The Girl With No Name (34 page)

‘What happened to him?’ Charlotte asked.

‘When he was signed off fit for duty, he was posted back up north for a few months. We wrote to each other almost every day. And then they sent him back to France. He was given a week’s leave and he came back down to Somerset. I introduced him to my parents. They were very polite to him, but we both knew they thought he was... unsuitable.’ Miss Edie said the word in the condescending tone her father would have used. ‘When he caught the train from Bristol I went to see him off, and that’s when he proposed to me, in the waiting room at Temple Meads station.’ She smiled sadly at the recollection. ‘He’d bought a ring and put it on my finger. And he went, back to the front.’

‘And he didn’t come back?’ asked Charlotte softly, forgetting her own sadness as she was drawn into Miss Edie’s.

‘No. He was killed, in August 1918. So near the end of the war. There was a battle near Amiens. A great offensive, they said. All the Australians and Canadians alongside the British and French, pushing the Germans back.’

‘And he died?’

‘He was killed in the advance. He was posted missing in action. He had no family and he’d put me as next of kin on his pay book, so the telegram came to me.’ She dashed a tear from her eye. ‘His body was never found.’

‘How do you know he’s dead,’ asked Charlotte, ‘if they never found him?’

‘They never found thousands of them,’ Miss Edie said. ‘Of course I kept on hoping that he’d turn up somewhere, alive and well. For years I thought he might suddenly come knocking on my door, but of course he never did. I’ll never know what happened to him that day. I learned to live with it. I had my parents to look after. That was hard, because I knew they were relieved he’d been killed. I had to do my duty by them, but I hated them because they were glad he’d died, my Herbert.’

‘I told Harry they’d gone,’ Charlotte said. ‘He said I’d got to make my own life now.’

‘He was right,’ said Miss Edie. ‘You must. I should have, instead of living in a past full of regrets. All I have left of Herbert is a photo he sent me when he was promoted sergeant.’

‘And your ring.’

‘I took it off.’

‘Took it off?’

‘The day I got the telegram.’

‘Why?’ asked Charlotte. ‘Why did you take it off?’

‘Herbert wasn’t well off. He’d bought me the ring he could afford, but my parents, well they... I took it off. I didn’t want his ring despised.’ Silence enfolded them again and they both stared into the embers of the fire.

‘I wish I had my letters,’ Charlotte said.

‘You mustn’t give up hope, Charlotte,’ Miss Edie said. ‘“Gone Away” doesn’t mean they’re dead. It may simply mean they’ve moved again and whoever is living at that address now, doesn’t know where.’ Silence lapsed round them for a moment or two as they both stared into the fire as if they could see the faces of their loved ones in the flames.

‘Tell me about Aunt Naomi and Uncle Dan,’ suggested Miss Edie.

‘I went to them when I got to London,’ Charlotte said. ‘Sixty-five Kemble Street. They were very kind to me.’

‘Have they got a telephone?’ asked Miss Edie.

Charlotte shook her head.

‘Then, in the morning, I think you should write to them and tell them where you are and explain what’s happened. They must be so worried about you. But now,’ Miss Edie got to her feet and put a guard over the dying embers of the fire, ‘now, I think we should both go to bed and try and get some sleep.’ She smiled at the child who had altered her life and added, ‘I know some of your memories are sad, Charlotte, but at least you know who you are now. On the whole, a good Christmas present, I think.’ Another thought struck her and she asked, ‘Would you like us to call you Lisa, now?’

Charlotte considered for a moment and then shook her head. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘In Wynsdown I’m Charlotte.’

Dan had planned to stay only two nights in Feneton, but with the unexpected arrival of his son, he stayed an extra two. Shirley came to visit them at the pub and admire the baby.

‘Looks a bit on the small side,’ she said as she peered down at him sleeping peacefully in his drawer.

‘That’s cos he was early,’ Naomi said. ‘Dr Phelps says he’ll catch up in no time. He’s ever so nice, Dr Phelps.’

Shirley said, ‘Well, that’s good then,’ but she wasn’t really thinking about the baby, she was wondering if Naomi thought she could move back into Cousin Maud’s house. Shirley had been willing enough to share her room with Naomi, but she had no intention of sharing it with a squalling baby. She’d been planning to tell Naomi that she’d have to find somewhere else to live when the baby came, but now it had happened and she’d left it too late. Still, she’d say it anyway, she decided. Dan was here, he could find them somewhere else; after all, they were his responsibility.

‘Maud says she doesn’t think you can come back with the baby,’ Shirley said, pushing the blame for her decision on to the cousin who’d given her refuge. ‘Says she’s sorry, but there isn’t really room for two of you.’

‘No matter,’ Naomi said. She wasn’t surprised; she’d been half expecting it. It had been all right sharing with Shirley, though on occasion her untidiness had nearly driven Naomi mad, but she knew it would be hopeless if there were three of them crammed into the small bedroom. ‘We’ll find somewhere else. Dan might take us back with him tomorrow.’

‘What? Back to the Blitz?’ Shirley was startled. She hadn’t meant them to go back to London, just find somewhere else.

When Dan came in, Naomi told him that she no longer had anywhere to stay. ‘I’m quite glad really,’ she said. ‘We was beginning to get on each other’s nerves, sharing that room. Think we’d better come back to London, with you.’

Dan looked at Nicholas, now at his mother’s breast, and shook his head. ‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘We ain’t going to risk either of you back there. We’ll find somewhere else round here. There must be families who’ve got a spare room and would like the extra bit of cash. I’ll ask Jenny, she’s sure to know of someone.’ He gave Naomi a reassuring grin. ‘Don’t you fret, girlie, we’ll find you somewhere to stay, you and young Nick.’ He left her feeding Nicholas and went downstairs to find Jenny. When he’d explained the situation Jenny smiled.

‘I did wonder how they was all going to fit in,’ she said, ‘and I talked it over with Jim. We don’t have many visitors staying just now, so we thought Naomi and Nicholas might like to stay here, with us. She can have a couple of rooms, and when she’s on her feet again she can help in the bar. I know she was cooking for the café down the road, so if she wants to help in the kitchen here too, so much the better.’

‘How much rent would you want?’ Dan asked. It seemed a perfect solution, but he thought they’d want more than Maud had been asking.

‘You’re not listening, Dan,’ laughed Jenny. ‘I’m offering board and lodging to Naomi and the baby in return for her help in running the pub. We’re busy in the evenings with the RAF base only five miles away. I could do with another pair of hands. Naomi can work down here in the bar and know that Nicholas is perfectly safe asleep upstairs. And when she has to feed him, she only has to pop upstairs.’ She cocked her head at him. ‘So, what d’you think?’

‘I think it’s a brilliant idea,’ Dan said, ‘and I’m sure Naomi will too.’

‘Good,’ said Jenny. ‘Go up and see what she says.’

It was all agreed. Naomi should keep her room and for the first two weeks, while she was still recovering from the birth, Dan would pay Jenny what they’d been paying Maud. After that Naomi would be earning her keep and the money they’d been paying Maud would be Naomi’s to use for Nicholas.

‘You’ve fallen on your feet all right,’ Shirley said when they told her of their arrangement. ‘Does that mean you won’t be working for Mrs Grant no more?’

‘It’ll depend on when Jenny wants me,’ Naomi replied. ‘If I have spare time I’ll happily bake for the café, but I shan’t know till I see how it all works. I’ll come and see Mrs Grant when I’m back on my feet. Dr Phelps says I got to rest for another week yet.’

With everything settled Dan set off back to London on Sunday morning.

‘Can’t afford not to work any longer,’ he said. ‘Need to be out in the cab.’ He bent over and kissed her long and hard on the mouth. ‘Look after yourself and the boy,’ he said gruffly. ‘I can phone you here, Jenny’s given me the number.’ And with that, he hurried out of the room before the sight of his wife and his sleeping son could unman him.

When he’d gone Naomi gathered Nicholas into her arms and held him as he slept. She knew they’d taken the right decision. It would have been madness for her to take a young baby away from the relative security of a Suffolk village, back into the horror of bomb-blasted London, but she was already missing Dan and he was on his way back into the battleground London had become.

‘Try not to worry about him,’ Jenny said when she came up and sat with Naomi for an hour that afternoon. ‘There hasn’t been a raid since before Christmas. It may be easing off now. P’raps the worst is over, eh?’

She was wrong. The worst wasn’t over. Dan got back to a cold house in Kemble Street late in the afternoon and, having made himself a sandwich to take with him, went straight out again to join his fire-watching team at the paint warehouse. As darkness fell and he walked through the chilly streets, he thought of Naomi and Nicholas back in their warm room at the Feneton Arms and smiled. They were safe.

He reported in to John Anderson and then joined Arthur.

‘Peaceful here over Christmas,’ Arthur remarked as they climbed the iron fire escape to the warehouse roof. ‘Your missus all right, is she? Only we was expecting you back two days ago.’

‘She certainly is,’ Dan said. ‘We’ve got a son! Born on Christmas morning, he was.’

‘But she weren’t due yet,’ Arthur said.

‘No,’ Dan agreed with a grin. ‘But young Nicholas made his own mind up!’

‘Nicholas. That’s a nice name. Congratulations, Dan, boy, you must be a very proud dad. Staying up there, are they?’

‘Yes.’ Dan was about to explain how everything had been settled when the sirens began to wail. They hurried the last two flights and emerging out on to the roof saw the starburst of anti-aircraft shells further south and east and heard the steady drone of incoming aircraft, a swarm of loud and angry wasps invading the sky. Bombs began to fall, pounding the city with high explosive, but even more devastating, incendiaries in their hundreds began pouring downward out of the night. In the darkness of the streets below them, Dan and Arthur could see fires erupting in every direction, flickering flames taking hold faster than the firefighters could smother them.

A second wave of bombers came over, the air filled with the roar of their engines. As they passed overhead one of the incendiary bombs swirled down and landed with a brilliant flash on the warehouse roof. For a moment, both Arthur and Dan ducked away from it, but then training took hold and they rushed forward to where the bomb fizzed, dazzling white, beginning its lethal work. The two men grabbed sandbags from the stack kept ready on the roof and rushed forward with them. Arthur, slashing the bags with his knife, tipped their contents on to the infant fire. Dan grabbed a spade and began to shovel the loose sand, heaping it on to the simmering flames. Arthur went back for more bags and as the fire, now starved of the oxygen it needed, began to subside, they piled yet more sand on top until they were quite sure that it had been put out and rendered harmless. Even as they finished dealing with this first incendiary, another dropped on the other side of the roof and a third almost on top of the first.

‘Christ,’ yelled Arthur, ‘you take that one, Dan, I’ll do this.’

Dan dashed to the further bomb, dragging a sandbag with him. The bomb was already fizzing, the heat intense, burning the leaded roof of the warehouse. Dan heaped the sand on to the fire and went back for more. It wasn’t enough. He couldn’t smother it fast enough and it was now burning furiously. Rushing back for more sand, he caught a glimpse of Arthur, spade in hand, furiously shovelling sand on to his bomb. Dan grabbed another bag and turned back to the third, but despite his efforts he knew there was no way he could extinguish the fire.

‘Arthur,’ he bellowed, desperately trying to make himself heard over the continuous throb of aero engines, ‘Arthur, help!’

Arthur had managed to subdue his fire, the heaped sand doing its work, but even the two of them couldn’t put out the third fire, and even as they made one more valiant attempt, another bomb dropped down, past them and into the street below.

‘Time to go down,’ Arthur cried. ‘Come on, can’t do more here.’ He grabbed Dan by the arm and pulled him towards the fire escape. Dan held back for a moment, staring at the raging fire on the far side of the roof. They’d failed. The roof was aflame and probably the whole warehouse would go up.

‘Dan! Come on!’ shrieked Arthur as he ran for the iron ladder and disappeared over the parapet. With one final backward glance at the inferno now burning out of control, Dan followed, his cheeks scarlet from the increasing heat, his lungs bursting with the hot smoke.

They scrambled down the escape, and reached the ground to find the whole unit battling fires and more bursting out in every direction.

‘Fire on the warehouse roof,’ they reported to John Anderson. ‘Three bombs at once.’

‘Too big for us,’ John shouted, reaching for the phone. ‘I’ll call the brigade, see if we can save it. You get out into the street. There’s fires everywhere.’

Dan and Arthur left the post and headed back out into the night. The sky was no longer dark, it blazed red and orange. The bombers still came, wave after wave of them, flying up the river to target docks and city alike. It was Sunday night and the buildings in the commercial area were mostly empty, few had their regular fire-watchers in position. The two men joined with another team and tackled fire after fire, sometimes dealing with a bomb that had yet to explode into flame, at others pumping water on those which had already taken hold, heaving sandbags, shovelling sand. Fireboats on the Thames pumped the river over to the city in a desperate attempt to provide more water to quench the flames, but the tide was low and lack of water reaching the shore hampered the continuing and increasingly desperate attempts to save the city from this blistering firestorm.