A Summer Promise (35 page)

‘Tom? Can you hear me?’ She waited until she felt a slight tightening of his fingers on hers and then continued, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘Tom, I’ve come to say goodbye. My leave is up so I have to return to my battery, and I shan’t be in the first batch to be demobbed because that privilege goes to married women with children. It’s fair enough, since they have suffered the double deprivation of being without husbands and families whilst hostilities continued. Oh, Tom, you’re on the road to recovery now and will soon be your old self. Why, I dare say you’ll be demobbed before me, but I promise I’ll come back to the dales to see you just as soon as I can. Can I give you a quick farewell kiss without you thinking I’m taking liberties?’

He mumbled something and his hand clutched hers convulsively. Maddy bent over the bed and kissed his cheek lightly, then gasped as his arms came round her, and gently pulled her close. It was a loving embrace, and to her astonishment he began to speak, his voice cracked from disuse. ‘Always loved you,’ he was saying, ‘always loved you, Marigold. Come back to me. Oh, Marigold . . .’

Making her way down to the station Maddy let the tears fall down her cheeks unchecked, her mind in a whirl. He had spoken, had hugged her and even kissed her cheek, but he had done so believing her to be Marigold. The pain was tangible, and yet against all the odds happiness had flooded through her. She did not believe for one moment that Marigold loved Tom; nor, in her heart, did she believe that Tom loved Marigold. All she had to do was bide her time and do everything she could to aid her old friend’s recovery. She realised that she and Tom might never share anything but friendship, but friendship could turn to love, she was sure of it, so she would not give up. As soon as she was able, she would return to the dales, and Tom.

TOM HAD BEEN
heartbroken when he learned that Ricky had been killed in the same incident which had maimed Tom himself. They had gone through the war together and he found it difficult to accept that the world could keep on turning when his oppo was no longer part of it. However, every time he thought of Marigold’s warm and loving embrace on the day she left, he realised what a lucky bloke he was. She had clung to him and promised to return to the dales so that they might be together as soon as they were both demobbed. It meant a great deal to him to have something to look forward to, for though his father had talked of the pair of them going into partnership and buying a market garden he knew they lacked the means to do any such thing.

But what did it matter, Tom asked himself dreamily in the long watches of the night when he could not sleep. He was no longer alone. The girl he had loved, he now believed, ever since they had first met loved him back and together, he told himself, they could do anything.

When the matron told him that he was booked into a rehabilitation centre in London, where he would be fitted with his new leg and taught how best to live with it, he was complaisant. He would agree to anything if, at the end of it, he would be reunited with Marigold.

It was a grey day and Maddy, waiting impatiently on the station platform for Alice’s arrival, found herself wishing that she had something more cheerful to wear than a navy blue skirt and jacket, a cream-coloured blouse and stout walking shoes.

She had been demobbed for several weeks now, for the war had ended decisively when the Allies had bombed Hiroshima, and accepted Japan’s surrender. Maddy had heard that Mr Churchill had wept when he had heard of the terrible damage inflicted by what they were calling the atom bomb, but Maddy accepted it had been the only way to finish the war. As far as she could see, if it had not been for that dreadful unleashing, it might have dragged on for months, or even for years.

And because of that dratted Deed of Gift, the O’Hallorans had made it pretty plain that whilst she might continue to live at Larkspur for the time being she was tolerated rather than welcomed. Since she was giving Declan O’Halloran a hand with the kitchen garden, they could scarcely refuse to feed her.

However, things would undoubtedly change now that the war was over. In theory Maddy herself could apply for jobs all over the country and take any which appealed to her, but she still hoped that the Deed of Gift could be overturned somehow and she could stay on at Larkspur with Gran. Perhaps they could employ an out-of-work ex-soldier to help with the kitchen garden . . .

At this point in her musings the train drew alongside the platform with a shriek of steam and the porter emerged from his cosy hideout waving his flag and shouting out the name of the station. The train was almost an hour late and Maddy hardly dared hope that Alice might really have arrived at last, but the crowds of people emerging from the carriages presently parted to reveal a slim figure in a bright blue matching coat and hat lugging a large suitcase, which she promptly dropped as Maddy ran towards her and the two girls fell into one another’s arms.

‘Alice! You look absolutely wonderful!’ Maddy gasped, trying to tug the suitcase, which Alice had picked up as soon as their first greeting was over, out of her friend’s hands. ‘Let me carry that. I’ve done nothing for the past hour but walk up and down the platform and wait for your train. I couldn’t book a taxi, not knowing exactly when you would arrive, but Mr Gray says if we go straight to his car he’ll tell the queue it’s a pre-order and they’ll have to wait.’

Alice pushed Maddy off her suitcase. ‘Darling Maddy, after six years of nothing but letters it’s grand to see you again,’ she said. ‘And I’ve got a huge favour to ask: the army have given the Hall back to Aunt Ruby but apparently it’s in the most God-awful mess. Do you think I might beg a bed from your gran at Larkspur? Just until we get ourselves sorted out, I mean.’

Maddy had anticipated this and had had an argument with Mrs O’Halloran, who had said indignantly that now the farm was hers she could refuse to put up anyone she didn’t want, particularly someone who had no intention of paying for her keep. But Gran was growing craftier as she got older and had learned that the mere suspicion of a chesty cough, or an accusation that her rheumatics had been set off again because one of the family had left the back door open, immediately put the O’Hallorans in a flat spin.

They would have liked to hurry things up, to say that the meeting to verify the Deed of Gift could not be delayed any longer, but Gran had reminded them, quite sharply, that she was not yet in her dotage and could remember exactly what the Deed had said. ‘You are to take care of me and continue to put my wishes first,’ she had reminded them. ‘My granddaughter has to be here to look after not only myself, but my interests, so don’t you try and arrange things for your own convenience, Eileen, or I dare say you’ll be breaking the Deed.’

Maddy, present at the time, had smiled to herself. Gran was no pushover, as the O’Hallorans were learning, and now, as she and Alice climbed into the waiting taxi, she said, ‘The evacuees have gone home so there’s enough room for both of us, and you’re very welcome to stay at Larkspur until the Hall is habitable,’ she said. ‘Hand over your ration book whilst you’re with us, and speak soft to Mrs O’Halloran, and we’ll sail through your stay.’ Curiosity getting the better of her, she added: ‘What exactly do you want to do whilst you’re here, Alice?’

‘I’m looking for a smallholding, or a market garden, something not too expensive which two men could cope with,’ Alice told her. ‘Of course, we could farm anywhere in Britain, but we’ve both got a fancy for the dales. I’m afraid I shan’t be much help at first, but I’m determined to learn. If only I’d realised, I’d have joined the Land Army, which would have given me lots of useful experience, but of course I didn’t know then how my life was going to turn out. Do you know anything about the price of land, Maddy? We’d need a little cottage or something, and probably around half a dozen acres.’

‘But surely your father will finance you, won’t he?’ Maddy said after a few moments had elapsed. ‘Of course you’d be welcome to carry out your search from Larkspur, but surely, now the Hall has been returned to your family . . .’

Alice shrugged helplessly. ‘Aunt Ruby intends to sell the Hall as soon as she can get it back into some sort of order, and of course I have no right at all to the land. It had to be handed over to farmers when my uncle went to London, and I’m jolly sure it’s too precious to be given back willy-nilly to someone who might make a real mess of it.’

‘We’re in the same boat then,’ Maddy observed. ‘Gran’s gone and made an arrangement with the O’Hallorans.’

Alice raised her brows. ‘An arrangement? What do you mean?’

As succinctly as she could, Maddy explained about the Deed of Gift and her own position, and Alice whistled softly beneath her breath. ‘We
are
in the same boat,’ she said in a low tone. ‘If only my father would listen to reason. But he doesn’t approve of my choice of husband, says things like “you’re too young to know your own mind” and “I don’t approve of the age difference . . . the fellow sounds like a bounder, taking advantage of my daughter.”’

‘But how can he object, when I’m perfectly certain they’ve never met?’ Maddy cried. ‘And as for the age difference, what does that matter?’ She seized her friend’s arm and gave it a sharp nip. ‘I know you have to get your father’s permission before you can marry Tom, but . . .’

It was Alice’s turn to exclaim. ‘Marry
Tom
?’ she said incredulously. ‘Whatever are you talking about? I’m not going to marry Tom; I’m marrying his father!’

That night, as Maddy lay in bed, she allowed herself to imagine her first meeting with Tom as, so to speak, an unattached male.

She had gone to Windhover Hall as soon as she could when she returned to Larkspur after her demob, and knew that the nursing staff had had to tell Tom, in response to a straight question, that there had been no sign of Ricky after the landmine and it was assumed that his old friend had been blown to bits.

‘No one knows for certain what happened to him, but if he is dead, he could have known nothing about it,’ a nurse had reassured him. ‘Of course I never met him, but I’m sure everyone would prefer a quick, clean end to dragging out an existence terribly crippled and unable to help oneself.’

Maddy turned restlessly in bed, seeking for a cool spot on the pillow. What should she do? Oh, what
should
she do? Now that Tom was free no one would blame her for doing her best to comfort him in his loss, but if she went to the rehabilitation centre Matron had told her about and perhaps tried to find out how he felt about losing both Marigold and Alice, it would look as though she was chasing him, and that was the last thing she wanted. On the other hand, if she did not make a push to gain his interest, he might well turn to some girl more generous and experienced than she could possibly be. She was certain that a kiss was not all that happened between an engaged couple, but try though she might, she could not imagine hurling herself into Tom’s arms as Marigold had done that time. What if he met some beautiful nurse at the rehabilitation centre and fell for her, never dreaming that Maddy loved him? After all, she had given him no indication that she was anything but his friend.

Maddy crunched up her knees close under her chin and then shot her legs out straight. What
should
she do? A dozen possibilities raised their heads and suddenly, just as she was on the very verge of sleep, she made up her mind. She would telephone Tom at the rehabilitation centre, ostensibly to congratulate him on his father’s forthcoming marriage, and tell him at the same time that Marigold, too, was about to become riveted to her Spitfire pilot. She would tell him that they must go to Marigold’s wedding together, for Marigold had promised to invite them both, and then, during the journey, or perhaps even at the wedding itself, she would find out whether Tom was carrying a broken heart in his breast. If only she was more experienced! She had no idea whether it was the done thing to tell a man she loved him; she rather thought not. But she could not afford to waste time in pretence of indifference when her whole being yearned to feel his arms about her, and hear his voice assuring her that she was the one he loved.

Having made up her mind to act, whether for better or worse, she felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. So folk would say she was chasing Tom Browning; so what? She jolly well would pursue him, tell him she had always loved him, just hadn’t recognised her feelings for what they were, and if he repulsed her, go away from the dales and never come back. Alice and Jim Browning wanted to buy property in the dales and Maddy remembered that, long ago, Tom had talked of going into partnership with his father in a market garden or smallholding. If that happened, and especially if Tom was in love with someone other than herself, Maddy wanted to be far away.

As for me, she told herself defiantly, if only Gran and I could find a way round the Deed of Gift, then I could seriously start work on getting Larkspur back into profitability. I’d get the two older evacuees to come back; Miss Evans told me that despite being boys and pretending indifference, when she saw them off on the train there were tears running down their cheeks, and Herbert leaned out of the window shouting, ‘We’ll come back, Miss E, we’ll come back if we have to walk every mile of the way.’

But of course she couldn’t do anything if the place belonged to the O’Hallorans. Maddy sighed, and sat up to turn her pillow over, telling herself that if she did not go to sleep in the next five minutes she would go downstairs, make herself a hot drink and read a book until morning arrived.

But she had scarcely pulled the blankets over her shoulders before the door creaked open and Gran came quietly into the room, carrying a candle whose flame dipped and swayed in the draught of her progress. ‘I can’t sleep. I don’t know why, ’cos I usually drop off the moment my head touches the pillow,’ she said peevishly. ‘But tonight’s different.’ She glared across at Maddy, who was trying to feign sleep herself by giving gentle snores. ‘And don’t you mess with me, young woman, because I know very well you’re awake. Just answer me this. If I’d not signed the Deed of Gift, would you and young Tom have got riveted and worked to get Larkspur back to what it used to be? Answer me that!’