Wish Me Luck (23 page)

She nodded. She was feeling a little easier, but not entirely relaxed. It was early. There was still time for the local lads to make an appearance. And when Johnny came back and sat down, her fears increased again. He positioned himself so that he sat opposite the door and every so often he glanced up at the entrance.

He’s watching for them, Fleur thought in horror. He really is planning trouble. Her heart began to pound and her hand, held warmly in Robbie’s, trembled a little.

‘Darling?’ he said at once, full of concern. ‘What is it?’

Fleur opened her mouth to blurt out the truth about what was worrying her, when she caught Kay’s eyes. There was a gleam in those violet eyes. A gleam that seemed to say, I thought as much – I thought you were a scaredy cat.

Fleur closed her mouth and lifted her chin with a new determination. Right then. Let them come. Let them all come. She’d show ’em. She’d wade in with the rest of them and hang the consequences. It would likely be promotion out of the window, but what the hell?

She smiled brightly at Robbie and said, ‘Nothing. It was just . . . just a bit cold walking here, that’s all.’

As it was a warm May night, her excuse was feeble. Robbie looked deep into her eyes and such was their closeness already that he seemed to be able to read her very thoughts. He leant close and whispered against her hair so that no one else should hear. ‘It’s all right. I promise. Don’t worry.’

As he drew back, he squeezed her hand. She gave him a small smile, not in the least surprised that he’d guessed what was troubling her. The time ticked on, with much laughter and jollity in their corner. The drinks flowed. Tommy sat with his arm around Kay. She snuggled up to him and Ruth was engaged in a verbal sparring match with the ebullient Johnny, while Peggy – the quiet one of the group – listened and smiled but did not join in the banter. Thankfully, the local girl, Kitty, was nowhere to be seen and neither – to Fleur’s huge relief – was Alfie.

There was only half an hour left until closing time and Fleur was beginning to relax. Surely, the local lads wouldn’t come in this late. She was laughing at something Johnny had said when, behind her, she heard the door to the public bar open and saw him glance towards it. She knew by his expression that this was the moment he’d been waiting for all evening.

They were here. She knew it. Without even turning round to see, she knew it. Alfie Fish and his pals were here.

Johnny rose and moved out from behind the table and towards them. Involuntarily, Fleur gripped Robbie’s hand tighter. He returned it with a comforting squeeze, but Fleur found no reassurance in the gesture.

She leant towards him. ‘Can’t you—?’ she began, but to her surprise, he put his finger to his lips and whispered, ‘Just wait and see.’

Fleur glanced at Kay but her eyes were afire and a small smile played on her lips. The chatter in the bar room had fallen silent. Everyone was watching now. Sighing inwardly with resignation for whatever was about to happen, Fleur turned round slowly to see Johnny walking towards Alfie and his mates, his hand outstretched in greeting, a broad grin on his face. Then her eyes widened and she gasped in surprise, not just at Johnny’s unexpected gesture, but at the sight of Alfie.

The young man and all his friends were dressed in Home Guard uniform.

‘No hard feelings, lads,’ Johnny was saying. ‘I’d no idea the young lady was your girlfriend, Alfie. As far as I’m concerned, she’s strictly out of bounds from now on.’

He still stood with his hand outstretched, waiting for Alfie to accept his apology and shake on it.

One of Alfie’s friends guffawed. ‘She ain’t his girl. He’d just like to think so.’

His remark cost him a sharp nudge in the ribs from another in the group. ‘Shut it, Tony.’

The smile on Johnny’s face never wavered nor did his hand drop. ‘That’s as may be, but I meant what I said. I’ve no wish to upset any of you local lads, especially’ – he laid emphasis on the words – ‘fellow comrades in uniform.’

Alfie glared. ‘Are you ’aving a laugh?’

For a moment Johnny’s smile faltered. ‘A laugh? No. Course I’m not. What d’you mean?’

‘A’ you ’aving a go at us ’cos we’re not in the proper services?’ His mouth twisted in a sneer. ‘Not one of the Brylcreem Boys?’

Slowly Johnny let his hand drop now. It seemed Alfie had no intention of shaking it. His smile faded too. ‘From what I hear,’ he said in a last-ditch effort to heal the breech, ‘the Home Guard is doing a great job. You – and all your mates – are doing just as much as us. Let’s face it.’ He nodded towards all of them. ‘If old Hitler does get here, you’ll be the ones on the front line. You’ll be the ones fighting on the beaches and in the hills, like Mr Churchill warned. And we – well – if it gets to that, we’ll have failed, won’t we? So, no, I wasn’t having a go.’ He turned away from them to go back to his seat, but over his shoulder he called, ‘Bill, set ’em up for these lads, will you? Maybe a drink’ll make ’em realize there’s no hard feelings. At least, not on my part.’

Johnny returned to his seat, picked up his glass and drained it. Near the bar the youths stood in an uncertain, embarrassed group.

‘What’ll it be then, lads?’ Bill asked easily, though Fleur could see he was keeping a close eye on the undercurrent of tension still in the room. Then the one called Tony ordered himself a pint, and the atmosphere relaxed a little as the rest of the group followed his lead, until there was only Alfie who had not taken up the well-meaning offer. He was still glaring malevolently across the room at Johnny – indeed, at all of them, Fleur thought, quaking inwardly, though she was careful not to show apprehension on her face.

Bill had just pulled the second pint when the familiar wail of the air-raid warning siren sounded.

‘Right, everyone in the cellar,’ Bill roared above the din, but the Home Guard lads slammed their pints down on the bar and made for the door, Alfie in the lead, as the first bomb landed with a thud that rattled the windows and shook the doors. The rest of the locals were diving towards Bill’s cellar.

‘We’d best get back to camp,’ Tommy said, taking the lead. ‘Are you girls going down the cellar?’

Ruth glanced at Fleur. ‘We ought to get back to Mrs J’s. Her ’n’ Harry are never going to go down the garden to the Anderson. I know they’re not. Not unless we’re there to drag them into it.’

‘Right you are, then,’ Fleur said at once. Strangely, she’d been more worried about a fight breaking out between the RAF lads and the local boys than she ever was about a few bombs falling.

‘And where do you think you two are going?’ Robbie said as Ruth and Fleur rose and began to head towards the door.

‘Back to the cottage,’ Fleur said. ‘Those two old dears won’t venture down to the shelter in the dark on their own.’

‘Wouldn’t they be safer to stay put?’ Another thud, further away this time but nevertheless a warning. ‘Now it’s started.’

The two girls looked at each other. ‘I still think we should get back to them. Be with them for once.’

‘All right. I’ll come with you,’ Robbie said and as Fleur opened her mouth, he added, ‘and no arguments.’

‘Come on then,’ Tommy said, ‘whatever you’re doing, we’d best get moving and let Bill here get down into his cellar.’

They all turned to the landlord, who was calmly clearing up, washing glasses and wiping down the smooth, polished bar top.

Another crump, a little closer again this time.

‘ ’Night, Bill,’ Johnny called. ‘We’ll let you get down the cellar.’

‘Oh, I don’t bother,’ the big man said calmly. ‘Jerry didn’t get me last time an’ I doubt he will this.’ He nodded towards them all. ‘’Night all. You tek care, now.’

They glanced at one another, shrugged and, chorusing ‘Goodnight’, went out into the noise of the air raid overhead.

Expecting to see the streets deserted whilst the enemy bombers wrought their havoc, they were startled to see figures running this way and that, illuminated by flames that were billowing from a building a little way down the lane opposite the pub.

Silhouetted against the bright orange flames licking the night sky was the black shape of a square tower.

‘That’s the church,’ Ruth gasped. ‘Oh, how terrible. A lot of the villagers use the crypt as a shelter.’

‘Come on, lads,’ Tommy said. ‘We’ll go and help. You girls go down to the cottage. You too, Kay. Don’t try getting back to camp on your own. Not in this.’

But Kay shook her head. ‘No, I’ll come and help too.’

‘We’ll come back,’ Ruth added, ‘once we’ve got the old folk into the shelter.’

Robbie took hold of Fleur’s arm. ‘I don’t suppose it’s any good me asking you to stay in the shelter, is it?’

‘Not a chance,’ she retorted and grinned up at him, the light from the burning building flickering eerily on his face.

He squeezed her elbow swiftly. ‘Take care, then. Give my love to the old folk. We’ll all meet back here at the pub . . .’ And then he plunged after Tommy, Johnny and the others.

‘Come on, Fleur. Let’s get the oldies into the shelter and then we can get back here. Else we’ll miss the fun.’

Fleur swallowed a hysterical laugh. It was not quite what she would call fun, she thought, as she began to run down the lane after Ruth.

Bombs were still falling with a frightening regularity, but they were further away from the village now.

‘That’s the airfield,’ Ruth panted as they ran.

‘I know,’ Fleur gasped. ‘I just hope everyone’s all right.’

‘They’ll be going for the aircraft on the ground and the runways to put the whole station out of action.’

They reached the cottage and pounded down the path round the end of the house and into the back yard. Opening the back door, Ruth called, ‘Mrs Jackson? Are you there?’

There was no reply.

‘Come in, Fleur, and shut the door before I open the one into the kitchen. If there’s a light on, the last thing we want to do is attract Jerry’s bombs here.’

With the back door safely shut, Ruth opened the door leading from the scullery into the kitchen. Light flooded out and they stepped into the room to see Mrs Jackson still sitting in her chair in the corner near the range and Harry sitting in the visitor’s chair. Between them the wireless blared out a music hall programme. The two old people looked up guiltily.

‘I thought as much,’ Ruth said, as she stood on the hearth rug, her hands on her hips, looking down at them. ‘Now come on, you two. We’re going to get you down to that shelter Fleur’s spent so much time digging and then we’ve to go. But we’re not going anywhere till we know you’re both safe. Come on, no arguments.’

She put out her hands and grasped Mrs Jackson’s. With a sigh of resignation, the old lady allowed herself to be hauled to her feet. ‘We’d better do as she says, Harry, else I’ll never hear the end of it.’

With a chuckle, Harry levered himself out of his chair. Fleur picked up the emergency box containing candles and matches, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of fresh water, which Ruth religiously changed every day. In the box there was also a first aid kit which everyone hoped would never be needed, but it was there – just in case. It was kept in the scullery near the back door for just such an occasion as this.

‘I’d better get you a couple of blankets,’ Fleur muttered. ‘You go on, Ruth. I’ll catch you up . . .’

They lurched their way down the narrow garden path. It was a short but tortuous journey in the darkness, Ruth only daring to show the tiniest light from her faithful torch.

‘Where are you two going? Back to camp? Can’t you stay with us?’ Mrs Jackson quavered as they got her settled on one of the battered old armchairs they had put in the shelter.

‘No. We’re going to help out down in the village. The church has been hit. It’s on fire.’

‘Oh no! Not the church. Oh Harry, that’s where my Arthur and your Doris are.’

‘They’ll be all right, lass,’ he said, reaching for her hand in the darkness. ‘They’ll be safe.’

As Fleur and Ruth climbed out of the shelter and pulled the sacking cover across the entrance, they heard the old lady say, ‘And I’m missing
Music Hall.
It’s one of my favourites.’

Giggling, the two girls hurried back along the pathway.

‘What she’d do without that wireless of hers, I dread to think,’ Ruth said.

‘It’s a pity we can’t take it down to the shelter with her. It’d keep her happy.’

Ruth stopped suddenly and Fleur cannoned into the back of her. ‘Now what?’ she said a little crossly as she’d bumped her nose on the back of Ruth’s head.

‘Well, we can.’

‘Eh? Can what?’

‘Take her wireless down there. It’s a battery-operated one.’

‘Do you think she’d want us to?’

‘It’s probably the only thing that’ll keep her down there.’

‘Come on then. Let’s make it quick . . .’

A few minutes later as they left the Anderson once more, it was to the sound of dance music blaring out into the night, accompanied by the distant sound of falling bombs.

The fire at the church had been put out, but at the west end of the building was a gaping, smouldering hole in the roof.