Jimmy’s Hope House, Kensington,
late October 1917
Ada meets the twins, Elka and Ania
Ada couldn’t keep her eyes off the door of the rooms they used for the clinic. These were the basement rooms. There were four in all: a surgery, a waiting room, an examination room and a kitchen.
In the corner of the waiting room was a booking-in desk. It was here that Ada hovered. ‘Michael, I can’t tell you why, but will you help me to speak to Mrs Tolenski?’
‘Of course I will, but what brings you down here? You don’t usually get involved with this clinic.’
‘I knaw. I – I had some spare time, that’s all. Anyroad, her story touched me. I read it when I made up the list of those attending the clinic today.’ She thought quickly for an excuse for her interest. ‘It – it set me wondering if we couldn’t do something for refugees. Many of them have lost their husbands or, as in this case, a young ’un. They must be very lonely. I thought that, with the help of you interpreters, we could teach them English, so they’re not so isolated.’ She thought this sounded plausible.
‘You never stop, do you? You are one of the kindest people I know, Ada, especially after all you’ve been through. Of course I’ll help – between my job as an interpreter for the War Office and my voluntary work for Lady Eloise’s charity, that is!’
‘Aw, you’re a gem, Michael.’
‘Look, Ada, I know that you have a fellow, but how about you come out with me one evening? You don’t seem to have any fun.’
‘Ta, Michael, that’s reet nice of you, but when I’m done here I can’t wait to spend time with me little lad and Annie. We have a lot of fun together. I’m alreet, honest. Besides, what does an educated man like you want to take a working-class girl like me out for?’
‘I – I don’t mean . . . Ada, you can’t think I meant that.’
‘Naw, I don’t. I’m just joking with you. I’d never think that of you, Michael.’ She laughed at him as she pushed his shoulder. He was a tall man who towered over her. His dark good looks had him catching the eye of many of the lasses who worked in or visited the building, so she was flattered that he’d asked, but a little embarrassed as well.
‘Well, I’m glad. And the offer stands, and with no strings attached, I promise.’ He was back to his relaxed, self-assured self. ‘Though I have to say that I do find you very attractive, and would hope you might turn your attentions to me.’
‘Michael! You’ve just knocked yourself off the pedestal I put you on. There’s no chance of that happening. I’m engaged to be married!’ To soften this she laughed and said, ‘Now, stop taking the rise out of me.’
‘I’m not—’
Ada cut him off as she spotted an older, foreign-looking woman enter, pushing a pram. ‘Eeh, there she is! I’m sure it’s her.’
‘Now you have got me suspicious. I think there is more to this than you wanting to start a group for refugees?’
‘Naw . . . Naw, don’t be daft. I – I were just pleased to see that she had come, after you saying she was afraid when you visited, that’s all. Come on, she’s booked herself in. Let’s go and chat.’
A look of fear crossed Mrs Tolenski’s face as they approached. Her eyes shifted from Ada to Michael.
Ada’s heart thumped in her chest as she glanced at the twins. Though they had the reddish hair that she believed Albert had had, they looked so like Edith. One of them smiled at her, and the other glared from under a cross frown. ‘Eeh, they’re bonny.’
Michael said something in Polish to Mrs Tolenski.
Realizing that she was frightening the woman even more, Ada asked Michael to explain her idea.
Mrs Tolenski’s head shook from side to side as Michael spoke, and she clung on tightly to the handle of the large pram. The twins, one sitting at each end, stared at Ada. The one who had glared started to scream.
‘Elka, you will upset Ania!’
Oh God! Elka and Ania. Eeh, they are Edith’s for sure. But what can I do? What can I do?
‘Are you all right, Ada? Mrs Tolenski is screaming that you are scaring the babies.’
‘What? Oh, yes. Tell her I don’t mean to. By, the young ’un has a grand voice on her – she shocked me!’
As Mrs Tolenski picked up Elka, Ania began to cry, only her little sobs sounded fearful rather than angry.
Ada picked her up and held her to her. ‘There, there. It’s alreet – naw one is going to hurt you.’
Hardly able to believe she was holding Edith’s child in her arms, she had to swallow hard not to let her emotions get the better of her. Panic shook any trace of them away, as Mrs Tolenski put Elka back in the pram and grabbed Ania. Though she didn’t understand the words she said, Ada knew the woman intended to leave.
‘Tell her she must stay. Michael, tell her . . . tell her!’
‘But . . .’
‘Do it, Michael: tell her it is the law!’ Past caring what he thought, Ada only knew that she must keep them here, and that she must gain the woman’s confidence.
Sitting back down with a look of defeat, Mrs Tolenski dabbed at her eyes with a rag she’d fetched from her pocket.
‘Ada, that was bad form. What’s going on?’
‘Nothing. I’m sorry. I just felt that I had scared her away. Eeh, Michael, I couldn’t have that on me conscience – these babbies need us.’
‘Look, I’ll talk to her for a moment. Explain that you only want to be her friend and help her with the children. You leave us for a minute and, if she is willing to talk to you, then I will fetch you.’
Knowing that he was right, but finding it difficult to lose sight of the children, Ada moved away.
Half an hour passed before Michael came to her. ‘I couldn’t find you. I never thought to look by the entrance! What is your intention: to barricade them in or something? What is going on, Ada?’
‘Eeh, Michael, I can’t say, but I need your help. I need to stop them leaving the country, at least for a few weeks.’
He stared in astonishment and disbelief. ‘How am I going to do that?’
‘Is she still saying that she is going?’
‘Ada, I am losing my patience with you and will speak to Lady Eloise about this. There is something dreadfully wrong, for you to be behaving like this.’
A feeling of despair came over her. Edith would be disgraced if her secret got out, so Ada would have to make something up. ‘I’m being silly. I just have a funny feeling about those twins. As soon as I heard about them, I thought of me friend back home. Her husband was killed, and the shock and distress caused her to lose her twin babbies. They came too early and died at birth. I thought that if Mrs Tolenski couldn’t cope, I could get me friend to adopt them, and the Tolenskis could still be their grandparents; they could all help each other.’
‘Of all the ridiculous notions, Ada! Mrs Tolenski loves those babies and lives in fear of anyone taking them off her. She would never agree to such a plan.’
Ada’s despair deepened and she could think of nothing to say.
Sensing this, Michael said, ‘Sorry, old thing, but it just isn’t on. Oh, here they come. Now don’t go upsetting her. She was quite happy by the time I had settled her, and she went in to see the doctor without a murmur.’
Standing close to the wall, Ada waited for Mrs Tolenski to reach the exit. When she did, she smiled a friendly smile. ‘Was everything alreet with the babbies?’
To Michael’s interpretation, the woman smiled back and nodded, saying in English, ‘Thank you, yes’ and then switched to Polish, which Michael told Ada meant, ‘Her little darlings were very healthy, and she was grateful for the help and the vaccinations.’
Smiling widely at her, Ada thought to get a better response by doing as the woman had done and speaking directly to her, rather than to Michael. ‘I wondered if I could call on you and help you out? I have a little boy. He is a little older, about a month or so, and it would be good for them to play together.’
The woman’s reply, given through Michael, was disappointing. ‘No, that is not possible. We can’t understand what you say, and I don’t want to confuse the children. We will be leaving very soon for Poland. Thank you very much, but no.’
Ada felt as though she had a lead weight in her chest at having let Edith down. She watched the woman walk away. There was nothing she could do. Nothing!
Trying to allay Michael’s concern, she turned to him and said, ‘Well, you win some and you lose some.’ It was a flippant remark that didn’t speak of how she felt at all, or of the determination inside her to get those babies back to Edith. Somehow she would find a way of keeping the Tolenskis here as she felt sure that, once Edith received her letter, she would come home and claim the girls as rightfully hers.