The Bomb Girls (23 page)

‘I'll bloody kill you,' he snarled.

As the three women stood in a corner screaming, Tommy lunged at his attacker and butted him in the chest with all the strength he could muster. Losing his balance, Mr Hogan fell over backwards and banged his head hard against the kitchen sink. To Tommy's amazement, he
slithered down the edge of the sink, leaving a trail of blood from a wound on the back of his skull.

Elsie's stepmother ran to him, trying to rouse him.

With a mounting sense of unease, Tommy watched, hoping to see the wretched man stir. But his eyes were blank and his colour terrible.

And then, after what felt like the longest wait, Mrs Hogan let go of her husband's hand and looked at Tommy with venom.

‘You've killed him!' she snarled. ‘MURDERER!'

Tommy stood gaping in horror at Mr Hogan, who was lying spreadeagled on the floor with an ever-growing pool of blood seeping under his head. Reaching down, he shook him, but Mr Hogan's head lolled over sideways like that of a hideous broken doll.

Hysterical now, the stepsisters ran out of the front door screaming, ‘HELP! MURDER!'

Tommy stared down at the dead body of Elsie's father, while her stepmother eyed him malevolently.

‘You'll hang for this, soldier boy. I'll see you swing!'

Tommy froze. This was never meant to happen. He'd travelled north to sort things out once and for all with Elsie's bastard of a father, and now he was lying dead on the floor. What on earth had he done?

Hours and hours later, the Gateshead constabulary tracked down Elsie's whereabouts, listed officially as the Phoenix Munitions Factory. It was Agnes who took the phone call from the police in Mr Featherstone's office.

‘It sounds urgent,' said Marjorie, his nosy secretary as she handed the phone to Agnes, who'd been called off her line by Malc minutes earlier.

‘Hello, Agnes Sharpe speaking.'

‘Are you a supervisor at the Phoenix Munitions Factory, Pendle, Lancashire?'

Agnes's pounding heart slipped at least three beats: had Stan escaped from the hospital ward? She swayed as a more hideous thought assailed her. Could he have committed suicide? Thrown himself in front of a train or overdosed in order to escape his demons?

‘I am,' she answered calmly even though her palms were clammy with sweat.

‘Is there a young woman in your charge by the name of Elsie Carter?' the police constable continued.

By this time Agnes was so tense she felt like throwing the phone at the wall.

‘Yes!' she almost snapped. ‘What is it?'

‘Her husband, a Mr Thomas Carter, has been arrested and is being held in custody, charged with the murder of Mr Hogan.'

A picture of young Tommy, tall and lanky with a shy smile, floated into Agnes's head.

‘You can't be serious!' she exclaimed.

The constable ignored her outburst.

‘You are requested to inform Mrs Elsie Carter, née Hogan, of her husband's situation right away.'

Feeling sick, Agnes placed the phone back in its cradle.

Marjorie was inquisitive.

‘Bad news?'

Agnes nodded vacantly, then, walking almost in a trance, she returned to her friends on the cordite line.

‘Is Stan all right?' Emily immediately asked.

‘He's all right,' Agnes answered weakly.

‘So what's up?' said Lillian.

‘Tommy's only gone and murdered Elsie's dad,' Agnes said bluntly. ‘He's in custody.'

Given the gravity of the situation, Malc allowed the four women a few hours off. After changing out of their work overalls they walked down the hill into town to Mrs Carter's house. Crazy with worry, Elsie rushed towards them as they crowded into the room.

‘Have you seen Tommy?' she cried. ‘We've not heard or seen him since this morning.'

‘Sit down, sweetheart,' Emily said as she guided Elsie towards the nearest chair.

Clutching her tummy, weary Elsie slumped into the chair.

‘Is he hurt … is he in trouble?' she whispered.

Agnes took a deep breath.

‘Look, there's no easy way to tell you this …' She paused, then added. ‘Tommy went to see your dad, lovie. And something awful's happened. I don't know quite what, but your Tommy's with the police now, charged with murder.'

Elsie went white. She knew in her heart that Tommy, like the honest man he was, would think that he could straighten things out with her dad. What Tommy had never understood was that Elsie's dad was like no other man; he was a monster. Feeling sick, she hardly dared ask the question.

‘Was it my dad he killed?'

Emily slowly nodded.

‘Yes, it's your dad,' she replied.

‘NO! NO!' Elsie gasped.

She looked desperately up at her friends. How could everything have gone so wrong when just hours earlier she had been rejoicing in Tommy's homecoming?

‘I've got to get to Tommy. I've got to tell the police what my dad's like. Tommy wouldn't have stood a chance with him – it must have been self-defence,' she said in a panic. She got up and started looking for her bag and coat.

‘Quick, one of you please take me to the –'

But before she could say another word, she stood stock-still as a dribble and then a rush of liquid gushed out from between her legs. Daphne gagged at the sight and almost fainted.

‘Oh, God!' she cried. ‘The poor girl's in labour!'

The nearest hospital to Mrs Carter's house was the Phoenix.

‘She'll need somebody with her,' said the ambulance driver who came roaring down the hill to fetch her. ‘But I can only take one of you lasses.'

‘Agnes!' Emily, Lillian and Daphne said in chorus.

As the ambulance drove away, the remaining three girls ran up the hill to the hospital, where they sat tense and anxious in the waiting room for some time. They jumped to their feet when Agnes finally joined them.

‘She's having a hard time of it,' Agnes told her friends. ‘She was so frantic about Tommy that the midwife gave her morphine to calm her down. Now she's rambling so much she doesn't know where she is and can't handle the contractions.'

‘Can you stay with her till the baby's born?' Emily asked.

Agnes nodded.

‘This midwife doesn't seem to mind me being with Elsie, given the circumstances, but she's not sure that the next one will be so accommodating.'

‘Thanks for the update, now for God's sake go back and calm the poor girl down,' Daphne urged.

As she turned to go, Agnes said, ‘Can you pick up Esther from the nursery? I could be here all night.'

The girls made tea for Esther, who'd settled into the digs like it was her second home.

‘Where's my mummy?' she asked as she tucked into toast and dripping.

‘She's helping Elsie have her baby,' Emily explained.

Her big dark eyes widened with excitement.

‘Ooh! Can I help too?' she cried. ‘I know all about doctors and nurses in hospital,' she added proudly.

Emily smiled as she kissed the little girl on the cheek.

‘You can help as much as you want once the baby's home,' she promised.

They took it in turns all through the evening to pop into the hospital for an update.

‘She's calmer now the morphine's worn off. And she's well dilated and breathing with the contractions rather than fighting them like she was earlier,' Agnes told Daphne, who went green at the thought.

‘Too much information, darling,' she said with a grimace.

‘Well, you did ask!' Agnes laughed.

When Emily visited an hour later Agnes couldn't leave Elsie for more than five minutes.

‘She's started bearing down, so it could be any minute now,' she said as she hurried back to Elsie.

Emily was sitting on a chair in the corridor when she heard Elsie's baby give its first cry. She was so happy for her friend – but her happiness was tinged with worry over what on earth was going to happen with Tommy. Pacing up and down, she waited for Agnes to appear, and when she did she was carrying a tiny bundle in her arms.

‘Elsie's son,' she told Emily, who burst into tears at the sight of the little boy.

‘He's so beautiful,' she said as she stared into his peaceful, sleeping face. ‘How's Elsie?'

‘Exhausted, losing a lot of blood and worried sick,' Agnes replied. ‘If she carries on fretting her milk might not come through and the baby needs feeding,' she said as the little boy stirred in her arms.

‘It's one problem after another,' groaned Emily. ‘Does Tommy's mum know the baby's born?'

‘The ambulance driver said he'd call in and tell her on his way home. Poor woman, she must be worried sick too,' Agnes answered.

‘I'll go and tell the others,' Emily said. ‘None of us could settle until we knew Elsie was okay.'

The next forty-eight hours were a nightmare, despite the happy new arrival. The girls visited Elsie as often as they could, dashing to the hospital whenever they had a spare moment, but there was no consoling feverish, frantic Elsie, who – probably due to stress and weakness – suffered a haemorrhage and had to be removed to a private room, where visitors were banned until her condition stabilized. The girls watched in helpless misery as the poor little baby was taken to the hospital nursery.

Tommy's mum, in floods of tears, visited her grandson, but mercifully she wasn't allowed near her daughter-in-law.

‘You have to leave,' the ward sister told the anxious visitor. ‘Mother and baby need peace and quiet.'

‘Poor Mrs Carter. She's so upset she'll just make things a thousand times worse,' said Emily.

When Elsie's son, who she named Jonty, was five days old Agnes was allowed to see her.

‘I've got to see Tommy, I must see him!' a fretful Elsie told Agnes, who didn't argue with her for fear of making her ill again.

‘We'll sort something out as soon as you're well enough to leave here,' she promised. ‘Right now, you've got to focus on getting your strength back and trying to feed your son.'

‘He's not taking to the breast,' Elsie said anxiously.

‘He won't whilst you're so upset; there won't be enough milk to satisfy the poor little thing. The calmer you are, the more contented he'll be,' she assured Elsie.

The thought of seeing Tommy did calm Elsie, who improved slowly but steadily, though Jonty's hungry cries kept her awake night and day.

‘How on earth am I going to keep my promise once she's out of hospital?' Agnes asked her friends. ‘I more or less promised I'd get her and the baby to Preston Prison and back.'

‘God!' Daphne exclaimed. ‘That's a big ask.'

Lillian shocked them all by saying quite calmly, ‘Malc's already agreed to drive Elsie there as soon as she's on her feet.'

‘You asked him?' Agnes gasped.

‘Course I did,' Lillian laughed. ‘He's the only man I know with a car!'

‘Lillian, you didn't … ?' Emily started, but Lillian finished the sentence for her.

‘No, I didn't go behind the bike sheds in return for a favour,' she replied. ‘Those days are well and truly over.'

Daphne let out a peal of laughter.

‘The quaint things you do on these heathen moors!' she teased.

‘Malc may not be my lover but he's not my enemy any more,' Lillian pointed out. ‘He'd do anything for Elsie; we've seen that in the past. I don't know why you're all so surprised – or suspicious,' she added with a smile.

So as soon as she was well enough, Malc drove Elsie and her baby, Tommy's mum and Agnes to Preston Prison. His new Austin 10 just about accommodated all the passengers. They were quiet as they drove over Belmont Moors, which were bright green with fronds of new ferns and loud with the sound of spiralling skylarks.

‘You wouldn't believe that anything bad could happen on a day like this,' said Elsie, who hadn't been outside the Phoenix hospital since her baby was born.

They found Tommy in the visitors' room, waiting for them with a haunted expression on his face. Always a long, lanky boy, he now looked painfully thin, with sunken cheeks and a neck so skinny his Adam's apple protruded like a stone caught in his throat. Tommy took one look at his son cradled in Elsie's arms and he started to sob.

‘My boy, my little boy,' he said as he pulled Elsie and his son into his arms.

‘Take him, hold him,' said Elsie.

‘I might drop him,' Tommy replied nervously.

‘You won't,' said Elsie as she handed over the baby.

Shaking with emotion, Tommy took Jonty, who stirred and made a sound like a kitten.

‘I've made him cry!' he said in alarm.

‘He's only dreaming,' Elsie assured him.

Rocking the baby in his arms, Tommy told them what had happened on his fateful visit to Gateshead.

‘I couldn't risk your dad troubling you again, Elsie,' he explained. ‘I went up to ask him not to visit you, nothing more than that. You have to believe I had no intention of killing him!'

Elsie vehemently nodded her head.

‘Of course I don't think you killed him on purpose!' she cried. ‘But you can't …' She quickly corrected her grammar to the past tense. ‘You could never talk to mi dad like he was normal; he was mad, always had been. For sure he'd try to kill you – that's the only language he spoke.'

‘He
would
have killed me if I hadn't pushed him away. Admittedly it was a hard shove, but I didn't expect him to go down like a tree. He smashed his head on the sink on the way down and cracked his skull; that's what the police said when they charged me with his murder.'

‘Murder!' cried his mother as she started to wail, causing the baby to wake up and scream too.

‘At worst, it's a case of manslaughter,' Agnes yelled over the din.

‘That's what my solicitor says,' Tommy replied. ‘But Elsie's stepmother's saying that I went there with the intention of killing him, and both her daughters agree with her. So it's their word against mine,' he added miserably.

‘So she's got two witnesses?' Agnes said grimly.

‘Two scheming, bloody little liars!' Elsie raged.

‘Whatever they are, Elsie, love, they're witnesses and
I've got nobody to speak in my defence,' Tommy told her gloomily.

With both his mother and baby bawling their eyes out, nobody could hear themselves speak.

‘We'll go outside for a few minutes,' Elsie said, taking Jonty from Tommy and dragging her mother-in-law with her.

Once alone with Agnes, Tommy crumpled into the nearest chair and sat with his head in his hands.

‘I'm trying to keep a brave face for Elsie's sake,' he blurted out. ‘Poor kid, she's suffered enough. She looks so thin and drawn, and the last thing I want to do is worry her even more.'

Agnes nodded in agreement.

‘She's been through a lot. But she's tough, Tommy, a lot tougher than she looks,' she added.

He smiled as tears filled his eyes.

‘Thanks for looking after her so well. I don't know what she'd do without you girls,' he said with a sob in his voice.

‘We're family, Tommy; we look after each other all the time,' Agnes answered.

With a face as white as stone, Tommy murmured, ‘If I'm found guilty of murder at Lancaster Assizes I'll hang.'

Agnes's blood ran cold but she smiled hopefully as she reassured him.

‘If your solicitor presents a good case you'll get manslaughter. Don't give up hope, Tommy.'

Tommy nodded glumly.

‘And the charge for that stands at ten years.'

Later that evening at Mrs Carter's house, Elsie's friends came down to see her after her stressful prison visit, and they were shocked. She was deathly white and still, staring blankly at the wall.

Without any preamble, she suddenly spoke in a flat, calm voice.

‘I'm going up to Gateshead.'

Her friends gazed at her, open-mouthed.

‘You're bloody mad!' Lillian exploded.

‘What on earth can you possibly hope to achieve?' Daphne asked.

‘I'm going there to bribe my lying stepsisters,' Elsie announced

‘Bribe them? How?' Agnes asked.

‘I've got savings,' Elsie replied. ‘We're well-paid munitions girls, remember?' she said with a shadow of her old sweet smile. ‘I've had no cause to spend much,' she said with a self-deprecating grin.

‘No, you've never been one to lash out on fags and gin!' Lillian joked.

‘I'll use mi savings to twist their rotten little arms,' Elsie said with steely determination.

‘Isn't that somewhat illegal?' Daphne asked.

‘No more illegal than what I know they've done,' Elsie retorted.

‘You're confident you can do it, just like that?' Agnes said as she snapped her fingers.

‘I know exactly what makes those scheming little bitches tick,' Elsie answered with confidence. ‘Will one of you come with me?'

Agnes had had too many days off work and was
desperately missing Esther, and she hesitated, but Emily immediately volunteered.

‘I will.'

It wasn't a problem leaving Jonty with Tommy's mum. After struggling to breastfeed her baby Elsie had finally given up and switched to Cow & Gate powdered baby milk, which Jonty took to in a blink. Before she left, Elsie prepared several bottles then left Tommy's mum written instructions so she could make up fresh feeds in her absence.

Elsie and Emily took the train to Elsie's family home in Gateshead where, hiding behind a bush, they waited in the rain for Elsie's stepmother to leave the house. Holding her breath, Elsie watched her stomp up the road with a shopping basket over her arm. The minute she was out of sight, Elsie bolted towards her old home with Emily in her wake.

‘Stay outside and keep an eye out for my stepmother coming back,' Elsie told her.

‘Will you be okay on your own?' Emily nervously asked.

Little Elsie threw back her slight shoulders and nodded.

‘I'm not frightened of them!' she declared.

‘When you see her, come round the back and knock on the door,' Elsie said as she slipped down a side alley then into a back yard.

Knowing the back door was always left unlocked, Elsie stepped straight into the kitchen, where her stepsisters were washing up.