Authors: Ellie Dean
‘But how did you know I was leaving?’
The nurse chuckled. ‘Peggy Reilly is obviously very persuasive,’ she replied. ‘Our new matron came in to tell us you were to be an outpatient from today and that you’d be living with Peggy from now on.’
Kitty sank onto the bed, overwhelmed by the speed of everything, and feeling rather disorientated and helpless. ‘I don’t know that I’m ready,’ she said hesitantly. ‘It’s all happened so quickly and . . .’
‘It’s all right, Kitty,’ soothed the nurse as she sat on the bed beside her and took her hand. ‘Things might look bleak at the moment, but Peggy is a kind soul. She’ll make you feel at home and be there when you need a shoulder to cry on.’
Kitty nodded. ‘I know, but I’m afraid,’ she admitted softly. ‘Afraid of being stared at – of being different.’
‘I understand,’ murmured the nurse. ‘You feel safe here surrounded by others with similar injuries. But you can’t hide here forever, Kitty.’
Kitty knew she was right as she gripped her hand. ‘It’s the moment of truth, isn’t it?’
‘It’s the moment when you take your first step back into the big wide world out there, certainly,’ the nurse agreed. ‘It will be daunting at first, I can’t pretend otherwise. But with Peggy’s love and kindness, you’ll do it, Kitty. I just know you will.’
Kitty used the soggy handkerchief again, and then reached for her crutches. ‘Thanks, Suzanne. I’m sorry to be so feeble.’
The nurse picked up the little vanity case and smiled. ‘Come on then. Let’s get you on your way. I understand you have a chauffeur-driven staff car to drive you home in style, so we’d better not keep it waiting.’
Kitty bravely smiled back, but her thoughts were in a jumble. She wasn’t going home – it was a boarding house full of strangers, and although Peggy was lovely and Rita was fun, she was dreading having to face everyone and seeing pity in their eyes as she tried to keep her emotions over Freddy in check.
As she waved goodbye to everyone and went out of the ward, she was amazed at how many people knew she was leaving, for there was quite a gathering on the front doorstep.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine o’clock,’ said Matron. ‘Enjoy the home comforts, dear, and don’t worry. Commander Black is fully aware of this arrangement, so you can rest assured you’ll get any news of your brother very quickly.’
Peggy was waiting beside the staff car smoking a cigarette as she chatted to the young WAAF driver. ‘That’s quite a send-off,’ she said with a warm smile. ‘You’re obviously a popular girl.’
Kitty dredged up a smile as Nurse Hopkins packed the vanity case in the boot with the rest of her luggage. ‘It feels a bit like the last day at boarding school,’ she admitted.
Peggy ground the cigarette beneath her shoe. ‘Come along, then. Let’s get you settled, and then we can be on our way.’
Kitty gave the nurse a hug and a murmured ‘thank you’ before letting Peggy help her into the car. She rested back on the soft leather seat and found that she’d been holding her breath. Letting it out in a soft sigh, she told herself she’d taken the first step into the outside world – but she was all too aware of how many steps it would take to gain independence, and couldn’t help but be daunted at the thought.
She mentally shook off these gloomy notions and turned to wave to the gathering on the steps as the car pulled smoothly away. Then she settled back and looked out of the window as Peggy chattered to the driver.
The countryside was very beautiful in the August sunshine, and there was a heat haze shimmering on the voluptuous curves of the surrounding hills. The car was following a narrow country lane lined with hedgerows, and as they crested a hill, she could see flocks of gulls following a horse and plough in a distant field. There were hayricks in another field and the tiny figures of farm workers labouring to gather in a harvest of wheat. It was peaceful and quintessentially English, without a hint of the dark clouds of the war being waged across the Channel. Life went on, even though Freddy was missing.
‘Not far to go now,’ said Peggy a few minutes later. ‘Can you see the sea? Doesn’t it look lovely?’
Kitty nodded as she glimpsed the sun diamonds sparkling on the water before the car swept down the hill. The road had widened and now she could see the roof of a rather grand house that was hidden by a tall hedge, and soon they were winding their way past rows of terraced houses and over a hump-backed bridge crossing a railway line.
‘Our poor old station has taken a bit of a battering,’ said Peggy, ‘but Stan’s got a cosy Nissen hut to sit in when he’s not tending his allotment, and it’s perfectly adequate for a ticket office and the left luggage.’
Kitty followed Peggy’s pointing finger.
‘The bus station was blown to bits, and we lost our cinema,’ Peggy continued. ‘That was where my Jim used to work as a projectionist before he was called up.’ She gave a wistful sigh. ‘He’s a good mechanic and could have earned a much better wage in a garage, but after what he went through in the first war, he said he never wanted to look at an engine again – now he’s back doing just that with REME.’
Kitty’s thoughts were still occupied with Freddy, and she regarded the High Street with little interest. There was some bomb damage, and several of the larger buildings had sandbags stacked like walls around their doorways. But there were the inevitable queues outside the shops, and it was clear that the Americans were in town, for there were knots of them everywhere she looked.
‘I’ve asked Cynthia to drive us along the seafront so you can get a proper look. It isn’t up to much, I’m afraid, not now the army has covered the prom in barbed wire and gun emplacements, and our poor old pier has fallen into the sea. But it doesn’t take much imagination to see it how it used to be.’
Kitty’s lips twitched in a smile. Peggy had made it her business to find out their driver’s name – and she probably knew her life story as well. It made her feel ashamed, for she’d been so centred on Freddy and herself that she’d hardly even noticed the girl, let alone spoken to her.
She looked out of the window at the coils of wire along the edge of the promenade, the damaged shelters with their broken glass and bullet-riddled concrete seats, and at the remains of the forlorn pier with the burnt-out skeleton of a German Stuka dive-bomber sticking out of it. A strong wind would see both of them crumble into the water.
Kitty regarded the small private hotels and guest houses which had either been boarded up for the duration or taken over by the Forces. She saw the vast bomb crater and the solitary and rather poignant remains of the Imperial Hotel which stood right next to the undamaged Grand, and then looked towards the towering chalk cliff that overshadowed the mined beach.
She had a sudden, terrifying image of Freddy heading straight for it and veering off at the last moment, and it made her shudder.
‘What’s the matter, Kitty?’ asked a concerned Peggy.
‘I was just remembering Freddy’s close call with a white cliff a few weeks ago,’ she replied softly. ‘He survived to tell the tale then, so I can only pray he’s survived this time.’
Peggy grasped her hand as the car began the steep climb away from the seafront. ‘I’m told he’s a lucky young man – so let’s hope his luck has held,’ she murmured. Then she brightened. ‘Don’t turn up into Beach View Close,’ she told the driver. ‘Go along a bit and we’ll take the twitten. It’s flatter, and Kitty won’t have to cope with so many steps.’
Kitty determinedly pulled her thoughts from Freddy and concentrated on their destination. She could see that the streets going off this main road consisted of tall Victorian terraced houses, and to her left she caught a glimpse of a busy road with shops and a pub. The hill seemed to go on forever between the terraces, but the car drew to a halt about a third of the way up.
‘Here we are,’ said Peggy excitedly. ‘Do you need a hand getting out?’
Kitty shook her head, gathered up her crutches and eased her bottom forward on the leather seat. She placed her foot firmly on the pavement, balanced on the crutches and swung out. They had parked next to the opening of an alleyway running along the back of two rows of houses which seemed to have been bomb-damaged.
‘We had a bit of a to-do in an air raid a few months back,’ said Peggy lightly. ‘Our house suffered a bit of damage, but our poor neighbours are still waiting for theirs to be declared safe.’
She turned to the WAAF driver and smiled as she took the cases. ‘Thank you, Cynthia. You drove us home beautifully. Now, you be sure to enjoy those little buns with your friends, and give my love to Cissy.’
‘Thanks, Peggy,’ the girl replied. ‘And good luck, Pilot Officer Pargeter. I hope to see you back in the air before too long, and the next time you land at Cliffe, be sure to look me up.’
‘I will, thank you,’ replied Kitty who was taken aback and rather mortified by this show of friendliness from someone she’d all but ignored until now.
The girl climbed back into the car, gave them a cheerful wave and drove off.
‘I don’t know about you, Kitty, but I could do with a cup of tea and no mistake,’ said Peggy as she grabbed the cases. ‘Will you be all right walking down our twitten? Only it’s a bit rough in places, and I don’t want you to fall.’
‘I’ll be fine, she reassured her. ‘You lead the way.’
As Peggy slowly went along the rough path, Kitty followed, placing her foot carefully at every step before she moved the crutches. It was a hot day and she could feel the perspiration run down her face and back and soak into her thin blouse. But she was doing it, she thought triumphantly. And it felt good.
‘Here we are,’ said Peggy as they reached the back gate, and she put the cases down. ‘I’d better warn Ron to keep Harvey indoors, or he’ll have you over in a trice.’ She turned towards the house. ‘Cooee! Ron. We’re here. Keep the dogs in, will you?’
As the sound of furious barking disturbed the stillness of the late morning, a sturdy man appeared from behind a shed. Dressed in baggy corduroy trousers, thick boots and a faded shirt, he had a thatch of black, unruly hair liberally sprinkled with the same grey that glinted in his rather wild eyebrows. His blue eyes twinkled as he smiled at them both.
‘To be sure, there’s no need to shout, Peggy me darlin’. They’ve been shut in me room for over an hour waiting for you to be home, so they have.’
Kitty liked him immediately, and as he opened the gate and shook her hand, she felt strength, warmth and security in his grip. ‘Hello, Ron,’ she said in delight. ‘Peggy’s told me all about you. It’s nice to meet you at last.’
He ruffled his hair as he winked. ‘Ach, to be sure, young Kitty, you’ll not be wanting to believe everything she tells you. Our wee Peggy has a wild imagination, so she has.’
Peggy rolled her eyes at this and then handed him the cases and waited for Kitty to get through the gate. ‘He’s a rogue and a scallywag, as you’ll soon find out,’ she muttered to Kitty, ‘and suffers from a terrible case of the blarney.’
Kitty caught Ron’s eye and giggled. She had no doubt of it.
‘Take the cases up to Kitty’s room,’ ordered Peggy. ‘Then come back and help her up the cellar steps.’
The garden was long and quite narrow, and as Kitty slowly made her way past the ugly Anderson shelter and along the path, she paused now and again to admire the flourishing vegetable plot, the fruit cage and tubs of herbs by the back door, and the glorious red roses that clambered up the wall, their scent drifting to her on the warm air. There were deckchairs placed beside a deserted playpen in the shade of a large umbrella, two sheds, and to the right of the back door were a concrete coal bunker and a neatly stacked pile of wood.
‘That’s the outside lav,’ explained Peggy over the sound of the barking coming from inside the house. ‘Ron’s just sorted it out after it got flattened in the raid. The other shed is for his tools, but it’s where he hides to read his paper so I don’t find things for him to do.’
Kitty was smiling as she carefully negotiated the step into what appeared to be a basement scullery. The dog was now howling and the puppy giving little yaps of excitement from behind one of the closed doors.
‘Poor things,’ she murmured. ‘They must hate being locked away.’
‘Better that than having you upended,’ said Peggy firmly as Ron came down the concrete steps. ‘Ron, will you help her up there?’
‘I’m sure I can manage,’ said Kitty as she eyed the three sturdy steps. ‘If I sit on the bottom one, I’ll be able to push myself up one at a time.’
‘Now, you’ll not wanting to be doing that on your first day,’ said Ron, and before Kitty could say anything, he’d swept her up into his strong arms.
‘I really don’t . . .’ she protested.
‘Ach, you’re a wee feather of a thing, so you are,’ he rumbled as he carried her up the stairs. ‘And this is Cordelia,’ he said as he gently deposited her in a kitchen chair. ‘She’s as deaf as a stone, so ye’ll have to shout.’
‘I am not deaf, you old rogue,’ twittered the little woman as she playfully slapped his arm. ‘Hello, Kitty, dear,’ she said brightly. ‘Welcome to Beach View. I’ve put the kettle on and made some spam sandwiches, so I hope you’re hungry.’
Kitty was overwhelmed by their warm welcome and the ready tears pricked again. ‘You’re all so very kind. I really don’t deserve it.’
Cordelia frowned. ‘Of course I don’t mind, dear, but I don’t think we have any preserves left. Will a bit of tomato sauce do instead?’
Puzzled, Kitty looked at the others and discovered they were smiling and shaking their heads. ‘You’ll find you have plenty of odd conversations with Cordelia,’ said Peggy as she put the vanity case on the table next to Kitty and placed the crutches nearby. She turned back to Cordelia and explained in loud, clear words what Kitty had really said.
‘Oh, dear,’ muttered Cordelia as she fiddled with her hearing aid. ‘You must think I’m a very silly old woman. I forgot to turn it on after I’d finished the ironing. You see, I love singing along to “Workers’ Playtime”, but I can’t stand the sound of my own voice, so I turn the wireless up and my hearing aid off.’
Kitty grinned but said nothing as she didn’t want to confuse her any further.