When their hands accidentally touched, he felt an electric shock pass through him and he knew that she had felt it too, for her eyes suddenly opened wide as she looked up at him.
Dropping onto the seat beside her, he muttered, ‘I shall miss you when you go, Maggie.’
‘I shall miss you too,’ she said wistfully, and she meant it, for she knew now, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was falling in love with him. Oh, she knew it was foolish and that nothing could ever come of it, but Eric was like no man she had ever known. Not even David. But Eric was still in love with his late wife - he’d made that abundantly clear - and soon she would be gone from him forever and he would be left with his memories.
The thought brought tears to her eyes, and as he saw them trembling on her lashes he hesitantly reached out to wipe them away. When her hand came up to caress his, their eyes locked and then suddenly they were in each other’s arms.
‘Oh, Maggie.’ His voice was strangled with emotion as they fell back in a heap on the settee, and then their lips were joined and a million fireworks exploded behind her eyes.
His hand was roving over her, leaving trails of fire, and she recklessly gave herself up to the pleasure of it, then somehow they were on the hearthrug with their clothes discarded in a heap, and feelings that she’d never known she had sprang to life as they tenderly made love to each other.
When it was finally over she lay in his arms, knowing that, whatever happened in the future, she would cherish this memory until the day she died.
At some point they both drifted off into a contented sleep, and only the sound of heavy pounding on the door brought them springing awake.
Eric jumped up and began to pull his clothes on, and suddenly embarrassed, Maggie did the same. Buttoning his flies, Eric disappeared into the hallway, and as she was running her fingers through her wild hair, Maggie heard voices at the door. Seconds later, Eric reappeared, closely followed by the policeman from the village who was gripping his helmet tightly in both hands.
Her embarrassment fled, to be replaced by fear.
‘You’ve got some news about Danny, haven’t you?’ she whispered.
His head bobbed. ‘Yes, ma’am. We took a call from Coventry this morning. Your son has been found in the Coventry and Warwick Hospital.’
‘Why is he in hospital?’ Her face had paled to the colour of putty, yet overriding her fear was relief that he was alive.
The portly policeman shrugged. ‘They didn’t say what his injuries were. Only that he was in the hospital.’
‘What about Soho Gus?’ Eric asked.
Taking his notebook from his pocket, the man flipped through his notes. ‘It appears that when Danny was found, there
was
another child with him. It seems that the poor little lad didn’t make it. As he had no identity disc on him he was buried in the communal grave in the London Road Cemetery.’
Maggie shook her head in denial. ‘That can’t be right. Sparky told us that Gus had been to see him on the night before we found Lizzie.’
Again the policeman shrugged. ‘I don’t know about that, ma’am. All I know is what the police at Coventry have told us.’
Maggie shuddered. ‘I have to go to Danny,’ she said hoarsely.
A feeling of loss settled over Eric like a heavy weight. Once she got home, Maggie would resume her relationship with David and would be lost to him forever. But then, had he really ever expected her to stay?
‘You’re right,’ he said flatly. ‘Danny needs you. You should go to him.’
Maggie thought that she heard a note of regret in his voice but then dismissed the idea. He was probably just glad to get rid of her after what had happened between them last night.
‘But what about Lizzie?’ she said suddenly. The child was growing stronger by the day but was nowhere near well enough to face the journey home yet.
‘Lizzie can stay here with me for as long as you like,’ Eric assured her. ‘Now you just go and pack your case. The officer here can help you down the hill with it and see you get to the train too, no doubt.’
‘Of course I will, sir,’ the policeman told him respectfully as Maggie slowly turned away.
Within half an hour she had packed her case, washed and tidied herself and was ready to go. Lizzie was tearful but happy enough to stay with Eric, which was one weight off her mind at least.
At the door she held her hand out awkwardly. ‘Thank you so much for all you’ve done. I’ll be sure to write as soon as I’ve seen Danny, to let you know how he is. And to make arrangements about Lizzie, of course.’
They shook hands, like a pair of strangers, and as Maggie turned away she felt as if her heart was breaking.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
She noticed the change the second she walked through the door, yet couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Beryl fussed over her, and Jo and David both seemed delighted to see her, and yet . . . something was different.
The journey back had seemed to take forever, for once again, the train had been diverted countless times due to damage to the tracks. Maggie was feeling absolutely worn out, but nevertheless she was determined to see Danny that very night, as she told them within minutes of getting home.
She saw them exchange a worried glance and knew instinctively that something was very wrong. ‘So what exactly is the matter with him?’ She didn’t want to know, yet was aware that she had to face whatever it was.
Beryl fished in her pinny pocket for a huge white handkerchief, which she noisily sniffed into while Jo looked at David imploringly.
‘The thing is, Maggie,’ David began awkwardly, ‘Danny is actually very lucky to be alive, but . . .’
‘But what?’
Her nerves were stretched to the limit and there was murder in her eyes as she glared at him across the table.
‘The boys were near a building that took a direct hit, and Danny’s legs were trapped under falling debris . . .’ David took a deep gulp before finishing, ‘He’s lost both of his legs.’
‘No! Oh, dear God, no!’
Maggie was almost beside herself with grief. After all she had gone through, this latest tragedy was just too much to bear.
Openly sobbing, Beryl ran around the table and hugged her daughter-in-law’s shaking frame to her. ‘Be thankful fer small mercies, love. At least he’s still alive, which is more than can be said fer the poor little bugger that came with him.’
Maggie thought of Sparky and poor Soho Gus. As Beryl had quite rightly pointed out, Danny was alive, which was more than could be said for those unfortunate little souls.
‘I’d better get off to the hospital.’ She made to rise from the table but Beryl pressed her back into her seat.
‘There ain’t no point in rushin’ off nowhere. The Matron at the hospital is like a bloody Sergeant Major. You stand no chance o’ gettin’ in till it’s the proper visitin’ time. So you just sit there an’ try an’ rest while I dish the dinner up. Me an’ Jo have it all ready so we can have it on the table in a jiffy.’
Reluctantly, Maggie did as she was told while Jo and Beryl hurried away to serve the meal.
Once it was on the table, Maggie noticed the way Jo cut David’s food up for him and the warm smile he gave her. It dawned on her then what the difference was. They were acting almost like a married couple. David seemed to have regained some of his former spirit, and Jo finally had the bloom of pregnancy in her cheeks. She’d gained a little weight, and her eyes, which had been dull and empty, were shining.
David suddenly noticed her watching them and blushed furiously, and in that moment, Maggie knew that she was right. There
was
something growing between them, even if they hadn’t openly acknowledged it yet; it was there for all to see.
Lowering her eyes to her plate, she considered this latest development and asked herself how she felt about it. And after a moment it struck her with frightening force that she was glad for them! For so many years she had thought that somehow she and David would be together one day, but that had been before she met Eric . . . Just the thought of him was enough to make her tremble, and she knew now without a doubt that she loved him with all of her heart. Of course, she accepted that there could never be a happy ending for them. But if Jo and David wanted to get together, then she would give them her blessing.
Later that evening, Beryl and Maggie set off for the hospital through the darkened streets of Coventry, praying that another raid wouldn’t start while they were on their way. It was bitterly cold, and the pavements were thick with frost, which had Beryl cursing loudly with every step she took.
Jo and David had decided to stay at home as the Matron was very strict about allowing no more than two visitors to a bed.
As they neared the hospital, Maggie’s stomach began to do somersaults. Her poor boy! How would he feel about losing his legs? He’d always been such an energetic child, but now . . . She stopped her thoughts from travelling the road they were taking. The last thing Danny needed was for her to turn up in floods of tears. She would have to be brave for him and together they would learn to take each day one at a time.
She followed Beryl along a labyrinth of corridors until they reached Danny’s ward. There, Beryl hovered uncertainly, like a little bird about to take flight.
‘Perhaps it would be better if I let yer have the first minutes alone wi’ him, eh?’
Maggie nodded gratefully, then taking a deep breath, she pushed the double swing doors open and began to walk between the neat rows of beds. She spotted Danny almost immediately, and in that moment she knew that they would come through this. He was still her boy and he was alive, which was all that mattered.
When he turned his head as he heard her heels tapping towards him, he held his arms out to her and cried, ‘Oh, Mam. I
knew
yer’d come.’
He looked dreadfully pale, and the metal cage that covered the place where his legs should have been made it awkward to cuddle him, but still she managed it. It would have taken far more than a cage to stop her.
‘How are you feeling, darling?’ she whispered into his hair. In actual fact he looked much better than she had expected him to. At least he knew her, which was a relief, for she’d feared that he wouldn’t remember her.
‘Better, since Soho Gus came to see me earlier on,’ he told her.
The hairs on the back of Maggie’s neck stood to attention as she stared down at him. ‘
Soho Gus
came to see you?’
He nodded joyfully. ‘Yes - earlier on today. He told me you were comin’ and I’d got to shape meself up so as not to upset yer.’
‘Danny . . .’ She struggled to find the words to tell him the terrible news. She had never knowingly lied to him in the whole of his life, and had no intention of starting now, even if what she had to say was going to be painful for him. Far better to get it over with. ‘I’m afraid he couldn’t have. You must have imagined it. You see, Gus was killed on the night you arrived in Coventry.’
She expected tears and tantrums, but instead he just gazed at her calmly. ‘I know he was. He told me so. But yer see . . . Well, he was me best mate, an’ like he told me - he’ll always be here to watch over me.’
Maggie swallowed the painful sob that rose in her throat. Danny was obviously imagining things, but if it brought him comfort then she wouldn’t argue with it.
‘They come to measure me up fer a wheelchair today an’ all,’ Danny told her matter-of-factly. ‘So as soon as I’ve got it, we can go back to Wales an’ I can get on wi’ me paintin’. Eric says I have a talent, an’ like Gus said, yer don’t need legs to paint, do yer? So all in all, I reckon I’ve come out of all this all right.’
Maggie was so shocked that she was rendered temporarily speechless. Never for one minute had she imagined taking him back to Wales, yet she supposed it
did
make sense - until the war was over, at least. If Eric would have them, that was.
When Beryl joined them, she beamed to see Danny looking so much brighter. ‘Why, lad, yer look the bee’s knees. Yer had me worried fer a time there.’
‘He reckons his friend came to see him earlier on,’ Maggie told her.
Beryl frowned. ‘What friend would that be then?’
‘Soho Gus,’ Danny answered promptly.
‘Oh yes? An’ what does this here Soho Gus look like?’ Beryl asked as a thought occurred to her.
‘Well,’ Danny frowned in concentration as he thought how best to describe him. ‘He’s about the same size as me an’ he’s got a mop o’ bright gingery-red hair. Oh, an’ he never goes nowhere wi’out Albert. That’s his white rat. He lives fer most o’ the time in Gus’s top pocket.’
His grandma visibly paled in front of their very eyes. ‘I think I know the lad,’ she declared. ‘That were the one I dreamed about, who told me where you were, bless him . . .’ She got no further, for she was too busy rushing around to the other side of the bed to help Maggie, who had fallen in a dead faint onto the polished floor.
Two weeks later, the Sister at the hospital informed them that Danny was going to be allowed to go home.
‘We wouldn’t normally discharge him this quickly,’ she told Maggie sternly, ‘but with the way things are, the beds are in very short supply, so if you think you can manage . . .’
‘Oh, I can manage all right,’ Maggie hastened to assure her, and so the very next day Danny was delivered by ambulance back to his grandma’s.
It was only then that Maggie broke the news to him about the deaths of his father, grandma and Lucy. He cried, but took it far better than she had expected him to, for as he told her, he’d already guessed that something was wrong when none of them visited him in hospital.
Leaving him alone with his grief for a while, Maggie then wrote to Eric, asking if she and Danny could go back to stay with him and Lizzie at
Tremarfon
whilst Danny recovered. His reply came back by return of post, saying that he would be delighted to have them, and so it was arranged. The days before they left were difficult, for Beryl’s house was small, and not easy for Danny to manoeuvre his wheelchair around in. It almost broke Maggie’s heart to watch him as he struggled to master the art of moving himself around.