The Bomb Girls (22 page)

‘Let's go and pick some flowers,' she said sweetly.

With tears streaming down her face, Agnes watched her husband and daughter walk hand in hand across the lawn. Esther was limping but chatting and laughing as she picked flowers to make a daisy chain for her dad.

‘Your daughter seems to be doing a better job than we are!' the doctor remarked, clearly overcome.

When father and daughter returned Esther confidently took hold of her mother's hand and placed it in her father's.

‘We're a family. Mummy, Daddy and Esther,' she said happily.

Stan looked at Agnes as if seeing her for the first time. After a moment he raised his hand and started to stroke her radiant face, as sweet memories started to flow back of the life he'd lived before the nightmare began … Esther being born … bathing her in a tin bath in front of a warm, crackling fire … signing up with the Sappers … saying goodbye on a misty autumn morning.

‘Family,' he said as he clung to his wife and child.

The three of them spent a wondrous day walking by the river, feeding the ducks then sitting under an old weeping willow tree. They shared a simple picnic as students drifted by in punts. Smiling happily, Agnes turned to her husband, who suddenly looked hollowed-out with exhaustion.

‘You've done enough,' she said softly.

Stan nodded.

‘It's been quite a day.'

Holding hands, they walked slowly back to Addenbrooke's, where Esther made no complaint about leaving her new-found Daddy. For all of them, like Stan said, it had been quite a day.

Agnes and Esther had to leave the next morning, but because of Stan's vastly improved condition, brought about by Esther's loving nature, they separated with smiles on their faces and hope in their hearts.

The journey back to Pendle was endless, with umpteen changes and long delays in cold draughty stations. It was at Sheffield, in the smoky waiting room, that Esther started to feel ill, and by the time they reached the Phoenix it was gone midnight and Esther was running a high temperature. Agnes kept her as cool as she could through the long night, then early the following morning she carried her to the Phoenix hospital. There, after examining the feverish little girl, the doctor grimly announced that Esther had got measles.

The only advantage of having her sick child in the Phoenix hospital was that Agnes didn't have to send her back to Keswick, and she could see Esther at least three times a day. One night, when Esther's fever was sky-high, Agnes asked the terrifying ward sister if she could stay with her.

‘Parents are not allowed on the hospital wards outside of visiting hours,' she snapped.

Tears filled Agnes's dark eyes.

‘But she might need me in the night,' she pleaded. ‘She's so small and sick.'

The granite-faced sister's expression melted slightly.

‘You can sleep in the waiting room,' she said curtly. ‘I'll make sure the nurse on night duty knows you're there; she'll call you if necessary.'

Grateful for small mercies, Agnes tried to sleep on two chairs pushed together. She was shaken awake just before dawn by a pretty young nurse.

‘The fever's passed and Esther's asking for you. Follow me.'

Sitting up against her pillows, with damp hair and flushed pink cheeks, Esther held out her arms as she cried, ‘Mummy! Mummy!'

‘Shh, darling, we mustn't wake anybody up,' Agnes whispered as she gathered her daughter into her arms.

‘Where's Daddy?' asked Esther sleepily.

‘He's in hospital too and, like you, he's getting better,' Agnes assured her.

The little girl smiled contentedly as she snuggled up to her mother.

‘Can I live with you and your friends in the digs when I'm well?' she asked.

Agnes skirted the question.

‘We'll sort something out, sweetheart,' she promised. ‘But first you've got to get properly better.'

‘I don't want to leave you again, Mummy,' Esther whispered.

Agnes gave her a squeeze as she cautiously replied, ‘Don't worry, lovie, Mummy will work something out.'

When the baby was kicking strongly inside her Elsie received news that Tommy was not only safe but heading home on leave after the battalion's victories in North Africa.

‘Months of waiting and now this!' cried ecstatic Elsie as she waltzed around the canteen clutching Tommy's letter close to her pounding heart.

‘You're not the shy, wilting violet that walked in here a few years ago,' Lillian teased.

‘You'll give birth in the canteen if you don't stop jumping about,' Agnes said with a smile.

Elsie proudly rubbed the big, round, baby bump.

‘To think Tommy might not even know he's going to be a dad,' she said with a dreamy expression on her face.

‘He's in for the shock of his life. I'd faint clean away if somebody presented me with a baby,' Daphne said as she pulled down the corners of her mouth in disgust.

‘Wouldn't you like bairns, Daphne?' Elsie asked.

Daphne shuddered at the thought.

‘Certainly not!' she exclaimed in her snootiest voice. ‘Though …' she dropped her voice to a sexy whisper, ‘I do like the way they're made!'

‘Me too!' laughed Lillian as Elsie blushed bright crimson.

‘We're surrounded by sex maniacs!' Agnes joked.

Emily smiled feebly. If Tommy was coming home would Bill be coming home too? She'd heard from her mum, who'd heard from Bill's mum, that Bill's division were waging war on the Tunis line. It seemed unlikely that the entire battalion would be granted leave at such a crucial time of fighting.

As they prepared for bed back at the digs, Elsie, who was calmer than earlier in the day, returned to the subject that worried her more than anything: her dad.

‘Remember not to mention a word to Tommy of mi dad coming here and knocking me about,' she reminded her friends.

‘We won't do anything that will upset your time together,' Emily assured her.

‘What will I do about seeing Tommy?' Elsie asked. ‘I mean …' She hesitated shyly.

‘You mean where will you sleep with him?' Lillian finished the sentence for her.

‘You can have my room,' Agnes volunteered.

‘Darling!' Daphne gasped. ‘You can't possibly be thinking of having sex in your condition!'

The look on Elsie's face was a comical mixture of shock and horror.

‘I wasn't thinking of that, like …' she stammered. ‘It was more where could we be a bit private, you know … ?'

Before poor Elsie fainted clean away in embarrassment, Emily came to her aid.

‘In your condition you could get a few days' leave,' she said. ‘Then you can stay at Tommy's mum's house, you'll have much more privacy than here.'

‘Yeah, this place gets more and more like Bradford market on a busy Saturday afternoon!' joked Lillian.

Daphne rolled her eyes as she teased Elsie further.

‘I just hope you survive your night of orgy, Elsie darling!'

Emily picked up a cushion and whizzed it across the room at Daphne.

‘Leave the poor kid alone!' she laughed.

Elsie had no problem getting a few days off.

‘You're one of the hardest-working girls at the Phoenix,' Malc told her. ‘I'll have a quiet word with Mr Featherstone, so don't worry your pretty little head.'

‘I'll be back at work as soon as possible,' Elsie said earnestly.

Malc smiled as he looked at her burgeoning bump poking through her overalls.

‘Not too soon, lovie. We don't want a babby on the bomb line, do we?'

The same day that a smiling Elsie walked down the hill to meet her husband at Clitheroe station, Esther was discharged from hospital and brought back to the digs, where she was fussed and petted. Daphne had ordered a beautiful china doll with blinking blue eyes and a golden wig, from Hamleys toyshop in London; Emily had baked a mock-chocolate cake using all their sugar rations;
Lillian had made her a new blouse. With her usual ingenuity for ‘fashion on the ration', Lillian had made the blouse out of an old green silk blouse of her own. She'd added a Peter Pan collar made of lace she'd picked off an old pillow case and some tiny pearl buttons rescued from a moth-eaten cardigan in a second-hand shop.

‘It cost nowt!' Lillian announced as she showed off the pretty new blouse to her friends.

‘Darling, you really should go into business,' said Daphne, who was distinctly impressed by her friend's nimble fingers.

‘Darling, I couldn't possibly!' Lillian fondly mocked. ‘I'm far too busy on the bleedin' bomb line!'

During Esther's convalescence in the Phoenix hospital, Agnes had had plenty of time to develop a plan that would keep Esther close to her side. She visited the day nursery, where she asked the nursery nurse in charge if Esther could join the children of other factory workers. Agnes explained that Esther wouldn't be strong enough to travel back to Keswick when she was discharged from the ward; plus, she and Esther needed time together after their traumatic trip to Cambridge.

‘Esther worked a little miracle when she visited her dad in hospital,' Agnes explained to the nursery nurse. ‘But she'll need time to understand that Stan won't be joining us right away.'

The nursery nurse agreed that they could care temporarily for Esther while Agnes was working. So when Mr Featherstone made enquiries about Agnes's domestic arrangements she told him with a smile, ‘It's only temporary, until she's well.'

But in her mind, Agnes was already formulating a more permanent plan for Esther, one which she prayed would mean they'd never have to part again.

Elsie took the bus to Clitheroe station, where she stood on the platform with her heart pounding, waiting for the London train to chug into view. Tommy was only minutes away! Her husband, who she hadn't seen since their honeymoon, her wonderful loving husband, was coming home! She spotted Tommy before he saw her: tall and lanky with a mop of mousy brown hair that, even with an army crop, still fell over his eyes. He dropped his duffel bag when he caught sight of Elsie and ran the length of the platform to scoop her into his arms and kiss her full on the mouth.

‘Tommy!' she said, torn between modesty and a lustful longing that shot through her body like fire.

Tommy didn't answer. His eyes were locked on her belly, gently swelling from underneath her duffel coat.

‘I'm pregnant,' she said, stating the obvious.

‘A baby!' he cried as he crushed her in his arms.

‘Not too hard!' breathless Elsie gasped.

‘Why didn't you tell me?' he asked.

‘I did!' she cried. ‘I wrote loads of letters to your battalion in North Africa.'

‘Probably got blown up or scorched by the heat,' he answered with a laugh. ‘Christ, it was as hot as hell out there. Worth it, though. Montgomery reckons we'll break through the Tunisian line soon then we'll move on Italy.'

Elsie wrapped her arms around her husband and kissed him long and hard.

‘Let's not talk about the war,' she pleaded. ‘All I want is you safely home with me and the baby.'

He smiled as he again gazed incredulously at her bulging tummy.

‘I still can't believe it,' he said.

She laughed as the baby started to kick.

‘You'd better! This one's a real bonny fighter!'

The terrifying meeting with her dad, which Elsie was desperate to keep secret from her husband, was accidentally revealed to Tommy when he came across a letter in her handbag, written by Elsie's grasping stepmother.

You should be helping your family at a time like this. If you don't hand over your wages as a dutiful daughter should then your father will pay you another visit and this time you won't get away with it.

‘What's all this about?' Tommy asked when Elsie walked into his mother's kitchen and found him reading the letter.

Elsie went as white as a sheet then swayed as if she might faint. Tommy grabbed her and led her to a chair.

After giving her a glass of water, he said in a softer voice, ‘You never mentioned your dad paying you a visit, sweetheart?'

Tears welled up in Elsie's eyes.

‘He turned up out of nowhere,' she blurted out. ‘He wanted mi wages.'

‘The bastard!' Tommy seethed.

As she anxiously watched Tommy pace the room, Elsie attempted a half-hearted smile.

‘I lied,' she said. ‘I told him I had no money, but all mi savings were in a tin under the floorboards he was standing on.'

Tommy didn't seem to hear what she was saying; shocked and angry, he continued to pace around the room.

‘He threatened you – in your condition?'

‘Nothing stops him when he gets a mood on,' she replied.

‘I'll KILL him!' Tommy said through gritted teeth.

‘He won't bother me again,' Elsie said with a pretend laugh. ‘Emily put the fear of God in him.'

Seeing she was getting agitated, Tommy appeared to drop the subject. But later, whilst Elsie was taking a nap, Tommy, wearing his regimental uniform, stood on the main road north, where, with all the army transport on the move, he had no difficulty hitching a lift to Newcastle. Feeling guilty that he was leaving his beloved Elsie, Tommy reasoned he had plenty of leave left to spend with her. He didn't relish the thought of a single moment out of her sight, but this was one thing he really had to do.

With Elsie's letter folded in his pocket, Tommy arrived in Newcastle grimly determined. He soon tracked down her family home in Gateshead, and, straightening his rather thin shoulders, he rapped on the door.

It was opened to him by a woman with a face like a greedy hawk.

‘Aye?' she asked.

‘Can I speak to Mr Hogan?'

‘Who is it?' a man's voice yelled from inside the house.

‘A man … for you,' the woman yelled back. She
grudgingly opened the door for Tommy to pass. ‘He's in the back,' she said.

Tommy walked into the grubby kitchen, where Elsie's dad sat smoking at the table with Elsie's two stepsisters on either side of him. They all eyed Tommy with dislike and suspicion.

‘I'm Elsie's husband,' he announced.

‘And who the bloody hell gave you permission to marry my daughter?' Mr Hogan snarled.

‘She didn't need your permission; she's over twenty-one, and a woman in her own right,' Tommy replied.

Mr Hogan sprang up from the table and glared at Tommy, who was roughly the same height but half the size.

‘Was it you that knocked her up or some other bastard soldier home on leave?' Mr Hogan demanded.

Struggling to keep his temper and stick to the reason why he'd travelled a hundred miles to confront Elsie's half-crazed father, Tommy retorted, ‘If you threaten my wife again I'll have the police on you.'

It was as if somebody had lit a blue fuse paper under Mr Hogan; he went up like an erupting volcano. Blind anger replaced words as he picked up a chair and threw it into Tommy's face. As Tommy ducked to avoid getting his head smashed, Mr Hogan grabbed him by the hair and started to drag him around the kitchen.