All the Days of Our Lives (58 page)

‘You must be . . .’ She looked from one to the other of them.

‘You remember Molly!’ Em called from in the hall.

‘I do,’ Katie said, trying to get over the shock of how magnificent Molly looked. ‘But it’s been a long time. I’m Katie.’

‘I know – I can remember you. You were the one who’d never speak to me if you could possibly help it,’ Molly said. But there was happy mischief in her eyes and she gave a big, generous laugh.

‘I’m sure I was horrible,’ Katie admitted.

‘You were – not that I blame you, really. Anyway, it was all a long time ago, as you say. P’raps we can have another go at it now we’re grown-up!’

Katie smiled, liking Molly’s easy, confident manner. ‘Well, I hope so too – it’s nice to see you, Molly.’

‘This is my pal Ruth,’ Molly said, indicating the slender young woman beside her. ‘We were in the ATS together, and she’s put up with me ever since. Ruth’s one of these clever so-and-sos – she’s at Cambridge doing science.’

‘Oh, shush, Molly, stop it,’ Ruth said, blushing. She smiled and shook Katie’s hand. ‘Nice to meet you. I hope you don’t mind my coming – it’s just that we were both visiting this weekend.’

‘Of course not,’ Katie said. ‘The more, the merrier. Let’s go out to the back and I’ll make you all some tea.’

It was a lovely, lazy afternoon of conversations and meeting new people, and children free to romp around everyone, with the adults intervening or joining in when necessary. They all sat round eating and drinking in the warm breeze. Em disappeared inside to feed the baby and, as the sun sank lower, Sybil’s friends and their dogs began to drift away, first calling out their thanks and goodbyes.

When everyone had been well fed, Katie was free to sit and talk. She liked Ruth, who told her that now she had finished her science degree at Cambridge, she had stayed on to do research.

‘Does that mean you got a First, my dear?’ Sybil asked across the table. ‘One of my brothers went to Cambridge, but he came out with a disgracefully poor degree in the end. Went abroad instead and had all sorts of adventures.’

‘How exciting,’ Ruth said.

‘Oh, indeed it is – well, it’s exciting the
first
time you hear about it anyway,’ Sybil added wickedly. ‘He lives in Australia now. But you . . . ?’

‘Yes, I did get a First. I think research is my thing.’

Seeing that Ruth and Sybil were getting along well, Katie went to sit with her two old classmates at one end of the table in the shadow of the trees, so that they could all catch up.

Their eyes kept being drawn to the baby, who spent most of her time asleep in Em’s arms.

‘I still can’t believe she’s really here,’ Em said, smiling down at her. ‘All that time I was in such a state wondering what was wrong. In the end I gave up thinking about it, and decided we were lucky to have Robbie – and then out of the blue, bingo! And here she is. I mean, it would’ve been nicer if they were closer in age, but I’m not complaining – I’m just so happy to have her!’

Katie was overjoyed for her too. Over these years when they had met as often as they could manage, and had rebuilt their friendship, her own children had arrived with no trouble, first Tomas, then Dorothy, while poor Em was having no luck.

‘Maybe we’ll have more chance of getting a house of our own now, like you!’ she joked. ‘How many kids d’you have to have to get a council house?’

‘I don’t know if that’s the only reason!’ Katie laughed. ‘But you must ask them to send you out where we’re going: we could be neighbours again. I mean, it’s all new – very rough at the moment, but there’s room to make gardens and things. Oh, you must come over there – the kids could go to school together.’

‘Ooh, I’d love that,’ Em said wistfully. ‘I’ll ask – fingers crossed. We just need more room now. I couldn’t put Molly up or anything. She’s staying at Mom’s.’

‘Is your mom still determined to stay put?’

‘Oh yes – Mom won’t leave, except in her box, she says. She’s put down for one of the flats they’re building. You can hardly recognize Nechells now, with all they’re doing, changing the roads and knocking things down left, right and centre. It’s one big building site. I don’t think it’ll be the same place by the time they’ve finished.’

‘D’you think they’ll knock down the school?’ Molly asked. ‘It’d be a shame to see old Cromwell Street gone.’

‘Heaven knows,’ Em said. ‘It’s still there at the moment, but they’re letting the bulldozers loose on anything round there. Let’s hope not. The kids’ve got to go to school somewhere.’

‘And you’re back in the army?’ Katie said to Molly.

Molly smiled. ‘Yes, I’m in Signals. Look – d’you want to see our uniform?’

From her bag she produced a photograph of herself, sprucely dressed in her green WRAC uniform, her handsome face solemn, with a slight frown, as if she was listening to instructions.

‘You look magnificent,’ Katie said. She felt a growing respect for Molly, for what she had become. ‘It looks an interesting life.’

‘Oh, it is,’ Molly said. ‘It’s the life for me, anyway.’ She was bubbling over with it all.

Marek came up then and stood behind Katie, gently interrupting by putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him. He nodded at the others. ‘Sybil says it is getting a bit cold. We can go in and sit inside.’

Katie reached up and took his hand. ‘All right, love,’ she said.

Marek squeezed her hand. ‘I’ll fetch the children.’

The three women walked slowly up the garden, Em still cradling Christine. Molly turned to Katie.

‘You’ll have to tell me about yourself properly, Katie.’

Startled, Katie looked round at her. She saw that Molly was genuinely interested, and in her kind, honest face she saw someone she very much wanted to get to know.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You too. I’d like that.’

Sybil was at the back door as the three of them slowly walked inside from the garden, which was now all in shadow.

‘Ah,’ she said fondly. ‘Here’s the class from Cromwell Street School!’ As they laughed she said. ‘Go along, girls – leave the men to it for a bit. You can go into the room at the back: you’ll be warmer.’

‘Thank you, Sybil,’ Katie said. ‘It’s been a lovely afternoon.’

‘And thank you, too – it’s been marvellous,’ Sybil agreed.

Katie led her friends inside to sit together in the mellow light of late afternoon, to continue a conversation that she hoped would last, now, for the rest of their lives.

A
NNIE
M
URRAY
was born in Berkshire and read English at St John’s College, Oxford. Her first ‘Birmingham’ novel,
Birmingham Rose
, hit
The Times
bestseller list when it was published in 1995. She has subsequently written fourteen other successful novels. Annie Murray has four children and lives in Reading. You can visit her website at
www.anniemurray.co.uk
.

A
LSO
BY
A
NNIE
M
URRAY

Birmingham Rose

Birmingham Friends

Birmingham Blitz

Orphan of Angel Street

Poppy Day

The Narrowboat Girl

Chocolate Girls

Water Gypsies

Miss Purdy’s Class

Family of Women

Where Earth Meets Sky

The Bells of Bournville Green

A Hopscotch Summer

Soldier Girl

Acknowledgements

I drew on a great many sources in preparing this story, but particular thanks are owed to the following:

The Birmingham History Forum, and especially to the Heartlands Local History Society for their welcome and help.

Jane Freebairn at the WRAC Association.

A number of Poles have told me their stories over the years and some, I know, would prefer not to be named. But my particular thanks go to Lubek and Ewa Wruszczak for their friendship and generous gift of their time.

The website describing many of the Polish Resettlement Camps in the UK (
www.northwickparkpolishcamp.co.uk
) was very helpful, as were a number of excellent books, especially
Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland
by Norman Davies,
Keeping the Faith: The Polish Community in Britain
by Tim Smith and Michelle Winslow, and
Worlds Apart
by Henry Pavlovich.

First published in Great Britain 2011 by Macmillan

This edition published 2011 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2011 by Pan Books
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Copyright © Annie Murray 2011

The right of Annie Murray to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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