All the Sweet Promises. Elizabeth Elgin
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of a troop train from an adjoining platform. The soldiers, laden with packs, had arrived in trucks, and at-the-double feet quickly formed into orderly ranks before disappearing into the unlit interiors of a dozen carriages. Sergeants rapped out indecipherable commands, corporals checked kitbags and wooden crates and boxes into the luggage vans, stamped their feet and saluted their officers smartly. Then the engine belched smoke and steam and pulled reluctantly away from the platform.
‘Ships that pass,’ Jane murmured.
‘Think they’re going abroad?’
‘Suppose so. Going down river to Greenock, I shouldn’t wonder. Probably to a troopship …’
‘Where d’you imagine they’ll end up?’
‘Middle East, perhaps. Or maybe the Far East: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Burma … Would you ever volunteer for overseas, Vi?’
‘Dunno.’ Mentally, as was her considered duty, Vi blessed the receding train, commending its occupants to the care of St Christopher. ‘Ask me tomorrow when I’ve got some food inside me. Now you two try to get some sleep and I’ll keep me eyes on that platform. We don’t want that train creepin’ in and creepin’ out again while nobody’s lookin’.’
She reached out and pulled them to her in a protective motherly gesture. ‘Close your eyes, now. God bless. And don’t worry. It’ll all come right, just see if it doesn’t.’
It was 5.30 A.M. and a new day had begun. Vi stretched her cold legs and rotated her ankles. Her feet still hurt and she felt the tingle of cramp in her right arm where Jane’s head rested heavily. Poor kids. They’d fallen asleep, a head on each shoulder and she was determined to leave them like that for as long as she could.
Not for a long time had Vi felt so uncomfortable. She was cold and unwashed and hunger pangs were beginning to gnaw again. But the train would soon be arriving and then they’d –
‘Paper!’ A sudden commotion behind her caused her to start as a voice called urgently, stridently, ‘Special edition. Paper!’
Vi twisted her head then stared, eyes wide, at the newsboy’s billboard.
‘Mother of God!’ Sleepers forgotten, she jumped to her feet and read the word again. It was written large and thick in bright red ink and it sent a shock of fear slicing through her. ‘Will you look at that!’
‘Sorry.’ Jane rose unsteadily to her feet. ‘Been asleep. Didn’t mean to …’
‘Never mind about sorry.’ Impatiently Vi shook Lucinda’s arm. ‘Look at that, for Pete’s sake!’
There was no mistaking the word. Even in their befuddled state its meaning was frighteningly explicit.
‘Invasion.’ Jane’s lips formed the word but no sound came.
‘Dear God, no.’ This was it, then. Just when everyone was beginning to believe it would never come.
‘I’m goin’ for a paper.’ Vi ran to the paper-seller, digging into her pocket for a penny, shaking open the newspaper with agitated hands.
‘RUSSIA ATTACKED ON 1,800 MILE FRONT’, screamed the headlines. ‘SOVIET TOWNS AND PORTS BOMBED’.
‘Listen, you two.’ Vi began to read, her voice strained with disbelief. ‘“At dawn on Sunday, 22 June, between 3 and 3.30 in the morning, three million German troops marched into Russia …”’
‘Russia?’ Jane gasped. ‘They’ve invaded Russia?’
‘That’s what it says, queen.’
‘But didn’t they sign a pact, or something?’
‘Since when have pacts meant anything to Hitler?’
Instantly they were wide awake. Suddenly, discomfort forgotten, relief sang through them. Hitler had taken on the mysterious Soviets, but why had he chosen to invade Russia and not the British Isles?
‘I suppose that lets us off the hook,’ Lucinda offered. ‘Well, for the time being.’
‘And maybe just this once Hitler won’t get it all his own way. Remember what happened to Napoleon.’
‘Those Russians probably don’t know yet what’s hit them. But how much do we know about them, anyway?’ Lucinda frowned. ‘How many troops do they have and how many tanks and guns? I mean, it’s not all that long since they threw out the Tsar, is it. It’s dreadful for them, and it might just as easily have been us. I suppose they’ll be on our side now.’
‘Suppose they will,’ Vi agreed. Then her lips broke into a beaming smile. ‘Just take a look at that.’
The 6 A.M. Glasgow to Garvie train approached platform 8 gently, apologetically almost, then came to a stop with a squealing of brakes and a hiss of escaping steam, and they looked at it with wide-eyed wonder.
‘It’s come,’ breathed Vi and so disbelieving was she that she checked its very existence with the engine driver and his black-faced fireman.
‘This is the Craigiebur Ferry train?’
It was indeed, said the driver, and it would arrive at Garvie at 7.40 for the eight o’clock ferry.
‘I don’t believe it,’ Jane gasped as they piled cases, coats and respirators on to the luggage rack. ‘I do not believe it.’
‘You know what’s going to happen?’ The corners of Lucinda’s mouth tilted mischievously. ‘This train won’t leave on time as the last two did, and we’ll miss the ferry.’
‘Ar, hey, Lucinda. You’ve got a funny sense of humour,’ Vi wailed. ‘If we miss that ferry again I’ll shoot myself, honest to God I will!’
‘Me too. I feel awful,’ Jane sniffed. ‘I’m hungry and tired and my collar’s choking me. And my shirt is filthy and I’m filthy, and if I don’t get a bath soon I’ll start to smell!’
‘Then we’d all better close our eyes and think not of Victory but of hot water and soap and bathsalts and soft warm towels.’
‘And mugs of tea,’ Vi croaked, ‘and a plate of bacon butties.’
A woman guard slammed the door of their compartment, blew hard on her whistle and waved her green flag. Slowly the train began to move and bumper met bumper, clink-clanking the length of the train. Then the 6 A.M. Garvie connection drew slowly away, carrying with it Wrens Bainbridge, Kendal and McKeown.
It seemed like a small, sweet miracle. Leaning back, they closed their eyes and thought of hot water and soap and bacon sandwiches and mugs of tea. What might happen when eventually they arrived at Wrens’ Quarters, Ardneavie, mattered little. They had caught the train at last, and beyond that not one of them was able to think.
‘You’re adrift! You should’ve been here yesterday forenoon,’ rapped an irate Chief Wren. ‘And you’re dirty and sloppy and you look as if you’ve been dragged backwards through a hedge, the lot of you! Where in heaven’s name have you been until now?’
‘We’ve been comin’, Chief. As fast as we could.’ Vi took a step forward, assuming command. ‘I met up with these two on Glasgow station. They’d missed the connection, too. Sorry, Chief. The trains were shockin’.’
As if she had no part in the conversation, Jane gazed around her. This regulating office was small, and unlike its bare, efficient counterpart at the training depot, was homely and almost feminine. On either side of the Victorian fireplace with its flower-filled hearth stood an easy chair. There were even pictures of ships and groups of Wrens on the walls.
‘How shocking?’
‘Well, take Kendal ’ere.’ Vi jabbed a thumb. ‘Now her train just stopped at Crewe. Goin’ no further, they said.’
Lucinda