Far From Home (13 page)

‘That's grand,' Kate said.

‘Bathroom is on the next floor down, next to the broom cupboard with brushes and mops and all,' Dolly said. ‘I expect these places to be kept clean. We don't want to be overrun with mice or rats.'

‘And are baths by arrangement, like they are in our place at the moment?' Kate asked.

‘Yeah,' said Dolly. ‘But you will be well used to that.'

‘Oh, yes, we are, that's fine.'

Dolly nodded. ‘That's about all then. Oh, there is a basement area to do any washing you may have, with a gas boiler and two big sinks. And there are lines indoors and out.'

‘Oh,' Kate said. ‘You seem to have thought of everything. What's the rent?'

‘Seven and sixpence,' Dolly said. ‘And wouldn't be so cheap if it wasn't right at the top of the house.'

It was still half as much again as they were paying for the one room, but with two wages they could manage it. So, when Dolly asked, ‘Would you like a few minutes to talk it over?' Kate's eyes met the shining ones of her sister
and she said, ‘That won't be necessary, Mrs Donovan, er Dolly. My sister and I will take it and welcome.'

Just over a week after they had first seen it, they were ready to move in. David, Nick and Susie came to help and Sally was given the afternoon off too, and their bits and pieces were moved in no time. ‘You really have fallen on your feet this time,' Nick said in approval.

‘I'll say,' Kate said. ‘I knew straight away it would suit us both down to the ground. Clever girl, Sally, for finding it.'

‘Didn't do much,' Sally said. ‘That's the good of telling everyone. Someone is bound to come up with something sooner or later. As it is, the mother of Dulcie – who I work with – is quite good friends with Dolly Donovan and she put in a word when she knew she had a flat vacant. Dulcie said that she is real particular who she has in her place. I suppose 'cos she lives there herself.'

‘Particular you say,' David mused with a twinkle in his eye. ‘And yet she took you two on.'

‘Oh, you,' Kate said, giving him a push as the others laughed. ‘Don't do that,' he cautioned. ‘I have something hidden beneath my jacket and I'd hate you to break it.'

‘Why, what is it?'

‘This,' said David, producing a bottle of champagne.

‘Ooh,' said Susie and Kate together.

‘I've never tasted champagne,' Sally said. ‘I haven't tasted much alcohol really.'

‘That's because of your tender age,' David said. ‘But today we'll make an exception. Get some glasses, Kate, and we'll drink to the future.'

 

Despite the rumblings in Europe, which the girls thought too far away for them to worry about, the future looked rosy. They all had jobs, and so they had money in their pockets, plenty of entertainment to encourage them to part with it – and added to that, they were in love.

Kate had never been happier than she was in the spring of 1939. They had been to see David's parents again one cloudy day in late February, though David said he would rather have gone to the pictures if it wasn't a fit day to go out. But Kate, though she had no real desire to go to the Burton's either, didn't want David's parents to think that she was keeping him away. ‘Why should they?' David asked. ‘I never spent much time at home before I met you anyway.'

‘Even so—'

‘They don't want to see me either,' David said. ‘Since that first time, they have never asked us up, have they?'

‘No,' Kate had to agree. ‘Maybe it's me they don't like.'

‘Shouldn't think so,' David said. ‘And anyway, I'm not going without you.'

‘Look,' cajoled Kate. ‘All we have to do is call in, have a cup of tea and leave again. That's not so hard.'

‘Oh, all right, if you're so determined.'

‘And don't argue with your brother, will you?'

David looked at her and smiled. ‘Any more demands?' he said, and then, as Kate was about to speak, he lifted his hand and said, ‘I will do my level best not to fight with Lawrence. Mainly because of what you said last time, about him winning if I react.'

‘And so he will,' Kate said. ‘So keep your temper.'

‘I'll try.'

Kate sighed. That would have to do, and so they walked to the Burtons' that blustery cold Sunday afternoon. But even Kate acknowledged later that none of them seemed to care whether they were there or not. Dora was in the middle of baking scones for tea and Alf and Lawrence, newly returned from the pub, were half asleep in the chairs either side of the fire. However, Lawrence perked up considerably when he caught sight of Kate, much to her dismay. ‘Well hello,' he said, jumping to his feet and catching hold of her hand before she had the chance to snatch it away. To David he said, ‘What brings you here then, our kid?'

David stared at him before saying, ‘It might have escaped your notice, but I live here.'

‘Do you?' Lawrence said with mock incredulity. ‘D'you hear that, Ma? David lives here? No one would realize that, with the little time you spend here.'

‘And can you wonder at it when this is the sort of welcome I get?'

‘Well, what sort of welcome do you want from your own family?' Alf asked.

‘That's right,' Lawrence said. ‘But you, my dear,' he went on, turning to face Kate and giving the hand he was still holding a squeeze, ‘you can have as warm a welcome as you please.'

Beside her, Kate heard David's sharp intake of breath. She decided she would show him how she dealt with men like Lawrence Burton, so she smiled sweetly and said, ‘That's very nice of you. I might feel more comfortable if you loosed my hand.'

He gave a hard laugh and she saw the glitter of malice
in his eyes, but he did let her go. David put his arm around her and, turning to his mother, he said, ‘Are we going to be asked to sit down, and is there a cup of tea in the offing?'

‘And we had the tea and scones straight from the oven, and Dora is a good cook and they should have been delicious,' Kate told Susie the next morning as they changed in the cloakroom. ‘But, you know, they tasted like sawdust and I found them hard to swallow because the atmosphere was poisonous.'

‘What d'you mean?' one of the other girls asked, hearing what Kate said.

‘It's mainly down to his brother, Lawrence,' Kate said. She then added, ‘No, actually, that's not true. His parents are just as bad not saying a word about it. He's constantly making snide remarks and mocking almost anything David says,' she said in explanation.

‘And flirting with you, don't forget.'

‘Yeah, openly flirting,' Kate said.

‘With his own brother's girl?'

Kate nodded. ‘That's the point,' she said, ‘it's all done to make David mad. And this isn't banter between brothers, this is real malicious stuff.'

‘He's a nasty piece of work,' Susie said. ‘One of my brothers had a taste of his bullying tactics when he was younger. Seems he hasn't improved with age.'

‘No,' Kate said. ‘And you know I talked David into going to see them in the first place.'

‘More fool you then,' another of her workmates said. ‘Be a while before you'd do that again, I'd say.'

‘Yeah,' Kate agreed, ‘and you'd say right.'

 

Neither Kate nor David discussed that awful visit, for there was nothing really to say; instead, they took joy in one another's company on Sundays as they continued their jaunts out. They wandered down to Salford Bridge the following Sunday, where David explained why the locks on the canals were necessary and how they worked, and Kate saw some of the brightly painted, spick-and-span little barges, and noticed with some surprise the lace curtains at the windows. Another day they went on to Aston Park and David took Kate out in a rowing boat. She had never been on a boat and she found getting into one and bobbing about on the swirling grey-blue water a very scary business; she wouldn't have been a bit surprised if she had landed up getting very wet indeed.

However, all was well, and when they both climbed out, David took her to see Aston Hall. It's well worth a look,' he said. ‘And what you have to remember is at one time this park would be owned by one family.'

Aston Hall was enormous. To either side of the main structure were extra wings and, at the back, amongst the many chimneys, were three blue domes, and on the front of the middle one was set a large clock. Kate thought it quite wrong that this large, lavish house and all the land surrounding it should belong to one family.

‘It's the way it was then,' David said with a shrug when she said this. ‘Lots of this city's parks are the same. At least now they are open for everyone to enjoy.'

‘Yes,' said Kate. ‘Until I met you I'd never bothered going to any of the parks around. You have opened my eyes.'

 

In mid-April, Kate was just about to get into bed when she heard Sally's key in the lock. This was normal – usually Sally would make a drink and come to bed herself without disturbing Kate, who often wouldn't see her till the next morning. However, that night she opened the bedroom door and said plaintively, ‘Oh, Kate, I'm glad you're not asleep.'

Kate glanced up. The sight of Sally's woebegone face and red-rimmed eyes drove the sleepiness from her and she shot out of bed and put her arms around her sister. ‘What is it? What's up?' she asked.

Tears trickled down Sally's cheeks as she said brokenly, ‘It's Phil. Oh, Kate, he's been called up.'

‘Called up?' Kate repeated. ‘Do you mean called up for the Army?'

Sally nodded and Kate said, ‘But why?'

‘Case there's a war, I suppose,' Sally said. ‘He isn't the only one. He met a man he was at school with on the way to work and he had his papers too, and the son of a woman at work as well.' She looked at Kate and said, ‘Makes it horribly real somehow, doesn't it?'

‘It does,' Kate conceded, wrapping herself in her dressing gown as she spoke.

‘What are you doing?'

‘What's it look like?' Kate said. ‘I might not know much, but what I do know is that there will be no sleep for either of us with all this churning around in our minds. How about me making us a nice mug of cocoa?'

Sally sighed and then nodded. ‘I suppose,' she said. ‘Sorry to disturb you, Kate. I know you have to get up early in the morning.'

‘Don't worry about it,' Kate said. ‘Like I said, I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway.'

Nothing more was said, each busy with their own thoughts until the cocoa was made and they were seated either side of the gas fire, relit and glowing comfortingly in front of them. Then Kate said, ‘It could still just be getting ready, in case, you know.'

‘I'd really like to believe you, Kate,' Sally said. ‘You are trying to protect me like you did when I was little and you could always scare the hobgoblins and other night terrors away. But I'm not little any more and this, I think, will be bigger than both of us. I don't want to think of war any more than you do, but if it happens, Phil and others like him will be in the forefront of any fighting, because they will be the only ones trained. That thought terrifies me.'

‘It will probably terrify his mother too,' Kate said quietly.

‘Yeah, it has,' Sally said. ‘Phil said she was really upset. How will either of us bear it if Phil is sent away to fight?'

‘You will bear it because you must,' Kate said. ‘But don't start worrying until you have to.'

‘I'll try not to,' Sally said. ‘It will be hard, though, because that isn't all either. One of the girls has a brother in the Territorial's, and he was in France on manoeuvres and was suddenly recalled last month, with no explanation and just halfway through the course. I think war now is a foregone conclusion, which will mean our lives will never be the same again. But I hope to God I'm wrong.'

Phillip Reynard and all young men of a similar age left for the training camp in Cannock Chase in mid-May. Life went on. Sally consoled herself that he wasn't in any danger there. She wrote him long letters and was always making him up nice little parcels, and said she was glad to have her job because it passed the time. Kate felt very sorry for her and even asked her along on their Sunday jaunts if she was off work, but she always refused. ‘You don't want me tagging along,' she said. ‘Not really. Anyway, it's on Sunday that Phil's mother said time hangs very heavily for her, and so I think I will go and see her on free Sunday afternoons.' Kate couldn't really argue with that.

As spring gave way to a beautiful summer, and one glorious day in mid-July, on a blisteringly hot day, Kate and David walked to the little train station on Gravelly Hill to take the train to Sutton Park. They alighted from the train at Sutton Coldfield and walked down the hill to the park entrance; they had to pay money at the gate to go in because they didn't live in the town itself. ‘Isn't
it strange to have to pay to go into a park?' Kate asked David.

‘I suppose it is,' David said. ‘But this is a very special park, and it only costs coppers if you go in on foot. More by car, of course, because you can drive around here – not that there's that many cars around.'

And there weren't, but a few did pass them as they strolled hand in hand through the grass. The trees in the woods were in full bloom, and the light coming through the trees dappled and danced in front of them, shading them from the heat of the day. Kate would have liked to remove her stockings and paddle in the meandering stream to cool her feet, but some of the stones on the riverbed looked sharp and she knew that David wanted to find the five large lakes that he said were there.

In that they were disappointed, because they were stopped from going all over the park when they found that a fair bit of it had been given over to the military. Climbing a nearby hill later, they could see the fields fair peppered with Army-issue tents. ‘Isn't it unnerving, all these preparations for war?' Kate said. ‘It's almost as if people are willing us into it.'

‘There aren't many options left for us, I don't think,' David said. ‘I know you don't want to believe it, my darling, but I think now that war is inevitable. Phil's call-up will be just one of hundreds more.'

‘That means you too, you and Nick?'

‘It means every able man in Britain if we are even to have a chance of beating Germany. They've ridden roughshod over half of Europe already and have spent years preparing for another war. They have had call-up
there for some years now, but I shan't wait to be called up. I'm going to enlist and join the Air Force.'

Kate shivered. ‘Don't!'

David swung Kate to face him and, holding her shoulders, he looked deep into her eyes. Kate noted the uncertainty in his as he said, ‘I need to talk to you and I must do it now before I lose my nerve altogether.'

‘What? Why should you be nervous of me?'

‘Because I am going to ask you something and I'm not sure what your answer will be,' David said. ‘It's been in my mind for ages and often lately on the tip of my tongue, but I have always bitten it back, afraid you might think me presumptuous.'

‘You want me to wait for you?' Kate said. ‘Is that it, because I'll gladly do that?'

‘Kate, I want to marry you,' David said earnestly, and he felt Kate jump beneath his hands in shock, because they had never discussed marriage. David went on quickly: ‘I love you dearly and I know you love me. I want to make you totally mine, and love you as I long to, because if I'm right and war is imminent, then we don't know how much time we might have together.'

Kate was silent. She knew exactly what David meant when he said he wanted to love her properly, because they had progressed very far along the line from the chaste kiss Kate had allowed at first. Now, when David kissed and caressed her, she felt strange yearnings course though her body. She often ached for love of David and longed for fulfilment. She couldn't allow it, of course, not before marriage, and yet in her heart of hearts she wasn't sure whether it would have happened regardless if they'd ever had the flat totally to themselves. She
could only be grateful that the potential imminent arrival of Sally had helped put the brakes on their lovemaking more than once, because it was getting harder and harder to pull back.

This wouldn't matter if she was married to David, when they could give full rein to their feelings. Yet marriage was more than tumbling into bed together, however enjoyable. They had to think of where they would live, for a start, and she had to consider Sally's welfare too – she couldn't leave her on her own in the flat they had just moved into, for she would never manage the rent on her salary for one thing, and the other was that she would worry about her left on her own.

But she knew the main reason for her hesitation was that David was not a Catholic and she had no right to ask him to become one. She knew there were those in Ireland who would probably not understand how she could think of marrying such a man. In Donegal there had been a few people in the town who went to a different church from the Catholic one, but she hadn't really known any of them.

In Birmingham the situation was totally different – there were many people of all different faiths and some, like the Burtons, of no faith at all. Her parents would more than likely feel so ashamed and shocked at her news that they would probably seek the advice of the parish priest, too, who would probably feel he had a perfect right to interfere in her life, having known Kate since she was a young child.

Oh, yes, the letter she would send to her mother about her and David would stir up a right hornet's nest
and her parents would never give her their blessing. She asked herself would it matter, but she knew it would – she had always sought their approval. ‘Kate,' David said, and she looked at her beloved's bleak eyes, certain her silence meant she would refuse him, but she suddenly knew, despite all the problems, she wanted this man in her life. Surely she had the right to choose who she was to spend the rest of her life with. If David was right and war was a foregone conclusion, they had no time to waste. And so she turned to face him and said in a small voice that was little more than a whisper, ‘Yes.'

However, disappointment had so seeped into David's consciousness that he didn't register what Kate had said at first and began to bluster, ‘I'm sorry, Kate, springing it on you like that. I shouldn't have spoken.'

‘I said yes,' Kate repeated a little louder.

‘I mean, it isn't as if we have discussed marriage, except in the very vaguest terms,' David said. ‘And then to jump in like that with no lead …' And then his brain registered that she had spoken and he said, ‘What did you say?'

Kate had a broad grin on her face as she said, ‘I think you are going deaf in your old age. I said yes.'

‘You said yes,' David cried in delight. ‘Oh, my darling girl,' and he put his arms around Kate and hugged her tight while he planted little kisses all over her face. ‘I can hardly believe it.'

‘You'd better had,' Kate said. ‘I've already said it three times.'

Still with the smile on her face, she pulled herself out of David's embrace and, holding his hand tightly, said, ‘There are a few problems to be sorted out, but they
can be gone into later. For now I'd like to explore what we can of this park, if it's all right with you.'

‘Perfectly all right, Miss Munroe,' David said in mock formality. ‘But I really need a kiss to be going on with.'

‘Ah, David,' Kate said, and felt herself enfolded in his arms again.

 

There were mixed reactions when Kate and David told everyone of their plans, but most people could understand the desire for speed and pronounced themselves all for the young couple. And Sally had a solution to the problem of where they were to live. ‘Have you anywhere in mind?' she said.

‘Well, no,' Kate said. ‘I mean, David sprung it on me rather, but now we will have to think about it – and quickly too. You know the trouble we had getting this place.'

Sally nodded. ‘I might be able to help you then,' she said. ‘Look, I didn't tell you at the time, not sure you would approve, but when Phil got his call-up papers, we got secretly engaged.'

‘Sally!' cried Kate, but she asked herself why she was so shocked. It had been obvious how much Phil and Sally loved each other, and so, despite the fact that Sally was only just seventeen, engagement was a natural progression.

‘Don't say I'm too young or anything, will you?'

‘No, Sally,' Kate said. ‘I have no intention of saying anything like that.' And she hadn't, because she knew that since Sally had come to Birmingham she had grown up and matured a great deal; she was a girl who knew her own mind.

Sally gave a sigh of relief. She pulled at a chain around her neck that she had tucked inside a jumper to reveal a cluster of diamonds set into a golden ring.

‘Oh,' Kate breathed. ‘Oh, it's beautiful, and there is no need to hide it. I won't judge you.'

‘I'm glad,' Sally said. ‘I hated hiding it from you. Anyway, Phil's mother asked me if I would consider living with her once Phil left, as company for one another, but I refused because I wouldn't leave you. I could do that now, though, and David could move in here.'

‘It's certainly an idea,' Kate said. ‘You'd not mind living with Phil's mother?'

‘No,' Sally said. ‘I like her. We get on fine. I suppose you'd have to clear it with Dolly, but I don't see that as a major problem, and then all you'd need is a new double bed, unless,' she added with a wry smile, ‘you'd like to start married life with two singles.'

‘Oh, I think David will insist on a double,' Kate said with an answering smile. ‘In fact, it will probably be our first purchase. You moving in with Phil's mother would seem to be the best solution all round.'

Phil's mother was delighted too at the turn of events, which is what Kate wrote and told her parents a few days later. She had dreaded writing that letter, though she knew it had to be done. She'd hoped the fact that they had a place to live already organized might sweeten the pill even a little.

In actual fact it made things worse. Philomena had asked many times if David was a Catholic, and the fact that Kate had never even acknowledged the question gave Philomena her answer. But, she had hoped and
prayed and offered up a novena that the relationship was not as strong as it appeared and Kate would remember that she was Catholic girl, a member of the One True Church, and end the affair with this David.

When she found that not only had Kate agreed to marry this man, but they had already sorted out somewhere to live, she was furious and also disappointed. Kate had always in the past been a compliant daughter, and one eager to please. So, a week later, when she had calmed down a little, she sent a censorious letter back, asking her if she knew what she was doing. Didn't she mind that she was choosing to deny her faith in this way? The priest himself could hardly credit it, with her being brought up such a good Catholic girl.

Kate knew that, because there was also a letter from the parish priest. This was worse than her mother's, as it spoke of the contempt that she had shown for her parents after the values they had gone to pains to instil in her. She had, he said, shown a complete absence of any sort of filial duty that she owed them. He advised her to think very carefully about what she was intending to do, which he called the height of selfishness. He reminded her that marriage was for life, and he ended his judicious epistle:
What matter, Kate, if you gain your heart's desire and lose your immortal soul in the process? Remember the road to Hell is lined with sinners.

David was amazed at the fuss made and a little worried by the way the letter from the priest was worded, though Kate seemed to be taking it in her stride. ‘It's only what I expected,' she said, when David expressed concern.

‘But it's almost threatening,' David said, scanning the letter again.

‘I know, it's how they go on,' Kate said.

‘It doesn't sort of put you off?' David asked.

‘Not a bit of it,' Kate declared emphatically.

‘Is there anything I can do to make things better for you?' David asked, who was still a little anxious of the effect the letters might be having on Kate, for all she said they didn't bother her. ‘Maybe if I was to write to your parents …?'

Kate shook her head and smiled. ‘That wouldn't help,' she said. ‘The only way you could cool things down is if you took instruction and became a Catholic.' And added, ‘Then the fact that you might have two heads wouldn't matter a dot.'

‘It's almost unbelievable,' David said. ‘Do you want me to do that, become a Catholic?'

It would solve all Kate's problems and yet she said, ‘Do you want to?'

‘To be honest, no.'

‘Then why should you do something you don't want to do in order to marry me?' Kate said. ‘I'm used to pressure like this, and there will be more of the same when I see the priest on Sunday about reading the banns.'

‘How long does that take?' David asked.

‘Three weeks,' Kate said.

‘I don't think we have that much time,' David said. ‘It's the first of August tomorrow and it will be the sixth before you see the priest. Then it will the end of August or beginning of September before we could marry.'

‘And that is too late? Is that what you're saying?'

David shook his head. ‘I don't know, not anything definite anyway. I just have this feeling of dread on me.'

‘So what do you want to do?'

‘Well, we could get married in the register office in no time.'