‘We’ll always have each other, you know that,’ Polly said, her voice thick with emotion, ‘and I’ll be right beside you at the funeral tomorrow.’