Jenny's War (40 page)

They threw a party on Georgie’s last night, which happily coincided with Ben coming home on leave and also with another of Felix’s frequent visits. Ben hadn’t altered except that he seemed taller. Perhaps it was all the military training that made him carry himself more erect.

‘So you’re going to be one of the “chairborne” now,’ he teased Georgie, slapping him on the back. It was a jovial term used in the RAF for those who didn’t fly but who sat at a desk. ‘Thank goodness for that. At least we’ll know you’re comparatively safe.’

‘Why “comparatively”?’ Jenny asked, sitting down at the dinner table next to Georgie and across the table from Ben and Felix. Miles and Charlotte sat at either end of the long dining table. Jenny was determined to be very grown-up tonight. Charlotte had helped her to wash her hair and it now hung in waves and curls to her shoulders. And she was wearing a pretty dress, which Charlotte had bought for her.

Ben glanced at Georgie before saying quietly, ‘Because the enemy try to bomb airfields and it’s a bomber station where Georgie is going. So it’s what they call a prime target.’

Jenny nodded. ‘Like London. They tried to demoralize us, but they reckoned without us cockneys. We don’t give in that easy.’

‘How was it when you went back?’ Ben asked quietly, sensing that Jenny could handle talking about it now.

‘We always went to the shelters or to the nearest underground sometimes. That was the best place.’ She grinned. ‘We’d share food and sing songs and the kids would play, then we’d all settle down on the platforms to sleep.’ Then her face clouded. ‘But I wasn’t there long.’ She glanced up at Miles. ‘We did a moonlight – thanks to Uncle Arthur.’ She didn’t know how much Ben had been told, but she rather thought he would have heard about it. There didn’t seem to be any secrets within the Thornton family. But they might not, of course, have told Felix.

Miles cleared his throat and seemed to speak directly to Felix. ‘Jenny spent some time in Derbyshire and that’s why we couldn’t find her when we went to London to tell her that we’d heard Georgie was safe.’

‘I remember.’ Felix nodded.

‘So it wasn’t until she got back there recently that one of their neighbours told her we’d been looking for her.’ Miles reached across the corner of the table and put his hand over Jenny’s. ‘And so here she is back safe and sound with us.’

How neatly Miles had turned the conversation away from the traumas Jenny had suffered and yet had managed to give a plausible explanation to their friend. As long as Felix didn’t ask awkward questions about her time in Derbyshire, but it seemed he was content and turned the conversation instead to Charlotte’s painting and then, once more, to thoughts of Jenny’s future. The art world was his life and he never tired of talking about it. And Jenny never tired of hearing about it. She was even beginning to hope that it was a world in which, one day, she might have a part.

‘So,’ he asked her, ‘how did you get on in your interview with the headmaster?’

Jenny grimaced. ‘I’ve got to sit some exams.’

Miles took up the story. ‘But he did say that if Jenny can reach the required standard in the examinations he’s going to set her, then she can be admitted and take the School Certificate at the end of the summer term. He also said that because teachers, and the education authorities too, are well aware of how the war has disrupted children’s education, they are keen to be helpful whenever possible.’

‘Really.’ Felix beamed. ‘How wonderful. And . . . ?’

Miles chuckled. ‘The headmaster and the art master looked at the paintings Jenny has done since she’s been back with us.’

‘And . . . ?’ Felix prompted again.

‘They say she shows remarkable talent.’

‘Ah, what sensible people. We know that, but I always fear that others aren’t going to be blessed with our perception.’ Everyone around the table laughed. ‘So – what’s next?’

‘One of the teachers from the school has agreed to tutor Jenny in the evenings and at weekends. He’ll set work for her to do each day and—’

‘But she must leave time for her art.’

‘Of course.’ Miles inclined his head in agreement. ‘Everyone realizes that is of paramount importance.’

‘The teacher, Mr Lomax,’ Charlotte explained, ‘is a committed young man but he was very distressed when he failed his medical for the armed forces at the beginning of the war. He says this is a way he feels he can “do his bit”.’

‘I’d’ve thought he was already doing it by continuing as a teacher,’ Felix spread his hands, ‘but I’m hardly going to argue with him if he’s going to help Jenny.’

‘We’ll make sure he has everything he needs and I shall fetch him from Lynthorpe each day.’ Miles laughed. ‘Though it might have to be in the pony and trap. The only thing that bothers me is that he’s refusing to take any payment for tutoring Jenny.’

‘Don’t press him any more, Miles, if that’s the way he feels,’ Charlotte said softly. ‘He might begin to feel insulted.’

‘No, no, I won’t.’

‘And I’ll work ever so hard to repay him,’ Jenny promised. ‘To repay all of you.’

‘You being here is all we want.’

‘But if I get to college then – then I’d be going away again, wouldn’t I?’

‘Yes, but that would be very different. You’d always come back here. Or at least we’d hope you would.’

Jenny nodded vigorously.

‘Would you really like to go to art college, Jen?’ Georgie asked.

‘I think so. Can you become an art teacher in a school, then?’

Felix laughed. ‘So you don’t want to become a famous artist with your pictures hanging in every gallery in the land or the rich and famous clamouring for you to paint their portrait?’

‘It’d be nice, but I don’t think I’ll be good enough.’

‘Don’t underestimate yourself, my dear. You have a natural talent that we all’ – he glanced round the table to include all the Thornton family – ‘intend to see is nurtured and brought to its full potential. There’s just one thing,’ he added, wagging his finger at her and pretending to be serious though she could see his eyes were twinkling. ‘I shall do everything I can to prevent you running off and getting married and having hordes of babies.’

‘Now that’s a little hard, Felix,’ Georgie laughed. ‘Jenny’s a pretty girl and Father and Charlotte will have young men queuing halfway down the driveway when she’s a little older.’

Round the table everyone laughed, but it was not cruel laughter, just the gentle sort of teasing that goes on within a real family. Even Jenny joined in, though she knew she was blushing and so avoided catching Charlotte’s eye.

‘Hitler’s committed suicide.’ Miles rushed into the dining room on the first day of May waving the newspaper. ‘It’ll all be over now.’

‘Are you sure?’ Charlotte hardly dared to believe it. ‘Won’t there be someone to take his place?’

‘Oh they might try, but the Russians are already in Berlin and the Americans will be there any day if they’re not already. I think the war in Europe will be over in a matter of days, though defeating Japan might take a little longer.’

Miles was right and on 7 May, General Montgomery, along with other high-ranking officials, accepted the Germans’ surrender.

‘It’s over. It’s really over.’ Charlotte cried tears of joy. ‘The boys will be coming home for good.’

With the morning post came more exciting news.

‘Where’s Jenny?’ Miles emerged from his study waving a letter.

‘She’s just playing with Lou-Lou in the nursery before she settles down to her lessons. Why?’

‘Right, let’s go and find her.’

Charlotte’s heart lurched, but she could tell from Miles’s face that it was not bad news. ‘What is it?’

‘You’ll see in a minute,’ he promised as he led the way upstairs.

Miles flung open the nursery door with a flourish. Jenny and Louisa, kneeling in front of the doll’s house, looked up, startled.

‘Jen, I’ve had a letter from your headmaster.’

Jenny got up slowly, looking anxious, but she saw that Miles was smiling.

‘He’s written to say that he’s very pleased with your progress and that if you do well in your School Certificate examinations, there’ll be a place in the sixth form for you if you want it.’

‘If I want it?’ Jenny laughed with relief. For one dreadful moment she’d thought she was going to be asked to leave the school where she’d settled in so well and was loving every minute. ‘What a silly question!’

‘You could probably go to art school sooner, but Charlotte and I feel that you’d do much better to go to school for another two years first and study for your Higher Certificate. How do you feel about that?’

Jenny’s face fell. ‘But I won’t be earning anything, I won’t be able to—’

Miles waved her worries aside. ‘You’re our daughter now – or as good as – and it’s what we’d do for any of our children.’ Miles had asked his solicitor about the legalities surrounding Jenny living with them permanently. Word came back that Dot had agreed to the arrangement – a little too readily, in Miles’s opinion, yet he was grateful that she had done so. Now he continued happily, ‘What we
have
done for the boys and what we’ll one day do for Lou-Lou. So, what do you say? Shall I write and tell him you’d like to stay on another two years?’

‘Oh yes, yes, yes,’ she cried, flinging herself, first at Miles and then at Charlotte whilst Louisa clapped delightedly even though she didn’t understand what the reason for all the excitement was. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’

‘We have to go and see the headmaster next Monday afternoon after school to talk about what subjects you’d like to take in the sixth form.’

‘Can I take art?’

‘Of course. He understands that’s what you want to do and he’s promised that all the teachers will help you, especially, he said, the art teacher.’

‘I couldn’t have a better teacher than Charlotte and Felix,’ Jenny said loyally.

‘That’s sweet of you, darling, but the school teacher will know just what’s required to get you into a proper art school.’

Jenny felt suddenly nervous and yet excited too. ‘Oh, I’ll work so hard for you. I won’t let you down.’

Charlotte put her arms around her and hugged her. ‘We know you won’t.’

‘Now we’ve a double celebration,’ Miles said happily.

‘Is Georgie coming home? I can’t wait to tell him.’

‘He will be soon, I expect, but you’d better write to him. He’ll be thrilled for you.’

‘I will. I’ll do it now and walk down to the post office.’

She turned and ran to the room next door to the nursery that was still her bedroom.

‘She’s growing up so fast,’ Miles murmured as he picked Louisa up and set her gently on the rocking horse.

‘Sixteen in August,’ Charlotte answered.

‘I expect we’ll soon have young men knocking at the door just like Georgie predicted.’

Charlotte glanced at her husband. Men – even her beloved husband – could be so blind in matters of the heart, she thought. Softly she said, ‘Not a word to a soul, Miles, but our Jenny’s heart is already captured.’

Miles blinked and then stared at her. Then his face cleared, ‘Oh Alfie, d’you mean?’

Charlotte chuckled and shook her head. ‘Closer to home than Alfie. A lot closer to home.’

She could almost hear cogs whirring in his head. ‘You don’t mean – ?’

‘Indeed I do, but promise me you won’t way a word and you certainly mustn’t tease her or even hint as much to him. She’s very sensitive about it.’

Miles glanced at the closed door through which Jenny had disappeared a moment before. ‘So that’s why she doesn’t like Cassandra,’ he murmured.

Charlotte gave a most unladylike snort. ‘Well, I’m not exactly enamoured of Georgie’s choice either and that has nothing to do with good old-fashioned jealousy.’

Miles laughed and put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Oh, I don’t know. We all know he’s always been your golden boy. No doubt you think if he marries Cassandra he’ll move away and we won’t see much of him.’

‘She’d see to that.’ Charlotte couldn’t keep the bitterness from her tone.

‘But isn’t Jenny awfully young for him, even supposing he were to – well – think of her in that way?’

‘She seems so now, yes, I grant you. But there’re only nine years between them. Another couple of years and she’ll be an adult.’ She laughed. ‘There are several more years than that between you and me, now aren’t there?’

‘But he could get married before, well, before Jenny grows up.’

‘Yes,’ Charlotte agreed flatly. ‘Indeed he could.’

Now that the war was over, Charlotte and Jenny fully expected both Georgie and Ben to be demobbed and to return home. Only Miles knew differently. ‘There’s still a lot of work to be done. It’ll take time before everyone is allowed to come home, except on leave, of course. The soldiers who are still abroad will be first home and rightly so. Some of them might not have seen their families for years.’

‘Of course. I hadn’t looked at it like that, but you’re right.’ Charlotte smiled. ‘We’ll just have to be patient a little longer.’

But when Georgie came home on leave, it was to tell them that he thought he would stay in the RAF for a little longer. ‘There’s a lot of paperwork and organization still to be done and my commanding officer thinks I can be useful, even with a limp,’ he joked. Then he shrugged. ‘And I really don’t know what else I’d do anyway. I’ve not trained for anything other than flying.’

‘I’m sure that other opportunities to do with commercial flying might arise after the war,’ Miles murmured.

‘I don’t think I’d pass a medical now, would I?’

‘It’d be worth a try. They can only say no.’

Georgie’s face brightened. ‘You’re right.’

‘But flying’s dangerous,’ Jenny blurted out before she could stop herself.

‘Quite right,’ Charlotte said firmly. ‘We want you safe now, Georgie. We’ve had enough worry over the last six years.’

‘Oh you two!’ He put an arm around each of them. ‘What shall we do with them, Father?’

Miles smiled at the three of them standing before him. How he loved them all. And part of him understood the women’s anxiety, but being a man, he could understand his son’s point of view too. Georgie had to find something to do with his life now the war was over. And he loved flying. It was as simple as that.