The Londoners (48 page)

‘’lo, Auntie Kate!’ Rose called out, letting go of her grandmother’s hand and running towards Kate. ‘It’s Christmas tomorrow and Santa Claus is bringing me a
doll’s house!’

Kate’s eyebrows rose. A doll’s house! How on earth had Carrie managed to buy a doll’s house?

‘It ain’t really a doll’s house,’ Miriam said as Rose scampered off to introduce Jenny to Hector. ‘It’s a birdcage Albert found when Cambridge Gardens was
bombed in May. Gawd knows what happened to the bird, I don’t. Albert said the cage would come in useful, an’ it ’as. ’E’s covered the sides in cardboard and put a bit
of old lino on top as a roof. Me an’ Christina dug out bits an’ pieces to furnish it. We found bits of old wallpaper for the walls and dyed a bit of hessian for a carpet an’
fringed it. It looks a fair treat.’

‘I bet it does,’ Kate said warmly. It was the first time in eighteen months that Miriam had spoken to her and she had no intention of being childish and snubbing her. If Miriam was
prepared to build fences, then so was she.

‘If you’re ’oping to find any fruit dahn the market, you’d best be quick,’ Miriam said, catching hold of Rose’s hand again. ‘Albert ’ad a fair
supply in first thing but it’ll soon go. ’Ave a nice Christmas. Ta-ra.’

‘Ta-ra,’ Kate said as Miriam began to walk away from her.

‘Bye,’ Christina said, falling into step beside Miriam.

Kate swung her head round, hardly able to believe her ears, but Christina already had her back towards her. She stared after her, wondering if she had been imagining things. A friendly goodbye?
From Christina Frank? It almost beggared belief.

‘If Rose is getting a doll’s house from Santa Claus do you think she’ll let me play with it?’ Daisy asked as they walked past the Lomaxes’ and the
Jennings’.

‘Of course she will,’ Kate said confidently, looking forward to the expression on Daisy’s face when she found a doll in her Christmas stocking. It was one she herself had been
given when she was four years old and she had made it a magnificent new set of clothes out of an old rose-pink silk blouse.

‘Why is that big army lorry parked there?’ Daisy asked curiously as they turned the corner into Magnolia Hill.

The lorry in question was parked at the very top end of Magnolia Hill, as near to the Square as it was possible for it to get. ‘I don’t know,’ Kate said, wondering if perhaps
it was something to do with Ted and if he was home on Christmas leave, and if his rift with Mavis was at an end.

‘Billy shouldn’t be playing in it, should he?’ Daisy said with a three-year-old’s self-importance. ‘I’ve just seen him climbing into it. I ’spect
he’s pretending to drive it. Little boys can’t drive big lorries, can they?’

Mr Nibbs was walking up the far side of the street, deep in conversation with Daniel Collins. Kate grinned to herself. If Nibbo spoke to her today it would be a hat trick!

Hettie Collins was walking towards them, her well-worn black coat buttoned high to the throat, her black hat decorated with a seasonal sprig of holly, a shopping-basket over her arm.

At the bottom end of Magnolia Hill, where The Swan dipped steeply into the busy High Street, Queenie could be glimpsed, sitting patiently on the pavement waiting for Charlie.

‘There’s probably someone in the lorry with him,’ Kate said, and then three things happened at once.

Leon swung into Magnolia Hill at the corner opposite to The Swan. The lorry began to move, edging silently forwards. Mavis suddenly appeared, her peroxide-blonde hair in pincurls, slippers on
her feet, shouting, ‘
Put the bloody brake on, Billy!
’

Billy didn’t put the brake on, presumably because he couldn’t reach it. The lorry began to gain momentum. Hettie Collins screamed and dropped her shopping-basket. Mr Nibbs shouted,
‘What the bloody hell
. . .’ Daniel Collins sprinted into the middle of the road and began racing after the lorry, trying to catch it up. Mavis began to scream.

Instinctively Kate also began to run. The lorry was thundering loudly over Magnolia Hill’s cobbles now, hurtling suicidally down towards the busy junction with the High Street.

As she ran she saw Charlie and a half a dozen other men tumble out of The Swan. She heard Nibbo shout,
‘Get someone to stop the traffic in the High Street for Christ’s
sake!’
She saw Hettie Collins begin to cross herself time and time and time again. And she saw Leon sling his kit-bag to the ground and, as the lorry rocketed towards him, she saw him
tense himself and spring.

Her own screams now merged with Mavis’s. For a brief second she saw his uniformed figure cling to the lorry’s nearside door and then he threw himself bodily through the open
window.

‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they’ll both be killed!’
Hettie sobbed as Kate raced past her, Daisy sobbing in her wake, vainly trying to catch up with her.

There were only yards now between the careening lorry and the buses and vans and horse-drawn carts unsuspectingly plying up and down the High Street.

Suddenly the lorry swerved, heading diagonally across the road towards The Swan, tyres screeching as it did so.

‘He’s got the brakes on!’
Daniel panted to Kate, still running.
‘He’s going to crash it into The Swan rather than let it crash in the High
Street!’

Charlie and his mates had already realized the same thing and heavy boots were scattering left and right at high speed.

Kate was in the road now, the cobbles hard beneath her feet. If Leon crashed the lorry into The Swan, lives would no doubt be saved in the High Street but what would happen to him and Billy?

‘It’s slowing down!’
Daniel shouted from behind her.
‘He’s going to make it, thank God.’

The lorry shuddered and lurched on to the pavement and then, a hair’s breadth from the pub’s walls, it rocked to a halt.

From everywhere people began running towards it. Ted Lomax, wearing only a pair of hastily donned trousers, his hair and chest still wet from the bath he had been having, raced like a man
demented past Daniel. Bob Giles, his distinctive clerical collar showing above a husky jumper, was running down Magnolia Hill from the direction of the vicarage. Even Hettie was running, her basket
of shopping forgotten, tears of relief staining her cheeks.

As Leon flung the driver’s seat door of the lorry’s cab open, Mavis was the first on the scene.
‘You stupid little bleeder!’
she sobbed at Billy as Leon handed
him down to her.
‘I’ll bloomin’ killyer when I getyer ’ome!’

Kate didn’t hear Billy’s reply. As Leon sprang agilely down from the cab to the pavement she rocketed towards him, throwing herself into his arms.

If anyone was surprised by her action, they didn’t say so.

‘That was a bloody brave thing to do, mate,’ Daniel Collins was saying as Leon’s arms closed around Kate. ‘If you’d misjudged that leap you’d have likely
killed yourself.’

‘You deserve a medal,’ Hettie was saying, one hand pressed against her still palpitating heart, her sprig of holly hanging half off her hat after the exertion of her run.
‘Doesn’t ’e deserve a medal, Nibbo? If it wasn’t for ’im little Billy would most likely be dead now.’

‘And so, very likely, would a lot of other people,’ Nibbo said, thinking of the carnage that could have been caused if the lorry had careered into a two-decker bus.

Leon wasn’t listening to him, or to the other words of admiration flooding over him. Kate was in his arms, where he had always wanted her to be, and he hadn’t the slightest intention
of letting her go.

‘Oh God, I thought you were going to be killed!’ she was saying, her voice breaking with emotion.

Her head was against his chest and she was hugging him so tightly he could hardly breathe. He looked down at the shining gold of her hair, knowing that from now on there would be no barriers of
shyness or uncertainty between them.

‘Who? Me?’ he asked quizzically, his amber-brown eyes full of love. ‘When I’m about to spend a second Christmas Day with you and Hector? I wouldn’t be so
careless.’

‘And Daisy,’ she said thickly, raising her head to his, her eyes shining with happiness. ‘You haven’t met Daisy yet.’

‘No,’ Leon said, looking across the top of her head to where a small figure was running towards them as fast as her little legs would carry her. ‘But I think I’m about
to.’

Ted Lomax had been hugging Billy. Now he came across to Leon and held out his hand to him. ‘We haven’t met, but I’m Billy’s dad,’ he said as Leon reluctantly
released hold of Kate with one arm in order to accept his proffered handshake. ‘I can’t thank you enough for what you just did. If you hadn’t been there . . .’ he shuddered,
and not just because he was half-naked and it was the middle of winter.

‘I only did what anyone would have done if they’d been where I was,’ Leon said, beginning to feel slightly embarrassed by the fuss that was being made.

‘Not many people would have leapt on a lorry going that speed,’ Ted said frankly, ‘I just want you to know that I appreciate it. And that I won’t forget it.’

‘You both need a strong hot cup of tea down you,’ Hettie said practically. ‘Come on, let’s get back to the Square and I’ll put the kettle on. Are you comin’
with us Nibbo? Charlie?’

‘I don’t think so, ’ettie,’ Charlie said, eyeing the still open door of The Swan. ‘I rather fancy a drop o’ somethin’ a bit stronger.’

‘I dare say Daniel does as well, but he ain’t going to have any,’ Hettie said tartly before her husband should get any similar ideas. ‘Come on, Daniel. And give Ted a
lend of your jacket. He must be freezing.’

Daisy had come to a stop a few feet from Kate and Leon. Kate had told her a lot about Leon and she had been fiercely looking forward to meeting him. Now, however, she felt suddenly shy. He
looked so different from anyone she had ever seen before, with his dusky skin and crinkly black hair. And he had his arm around her Auntie Kate’s shoulders in a way she wasn’t sure she
liked. She was
her
Auntie Kate, after all, and though she didn’t mind sharing her with baby Matthew she wasn’t sure she wanted to share her with anyone else.

Leon, seeing the doubts and uncertainties flashing across her face, slid his arm from around Kate’s waist and squatted down on his haunches so that he and Daisy were on eye-level.

‘Hello,’ he said with a friendly grin. ‘I’m Leon. Are you Daisy? I’ve heard a lot about you.’

‘And I’ve heard a lot about you, too,’ Daisy said, slightly reassured.

‘I hope we’re going to be friends. I’ve got some oranges and bananas in my kit-bag. Shall we go home and put them in a fruit bowl?’

‘A banana?’ Daisy’s eyes were like saucers. She had heard about bananas but she’d never seen one, much less eaten one. ‘A real banana? Not a pretend one?’

‘A real banana,’ Leon said solemnly. He stretched his hand out to hers. ‘Come on, let’s have a cup of tea at Mrs Collins’ and then you can help me unpack my
kit-bag.’

Daisy put her hand willingly into his. Her Auntie Kate had told her she would like Leon and, as usual, her Auntie Kate had been right. No-one else she knew would be having bananas for Christmas.
And no-one else she knew had a friend who looked so wonderfully different from everyone else.

‘I missed you,’ Kate said fervently as, her hand clasped in his, they followed the Collinses and Lomaxes and Mr Nibbs into the Square.

His hand tightened on hers. ‘And I love you,’ he said, his eyes, meeting hers as Daisy skipped at her side and Hector bounded ahead of them.

Kate’s heart somersaulted. It was as if there were only the two of them in the whole wide world; as if the little throng of neighbours only a few yards ahead of them didn’t
exist.

‘I love you,’ she said softly. ‘Every time I wrote to you I wanted to tell you. I’m glad now that I didn’t, that I’m telling you now, face to face.’

‘So am I.’ He wanted to kiss her so badly he hurt. ‘And I’m glad you’re telling me today, in this exact spot.’

Her eyes widened uncomprehendingly and a wide, easy grin split his face. ‘We’re just about to walk past the Jennings’. Don’t you remember what happened here, a year ago
almost to the hour?’

Joyous laughter bubbled up in her throat. She certainly did remember. And she owed Miriam Jennings a huge favour. If Miriam had taken him in as a lodger, instead of being rude to him and
slamming the door in his face, then he would never have approached a complete stranger to ask if she knew of anyone who took in lodgers. And she owed Hettie a favour, too. For if Hettie
hadn’t also refused to take him as a lodger, the stranger in question would never have impulsively walked down to The Swan and told him that, if he wanted it, she had a room she could let him
have.

‘It’s our anniversary,’ she said, hugging his arm. ‘What could be more perfect?’

‘Nothing,’ Leon’s heart was full to overflowing. Never again would he feel a loner or an outsider or a misfit. He had a family again. When the war was over, Kate and Matthew
and Daisy and Hector would be waiting for him. Years and years of being together and loving each other lay ahead of them, or they did if his ship survived being blasted to eternity by a German
U-boat or battleship. As they turned in at Hettie’s gate his jaw tightened. He’d survive the war. He wasn’t going to let anyone, not the entire German Navy or Air Force, rob him
of the happiness he knew lay ahead of him with Kate as his wife.

That he and Kate were now far more to each other than lodger and landlady seemed to be accepted by their neighbours without question.

‘You look after that fella of yours,’ Hettie said to Kate a little while later as she pressed a mug of tea with condensed milk, into her hand. ‘He’s a real
hero.’

And Mr Nibbs said, ‘It’s very fortunate your young man is no longer hampered by an injured leg. If he had been he’d never have been able to make such a magnificent
jump.’

‘I’ve scored a hat trick,’ Kate thought to herself as Ted made Billy apologize to Leon for all the trouble he had caused and Hettie sat down at her piano and began playing
Knees Up Mother Brown
and Mavis began to lead the singing. ‘First Miriam speaks to me and then Christina Frank and now Mr Nibbs, all in one day!’