Someone Special (38 page)

‘We had nice food in the abbey,’ her sister pointed out. ‘It was a real picnic, wasn’t it? You had two glasses of lemonade.’

‘Yes, and it made me honk,’ the smaller Princess said regretfully. ‘I honked twice, didn’t I, Grandmother? But I didn’t
mean
to, so that was all right.’

Queen Mary hid a smile. ‘You didn’t honk, dear, you hic-cuped,’ she said. ‘And ladies don’t discuss their
bodily functions, as I’ve told you more than once. Look, more soldiers, and what lovely uniforms!’

‘The soldiers are brown,’ Princess Margaret Rose said. ‘I wish I was brown. I wish I had a lovely scarlet coat and a tall fur hat instead of these horrid robes.’

The Dowager Queen recognised the weariness behind the words and was about to make some soothing comment when Elizabeth remembered a sore point.

‘I
said
you were too little for such a lot of dressing up; I
said
you’d get tired of that great long train,’ she announced, shooting a triumphant glance at her grandmother. ‘But would they listen to me? No!
You are always dressed the same, the Coronation will be no exception
,’ she mimicked.

Queen Mary smiled and shook her head reprovingly.

‘Little girls are little girls, my dear. I think both of you have managed the whole day beautifully, despite the robes.’ The queen mother leaned forward to peer through the window. Ah, we’re crossing Piccadilly Circus, then it’s Trafalgar Square, the Mall and then home. When we get back to the palace you’ll both be able to have some tea and a rest.’

‘I don’t need a rest,’ Elizabeth said primly. ‘I don’t get tired, I shall see if there’s anything I can do to help papa … oh look, Margaret Rose, look at Eros!’

‘What? Where?’ the little Princess almost fell off her cushions in her efforts to see what her sister, protocol forgotten, was pointing at. ‘Is it a monkey?’

‘No, it’s a naughty boy! He’s climbed over all that scaffolding and then he’s climbed the statue and he’s right at the top! Oh, grandmother, Margaret Rose, he’s waving to
us
!’

‘But Anna darling, why did you fight with Nancy? She’s your dearest cousin, such a delightful girl, and besides
you’re a year younger than she is, so if she was being bossy … JJ, have you talked to her?’

The Radwells were heading for home, and Anna was in disgrace. She and Nancy had got along fine all through the coronation, they had leaned over the balustrade together, exclaimed over the procession, cheered and clapped, gone down with their fathers when they were allowed and walked all the way to the palace, sharing a large black umbrella without so much as a cross word. They had even had an adventure, for they had been separated from their fathers and had wandered alone through the crowds for some time, discussing the brilliant climbing abilities of boys versus girls.

This had been raised when they had seen a boy perched on the statue of Eros.

‘What a view he’s getting!’ Anna had exclaimed. ‘Oh look, Nancy, he’s waving to the little Princesses – and they’re waving back!’

‘I wish I was up there,’ Nancy had said longingly, standing with her head tipped back, momentarily indifferent to royalty and the grand occasion. ‘Boys have all the luck.’

‘And they are better climbers,’ Anna had reminded her cousin fairly, only to be told briskly that, given the opportunity, Nancy fancied she could climb as well as any boy.

But then the crowd had surged after the royal coach and the girls had perforce followed and had ended up with a group of youngsters who had been sleeping on the pavement for two nights. They were given sandwiches and good advice and had eventually been found by a policeman, who took them in charge and saw them home to the flat where two very sheepish men were about to admit that they had inadvertently lost their offspring.

It had all been lovely, absolutely lovely, and Anna had been totally happy. Even sleeping in the same room
as Nancy had been fun, talking half the night had been grown-up and exciting, and she had scarcely thought about her bulges which Nancy told her kindly were only puppy-fat and would go when she reached her teens.

‘No, I haven’t said anything to her, Constance, because you’ve done enough nagging for two. A couple of kids having a scrap isn’t the end of the world. How d’you feel about Nancy now, darling?’ JJ flung over his shoulder to Anna, sitting beside Jamie on the back seat and looking morosely out of the window as London fled by.

‘I’m sorry I punched her nose … no, I’m not sorry, but I wish she hadn’t made me,’ Anna said stiffly. ‘I don’t mean to sneak or tell tales, but you’d have punched her, Dad, if you’d been me. Probably harder. Probably in the teeth,’ she finished.

JJ gave a shout of laughter.

‘There you are, Con, she was provoked beyond endurance,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I only punch people when I’m provoked and my daughter’s the same. End of story.’

‘It can’t be the end of the story when we don’t know what Nancy said or did – if anything,’ Constance said bitterly. ‘Poor Ella was dreadfully upset and Nancy’s nose
bled
. That a child of mine could resort to violence with her own cousin … I’m
ashamed
, Anna, truly ashamed. I must insist that you tell me why you punched poor Nancy.’

In the back of the car, Jamie snoozed and nanny slumbered. Anna looked carefully at them both. They looked asleep, but suppose they weren’t? Suppose they woke up and heard?

‘That’s enough, darling,’ JJ said abruptly. Before anyone realised what he was going to do, he pulled the car to a halt at the kerb. ‘Anna, come with me. Constance, stay with the car.’

‘It’s about time she got a good talking-to,’ Constance said, as Anna climbed carefully out of the back seat and
stood on the pavement, head drooping. ‘You spoil her hopelessly, JJ.’

JJ said nothing, but took Anna’s hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm. Then he walked her along the pavement towards one of those square gardens which are so attractive and usually unattainable since residents of the square are the only people with a key. But this garden was open to the public. There were rose-beds, grass dotted with daisies and several wrought-iron seats. JJ headed for one of these and sat down, pulling Anna round to stand in front of him. He smiled lovingly at her.

‘Well, old girl? Going to tell Daddy?’

‘All right. Nancy said when were we going to do something about Jamie. And, and I said what should we do, he seemed very happy to me, and, and Nancy said …’ Anna heaved a big sigh and put on a voice like Nancy’s – sharp, clipped, incisive. ‘
Anyone can see he’s a penny short of the shilling … he’s not all there, is he? He should be at a special school or in an institution or something
.’

JJ stared at her. His handsome face was tanned to a clear, golden brown and his eyes were blue as summer skies. Now a flush burned up into his cheeks and his eyes went cold, like ice.

‘She said that? The little bitch! Darling, you were quite right to hit her, I’d like to tan her backside until she couldn’t sit down. Why, if Aunt Ella ever finds out what she said she’ll lock her in her room and put her on bread and water for a month. And you deserve a bloody great medal … oh Anna, darling, don’t cry!’

‘I c-can’t help it,’ Anna sobbed, throwing herself into her father’s arms. ‘It’s b-been so horrid, being b-blamed all the time. Nancy did say it was partly her fault, but her nose was so swollen no one heard her properly, I don’t think. And I do love Ben, and he said I d-deserved to be h-horsewhipped!’

‘The bigoted little bastard,’ JJ said. He gritted his teeth, Anna could hear it through the ear pressed against the side of her father’s neck. ‘I’ll ring Ella as soon as we get back and tell her …’

‘No, don’t,’ Anna begged, releasing her stranglehold on him for a moment to wipe her nose on her sleeve. ‘Nancy’s terribly honourable, I expect she’s already told. And I don’t want any more fuss, honestly Dad. If you could just stop Mummy from talking about it. I really don’t want Jamie to know.’

‘I’ll explain to Mummy,’ JJ said gently. ‘Now dry your eyes, darling, and we’ll walk slowly back to the car. No, I’ve a better idea. We’ll sit here quietly for a few minutes because unless I’m much mistaken the old lady in black is about to feed the pigeons. You’ll like that.’

They sat, side by side, on a wrought-iron seat which left bar-marks on Anna’s behind, and they watched in perfect harmony as the old lady scattered crumbs and crusts for the birds. When Anna’s eyes were no longer swollen and her breathing had steadied, they made their way back to the car, where Mummy waited impatiently and Nanny and Jamie told each other stories about their London visit.

‘I’m going to collect pictures of the Princesses and stick them in my scrap book,’ Anna said, as the car sped through the suburbs with their neat red-brick houses and tiny front gardens. ‘Nancy collects the queen, so we shall swop sometimes. She says we should cut out little stories about them too. If any of your photographs come out, Daddy, can I have the Princess ones for my book?’

‘Of course you can, darling,’ JJ said at once. ‘And you can send the ones of the queen to Nancy, of course.’

‘Thanks,’ Anna said contentedly, sinking back in her seat. How nice it was to have a Daddy who understood. But her mother turned round in her seat and smiled at her very kindly.

‘Anna, I’m sorry I was so cross,’ she said. ‘Sitting in the car waiting for you and Daddy to come back I remembered that kitten you brought back from the village. I misjudged you then, thinking you were telling stories to keep the kitten, but I was wrong, those boys really had tried to drown it in the duckpond. So I thought, if my little girl told the truth then, why should I doubt her now? I do wish you hadn’t hit Nancy, but I’m sure she must have been horrid or you wouldn’t have done it. So come here and let me give you a big kiss to say I’m sorry.’

‘Oh, Mummy,’ Anna said, flinging her arms around her mother’s neck. ‘It will be all right, truly!’

‘I’m sure it will,’ Constance said comfortably. ‘Where are we stopping for lunch, JJ?’

‘At Newmarket,’ JJ replied. He leaned over and pecked her cheek, then squeezed her knee. ‘You aren’t such a bad old stick,’ he said affectionately. ‘Your Mummy’s all right, isn’t she, kids?’

‘I do love her a big lots,’ Jamie said, bouncing up and down in his seat. ‘When’s Mewmarmy, Daddy?’

10

‘WELL, DARLING, WE’RE
really at war.’ JJ put his arms around Constance as she sat at her dressing table, carefully painting her lips with deep pink lip-rouge. ‘Now you’ve got to admit I was right to join up early because I was able to choose the service I wanted. And the uniform does suit me, you said so yourself.’

‘Air Force blue would have suited you just as well,’ Constance said. She spoke stiffly because she was holding her lips stretched and because her inside fluttered with alarm whenever she thought about war and JJ leaving her. At first, she had thought it rather fun going up to London, ordering his uniform from Gieves in Piccadilly, and staying at the Dorchester so that he could go for fittings, then dancing in his arms half the night and going back to the hotel to make the sort of passionate love they hadn’t shared since their honeymoon.

It had been wonderfully romantic before war had actually been declared. Of course there had been the inevitable worry: what if there really
is
a war, and he’s taken away from me for months on end, but that had been forgotten as the weeks passed and JJ came home each weekend, full of enthusiasm and love.

Still, there had been moments when she saw her father’s worried face, understood that he was remembering the last time with dread that it might be repeated. But now we have leaders who care, he had said once, in her hearing. We have men of honour at the helm who won’t send our young men away to certain death. It will be a very different war, this time. It will be, not it might be. But even then she had not believed until that Sunday morning when she had listened in fear and trembling to
that old fool, Chamberlain, telling the country they were at war with Germany. With the words, all her peace of mind had vanished. She felt terror that she might truly lose him and had been unable to face it, so had turned instead to a sort of brittle disbelief – he was too old for active service, someone would see he got a shore job, she would persuade him to change his mind, hand in his beautiful uniform and return to his nice, safe bank.

But now JJ was speaking, indulgently, as to a child.

‘The Air Force wouldn’t have done at all; I don’t like heights and the only time I took a flip in an aeroplane I was sick. But I’ve sailed small boats since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and bigger ones for a good few years now. Besides, Norfolk men have the sea in their blood. And the Navy’s the senior service.’

‘So you keep saying, but it’s all so horribly dangerous,’ Constance said, looking at him through the mirror, her eyes pleading for reassurance. ‘If you’d gone into the Army, at least you’d have had both feet on the ground. And they would probably have given you a commission just as quickly.’

JJ had joined the Wavy Navy in April, before Anna’s thirteenth birthday, and had speedily gone through basic training. His acknowledged expertise with small boats had stood him in good stead and now he was on frigates as a first officer. His skipper just happened to be an old school friend, a man with a very similar background, so he and Simon Crewe got along excellently and understood each other almost without putting their thoughts into words. Indeed, had JJ been offered his own command, he would not have liked leaving the
Moonraker
.

‘The
Army
?’ JJ said now, his disgust palpable. ‘My dearest girl, I’m not cut out to be a Tommy Atkins. No, I’ve always been happy at sea and even though a frigate must be the most uncomfortable craft going, old Simon and I manage to keep the crew happy and enjoy
ourselves. What’s even more important, I feel I’m doing something, Con, something worthwhile. Besides, they’re conscripting all sorts of chaps in non-essential jobs now, and if I hadn’t already found my niche I’d have been sent off to one or other of the services without having any say in what or where.’