Jenny's War (35 page)

‘He comes into the back office and leans over me. And sometimes, in the shop, in front of other people, he’ll put his arm round me and squeeze me. It looks innocent enough. He’s like an affectionate uncle.’ She pulled a wry expression. ‘
Another
“uncle”.’

Elsie smiled weakly but said nothing.

‘But it isn’t innocent, Aunty Elsie.’ She gave a dramatic shudder. ‘He’s sort of – creepy. D’you know what I mean?’

Elsie nodded. ‘Go on, darlin’,’ she said, encouraging the girl to tell her what had happened today to upset her so.

‘Well, I never,’ she said at last. ‘I’d never have thought it of Mr Jenkins. He’s always seemed such an upstanding man in the community. He’s always refused to have any dealings with these spivs and their black market stuff.’

‘You – you do believe me, don’t you, Aunty Elsie?’

‘’Course I believe you. I know you wouldn’t make up something like that and – ’ her tone hardened – ‘and you couldn’t have mistaken what his intentions were, ne’er mind what yer mam ses. She’s just trying to keep in with him. She’ll be round there now, if I know Dot Mercer, trying to patch things up.’

‘He’ll have gone home by now. What if she goes round there? What if his wife’s at home?’

‘Then your mother, darlin’, will get whatever’s coming to her.’ Elsie was immediately contrite. ‘I’m sorry to speak of her like that to you.’

‘It’s all right, Aunty Elsie,’ Jenny said, calmer now and wiping her eyes. ‘I know exactly what she is. I’ve known for a long time, but she is my mother. I should’ve run away. I nearly did when we were in – when we were up north. I’d got my case all packed but then Arthur came home and said we were moving again and I didn’t get the chance. Oh, if only I’d come back here then.’

‘I wish you had.’ Elsie didn’t press the girl, but she was shrewd enough to guess that there’d been more to their life ‘up north’ than Jenny was telling her. There was silence in the kitchen as they sat, still close together, in the firelight. A sudden loud banging on the front door made them both jump.

‘Come out here, you little devil. I know you’re in there.’

They heard the door open and the next moment, Dot was in the kitchen shaking her fist at them both. Elsie stood up and turned to face her. ‘Yer can stop that racket right now, Dot. Calm yerself and let’s talk this through.’

‘What’s she been telling you, the little liar?’

‘Jen’s no liar,’ Elsie said calmly, though she was having difficulty in suppressing her own anger. ‘Sit down, I tell you, and we’ll talk about it all.’

‘She might’ve lost me the best thing that’s ever happened to me in years.’

‘Oh, so you don’t mind an old feller like him making advances to yer fifteen-year-old daughter, then?’

Dot’s lip curled. ‘What’d he want with her when he’s got me?’

Elsie leaned forward and said slowly and deliberately, ‘Young, fresh meat, that’s what.’

‘Please – stop it,’ Jenny begged.

Dot glared at them both and then sneered, ‘Well, it might surprise you to know that I’ve been round his house just now and he’s going to leave his wife and move in with me.’ She turned to Jenny. ‘So you, me girl, can sling yer hook. Yer stuff’s all outside Elsie’s front door right now and I don’t want to see hide nor hair of you ever again.’ She stood up. ‘I’ve always told you I never wanted you in the first place, so now you’re old enough, you can look after yerself.’

With that parting shot, she flounced from Elsie’s kitchen and out of the front door, leaving them staring after her.

‘She’s not normal, that woman. Sorry to say it, Jen, but she ain’t got a maternal bone in her body. Ah well . . .’ Elsie heaved herself up and went to the front door. ‘Best get your things back upstairs into Ronnie’s room. Looks like you’ll be staying with us again.’

‘Oh, Aunty Elsie,’ Jenny jumped up. ‘I never thought. Oh dear, what have I done?’

Elsie paused and turned to look at her. ‘What are you on about?’

‘Bobby. I never thought. What about Bobby’s job? Will Mr Jenkins sack him?’

For a moment Elsie stared at her and then she burst out laughing. ‘Don’t you worry about our Bobby, dar-lin’. He’ll likely not want to work there any more when he hears what’s been going on.’

‘I’ll bloody well thump him.’ Bobby punched his fist into the palm of his other hand, wishing it was Donald Jenkins’s nose he was bloodying. ‘Just wait till I get me hands on him. I’ll teach him to lay a finger on you.’

‘Now, now, calm down, Bobby. Jenny’s going to stay with us and she’s not going back there.’

‘I should think not, indeed. And neither am I.’

‘Don’t say that, Bobby. I don’t want you to lose your job because of me.’

But Bobby was shaking his head. ‘I’ve got another job. On the railway. I heard this morning. I’d’ve been leaving Jenkins anyway. It’s better pay and it might mean it’ll be a reserved occupation and I won’t get called up.’

‘Oh Bobby,’ Elsie threw her arms around the embarrassed young man and hugged him, ‘that’s wonderful.’

Grinning with embarrassment, Bobby extricated himself. ‘I didn’t tell you before, Mam, because I didn’t know if I’d get it and I didn’t want to get your hopes up. I knew you’d be pleased.’

‘Pleased! You can’t even begin to guess how much, darlin’.’

Jenny, too, was smiling. ‘Any jobs going for girls on the railway?’ She was half joking, but Bobby took her question seriously. ‘I don’t know, but I can ask, if you like.’

‘Well, I need a job. I want to pay my way here—’

Mother and son both spoke at once: ‘There’s no need.’

‘You can help me about the house and—’ Elsie began.

Jenny put her hands up, protesting laughingly. ‘It’s very good of you, but I must look for work. I’ll go back to the authorities and see what they want me to do. I would like to stay here – really I would, but I shall get work.’

Jenny had been staying at the Huttons’ house for almost a month. Rumours about her mother were flying around the neighbourhood.

‘You do want me to tell you what I’ve heard, Jen, don’t you?’ Elsie asked worriedly. She didn’t want to upset the girl any more and yet Jenny had settled in well with them and didn’t seem unduly worried about her mother. Not that Dot Mercer deserved her daughter’s concern, Elsie thought wryly.

Jenny sighed in answer to Elsie’s question. ‘What’s she up to now? Not in trouble with the law, is she?’

‘No – no. At least, not that I’ve heard. No, it’s Mr Jenkins.’

Jenny’s tone hardened. ‘What about him?’

‘It’s true what she told us. He has left his wife and moved in with her.’

Jenny stared at Elsie open-mouthed. ‘Never.’

‘S’true. Gladys heard it from the folks next door to where yer mam’s living, so it must be true.’

‘Did – did she say anything about me?’

‘No, darlin’. Sorry.’

Jenny was silent, wiping the same plate with the tea towel over and over until Elsie forced a laugh and said, ‘If you dry that much more, Jen, you’ll wear the pattern off.’

‘Oh – sorry.’ She put the dry plate down on the pile and picked up another wet one from the draining board.

‘What’s his wife had to say about it?’

‘Plenty, by the sound of it. Went round there one night – to yer mam’s – and caused a right old to-do. Wonder we didn’t hear it. Tried to drag him home by his ear, so Gladys heard, but she was no match for yer mam.’

Jenny smiled thinly. ‘Mum must think he’s worth hanging on to, then? I wonder how long this one’ll last.’

‘Aye, well, we’ll see. But don’t you worry your head about it, Jen. You’re all right with us. Though it won’t be easy for you living in the same street with folks’ tongues wagging. You know, darlin’, I don’t understand why you’ve never gone back to those nice people you were evacuated to. Don’t get me wrong, Jen,’ Elsie added swiftly, ‘you’re more than welcome here. Me an’ Bobby love having yer.’

‘What about Sammy when he comes home on leave? Will he mind?’

‘Oh, you know our Sammy. Nothing bothers him. Besides – ’ her face fell as she added, ‘he won’t be here very long, will he?’ She paused a moment, sparing yet another thought for her loved ones away fighting the war. Then she took a deep breath and returned to the previous topic. ‘No, I just wondered, that’s all. They seemed such lovely people. You couldn’t stop talking about them when you came home. And when you all disappeared sudden-like, I thought that’s where you’d gone, but when they came looking for you, I knew you hadn’t.’

Elsie’s last few words made Jenny catch her breath. ‘What – what did you say?’

‘I was surprised when they came looking for you, ’cos I thought that’d be where Dot’d’ve taken you.’

‘What d’you mean – they came looking for me?’

‘Those people you were with in – where was it?’

‘Lincolnshire,’ Jenny whispered, hope beginning to burst in her breast.

‘That’s it. Came all the way down on the train, they did.’

‘When?’ Jenny’s tone was sharper than she meant it to be, but Elsie didn’t seem to notice or to mind. Perhaps she caught some of the girl’s eagerness. She wrinkled her forehead. ‘It wasn’t long after you’d gone and both our houses had got bombed. I remember that ’cos I was scrambling around on top of the heap of rubble trying to find me bits and pieces. Anything, really, but there was nothing left that was any good. They’re nice people, Jen. Lovely. They even offered for me an’ the boys to go to them if we wanted, but I told ’em I wanted to stay ’ere for when my hubby comes home on leave. Now let me think – when was it?’

Jenny waited with growing impatience. She put down the plate she was holding, but didn’t pick up another. Her hands were trembling so much she was afraid she would drop it. She was gripping the tea towel to stop her hands from taking hold of Elsie’s shoulders and shaking the words out of her. ‘What did they want? What did they say?’

‘They were trying to find you and they seemed real upset when I couldn’t even tell them where you’d gone. You could have written to them, Jen,’ she added, with a note of reproach in her tone. ‘Come to think of it, you could have written to us too. We’ve all been wondering where you were and if you were all right.’

Neatly ignoring what Elsie had said about herself and her family, Jenny said quietly, ‘Mum said they’d sent me back because they didn’t want me any more.’

Elsie snorted wryly. ‘Didn’t look like that to me.’

‘Do – do you really think they’d like to – to see me again?’

Elsie stared at her and then said quietly, ‘I’ve never been so sure of anything in me life.’

‘Oh Aunty Elsie.’ Jenny dropped the tea towel she was still holding and flung her arms round the woman’s neck. ‘I must go and see them. I have to.’

Elsie returned her hug. ‘Just so long as you aren’t going because you think you’re a trouble to us, ’cos you’re not.’

‘No – no, I’m not. You’ve been so kind.’

Elsie held her at arm’s length and said seriously, ‘You go, darlin’, but if it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to, then you come straight back here. D’you hear me?’

Jenny nodded, her eyes shining.

‘And this time, you just keep in touch. All right?’

‘I will, Aunty Elsie. I promise.’ She couldn’t tell this trusting woman that the only reason she’d never written to them had been because she dared not do so. Postmarks could be traced and Arthur had forbidden either of them to write letters to anyone, least of all to Elsie, who might be questioned by the police in their efforts to track down Arthur Osborne.

Jenny couldn’t wait to get there and yet she was filled with trepidation too. What if Aunty Elsie was wrong? What if they’d just been down in London for some other reason and thought they’d look her up to see if she was all right? That didn’t mean they wanted her back.

But she was older now. She’d left school and started work. She was quite capable of taking the train to Lincolnshire and seeing for herself. She’d soon know by their attitude whether they were pleased to see her or not.

‘You’re not going to come back, are you?’ Bobby said quietly.

Jenny forced a laugh. ‘I’ll be home on the next train if they don’t want me.’

‘They’ll want you, all right.
I
never thought they didn’t.’

‘But why would Mum say that? Let’s face it, she never wanted me, so why didn’t she take the chance of offloading me for good? Well, at least for the rest of the war.’

Bobby laughed wryly. ‘There’s no telling what goes on in yer mam’s mind. Oh sorry, I shouldn’t—’

Jenny held up her hand. ‘Don’t apologize. We always tell each other the truth, Bobby. I know exactly what my mum is.’ She sighed and shook her head. ‘And what she thinks of me, so that’s why I can’t understand why she didn’t just leave me in the country and forget all about me.’

‘All the other kids in the neighbourhood were coming back. We were back.’ He pulled a face. ‘We hated it where we were. I wish we could have come wiv you.’ He grinned. ‘I’d’ve stayed there.’

Jenny smiled weakly, the memories of her happy time with the Thornton family flooding back. And yet with it came the ache in her heart for Georgie. Where was he? Was he really safe, as she’d always believed? Or had she been deluding herself, clinging to a vain hope? Perhaps that was what Charlotte and Miles had come to tell her. They’d had some news of Georgie.

Now she couldn’t get to Ravensfleet quickly enough.

The train seemed interminably slow and it was crowded – as seemed usual these days – with troops being moved from one place to another. Several seemed to be going home on leave, their faces grey with exhaustion. Maybe they’d been at the front of the fighting and their weariness and the haunted look in their eyes was because of what they’d endured. And yet, despite their weariness, there seemed to be a feeling of optimism. Everyone hoped that 1945 would bring the end of the war.

The March day was cold and blustery and Jenny huddled into her corner of the carriage, willing the train to go faster. There was a group of four airmen in their smart blue uniforms who reminded Jenny so sharply of Georgie that tears sprang to her eyes.

‘You all right, pet?’ one of them asked, with a broad Geordie accent.

‘I’m fine.’ She smiled through her tears. ‘It’s just – just you all remind me of someone I used to know.’