‘So why the long face then?’ she asked as she joined the girl at the table.
For a moment she thought Briony was going to ignore the question but then the girl blurted out, ‘I’ve just found out from Mum that I have an uncle and grandparents living in Cornwall.’
‘
Really?
’ Mrs Brindley looked bemused as she scratched her chin. ‘How come yer never knew about ’em before?’
‘Because it seems they disowned Mum when she ran off to marry Dad, and she hasn’t had anything to do with them since,’ the girl answered solemnly. ‘But now my grandfather has said that we – the grandchildren, that is – can go and stay with them until after the war rather than be evacuated.’
‘And will yer be takin’ him up on his offer?’
‘Mum says we might have to, rather than let the younger ones go to strangers,’ Briony told her. ‘But I’m not too happy about it, to be honest. From what Mum’s told me, our grandmother sounds like a bit of a tartar, and it will mean me giving up my job.’
‘Hmm, I can see it would be a bit of a wrench for you,’ Mrs Brindley agreed musingly. ‘But then at least you’d all be safer there than here in the Midlands. Word is out that old Adolf could be droppin’ bombs on us any time soon. It stands to reason, don’t it, what wi’ all the factories in Coventry that are makin’ parts fer the tanks an’ the aeroplanes. They’ll be a prime target an’ we’re only a stone’s throw away when all’s said an’ done, so no doubt we’ll cop it an’ all.’
‘I suppose we would be safer,’ Briony sighed. ‘But how would Mum cope here all on her own?’
‘She’s a grown woman,’ Mrs Brindley told her firmly as she spooned sugar into her tea. ‘An’ if push came to shove she’d have to manage same as the rest of us.’
‘I dare say you’re right.’
The door opened then, and Ernie rushed in, bringing a waft of icy air with him. ‘Phew, it’s bloody freezin’ out there,’ he grinned as his eyes settled on Briony. ‘Is there any more tea in the pot? I could do wi’ sommat to warm me up.’ He tossed the cigarettes to his mother, who opened the packet and lit one.
‘Young Briony here’s just been tellin’ me that she might be goin’ away soon an’ all,’ she informed him through a cloud of smoke, and Briony then repeated her story as Ernie listened intently.
‘Blimey,’ he croaked when she had finished. ‘An’ yer say yer mam’s family are well-off. What do they do?’
‘Apparently my grandfather has his own undertaking business.’ Briony shuddered at the thought. It didn’t seem like a very nice job to have to do, but then she supposed someone had to.
‘Well, at least there’s not much chance o’ him ever goin’ out o’ business, is there?’ Ernie quipped, hoping to raise a smile from her. She looked very glum and not at all excited to discover she had family she had never known about. There was another knock at the door then; it was Ruth, and the subject was closed as Ruth stared at Ernie from adoring eyes.
Mrs Brindley picked up her knitting and retired to her comfortable old chair by the fire, leaving the young people to it.
‘Not long till you go now then?’ Ruth said as she placed her gas mask on the table.
Ernie looked uncomfortable as he lowered his head and responded: ‘No, not long at all – but then the war can’t last forever, can it?’ He was shocked to see that there were tears in her eyes and that she was blinking rapidly to stop them from falling. Briony noticed too and hastily rose from her seat as guilt shot through her. She knew how much Ruth cared for Ernie and wished that she could still look at him as merely a friend – but then it wasn’t as if she’d ever intended to feel as she did, was it?
‘I reckon I’ll get off now,’ she said quietly, trying to ignore the disappointment that had flared in Ernie’s eyes. ‘I’ve got to get my clothes ready for work tomorrow and check that Mum’s got the children’s outfits ironed too.’
‘Shall I see you home?’ Ernie scraped his chair back from the table but Briony shook her head and grinned.
‘I hardly think you need to do that, seeing as I only live a few steps across the yard. No, you stay here and have a chat to Ruth, and I’ll see you in the morning at the same time, shall I?’ she asked her friend. Ruth nodded absently and snatching up her coat, Briony made a hasty retreat.
On entering her own kitchen again, she was dismayed to see that her mother had drunk almost half a bottle of sherry and looked a little bright-eyed.
‘I’ll have a tidy-up shall I?’ she said, discreetly grabbing the bottle and shoving it hastily back into the cupboard. Then she got the ironing board out and began to press the children’s school clothes. This was another job that her father had used to do each evening, and the thought of him standing there brought a lump to her throat. How could she blame her mother for feeling as she did, when she was missing him herself? Nothing seemed the same any more, and once Ernie was gone too she knew that she was going to feel even worse. Her thoughts returned then to the grandparents and the uncle she had never known about and now, without being able to stop herself, she blurted out, ‘So tell me what my grandparents are like then, Mum. I know you said that Grandmother was strict – but what do they look like?’
Lois sighed. She had been expecting this, and now that Briony knew about them there was no point in trying to cover it up any more. ‘Daddy was always smart,’ she recalled. ‘I suppose he had to be in the job he did. It was very rare not to see him in a suit and tie, apart from weekends. And even then he would rush away and get changed if there was a family who had suffered a bereavement. With his job, you were never really off duty. Mummy used to get quite angry with him sometimes when he was called away, especially if they were in the middle of entertaining guests. Death can strike at any time so Daddy was always on call, so to speak. He was a very tall, handsome man with brown wavy hair and lovely twinkling blue eyes.’ Her lips twitched into a smile as she thought back in time. ‘Often after school, if he wasn’t busy, he would take my brother and me down to the beach and we would paddle in the sea and make sandcastles. He always made time for me, whereas Mummy believed that children should be seen and not heard, although she was much more relaxed with Seb, my brother. He could never do any wrong in her eyes and she made no secret of the fact that he was her favourite. He is three years younger than me, and from the day he was born she doted on him. We had a nanny who would bath me, but Mummy always insisted on bathing Seb herself.’
‘You had a
nanny?
’ Briony gasped incredulously, and Lois grinned.
‘Oh yes, and the gardener-cum-handyman used to take us both to school each day in the pony and trap until Seb was old enough to go away to boarding school. Mummy was determined that he should have the best education possible.’
‘Did you get sent away to boarding school too?’
Lois shook her head. ‘No, although Daddy did put me into a private one, much to Mummy’s disgust. She believed that girls didn’t need an education and that he was wasting his money, but Daddy put his foot down on that score on one of the very rare occasions that I can remember and told her that I deserved a decent education too.’
‘What does Grandmother look like?’ Briony asked next.
‘She looked a lot like me when she was younger,’ Lois said thoughtfully. ‘But Seb looked like Daddy, the same colouring and build. Mummy was beautiful, and sometimes when she came into the nursery to kiss us goodnight before an evening out with Daddy, I used to think she looked like a princess. She always smelled wonderful too. Daddy would buy her these lovely French perfumes that lingered in the room long after she had left. I dread to think what they must have cost him, but what Mummy wanted, she had. I don’t think Daddy could ever say no to her. He was totally besotted with her, which was no wonder really as she was incredibly pretty. I dare say she still is.’
Briony was bemused. Whenever she had tried to imagine what her grandparents might have been like, she always thought of elderly, jolly people, nothing at all like the ones her mother was describing now. On occasions she had visited Ruth’s grandparents with her in Priory Street. They were both elderly with a ready smile and a little treat and a hug for any of the family that came to visit them, and they sounded a world apart from these people. But perhaps her grandmother wasn’t as bad as Lois was painting her? Perhaps Lois was just embittered because of the way her mother had turned her back on her when she met James Valentine?
‘And my uncle?’ she dared to ask.
Lois chuckled. ‘What can I say about Seb?’ she shrugged. ‘He was spoiled rotten from the second he drew breath, and he soon learned how to make the most of it. He could wrap Mummy around his little finger, although Daddy did try to rein him in a little. When he finally got kicked out of the last boarding school he attended, Daddy set him on in the family business. Seb was not amused, I don’t mind telling you, but I think Daddy gave him an ultimatum – either he knuckled down and learned the trade or he made his own way in the world. He had no qualifications and had failed all his exams, so needless to say he reluctantly did as he was told, although it was obvious he wasn’t happy about it. I think he had every girl in the county drooling after him, and to say he was a bit of a Casanova would be putting it mildly. Seb could have charmed the birds off the trees, and I often wonder if he’s settled down with anyone yet.’
Briony’s head was spinning. There was so much to think about and she was glad when she could finally say goodnight to her mother and sidle off to bed, cuddling up to Sarah’s warm little body for comfort as she tried to get her head around it all.
It was the middle of the following week when Briony returned home from work one evening to find the house in chaos. The fire was almost out and the minute she stepped through the door the children complained that they were hungry.
‘All right, all right, give me a chance to get in!’ Briony sighed wearily as she took her coat off and hurried across to the fire, only to find that the coal scuttle was empty.
‘I shall have to go out to the coalhouse,’ she said irritably, snatching up the old beaten-copper coal scuttle. ‘But where’s Mum?’
‘She went straight to bed once she’d fetched me from school. She said she had a headache,’ Alfie informed her, glancing up from the
Beano
.
‘Oh.’ Lois had started her part-time job at the corner shop now, although she always finished in time to fetch Alfie from school. Briony had hoped that getting out would perk her up a little, but it didn’t seem to have done much good. In fact, the house had slowly gone downhill, which only reinforced just how much their father had done for them.
Sarah was playing with her dolls on the hearthrug and Briony told her, ‘Start to peel some potatoes, would you, Sarah, there’s a good girl. I’ve got us some mince from the butcher’s on the way home so I’ll cook us a cottage pie when I’ve got the fire going again.’
It was over an hour later before Lois chose to put in an appearance. She was looking decidedly ill and dishevelled. Briony had the horrible feeling that her mother had been drinking again, but she forced a smile to her face as she asked brightly, ‘Did we have any post today, Mum?’
‘Only the normal pamphlets and leaflets,’ Lois grumbled. ‘If I saved them all we could keep the fire going for a week at least. One telling us to make do and mend, another telling us we should be putting tape across the windows. Can you imagine how unattractive that would look? Like spider webs!’
‘Well, I’ve noticed that most people around here have already done it,’ Briony responded. ‘It’s to stop the glass from flying into the room if we should have any bombs dropped nearby.’
‘I know what it’s for!’ Lois said more sharply than she had intended and then she instantly felt guilty. The smell of the cottage pie and the vegetables Briony was cooking were wafting appetizingly around the room and she knew that she herself should have prepared the meal. But then the girl didn’t seem to mind coming in from work and cooking, and she was so much better at it than Lois was.
‘Mrs Brindley was saying earlier on when she popped into the shop that Ernie is going away to train this Thursday,’ she told Briony then, and even though the girl had been expecting it, her heart fluttered.
‘Did she say where he would be going?’
‘I think she mentioned somewhere in Surrey,’ Lois answered distractedly as she studied her hands. ‘I have to say, this job at the shop is causing havoc with my nails. I broke another one today weighing potatoes for Mrs Miller, and my feet feel as if they’re going to drop off.’
Briony was saved from having to answer when Sarah had a bout of coughing that shook her frail frame.
‘I think perhaps you ought to be getting her to the doctor’s,’ she suggested. ‘That cough is hanging on a bit too long for my liking.’
‘Oh, you know Sarah always suffers with her chest in the winter,’ her mother answered nonchalantly. ‘I’ll pick her up a bottle of cough medicine from the chemist’s tomorrow and that should do the trick.’
Briony pursed her lips and frowned but she didn’t bother to argue. As her mother had said, Sarah did seem to catch one thing after another each winter, but from now on she would be keeping an eye on her: if she hadn’t improved by next week, Briony would take a couple of hours off work and take her sister to the doctor’s herself.
When all the chores were finally done and the children were settled in bed with hot-water bottles, Briony slipped next door to say her goodbyes to Ernie. She found his mother in the process of packing a kitbag for him.
‘Would you please explain to her that I don’t need to take much?’ he implored Briony. ‘Soon as ever I get there I’ll be issued with a uniform so I won’t need any civvy clothes; just a couple o’ changes of underwear an’ some socks will be plenty.’
Martha waved her hand at him dismissively. ‘I still say as yer should take this nice warm pullover I’ve knitted yer for Christmas. Yer barracks could be freezin’ fer all you know and happen then you’ll be glad of it, come night-time.’
‘Oh yes, an’ what sort of a pansy will I look to the other chaps if I stick that on over me jim-jams?’ he teased her.