to him her fears and griefs and hopes?
‘Cooee!’ a familiar voice called out from the opposite direction. ‘What are you doin’, standin’ starin’ into space? Waitin’ for Christmas?’ Mavis
was obviously returning from the same kind of expedition Charlie had been embarking on, for her grandmother’s whippet was panting breathlessly at her heels.
‘I was just having a quiet think,’ she replied truthfully, not wanting to draw Mavis’s attention to Christina’s receding figure. She looked down at the panting dog.
‘Where on earth have you been walking Bonzo? He looks all in.’
‘Over to the village,’ Mavis replied, coming to a halt at Kate’s gateway, much to Bonzo’s vast relief. ‘’E’s my only excuse for gettin’ out of an
evenin’. If I go dahn The Swan, that little bleeder Billy lets on to my mum and then there’s all ’ell to pay. At least this way I can call in The Princess of Wales for ’alf
an hour or so without there bein’ a ruckus.’
Kate was quite accustomed to Mavis’s colourful way of referring to her eldest child, and didn’t even blink. What did make her blink, however, was the realization that Mavis took even
the briefest notice of Miriam’s disapproval. For a moment she thought Mavis was teasing her and then Mavis said wearily, ‘What trouble Mum thinks I can get up to ’avin’ a
drink in The Swan I can’t imagine, but she’s got it fixed in ’er ’ead that Ted will go ’aywire when ’e comes ’ome if ’e thinks I’ve been what
she calls gallivantin’.’ She gave an unladylike snort of derision. ‘As if anyone could gallivant in The Swan! Lord, but life’s borin’ now there’s no more
air-raids or rocket attacks! I don’t ’alf miss the excitement, don’t you?’ And with a grin and a friendly wink she continued on her way, her teeteringly high heels tapping
out ringingly on the pavement, her leopard-printed cotton skirt and scarlet chiffon blouse garishly exotic in the blue-spangled dusk.
Kate stepped back into her hallway and shut her front door. All through the height of the Blitz Mavis had been in the ATS, riding Ted’s motor bike on life and death errands through
shattered and blazing streets. She was now working as a bus conductress, and it was no wonder she found the peace boring. And Jack Robson, who had served in the Commandos all through the war, would
no doubt find it boring also.
‘Why are you looking so worried, sweetheart?’ Leon asked a few minutes later when she put a tray bearing mugs of milky cocoa and Marmite sandwiches down on Matthew and Luke’s
bedside table, and then sat down next to him and Daisy on the edge of the bed. ‘Has Christina got problems?’
‘Yes,’ Kate said unhappily, slipping her hand into his, ‘and I rather think that in the near future she’s going to have even more.’
Chapter Six
‘You’re just in time for a cup of char,’ Miriam called out from the kitchen as Christina stepped inside the cluttered hall. ‘I’m just
puttin’ the kettle on.’
‘You needn’t make a cup for me,’ Christina called back, negotiating a lawn-mower that for some inexplicable reason had been left in the hallway, and wondering for the umpteenth
time why it was the British couldn’t survive so much as an hour without a cup of hot, strong, tea. ‘I’ve already had two cups at the Voigts’.’
‘Then you were bloomin’ quick about it,’ Albert retorted cheerily from the depths of his armchair, ‘Carrie’s only bin back ten minutes and she an’ Kate
an’ Danny an’ the kids all came ’ome from the swimmin’ baths together.’
Christina walked into a sitting-room almost as cluttered as the hallway. Albert was reading the paper, the sleeves of his collarless shirt rolled high. Danny was trying to tune the wireless into
some light music, his coppery-red hair still wet from the duckings he had received at the swimming baths. Leah was finishing off Miriam’s pile of darning.
‘Did
‘Cooee!’ a familiar voice called out from the opposite direction. ‘What are you doin’, standin’ starin’ into space? Waitin’ for Christmas?’ Mavis
was obviously returning from the same kind of expedition Charlie had been embarking on, for her grandmother’s whippet was panting breathlessly at her heels.
‘I was just having a quiet think,’ she replied truthfully, not wanting to draw Mavis’s attention to Christina’s receding figure. She looked down at the panting dog.
‘Where on earth have you been walking Bonzo? He looks all in.’
‘Over to the village,’ Mavis replied, coming to a halt at Kate’s gateway, much to Bonzo’s vast relief. ‘’E’s my only excuse for gettin’ out of an
evenin’. If I go dahn The Swan, that little bleeder Billy lets on to my mum and then there’s all ’ell to pay. At least this way I can call in The Princess of Wales for ’alf
an hour or so without there bein’ a ruckus.’
Kate was quite accustomed to Mavis’s colourful way of referring to her eldest child, and didn’t even blink. What did make her blink, however, was the realization that Mavis took even
the briefest notice of Miriam’s disapproval. For a moment she thought Mavis was teasing her and then Mavis said wearily, ‘What trouble Mum thinks I can get up to ’avin’ a
drink in The Swan I can’t imagine, but she’s got it fixed in ’er ’ead that Ted will go ’aywire when ’e comes ’ome if ’e thinks I’ve been what
she calls gallivantin’.’ She gave an unladylike snort of derision. ‘As if anyone could gallivant in The Swan! Lord, but life’s borin’ now there’s no more
air-raids or rocket attacks! I don’t ’alf miss the excitement, don’t you?’ And with a grin and a friendly wink she continued on her way, her teeteringly high heels tapping
out ringingly on the pavement, her leopard-printed cotton skirt and scarlet chiffon blouse garishly exotic in the blue-spangled dusk.
Kate stepped back into her hallway and shut her front door. All through the height of the Blitz Mavis had been in the ATS, riding Ted’s motor bike on life and death errands through
shattered and blazing streets. She was now working as a bus conductress, and it was no wonder she found the peace boring. And Jack Robson, who had served in the Commandos all through the war, would
no doubt find it boring also.
‘Why are you looking so worried, sweetheart?’ Leon asked a few minutes later when she put a tray bearing mugs of milky cocoa and Marmite sandwiches down on Matthew and Luke’s
bedside table, and then sat down next to him and Daisy on the edge of the bed. ‘Has Christina got problems?’
‘Yes,’ Kate said unhappily, slipping her hand into his, ‘and I rather think that in the near future she’s going to have even more.’
Chapter Six
‘You’re just in time for a cup of char,’ Miriam called out from the kitchen as Christina stepped inside the cluttered hall. ‘I’m just
puttin’ the kettle on.’
‘You needn’t make a cup for me,’ Christina called back, negotiating a lawn-mower that for some inexplicable reason had been left in the hallway, and wondering for the umpteenth
time why it was the British couldn’t survive so much as an hour without a cup of hot, strong, tea. ‘I’ve already had two cups at the Voigts’.’
‘Then you were bloomin’ quick about it,’ Albert retorted cheerily from the depths of his armchair, ‘Carrie’s only bin back ten minutes and she an’ Kate
an’ Danny an’ the kids all came ’ome from the swimmin’ baths together.’
Christina walked into a sitting-room almost as cluttered as the hallway. Albert was reading the paper, the sleeves of his collarless shirt rolled high. Danny was trying to tune the wireless into
some light music, his coppery-red hair still wet from the duckings he had received at the swimming baths. Leah was finishing off Miriam’s pile of darning.
‘Did
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