‘My oh my, whatever next?’ Ruby said to Gwyneth, who’d popped over with a cake she’d baked, as she wiped her eyes. ‘The things you girls get up to, and now our Sarah is a manager; I’m lost for words. Here, George, have you heard what happened down at Woolworths when Sarah was made manager?’ she called out the back door to where George was enjoying a chat with Bob and Alan.
‘Yes, Mum, people have spoken of nothing else. I wish I’d seen Mike taking that chap away,’ he called back before returning to his own conversation. ‘So how’s it going down the workshop?’
Alan shook his head. ‘It’s up and down. I thought the other week I’d cracked it when a delivery of smashed-up motorbikes came in, but after going through it all I made up one bike out of the load and so far there’s not been a taker. The scrap man has done better out of the deal.’
‘It’s early days, though,’ Bob said. ‘You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, and word will get out soon enough; then you’ll be rushed off your feet. At least your Sarah’s doing all right, from what I’ve heard? I suppose there’s an increased wage that goes along with being a manager?’
Alan was finding it hard to keep a pleasant smile on his face. At a time when he was struggling to bring in even a few shillings, his wife had gone and landed a job that could have been his by rights if he hadn’t been so headstrong. Now, if he gave up on his dream of running his own business and went to Woolworths cap in hand for a job, his own wife could be his boss. ‘She’s doing nicely, thanks Bob. I’m proud of her,’ he said – and in truth he was, even if he was uncomfortable feeling beholden to a woman to keep him fed and a roof over his head. It wasn’t natural for a woman to be the breadwinner.
‘I’ve got some brown ale keeping cool in the pantry. Do you fancy one?’ Bob asked the two men.
‘That sounds good,’ George said. ‘I brought a bottle of sherry for the ladies. We will be celebrating our Sarah’s success in style. By the way, where is my clever daughter?’
‘She went to meet Betty in town and walk back with her. Douglas was looking at premises as he’s intent on expanding his business now the war is all but over, bar us getting those lads back from the clutches of the Japs.’
‘It’s good to know one business is doing well,’ Alan said, trying hard not to look glum. ‘I suppose there’ll always be a need for an undertaker, even if people don’t need a motorbike repaired.’
George watched his son-in-law struggle with his composure and could see a young man faced with a bleak future while his wife’s star was on the ascent. Something needed to be done, and fast.
‘You look very smart, my dear,’ Betty said, stepping back to look Sarah up and down after kissing her cheek. ‘Being a manager of F. W. Woolworth really suits you.’
‘Maisie told me I had to dress the part now I wasn’t wearing a maroon overall all day long. Dad treated me to this from Hedley Mitchell, and Maisie ran up a couple of skirts for me. I must admit it felt rather strange walking into work and knowing the responsibility for the whole store was on me.’
‘But Sarah, your duties are no different to the ones you were already carrying out. The only difference is that you don’t have Cecil Porter getting under your feet or me deciding how you should organize your time. You are in charge now, and you have a bright future,’ Betty said, pushing the pram containing her daughter alongside Sarah’s pram, where young Buster was sleeping peacefully. Betty held her breath for a moment to stop the wobble in her voice. She didn’t want Sarah to see that she wanted her old world back, and could see it slipping further and further from her grasp.
‘I suppose you are right,’ Sarah said, staring ahead, knowing that her dream of staying at home to care for her family was floating away from her. Perhaps her dreams weren’t meant to be? ‘What did you think of the premises Douglas wanted to look at?’ she asked, moving on to a safer area of conversation.
‘They’re very good, but so spacious. It’s three shops. Two have been knocked into one large premises, and there’s a smaller one on the side that someone has been subletting until recently. It needs painting and tidying up, then Douglas can think about letting it out.’
‘So he’ll sign the lease?’
‘I do believe he will. He’s so full of plans. He even wants me to run the front of house.’ She laughed.
‘It will be rather different to running a branch of Woolworths. Will you be able to take young Charlotte to work with you?’ Sarah asked, kicking herself for mentioning the store again.
Betty screwed up her face. ‘I’d rather not. She has her routine and I’d not like to disturb her. We have a very good housekeeper, and Douglas is all for hiring a nanny, so I’ve no excuse not to help him.’
‘Lucky you,’ Sarah said, thinking of her own worries about leaving Buster with someone and arranging for Georgina to be picked up from school. Maisie had been the first to suggest that Buster could join her children, and they could pay Sadie a little more for caring for an extra child. Sadie had been overjoyed at the suggestion; so there was no reason for Sarah to add her children to the list of reasons why she shouldn’t accept the job of store manager.
‘Yes, I know I’m very fortunate . . . but in some ways I wish my life hadn’t changed so much,’ Betty said, realizing she needed to unburden her thoughts after all; and to whom better than her friend, Sarah?
Sarah stopped pushing her pram and turned to Betty. ‘We’re a right pair, aren’t we? Here we are with the most adorable babies as well as lovely families back home, and we still aren’t happy?’
Betty laughed. ‘We should be grateful for what we have. So many women are not as fortunate as we are. We survived the war and have so much to look forward to. We must try to be more positive and pin a smile on our faces.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ Sarah said, knowing that she would have to dig deep to keep her promise to Betty. ‘Isn’t that Freda sitting on the step of Woolworths?’ she added as they crossed the road from Cross Street.
‘I do believe it is, and she looks so sad. Come on – let’s get these prams over the road and see what the problem is,’ Betty said, bumping her pram off the curb so suddenly that young Charlotte awoke and started to cry. ‘Blast! I’ll never get the hang of caring for a baby,’ Betty muttered, as Sarah leant into the pram and soothed the child.
‘It takes time to learn,’ Sarah said as they hurried towards Woolies.
‘You all made it seem so easy,’ Betty sighed. ‘I’m much better with grown-ups; and it looks as though my skills will be needed with our Freda. The poor girl seems to be sobbing her heart out.’
Both women parked their prams in front of the store. Betty hurried to sit by the younger woman’s side, while Sarah checked Betty had set the brake properly in case the baby started to roll down the slight slope of the pavement.
‘My goodness, Freda, you look distraught. Whatever has happened? Is it news about Sandy?’
Freda cuffed her eyes and blew her nose on the clean handkerchief Betty passed to her. ‘We can always rely on you to have a handkerchief,’ she said with a hiccup, referring to when Betty had kept a stock of them in her Woolworths desk drawer when her staff became distraught over something or other. ‘You’ll have to remember that, Sarah,’ she added, trying to raise a smile but failing.
Sarah sat on the other side of Freda and put her arm round her shoulder. ‘What has upset you so that you can’t come home and share your problem?’ she asked.
‘I didn’t want to spoil Ruby’s tea party with bad news. I thought if I sat here for a while I could compose myself, and then I could walk back to Alexandra Road and join in the celebrations for your promotion. Then I passed their shop, and the memories came flooding back of the happy times I’ve spent with Molly and her family,’ Freda said, as the tears returned.
Both women looked across the road to the Misson family’s ironmongery business and noticed a few people standing in front of the shop with their heads bowed.
‘Oh no, don’t tell me something has happened to your friend Molly?’ Sarah said. Freda had got her love of helping with the Brownies and Girls Guides from her friend Molly Missons and her mother, while Norman Missons was well known in the town for the busy shop they’d come to rely on over the years.
‘No, Molly is fine – it’s her parents. They were both killed in a car accident in Canterbury earlier today. I bumped into one of the Brownie mothers and she told me. I popped over to the shop and the staff confirmed the awful news. Molly is on her way home from the farm she works on as a Land Girl. Mr and Mrs Missons have been so good to me and Molly is my only friend apart from you two and Maisie,’ she sobbed. ‘I can’t begin to understand how she must be feeling. She’s going to be alone in that big house up the avenue and I don’t think she has any family to speak of.’
‘The poor girl,’ Betty said, trying hard to fight back her own tears. Norman Missons and his wife had been the people who came to her rescue when Cecil Porter had locked them in the store the day she gave birth to Charlotte. In fact, Douglas had suggested they name their daughter Charlotte after Mrs Missons, who was so helpful that day, and also Charlie, who had been Betty’s first love and Douglas’s best friend in the trenches of the Great War. ‘None of us know what is round the next corner, do we?’ she said, looking to Sarah, who nodded and gave a weak smile.
‘I don’t know what to do,’ Freda said.
Sarah gave Freda’s shoulders a squeeze. ‘You are going to be the friend you already are to Molly, and you will keep the Brownie and Guide packs running just as Charlotte Missons would have wished.’
Freda nodded her head vigorously. ‘You’re right. I was being selfish and panicking.’
‘Anyone would under the circumstances. You are also grieving for the friends you’ve lost. When will Molly be home?’ Sarah asked.
‘Later this evening. Would it be all right for me to go up there, do you think? I really don’t have much idea of what to do under these circumstances.’
‘Gosh, yes, and take a bag with a few things so you can stay with the poor girl. Nan can give you some food to take as well, I’m sure,’ she suggested. ‘Just be there for when she wants to talk and be a shoulder to cry on. You’re a good friend, Freda; you’ll know what to do, and don’t even think about coming in to work tomorrow. Molly is your priority for now.’
Freda gave them both a hug and wiped her eyes. ‘Thank you. I think I can do this, knowing I have you all to fall back on. The months to come are going to be rather strange, and so different to what we are used to.’
Sarah and Betty both agreed as their thoughts once again slipped to their own worries and wishes.
‘Come on, David, we were due down at number thirteen over an hour ago. If you don’t pull yer finger out the kids will ’ave got grubby again and be unfit ter be seen in public, plus the twins will need feeding and changing again,’ Maisie said as she looked out of the kitchen window to where Bessie and Claudette were throwing a ball for an excited young Ruby, who was screaming with excitement as it fell from her hands.
David sat at the kitchen table with his shirt undone and two days’ stubble on his chin. ‘You go, I’ll stay here and watch the twins. I can’t face all the back-slapping and cheering that will be going on because Sarah’s got herself promoted.’
Maisie took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know what’s come over you, David Carlisle, but you ain’t the same bloody man I married. Get yourself off yer arse and at least ’ave a shave, even if you don’t intend ter go and congratulate our friend. Besides, if I leave the twins wiv you they’ll be screaming fer food and stinking ter high heaven by the time I get back. You’re about as useful as a chocolate teapot these days.’
David stood up so quickly his chair scraped backwards over the linoleum and crashed to the floor. ‘For God’s sake, woman, can’t you see I don’t want to go out? It’s not just listening to all their happy talk, but I can’t stand the sympathy when they see my arm.’
‘But David, they all mean well. No one’s mocking you. These are our friends and as good as our family any day – better, in my case,’ she said, trying hard to smile. David’s mood swings had become progressively worse over the past few days, and she was finding it hard to predict how he would be when she came home from work. Even her excitement over the arrest of Cecil Porter had been met with a blank stare. It was as if he was giving up on life because of his injury. ‘I bet you’ve not tried any of those exercises the doctor told you ter do?’
‘What good will they do?’
‘You was told it would keep the arm flexible, and it might even bring back a little use while they look at other channels of treatment.’
David ignored her as he watched the girls in the garden. ‘I can’t even play ball with the children or change a nappy properly, let alone find myself a job and be a proper husband to you.’
Maisie looked away. She’d forgotten the last time they’d shared a bed, as these days David would often fall asleep drunk on the front room sofa. ‘You need ter pull yerself together and stop feeling so bloody sorry fer yerself,’ she snapped.
‘Or what?’ he said bleakly, turning to stare at her.
‘Or you might wake up one of these days and I’ll ’ave sodded off, and taken the kids wiv me. I didn’t sign up fer any of this. You’ve started ter treat me as if it was my fault Fred stabbed you.’
‘Well, he did, and there’s no denying that,’ David shouted back.
‘But he paid for it wiv his bloody life, and now he’s lying as dead as a doornail in an unmarked grave up Brook Street cemetery. Whereas you might as well be dead, for all the use you are ter yerself and ter this family!’ Maisie screamed back.
‘Our dad’s dead?’ A small voice came from the back door, where Bessie stood with her arm round her half sister, Claudette.
‘Oh, David, whatever ’ave we done?’ Maisie whispered, as both she and David rushed to the girls and pulled them into an embrace.
‘We didn’t mean fer you both ter find out like this,’ she said as she smothered their white faces with kisses, dashing away the hot scalding tears falling onto her cheeks. ‘Yes, your daddy has died and gone ter heaven.’
‘Does it mean we can stay living with you both forever?’ Bessie asked, looking between David and Maisie.
‘Both of us?’ Claudette added.
‘Yes, we want you to stay with us forever. We want to be your new mummy and daddy,’ David said in a choked voice.
‘Then I’m pleased he’s dead,’ Bessie said, jutting out her chin.
‘Blimey, you’re a proper Dawson,’ Maisie smiled, ‘but you must never be pleased someone has died.’
‘Not even Hitler?’ Claudette asked, giving Maisie a sly look.
‘Well, p’raps we can make an exception fer Hitler,’ she replied, not daring to look at David in case she laughed. ‘David is going ter see a man who can make it legal so you can be our own daughters. What do you think of that?’
‘Are you, David?’ Bessie asked, getting excited.
David looked a little shamefaced. ‘It may take a little while, but yes, one day we will be your mummy and daddy.’
‘Even if one day you might sod off and take us with you?’ Bessie asked Maisie.
Oh God, how long were they standing there listening? Maisie thought to herself.
‘Now, you aren’t ter listen ter us. We was just ’avin’ a bit of a barney. It wasn’t fer little girls’ ears.’
‘And no one’s going anywhere,’ David said, slipping an arm round Maisie’s shoulders and giving her a gentle squeeze. ‘I love you all too much to let you leave me. I’ve been a bit poorly lately and it’s made me miserable. I promise I’ll try harder in future.’
‘Is it because of that bloody arm?’ Claudette asked innocently.
David’s face twitched as he tried not to smile. ‘Yes, you could say that, but it should feel a little better if I do my exercises. In fact, you can both help me by playing catch with your ball in the garden. What do you say to that?’
‘I’d say that’s pretty damned good,’ Bessie exclaimed, imitating Maisie’s voice. ‘Can we start right now?’
‘I don’t see why not. What do you say, Mummy?’
‘Well, we should be going down ter Ruby’s fer our tea; but I think p’raps on this occasion we can make our apologies, don’t you? We could even have fish and chips later instead.’
The girls cheered and rushed out into the garden as David pulled Maisie close with his good arm and kissed her gently. ‘Friends?’
‘Friends,’ she said, snuggling into his chest. ‘But you do need ter ’ave that shave.’
‘That’s a part of my life over and done with,’ George said as he sat down at the dinner table. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this all day.’ He picked up his knife and fork as Ruby brought a plate of steak and kidney pudding to the table along with a steaming pile of boiled potatoes, carrots and peas.
‘Get stuck into that. There’s more vegetables than meat in the pudding, but you’ll get the flavour of the meat at least,’ his mother said with satisfaction.
‘Aren’t you eating with me?’ George asked, reaching for the salt cellar.
‘We had ours earlier. Now, tell me how it went down in Devon. Was there much to shift?’ Ruby asked as she sat down opposite her son and watched him eat.
‘I met the people who’d purchased our Devon house and they seemed very nice. I managed to move all the furniture out, and bagged up clothes we’d left there when we came up to Crayford.’
‘What did you do with Irene’s bits and pieces?’ Ruby asked, wondering if George had found it hard to go through his late wife’s personal effects.
Knowing what his mum was hinting at, he gave her a wry smile. ‘You know, it wasn’t too bad at all. If Irene had liked those clothes and bits of paste jewellery she’d have brought them with her when we rented the Crayford house, so it didn’t upset me too much to off load as much as possible with the WVS so others can make use of the garments. The jewellery can go to Sarah, and she can decide what she wants to keep or share with her friends. I did keep back some of her posher outfits, as I thought Maisie might find a use for the fabric. I know how she likes to unpick things and make bits and pieces for the kids.’
‘That’s good of you, George, and I’m pleased it wasn’t too painful.’
‘I won’t say I didn’t get down a few times when I was looking at photographs and some letters I came across from when we were courting; but in time I’ll be able to smile, and Irene wasn’t one to want us to be upset. Sarah can have it all when she’s got her own place.’
‘That’s as it should be; she can pass on what she wants to Georgina and Buster when they are older.’ Ruby smiled to herself. ‘For all her ways, I do miss her. I just hope the war and our losses will make a difference, or I’ll be asking him up above what it was all for.’
‘I’m with you there, Mum – then for Winston Churchill to lose the election. What is the world coming to? I’ve given some thought to going into politics – in a local way,’ he said, seeing Ruby’s eyes glint. ‘There’s no need to start thinking of me as the next prime minister.’
‘Perhaps once you’re settled in your new home you can give it more thought. We need some decent people on the council to speak up for the people of Erith, or they’ll be bulldozing it to the ground or other such nonsense. Now, Irene would be behind your plan to be a councillor.’
George chuckled as he put his knife and fork down. ‘She’d have been in her element. It would have cost me a fortune in new hats.’
‘So, what’s next?’ Ruby asked as she took his empty plate to the kitchen.
George followed her and leant on the door frame as she placed the plate in a bowl and poured hot water from the kettle on top. ‘I’m going to start looking about for a place to buy. I can’t keep renting the Crayford house indefinitely. It was supposed to be short-term, while I was going between the Devon plant and Vickers. Now I’m up this end full time, I want a place of my own.’
‘In Crayford?’
‘I’d like to move back to Erith. It’s my hometown, after all, and I’d be near my old mum.’
‘Not so much of the old,’ Ruby said, flapping a tea towel at George, although she was over the moon at the prospect of having her son so close by.
‘I’ll need to go through Irene’s things at the Crayford house. I’ve not done a thing since . . . since that day. I’ve been sleeping in the spare room rather than face it.’
‘You can’t keep doing that. Are you ready to sort out her things now? I’ll come over with you and help.’
George put his arm round Ruby’s shoulders. ‘Not now, Mum. I’m all in after driving back from Devon. I was thinking of taking my time to look for a new house, as it will be my permanent home.’
‘In that case, let me and Bob come over while you’re at work and move all of Irene’s things into the spare room so you can at least have a decent-sized bedroom to yourself. That room you’re using at the moment is no more than a box room. You can close the door on it all until you’re ready to tackle it once and for all. Eh?’
George nodded and reached into his pocket for a key. ‘Take this one, I have another. But please don’t go knocking yourself out doing too much. I know what you’re like. You’ll be fussing around me, then home to cook for Freda and Bob.’
‘Freda’s moved in with her friend Molly for a couple of weeks while Molly gets to grips with losing her parents. Bob can have fish and chips with me on the way home from your place, so don’t you go worrying about me.’
‘The poor kid,’ George said, shaking his head. ‘More reason for you to go steady and not tire yourself out; we don’t want to be standing over your grave any time soon.’
‘I’ll take care,’ Ruby said, turning away from him to put the kettle on for a cuppa while starting to make a list in her head of everything that needed doing.