A Strong Hand to Hold. Anne Bennett
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said Geraldine, ‘they do know nothing about her.’
‘She’s young and orphaned,’ Jenny snapped. ‘What else is there to know?’
She glanced at the children and saw they had their eyes closed. She lowered her voice to a whisper as she said, ‘Linda’s little brother George was about the same age as young Declan and Harry was a baby, younger even than Jamie. Think on that.’
Geraldine and Jan did think of it and instinctively shuddered: Jenny, seeing she had their sympathy, went on, ‘Linda was like a little mother to them, the next-door neighbour, Beattie, told me. There was just her and her mother, you see – her own father died when she was small, and then her stepfather was one of those left behind on the beaches of Dunkirk.’
No need for them to know what sort of man Ted Prosser really was: Jenny wanted them both to feel sympathetic towards the young orphaned girl.
‘Oh, the poor wee thing,’ the kind-hearted Jan said. ‘And then to suffer like she did, being buried like that.’
‘I can see how you feel somewhat responsible, Jenny,’ Geraldine said. ‘And if she has no one else …’
‘She hasn’t,’ Jenny said. ‘The only one that would have taken her has eight boys of her own already and lives in a two-bedroom terrace house in Basingstoke. Beattie would have her like a shot, but she’s been bombed out herself and is lodging with her sister.’
‘So, you think it’s up to you?’ Jan said.
‘Yes. Do you understand why?’
‘Oh, indeed. I think the poor wee thing has already been dealt a bad enough hand in life.’
Oh bless you Jan, Jenny thought, and turning to her sister she said, ‘What about you Geraldine?’
Geraldine had been moulded by their mother. But this had touched on her protective feelings as a mother and she knew that were she to have been blown to kingdom come by a bomb, she’d not have liked either Jamie or Rosemarie to end up in an orphanage. ‘I can see how you feel sort of responsible for her and maybe it would be the charitable thing to look after her, at least for the time being. I’d hate one of mine to ever end up in an orphanage.’
Jenny’s mouth dropped open in astonishment and she grasped Geraldine’s hand in hers. She knew Geraldine’s resolve would crumble before any opposition, particularly if it came from their mother. But to say she understood what Jenny was doing, and why, was a form of breakthrough. ‘I won’t forget how you supported me tonight,’ she said and both of the older women were moved by the passion in Jenny’s voice and they smiled at each other as the ‘All Clear’ blasted out its reassuring sound.
‘What else can you do, cutie dear?’ Grandma O’Leary said to Jenny the following day. ‘The child hasn’t a one belonging to her. What are you to do, but offer her a place to lay her head?’
‘That’s right, Jenny. You can’t let her go into a home, not when you have the room,’ Peggy put in.
The approval of her gran and Peggy washed over Jenny, healing her spirit that was bruised from the blistering argument she’d had that very morning when she’d reopened the topic with her mother and grandmother.
‘I’d have the wee thing here myself,’ Maureen went on, ‘if it wasn’t for my Gerry and this one here, tying the knot next spring. The small room will be empty, but I’ve a feeling it won’t be long before that’s in use as a nursery.’
‘Gran,’ Jenny said, as Peggy blushed.
Maureen gave a gentle push to her future daughter-in-law. ‘You have to get used to things like that, my darling. You can’t be blushing every time I open my mouth.’
‘She’s awful, Gran is,’ Jenny said to Peggy. ‘And she’ll never change.’ In a way, she was a little jealous of Peggy and the closeness between her and her gran, but she told herself she was being stupid.
She smiled across at Peggy as she spoke. The other girl was still recovering from the raid on the BSA. Gerry had been all for an early marriage, but both Peggy and Gran had been against it.
‘Mad galoots to want to marry in the middle of the winter,’ Maureen had said.
‘Anyway,’ Peggy added, ‘I’m not hobbling down the aisle with my ribs bound up and my hair in a state. Besides, Mammy and Daddy want a bit of a splash, wartime or not. I’m the first to be married in our family and Mammy says we’ll do it in style. If we’re too hasty, she says people will think there’s a reason for it.’
So that had been that. Gerry had been overruled and the wedding was fixed for the very end of March 1941. According to Jenny’s gran, he’d been amazed at the fuss a wedding entailed. ‘What did you think, lad?’ she cried. ‘Did you think Peggy should put on a costume and yourself a suit, and the two of you could pop along to the priest, without a body belonging to you being there, as if you were going to the pictures?’
‘No, of course not,’ Gerry lied. ‘But does she really need a fancy dress and bridesmaids? Don’t you think it’s a bit unpatriotic?’
‘No, I don’t,’ his mother had snapped. ‘In this mad world, where the innocent are dying daily, what is unpatriotic about wanting to give the girl a good send-off on her wedding day? Would it help the country any if it was hidden away as if it were something to be ashamed of?’
Gerry had no answer for his mother, but really it didn’t matter. Unpatriotic or not, Peggy was having a wedding dress she could be proud of, and at least three bridesmaids.
‘Have you decided on who you’re going to have?’ Jenny asked Peggy. She knew two were Peggy’s sisters and presumed another would be a cousin, or friend of the family.
‘You,’ Peggy said to Jenny with a brilliant smile. ‘Will you do it?’
‘I’d be honoured to,’ Jenny said, touched that Peggy should even consider her. ‘What about fittings and measurements and things?’
‘Leave it a wee while,’ Peggy said. ‘There’s no rush.’
‘No, except I’ve got time on my hands now. The hospital doctor said I wasn’t to think of going back to work yet. It’s mad, I feel great and I’ll end up murdering my mother and grandmother if I’m home much longer with them.’
‘Look on the bright side cutie,’ Maureen said. ‘At least it gives you time to visit the wee girl in hospital.’
Jenny sighed and said, ‘I suppose it does. I’m on my way there now. She doesn’t get many visitors, you know – it’s too far for her friends to go. Her teacher has been up once, and Beattie pops in, but that’s it really.’
‘I’ll take a wee dander up to the hospital myself,’ Maureen said. ‘The days must hang heavy on her.’
‘I’ll go along with you,’ Peggy said.
‘You’ll not,’ Maureen said. ‘What will his lordship say if I let you go gallivanting?’
Peggy laughed. ‘Visiting a sick child is hardly gallivanting,’ she said.
Jenny left them arguing amicably over it and made for the tram.
Linda was feeling very low when she saw Jenny enter the room, but she tried to smile, because she was grateful to the older girl for making the effort to visit her. Jenny came almost every day. Linda hadn’t really believed she would, but she hadn’t let her down, even though it was a trek to Steel House Lane from Pype Hayes.
‘Hi. How are you today?’ Jenny asked.
Linda shrugged. ‘All right.’
‘I got