The Londoners (15 page)

‘Kate!’
he said again, his face alight with joy at the sight of her and then, as if they had been lovers for years, he opened his arms to her and she ran into them like an
arrow entering the gold.

His lips were hot and tender against her hair. ‘Oh God, Kate,’ he said hoarsely, ‘I thought you might not be here. I thought you might have changed your mind.’

‘No!’ she said vehemently, her face pressed close against his chest as his arms held her tightly against him. ‘Never!’

She felt loving laughter vibrate in his chest. ‘Then that’s all right then,’ he said, his amusement that such a gentle-looking girl could be capable of such fighting fierceness
thick in his voice. Gently he tilted her face upwards with his forefinger so that he could look into her eyes. As their gaze deepened, his amusement faded to be replaced by desire so strong he
could barely contain it.

‘I missed you,’ he said thickly, the expression in his eyes telling her more clearly than words ever could how very, very much.

‘I missed you,’ she said a little shyly and with utter sincerity.

Once again a smile touched the corners of his well-shaped, compassionate mouth and then, uncaring of the crowds milling around them, he lowered his head, his mouth meeting hers in sweet,
unfumbled contact.

They went for a drink in the cocktail bar of the adjoining Charing Cross Hotel and then, hand in hand, walked the short distance into the West End to the Empire Cinema to see
Walt Disney’s much talked about first feature length cartoon,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Although Toby had made the choice only because the newly built cinema was within easy walking distance, it proved to be an inspired choice.

For two magical hours Kate sat in the lush Art Deco interior, revelling not only in Toby’s nearness in the dark intimacy of the cinema, but also in the heady pleasure of being mentally
transported from the harsh reality of grey, grim London to a magical fantasy world where good always triumphed over the forces of evil.

When the film ended they walked, still hand in hand, to a small friendly restaurant by the name of Bertorelli’s where Toby was greeted as an old friend and where, when she removed her
coat, she was grateful for the elegance of her mother’s opal brooch pinned near the neckline of her dress.

‘I want you to meet my grandfather sometime over the next four days,’ he said to her as they were served with an hors d’oeuvres of delicious pâté and hot
toast.

She put her knife down, alarm flashing through her eyes. ‘But you said he would want nothing to do with me because I’m German! You said that if he had known about it he
wouldn’t even have allowed Personnel to have employed me!’

‘I know I did,’ he said steadily, ‘and, unfortunately, I was speaking the truth.’

‘Then why . . .?’ she began bewilderedly.

He put his own knife down and reached across the table, taking her hands in his. ‘Because we’re going to have a very long and a very special relationship and the sooner my
grandfather knows about it and is able to come to terms with it, the better it will be for all of us. Once he meets you, he won’t be able to help himself from liking you. No-one could. For
reasons I’ve already explained to you, he won’t find the situation an easy one to adjust to, but he’ll adjust to it eventually, especially when he realizes how important you are
to me.’

Her fingers tightened on his. ‘I’m glad I’m important to you,’ she said huskily, emboldened by the gin and tonic she had drunk earlier in the cocktail bar at the Charing
Cross Hotel and by the glass of wine she had just finished. ‘You’ve become very important to me, too.’

The waitress came and removed their plates and re-filled their glasses. They were oblivious of her.

In the subdued romantic lighting of the restaurant his classically sculpted features looked even more handsome than she had first thought them.

‘How could we have lived so near to each other and been so unaware of each other for so long?’ he asked wonderingly.

This time is was her turn to be amused. ‘Because we might live geographically near to each other but socially we’re worlds removed. Where did you go to junior school? I bet it
wasn’t Sheriton Road Juniors?’

His quick easy smile made her heart feel as if it had turned over in her chest. ‘Point taken. No, I most certainly did not go to Sheriton Road, I went to prep school when I was
seven.’

Kate’s eyes widened in dismay.
‘Seven?
Wasn’t that awful? Being taken away from your home and your parents when you were still such a small boy?’

Beneath his RAF jacket his broad shoulders gave an almost imperceptible shrug. ‘It wasn’t so bad. It’s something you quickly adjust to.’ He grinned suddenly, knowing
instinctively how she was going to react to his next remark. ‘The worst thing was the transition from being a seven-year-old to being an eight-year-old.’

‘Why?’ Mystified, she ignored the plate of grilled prawns that the waitress had just placed in front of her.

‘Because although boys are allowed to take their teddy bears and to keep them with them for their first year, they’re taken away from them when they move into the
eight-year-old’s dorm.’

The expression on Kate’s face was a mixture of anguish and outraged indignation. ‘I think that’s appalling! In fact, I think it’s even worse than appalling, I think
it’s downright criminal!’

A couple at a nearby table, overhearing only Kate’s last two comments, cast comically quizzical looks towards her. Amusedly aware of them, and aware also that his main course of steak
Béarnaise was rapidly going cold, he reluctantly released his hold of her hands.

‘And what about you?’ he asked, picking up his knife and fork and continuing with his meal. ‘Where did you go to school after leaving Sheriton Road Juniors?’

Kate began to give some attention to her grilled prawns, saying, ‘I went to Blackheath and Kidbrooke.’

‘And was that where you met the friend who was with you in the photograph you sent me?’

‘Carrie?’ Kate’s generously full mouth curved in a deep smile. ‘No, Carrie and I go back much further than that. We met even before we both went to Sheriton Road
Juniors.’

‘How?’ he asked, wanting to know everything about her; everything about her past, no matter how trivial. ‘Were you next-door neighbours?’

‘Not quite. I live at the top, Blackheath end of Magnolia Square and Carrie lives nearer to the Lewisham end of the Square. We met at Blackheath Village Nursery School and we’ve been
best friends ever since.’

Later, as he said a final goodnight to her outside her gate, he said, ‘I want you to meet grandfather on Christmas Eve. We can all go for a meal together somewhere
special. The Savoy Grill perhaps, or the Ritz.’

Held wonderfully close and secure in his arms, she said slowly, ‘I don’t think I’m ready for such a meeting yet, Toby. It would be different if he wasn’t my employer, but
as it is . . .’ She left her sentence unfinished but he knew what it was she was worrying about. If his grandfather proved to be totally unreasonable she might lose her job and it was a risk
she was not, as yet, prepared to take.

‘All right,’ he said tenderly, knowing that her reluctance was perfectly natural and knowing, deep in his heart, that it was sensible as well. The longer their relationship had
endured by the time they spoke to his grandfather about it, the greater the chances that his grandfather, realizing the seriousness of their commitment to each other, would be tolerant and
accepting of it. He knew also that his grandfather would now be waiting with exceeding impatience for him to arrive home.

‘I have to go,’ he said with deep reluctance. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow. You’ll be finishing work early, won’t you, as it’s Christmas Eve? We could go for
a meal in town and then to the midnight carol service in Trafalgar Square.’

‘I’d love that,’ she said, her arms lovingly around his waist, held so close against him that she could hear his heart beating beneath his airforce-blue jacket.
‘It’s something I’ve always wanted to go to but Dad would never let me.’

As his eyebrows rose quizzically she giggled. ‘He wouldn’t let me go because he was worried about my being out so late in town on my own. He’s not going to worry about me if
I’m with you.’

‘I should hope not,’ Toby said in dry amusement.

Dimly in the darkness the unmistakable figure of Charlie was approaching, Queenie at his heels.

Swiftly, before he could be cheated of the opportunity, Toby once more bent his head to Kate’s, kissing her goodnight for the last time.

When at last he raised his head from hers he said huskily, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, my love,’ and then, uncaring of Charlie who was now rapidly drawing abreast of them, he said
fiercely, ‘I’m in love with you – you know that.’

‘Evenin’ both,’ Charlie said pleasantly before Kate could even make an attempt at a reply. ‘Long time since I’ve seen anyone kissin’ and canoodlin’ in
Magnolia Square. Thought it was Mavis and Jack Robson for a moment. Thank Gawd I was wrong. Ted would have bloody killed the pair of ’em and then what sort of a Christmas would we ’ave
’ad?’

Kate had the best Christmas of her life. Apart from Christmas Day, which Toby dutifully spent with his grandfather and which she lovingly spent with her father, they were together every moment
possible.

When he returned to camp on the twenty-seventh of December and she went with him to the railway station to say goodbye to him, it was in the knowledge that something utterly wonderful and
magical had occurred in their lives. They were in love with each other and always would be.

In January, as letters flew fast and furious between them, Kate achieved a long-term ambition by introducing Miss Pierce to Miss Godfrey at a St Mark’s Church Sale of
Work.

In February, world news reached an all-time low. Franco swept victoriously into a bomb-blasted Barcelona and Hitler began quite openly casting covetous eyes on what remained of
Czechoslovakia.

In March, less than six months after he had declared that Germany had no more territorial demands in Europe, Hitler annexed the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia and marched victoriously
into Prague. Toby had a weekend leave at the end of the month and though he still couldn’t persuade her to meet his grandfather, he and Kate and Carl spent a happy evening together in one of
Blackheath Village’s many restaurants.

In April, when the thirty-foot-high, thirty-foot-wide
magnolia soulangeana
in the vicarage garden was in full, creamy, heart-stopping flower, Toby wrote to her with the news that he had
received his ‘wings’ and was now a fully fledged RAF officer.

In May, when Hitler had begun to eye Poland in the same way he had previously eyed Czechoslovakia and when it became obvious even to Chamberlain that no further compromise was possible, the
House of Commons endorsed the British Government’s decision to conscript men of twenty years of age for military service. Two days later Carrie gave birth to a daughter.

‘We’re going to call her Miriam Hester Margaret Rose,’ Carrie said proudly, sitting up in bed, the baby in her arms. ‘Miriam and Hester after my mother
and Danny’s mother and Margaret Rose after Princess Margaret.’

She looked down at the tiny, shawl-wrapped bundle in her arms with such fierce love that Kate’s breath caught in her throat.

‘I really like Princess Margaret’s second name better than her first name,’ Carrie confided, ‘and Danny and I have already decided that we’re not going to use the
first three names, except officially, and that we’re going to call her Rose.’

‘I think Rose is a lovely name,’ Kate said, her voice thick with emotion. ‘She’s a beautiful baby, Carrie. Can I hold her for a moment? I’ll be really careful with
her, I promise.’

It was at the beginning of June, as she was waiting in almost unbearable excitement for Toby to come home on his first leave as a fully fledged officer, that it first dawned on
her that although the cricket season was now in full swing, her father was still spending his weekends at home, pottering in the garden or reading.

‘What’s happened to the cricket team this year, Dad?’ she asked curiously one Saturday morning as she pegged washing out on the clothes-line and he was stringing cotton between
the branches of redcurrant bushes in order to protect them against birds. ‘Haven’t you been able to raise a team?’

He hesitated slightly and then said, without looking up from his task, ‘It’s no longer up to me to do so. There was a specially convened meeting of the Cricket Club Committee and the
committee decided that I should be asked to resign my captaincy.’

Kate stopped what she was doing and stared at him. ‘But why? If the committee thought it was time someone else had a shot at being captain why didn’t they say so at the end of last
season? And why have you stopped playing altogether? Haven’t you been selected?’

Even as she said the words she realized how ridiculous they were. The Swan’s Cricket Club was run on such an ad hoc basis that everyone who wanted to play was somehow incorporated on to
the team and it had always been more a matter of scrambling around trying to make up a full quota of team members rather than having to disappoint people by not selecting them to play.

Her father straightened up from his task and reluctantly turned and faced her. ‘No,’ he said, his face strained and tired. ‘I haven’t been selected to play.’

She continued to stare at him, struggling for understanding. ‘But why not? You’ve
always
played for the team!’

‘Maybe,’ he said, the pain in his usually gentle voice shocking her unutterably, ‘but I haven’t previously been seen as a potential enemy alien, have I?’

Kate’s grief and fury on her father’s behalf knew no bounds. It wasn’t as if the men on the Cricket Club Committee were faceless strangers. They were men her father had always
regarded as his friends: Nibbo and Albert and Daniel Collins.

‘I’m sure my dad wouldn’t have had anything to do with it,’ Carrie said in utter sincerity as she suckled Rose. ‘He’s always regarded your
dad as one of his best mates.’