Had it not been for last night’s air raid, what had happened in Wickham might have warranted more than the line it got in the local paper. But one death would hardly be noticed among so many.
Ken was already in Keef’s office when Eve and Dimitri entered, and so, surprisingly, was David Hatton, who rose politely and waited for Eve to be seated.
Looking at the notes he had before him, David said, ‘There was a death in the area of Wickham Village yesterday. I shall issue a statement to the Hampshire Constabulary that will say simply that none of the witnesses questioned in Portsmouth has anything to add to their statements.’
Ken spoke up loudly. ‘Excuse me, David, would you mind not speaking for us until we know what you are giving us an alibi for? We were there. However inconvenient it might be, I don’t like cover-ups.’
‘Did you know this man James Gunner?’
‘Yes.’
‘Were you in this place—’ he looked at his notes – ‘Swallit Wood or Swallit Pool at some time between eleven and two thirty p.m.?’
Eve went cold. Ken didn’t look in her direction. Nevertheless she felt that his eyes were upon her.
‘No, I was in Wickham Village then.’
‘So you didn’t see this man floating in the water with a blow to the head?’
‘No.’
‘I know that your sister and Major Vladim were with the rest of your family, on their way to the church, right, Major… Eve…?’
‘We were in a beautiful parade of many people of my wife’s clan.’
‘So neither of you saw anything?’
‘It was as I have just told you, Lieutenant Hatton… sir.’
‘So I may take it then, that none of you can add anything to what you told the police yesterday?’ David Hatton took silence as assent. ‘Good. I am glad that none of you is to be delayed any further because of some civil matter. Major, you have a train to catch and your wife has to return to Ford aerodrome.’
‘Excuse me,’ Eve interrupted. ‘May I make something clear? I would prefer it if I was not referred to as Major Vladim’s wife. It makes me sound as though I am a possession. You all know that I chose my own name. I wish to keep it, as you men all keep yours.’ She knew that they would think her unnecessarily assertive, but bad luck!
Suddenly, Eve began to sweat profusely and feel dizzy. ‘I’m sorry, but could I have some water, please?’
Only Keef did not jump into action.
As she drank, a terrible nausea arose in her and she rushed from the room, retching into an inadequate handkerchief. She blacked out and crumpled to the floor.
The next thing she was aware of was being on a cot-bed, and Glasspool wafting sal volatile under her nose.
‘Did I faint? I’m sorry, I suddenly felt so awful.’
‘How are you now, ma’am?’
In other circumstances, Eve might have smiled. ‘I’m fine. We had a long day yesterday and then there was the air raid. I’m all right.’
‘It’s probably your period. There are some stains on your stockings. I have put a hand-towel under you. Don’t move. There’s a doctor staying here and I’ve told one of the boys to fetch him.’ Suddenly Eve was convulsed by sharp pains drawing her womb up and clutching and pulsating her back. With shock and dread, she recognised the awful pains of the onset of miscarriage, and again she was dragged into blackness.
She was between sheets, with the smell of Lysol and ether hanging around her. Way, way in the distance, an echoing voice said, ‘She’s with us again, sir.’
She felt warm… grateful for feeling warm again. Thirsty, but warm feet. Woollen socks. The pain had stopped. Her neck felt limp, her head heavy, she allowed it to sink further into the pillow.
‘Can you hear me, ma’am? She’s coming out of it, sir.’
The voice became normal and the sir became a head in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging from his neck. He picked up her hand and felt her pulse, then pulled her eyelid down and peered closely.
‘How’s the bleeding, Sister?’
‘Hardly anything, sir.’
Eve wanted them to go away so that she could go back to sleep again.
She remembered the extreme pain, hearing screaming and knowing that it was herself. She remembered Dimitri gathering her in his arms and carrying her down the steps and into the ambulance, and the ambulance bell ringing and ringing.
She remembered Dimitri. ‘You will be fine, Eve. The doctor says you will be well. Hold on, hold on.’ Then to someone else, ‘No, no, I will not go outside. This is my wife. I insist to be with her. You can make all the orders you wish, but I shall not leave.’
She remembered the bright, white light, then darkness and then this hard, comfortable, warm bed.
‘She can have a cup of tea, plenty of sugar.’
The nursing sister loomed over her. ‘Nice cup of tea, ma’am?’
Eve nodded. Tea. Then sleep. Silence. To be on her own. No one telling her anything. No decisions to make. The pain was gone. Peace. Peace. Peace. Sweet, sweet tea and peace.
‘Do you know where you are?’
‘Where is my… where is Major Vladim… my husband?’
She remembered David saying, ‘Major, you have a train to catch,’ and visualised Dimitri seated on a train rushing away, taking him back to Scotland. Suddenly she experienced a terrible sense of loss. The emptiness and aloneness was too much to handle, and she drifted away into the temporary oblivion again. She needed help. Where was Janet McKenzie when she was needed? Tears trickled out from beneath her closed lids. For God’s sake, Eve, pull yourself together. I can’t. Don’t want to. The cat who walks by itself.
‘She is all right, but we keep losing her. She is weak, very thin and undernourished, and underweight, but nothing that a few steaks and some iron tonic won’t put right. I’m surprised this didn’t happen earlier. Speak to her, sir, try to get her to respond. I’d like her to drink some sweet tea.’
The ‘sir’ the sister addressed didn’t need to speak. His smell, his breathing, the displacement of air when he moved told Eve who he was. ‘Dimitri. You missed your train.’ She didn’t want to open her eyes in case she was mistaken.
‘You see, Sister, only two days married and already she reprimands me. You go, I will attend. Come on, sit up, you have tea to drink.’ He put his hands under her armpits and hoisted her up against the pillows. ‘The sister is right, you are too thin. You will eat steak and like it. Now, drink tea, or I shall have it myself.’
‘Russians are so bloody bossy.’
‘Don’t use language.’
She drank. No tea had ever tasted so good. ‘I feel better already.’ It was then she felt the pads between her legs. ‘Oh my God! Was I pregnant? Dimitri, did I miscarry again?’ She slumped back against the pillows, not wanting to know the answer. Dimitri pressed the bell and kept his thumb hard on it.
When the hubbub died down and it was decided that this was not an emergency, the doctor stood resolutely beside Eve’s bed, whilst Dimitri resumed denting and creasing it and making her drink.
‘Major Vladim, there is no need to panic. Your wife is a healthy young woman, rather thin but otherwise healthy, but she must—’
‘Excuse me.’
The doctor withdrew his attention from Dimitri. ‘Yes?’
‘Oh, good. I thought for a moment I had become so thin that you couldn’t see me.’
Dimitri signalled to her with a frown, but he was holding back a smile. ‘I think maybe that Sub-Lieutenant Anders means that you should be addressing her as she is the one—’
‘Thank you, Dimitri. You don’t have to speak for me.’
Holding his palms protectively in front of him, he shrugged his shoulders at the doctor.
‘This is the first I’ve known about being pregnant. And if I am, then please address me.’ When she asked the question she was looking at Dimitri. ‘Am I still pregnant?’
‘Yes, Lieutenant Anders. You are carrying a baby.’
‘I’m sorry I was so rude to you. Do you think I won’t lose it?’
‘No. I see no reason why you should not have a full-term pregnancy, and a normal birth. It was what is known as a break-through bleed. Your husband says that you miscarried once before when you were in a weakened state – a two-months foetus. However, this time, your foetus is stronger, being more advanced. Your notes show that you have experienced a great amount of trauma… stress. Major Vladim tells me that you were out in the incendiary raid last night.’
Eve looked questioningly at Dimitri. ‘Was it last night?’
He nodded.
‘How strange.’
The doctor felt Eve’s pulse – ‘Not much wrong there’ – and pulled down a lower eyelid. ‘A little anaemic. Nothing very serious.’ He smiled for the first time. ‘I will ask Sister to bring you some beef broth which you will drink to the very last drop. You’ll see to that, Major?’
‘If she will permit me.’ He shook hands energetically with the doctor and said, ‘Thank you, very much. I thank you for such good news… that my wife will be well again.’
After he had left the ward, Eve looked up at Dimitri, who looked as though he didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. ‘Four months! Four months!’
‘It is how many months we have been married.’
‘I know, I know.’
‘It was the night we made love after our marriage. You remember how good it was?’
‘I used a cap and cream. It shouldn’t have happened.’
Pulling back the covers, he laid his hand on her belly and gently caressed it. ‘Russians have very strong sperms. Your little contraption will not stop them.’ Moving close, he looked directly into her eyes with no levity in his expression, and took hold of her hand. ‘We made a baby. It is not going away.’
She tightened her grip on his fingers. ‘I know and I’m terrified.’
‘Of this little baby?’
‘Of what it will do to me.’
‘Eve, what are you saying?’
‘I was supposed to marry you and then get an annulment. But now there are three of us. How can we get divorced and forget the marriage of convenience with a baby?’
‘Eve…’
‘I’m sorry, Dimitri. It wasn’t your fault any more than mine.’
‘No, I am sorry. I forget for a moment the agreement why you married me – to make me British citizen. I forget because I love you.’
‘Please, Dimitri, not now. Just leave me to get some sleep.’
The next day, the doctor came into the ward, felt her pulse, and listened to her heartbeat and that of the baby. ‘You had another little bleed during the night.’
Eve nodded. ‘It wasn’t anything much.’
‘I want you to remain here, under my care for a while.’
‘How long is a while?’
‘Maybe three weeks… a month.’
‘That long?’
‘We will get you through this, and you will have a fine, healthy baby. Now then, a Dr McKenzie has asked if I would give her permission to visit you. I have no objection. In fact, I believe it might be a good thing for you to talk to her.’
‘Yes, please.’
‘Janet, this is devastating. I still can’t believe it is true. I haven’t even had to alter the buttons on my uniform.’
Looking at Eve levelly, Janet said, ‘You became addicted to the banting and regurgitation.’
‘Please, Janet, that sounds so crude.’
‘But you’ve been doing it ever since you were so successful at it when you went to Spain.’
‘I liked the way I looked.’
‘It’s a dangerous practice, Eve. You are lucky your baby didn’t abort.’
‘Oh, thank you, Janet, I feel really lucky. If I had known it wasn’t the slimming that was stopping my periods, I would have been able to make that decision myself.’
‘Anger won’t help.’
‘Don’t lecture me. Just now I need all the anger I can get.’
‘You are being kept in here to stay calm and rested. If you haemorrhage again, the baby will be too small and weak to survive. Is that what you want?’
Eve stared off through the window that showed only bright April sky. ‘Two or three months ago, I would have said yes. Do you know what, Janet? Dimitri always had plenty of French letters, I have had a cap for years, and I have a box of pennyroyal, and here I am pregnant.’
‘I agree, that’s pretty damned bad luck. But we have to talk about the situation as it is.’
‘The situation is that I am terrified.’
‘It’s not the first time you’ve been terrified.’
‘Terrified of being cut off behind enemy lines with only a fast-flowing river to escape by. Terrified of trying to escape with two children – yes, but this is something I have no control over. This… this foetus is just there. I’m not able to make any decisions about it.’
‘Women do change when they actually give birth. Have you thought of that?’
‘Absolutely! My friend utterly rejected her baby. She wouldn’t even feed it.’
‘She must have suffered some kind of traumatic event.’
‘This is a traumatic event. I don’t want a baby, Janet. I just don’t want it.’
‘OK, so talk to me about why.’
‘I had never planned to be a mother. I refuse to go the way my mother went. She was a trainee teacher and she got pregnant with my elder brother without wanting to. She gave up her plans for herself. She had wanted a career… she had a brain, she was clever. I want to be a pilot, not a mother. I will go off my head if I have to stay at home and bring up a child. It’s just not fair. Dimitri can be a father and go on doing what he wants to do, but I can’t be a mother and get my pilot’s licence. I can’t fly our agents and drop them safely into France. It’s what SOE were training me for. It’s what I want to do. Is that “why” enough?’
‘OK, so let us run through the options available. Adoption?’
Eve was horrified. ‘No! Dimitri wouldn’t agree anyhow.’
‘But you agreed to marry him.’
‘That’s not the same. There is this third person involved here, and we can’t ask it.’
‘Have the child, keep it, and find someone you trust to look after it. There are thousands of children being brought up away from their mothers and fathers – evacuees.’
‘Evacuate a new-born baby?’
‘Mothers die at birth and their babies thrive with substitute parents.’
Eve gave Janet a wry smile. ‘I had a substitute parent – he was my brother.’
‘So, substitute parenting works; you grew up all right.’
‘Don’t make me laugh, Janet. I’m nuts, and you know that better than anybody. I don’t even know yet who I am.’
‘Of course you’re not nuts. And you do know who you are, Eve Anders. Not Lu Wilmott, not Mrs Vladim, not even Sub-Lieutenant Anders – you are Eve. You didn’t choose that name by accident.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Even if you didn’t choose it consciously, you saw yourself as the first woman… Eve.’
‘Adam’s spare rib.’
‘Adam was a wimp. God had to give him somebody to show him what to do. God said, “Don’t you dare pick that apple.” Adam was so scared, he said, “Sure thing, God. Who wants knowledge anyway?” But what did Eve say? “To Hell with that, I want to know what’s going on.” So she picked the damned thing and gave all the rest of us a bite. Eve is the hero of the Garden of Eden story.’
‘Thank God for you, Janet. I’ll be all right now. I’ll stay here as long as I’m told to. I’ll eat and drink, I’ll get fat.’
‘Listen to me, Eve. This is your friend speaking, not the doctor. I think you have had enough hungers in your life… your missing father, your education, and then you “banted” your family and are now hungry for them.’
‘I’m not. I’ve just seen them. They are dropping to pieces. There is no longer any tranquillity there. My uncle is sick, but they won’t talk about it. My friend was raped… the rapist was found dead. I don’t think they wanted me. I was just the prize Aunt May wanted. I made her a bride’s mother for the day. She put on this great feast, and invited half the county, just so that they could see her being the Bride’s Mother. For God’s sake, I’m not even her daughter.’
‘Why did you go there?’
‘I wanted to make up for leaving them when I went off to Spain.’
‘You went off to the most dangerous place on earth at that time. Don’t you think that might have worried them – just a little?’
‘I know it did, but it was the only way I knew how to break away. Clean cut. Get away.’
‘Now turn the whole thing on its head. You return just as suddenly as you went. But you had changed. My, how you had changed – a slim, pale-haired WRNS officer with an impressive Russian in tow. You probably scared them to death. But what does your proud aunt do? She treats you like the princess you are to her. She wants to put a stop to the rumours about why you left. She wants to show you off. It was an act of love for you, Eve. Now she could let you go into the arms of this wonderful Russian whom everybody likes.’
Eve didn’t reply. She stared out at the bright blue sky until she almost drifted off into sleep.
‘I’ll go now. Get some rest. I’ll come as often as I can.’
‘Do you think the girls would come? Maybe just DB, and Anomie?’
Janet nodded, then rose and gave Eve a light, brushing kiss on the cheek. ‘Eve?’
‘Yes?’
‘Would you mind if I went to see your aunt? Do you think she would mind?’
‘Not if you give her enough notice so that she can put on a decent frock, and show you Roman’s Fields at its best.’
DB came. Eve was sitting outside in the sun. DB’s hair was very short and set in broad waves.
‘Brought you this.’ She tossed her a cardboard envelope. ‘It’s what they call a private pressing, a limited edition. Play it when you don’t mind crying.’
Eve read the label. ‘Mina de Beers – “Sophisticated Lady”.’ She turned it over. ‘Mina de Beers – “Strange Fruit”.’
‘That’s super, DB. I’ll have to get somebody to bring me in a gramophone.’
‘You don’t mind if I don’t say anything about… you know… the baby?’
‘I want to hear what is happening.’
‘I’m off on a tour again – Cairo, hence the short hair. The “dotty” music is proving such a good way of getting information out.’
‘Good luck. I hope there are enough people out there who will appreciate your voice.’
‘Hey, who cares now I’ve got a contract to record?’
Ken wrote Eve a letter, saying that he had had the best time ever at the Finishing School.
I can’t tell you where they’re sending me, but it’s back where I might get a chance to look for my girl.
My old skill at coffin-making will stand me in good stead. I can be a useful tradesman. If I’m itinerant, I shall be in a good position to know what is going on. I wonder how you felt going back. I shall soon know. Dimitri’s a good man, Eve. Give him a chance.
Ken.
When Electra came, she told Eve that she didn’t think the FiFi was working. ‘But I don’t want to give up on it. Even if we save just one, it will be worth it. Don’t you think?’
Eve guessed that Electra wanted what she was doing justified. To save just one life. Paul’s.
Every day Eve had to take gentle exercise, just walking around, keeping her legs moving. After four weeks, she asked if she could leave.
‘It would be safer to wait a while – make sure you and the baby are both quite well. Why not stay with us, and let us deliver the baby?’
There came a day when the buttons of her cotton dressing gown would hardly fasten. It seemed that almost overnight, her body had taken on the figure of an expectant mother. When she took a bath, she actually looked down at herself critically. Her breasts had become swollen, her nipples large and darkened, and her belly swelled out like the dome of a silver serving dish. Running her hands over it, she felt the baby move.
My God! I really am pregnant.
Dimitri didn’t write from Scotland every day, but quite often, the letters arriving in batches. She didn’t write back, except for a postcard now and again to say that the baby was well and moving. Although she had plenty of time to write, she didn’t know what to say.
Then one day a nurse came to say that there was a visitor.
‘May! What are you doing here?’
Giving Eve a tentative hug, May said, ‘I’ve come to see you, you daft thing. Here, I got you a jar of malt, some honey, cod-liver oil, and some of Ted’s strawberry cordial to take after it, and I’ve give the nurse a block of butter that’s to be give only for you.’
‘Oh May. I don’t know what to say.’
‘You don’t have to say nothing. I said to Ann, “I thought there was something wrong when she wasn’t eating proper. She was having the sickness and didn’t want anybody to see.” And Ann agreed. “You just remind her what I said, I an’t never been wrong yet about girls who’s expecting. It shows in their eyes.” Don’t they ever give a visitor a cup of tea in this place? Hold on, I’ll go and ask that nurse. I give her a pot of honey for herself, so she won’t mind.’
May had arrived like a whirlwind and took over. She’d gone to see the matron and asked her to see that Eve was given all the supplements she had brought in. And she’d shown her the layette she had brought in for taking the baby home. ‘I want you to send me a telegram as soon as she goes into labour, and I’ll come down and be with her. Don’t say no, because I shall come anyway. I’ve brought a good many babes into the world.’ The matron had never encountered a will stronger than her own. This was her hospital, but she wasn’t averse to a bit of flattery from a woman who said that she only ever wanted to be a nurse and finish up as Matron in a good hospital. ‘The best in the whole county, and I know, I’m Hampshire born and bred.’
‘Have you been knitting, Eve?’ May asked her now, spreading out the tiny clothes for Eve to see.
‘You know I can’t knit.’
‘I said to Ray, do you think I should go for white, seeing as we shan’t know whether it is a boy or girl until it’s too late to start knitting. Ray said, “Do yellow.” Do you know, I never thought of it. Look, an’t these just the prettiest things you ever saw? I know it seems a lot, but the first weeks they get through them like anything.’
Then she calmed down. ‘You’re looking just like your old self… I was going to say “Lu”, but that Janet friend of yours said you wanted to be called Eve now. Well, I don’t mind. It’s you whose name it is. She explained to me that it was important.’
A wards-maid came in with a teatray set up. ‘You must be somebody’s fav’rite. Visitors don’t usually get anything.’
‘That’s really nice. It’s not that I was asking for any preferential treatment, but I have come a long way on the train.’
When the girl had gone, Eve said, ‘And what else did Dr McKenzie say besides that I want to be called Eve?’
‘Well… she did sound me out about how I would feel if the baby came to live with us. It’s out in the country, and as safe as houses – as you well know. We don’t want for nothing in the way of decent food. It’s the one thing that being a smallholder has over the rest these days. You’ve seen for yourself how little Bonnie and Anthony are thriving. Never a want of somebody to see to them. The baby would have ready-made cousins living in the same house, and, of course, you know how much room we’ve got there. It could have a proper nursery – next to your old bedroom, if you like. Then you and Dimitri could come down any time you wanted.’ May had been handling and smoothing the baby clothes as she had been speaking. Then she collected them together, returned them to the bag, and went silent. Eventually, looking up at Eve, she said, ‘Lord, Eve, I’ve run out of steam.’
‘You’re amazing, May. Do you really want to take on a new-born baby at your time of life?’
‘What do you mean – at my time of life? I’m in a better state of health than you, my girl.’
‘I know that. It’s just that you always seem to have room for one more.’
‘I just happen to believe that the best thing invented is a family – the bigger, the better.’ Even though Eve couldn’t subscribe to May’s belief, for May it was true. And what May believed, Eve needed to get her through.
‘By the way, I brought you in the Hampshire Chronicle. There’s a piece in there about Alice’s husband.’
CORONER’S COURT
The inquiry into the death of James Gunner – land agent – of Wickham took place this week.
Gunner’s wife, Alice, gave evidence that her husband had been unwell in recent months and had taken to walking in woodlands other than those on the estate which was his place of work.
Readers may remember that Mr Gunner had been discovered with a severe injury to his head, drowned in a local pond known as ‘Swallit’. At first the police were puzzled by Gunner’s presence at the pond, his head injury, and the fact that his clothing was in disarray. The coroner saw nothing unusual for a man working, as he did, well away from public view to relieve himself when he was about his work.
Many trees in that area had become rotten and a good number of branches had fallen at that time in the area around the pond, and it appeared likely that Gunner had been struck by one. Blood was discovered on a broken branch.
A verdict of death by misadventure was returned.
When May had gone. Eve reread the piece and wondered about the truth. At least the coroner was satisfied and the case was closed. Eve knew she would never ask Bar about that day.