A Sister's Promise (34 page)

‘You know what they say about them?’ Daisy said. ‘Overpaid, oversexed and over here, and maybe they are, but that is one invasion I would more than welcome.’

‘Daisy!’

‘Oh, don’t go all stuffy on me and tell me to think of Martin,’ Daisy said, ‘because I am only looking. Mind you, they are really good to look at. We go more often to Sutton Coldfield now because some of them are based at St George’s Barracks, billeted with locals, so I heard. You can bet our manager wouldn’t offer any of our empty rooms for their use. Shame really. I’m sure all us girls would make sure they had every creature comfort.’

‘You are awful, Daisy,’ Molly said, but she was laughing herself.

‘Well, you should see them, Moll,’ Daisy said. ‘When they go marching up and down the road, even the customers in the shops come out to watch; they even come from behind the counter.’

‘What for, to see a company of soldiers marching?’

‘No,’ Daisy said, laughing at the memory of it, ‘to see the little Gl at the end. He always wangles to be at the back, so the officers don’t catch sight of him, I s’pose, and he doesn’t march, he jitterbugs up the road, and doffs his cap right and left and always has a dirty great smile on his face. He is a real card.’

‘Hm,’ Molly said, ‘I doubt that his commanding officers would see it in the same light.’ But even as she said the words she remembered Helen telling her of the pilots laughing and joking as if they hadn’t a care in the world, yet she had seen the fear in their eyes. Maybe this was the young Gl’s way of coping.

‘Well, let’s hope they never catch sight of him then,’ Daisy said. ‘And that jitterbugging looks fun.’

‘The American lads here say that too.’

‘Maybe we should think about taking lessons and go to a dance a time or two.’

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘Why not?’

‘Well, there’s my job – and Kevin, of course.’

‘We all have jobs, Molly,’ Daisy said, ‘And we are not at them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and Kevin is a big boy. You are twenty years old, not sixty or seventy.’

‘I know that.’

‘Well, then,’ Daisy said, and when Molly didn’t go on to explain further, she suddenly exclaimed, ‘You have someone special. That’s it, isn’t it?’

‘No, it isn’t.’

‘Well, why isn’t it?’ Daisy demanded. ‘It flipping well ought to be. You have a camp full of men to choose from and not one has touched your heart yet. You watch it, or you will end up on the shelf.’

Molly shrugged. ‘Maybe that’s just where I want to be.’

Daisy shook her head over Molly, and she wasn’t the only one. Helen too said she should get out more. The woman she worked with in the Naafi could have told her that it wasn’t that the men weren’t interested in her; they buzzed around her like bees round a honey pot, the Americans being the most persistent. Her colleagues had all expected that Molly being so absolutely gorgeous-looking and so pleasant into the bargain would be snapped up fairly quickly, and yet she seemed to hold her admirers at arm’s length. As Edna put it, ‘It’s like ’er has a barrier up.’

‘Maybe she does right, though,’ May said. ‘What if she was to lose her heart and he didn’t make it?’

‘Ah, there is that and all,’ Edna conceded. ‘Bloody war. Hard for the young ones to have any life at all.’

Molly could have told them that one man already held her heart and that man was Mark Baxter. She went weak
at the knees every time she saw him, and worried terribly about him when his squadron was operational.

She knew he felt something for her too because she had said seen it in his eyes, but he hadn’t said anything to her. He probably thought she was an ice maiden. She knew that was what some of the boys called her; she had overheard them and couldn’t altogether blame them. She couldn’t bring herself to trust men any more, not even Mark, and so she battened down her own feelings and built a wall around herself. She told herself she was doing Mark a favour because he had no part to play in her future. No man had, for the thought of any sort of intimacy made her feel physically sick.

There had been three air raids at the very end of July, the first one taking everyone by surprise as it had been a full year since the last raid of any significance. The sirens were late coming and the people slow to take cover, as many felt it to be a false alarm, so the death toll was quite high. When there was an even more intense raid the following night, many, including Molly, feared that this was a forerunner of another blitz.

After that, there was nothing, though it was a long time before people began to relax a little and sleep easy in their beds. At the air base, it helped that the Naafi staff were so busy at work with the influx of the Americans. Molly often applied for extra shifts, knowing that total exhaustion was the only way that she could have even a chance of a decent night’s sleep.

One dinner-time in mid-October, they were as busy as they usually were and Molly was serving mechanically, almost without looking at the people’s faces. But then, as one man neared the front of the queue, she caught sight of who it was and she staggered and would have fallen but for Edna beside her, who caught her arm.

‘You want to take more water with it, duck,’ she said, and then she caught sight of Molly’s bleached face and said, ‘’Ere, Molly. Are you all right?’

The man looked up and as his eyes locked with Molly’s,
he too looked as if he had seen a ghost. For a second or two he stood stock still, staring, and then he began pushing his way through the crowds, apologising as he elbowed people out of the way, until he reached the counter. Molly had stood in the same spot since she had first recognised the man, only her eyes had followed him.

She felt as though she had been kicked in the stomach. She had been tracked down again. Was nowhere safe? The man was looking at her with puzzled eyes and his brow was puckered into a frown as he asked, questioningly, ‘Molly, is that really you?’

Molly sighed. She was tired of running and so she said, ‘Yes it’s me. Hello, Will. How did you find me?’

‘I didn’t,’ Will said. ‘That is … dear Lord, I was told you were dead.’

‘I nearly was. But what are you doing here?’

‘Nothing to do with you, Molly,’ Will said, seeing the trepidation on her face and understanding the reason for it. ‘Look, we need to talk. Is there somewhere?’

‘Out the back,’ Molly said with her jerk of her head. ‘Go through and wait for me,’ and she turned to Edna. ‘Can you hold the fort? I just need a few minutes.’

The woman was intrigued but she also knew that Molly was one of the hardest workers there and so she said with a smile, ‘Go on then. Someone from your distant and murky past, is he?’

‘Something like that.’

May approached just as Molly was lifting the counter flap and said, ‘Watch yourself, lass. I hear tell he’s married.’

‘He is,’ Molly said, ‘Once, in another life, I knew his wife.’

May was nonplussed. She turned to Doris beside her. ‘Did you hear that? What did you make of it?’

‘Nothing,’ Doris said, ‘I have given up trying to understand the young people of today.’

At that moment Molly was saying to Will, ‘Collingsworth’s
thugs nearly killed me. The doctors said I was lucky to survive.’

‘Well, when there was no report of an attack in the paper, they presumed you had snuffed it,’ Will said. ‘It was Ray who found out where you were that time and betrayed you to save his own skin, or so I heard.’ He shook his head and went on, ‘Anyway, that was the finish for me. I went to see them at the army barracks and they offered me a job in the stores and then sent a letter to Collingsworth, explaining that I had been recalled.’

‘But this is an RAF base.’

‘I had noticed that,’ Will remarked laconically. ‘It was the planes that gave it away.’

‘Fool,’ Molly said with a smile. ‘You know what I mean.’

‘I have been seconded,’ Will said. ‘Apparently, the store manager here has hurt his back and I am filling in until he is better. I have already been here a couple of days. It is amazing that we haven’t met before.’

‘I was working in the kitchens, probably. We take it in turns,’ Molly said. ‘Let me get this straight now. You have no connection with Collingsworth or the others?’

‘None whatsoever, haven’t had for months now and have never been happier.’

‘And as far as you know, they have stopped looking for me?’

‘Why would they look? They think you are dead.’

‘Then it is over?’ Molly cried, her eyes glowing with excitement. ‘I am free.’

‘As a bird, my darling girl,’ Will said.

Molly felt the heavy weight she had been carrying around for ages slide off from between her shoulder blades. So overcome was she that, despite how she felt about being touched, or intimacy in general, she threw her arms around Will’s neck as she cried, ‘You don’t know how good that makes me feel.’

Will hugged her back in delight that the girl he had
thought murdered was alive and well. However, Mark, who had been making his way to the Naafi, had witnessed that embrace and, knowing how Molly felt about anyone touching her, could only conclude that the man was special to Molly in some way, though who the hell he was, was anyone’s guess.

Now he had to stop that hankering after her once and for all. Molly had made her choice and it wasn’t him. It was time to draw a line under Molly Maguire.

Will was waiting for Molly after her shift, as arranged, and she took him to the house, for they had much to talk about. Kevin was at Scouts and so Molly took Will through to the kitchen and put the kettle on, saying as she did so, ‘Do you mind if we sit here? It is warmer at this time of day. With us both out all day I don’t light the fire in the sitting room until the evening.’

‘I don’t mind where I sit,’ Will said, ‘but tea would be very welcome.’

‘I want to know everything,’ Molly said as she filled the kettle and put it on the gas. ‘But first about Betty and the baby.’

Will was puffed up with pride as he said, ‘Not so much of a baby now. She had a wee boy, the day after you left, and we call him Sam.’

‘I’m pleased for you, Will,’ Molly said sincerely. ‘And so glad you left that set-up.’

‘And me,’ Will said. ‘I was suddenly sickened by the whole thing and bitterly ashamed for my part in any of it.’

‘I felt the same,’ Molly said, ‘I couldn’t believe that I had been such a fool.’

‘Betty and Ruby would love to see you again,’ Will said suddenly. ‘They missed you so much when you left. Betty hoped you would include a note or at least an address when you sent the clothes back.’

‘I didn’t dare.’

‘I understood that, but Betty was a bit hurt, I think.’

‘I knew she’d feel that way,’ Molly said sadly. ‘I did feel bad about that, but I was too frightened to let anyone know where I was. I would love to see them both now that it’s safer. Why don’t you all come to Sunday lunch? It’s my day off this week. Have you to work?’

‘Only till one o’clock,’ Will said. ‘Betty and Ruby can bring young Sam up on the tram and we can meet here.’

And so it was arranged.

It was wonderful to see Betty and Ruby again. The two women hugged Molly in delight, and Sam was as cute as a button, twenty months old with a mischievous glint in his dancing brown eyes and a smile that would melt a heart of stone. The adults doted on him, and little wonder.

She introduced them all to Kevin, saying only that they were people she had lodged with when she had first come to Birmingham, and she had bumped into Will again as he worked at the base. Kevin accepted this and liked the family, although he was completely bowled over by the baby, who insisted on following him around the house. Over the meal they discussed only general matters, and Will asked Kevin many questions about Scouts, which he loved so much. Yet Molly knew there was something wrong, a sort of constraint.

After dinner, Kevin was on digging duty at the park and little Sam was put down in Molly’s bed for a nap. When Will said he wanted to talk to her, she suddenly decided she didn’t want to hear anything he had to say.

‘I don’t want to talk about Collingsworth,’ she said. ‘I never want to hear his name again. You must see why that is?’

‘Of course I understand,’ Will said. ‘What happened to you might have turned the brain of a lesser person, but I know you to be strong and brave, and I think a person who would always do what they thought was right.’

‘Oh, yes,’ Molly said sarcastically. ‘Like I went off with two strangers in the middle of the night. Really wise move, that.’

‘You were eighteen, in a strange place, and terrified by the worst air raid Birmingham had ever seen. It was the very early hours of a dark November morning,’ Will said. ‘I said you were brave, not fearless. It wasn’t your fault and you must tell yourself that.’

‘Will, why are you saying all this now?’

‘Because I want to put a stop to it once and for all,’ Will said. ‘I want us both to go to the police and tell them.’

Molly looked at him aghast. ‘Are you crazy?’ she cried. ‘Didn’t you always say that if those villains heard a whisper, they would pay you a visit one dark night and silence you for good?’

‘I know what I said, but—’

‘One of the reasons I told the police nothing about my attackers was because I was thinking of you and Betty and Ruby. I didn’t want you involved.’

‘But I was involved,’ Will said. ‘And now I want to make a clean breast of it and see these people who prey on vulnerable young girls are put behind bars and kept there for a very long time. Don’t worry, I have talked it over with Betty and Ruby, and they both agree.’

Molly looked across at the women and Betty said, ‘It really is the only thing to do, Molly.’

‘But why now, all of a sudden?’ Molly asked.

‘Well, I could have gone and told my story at any time,’ Will said, ‘but it would hold more credence if you came too and said just what had happened to you.’

Molly shook her head emphatically. ‘I can’t do that. I am surprised you even thought to ask me such a thing.’

‘I want to show you something,’ Will said, and he went to take a copy of a newspaper from the pocket of his topcoat and spread it out on the table. There was a picture of a young and pretty girl who had apparently gone missing after a row with her parents.

‘Her name is Christine Naylor, a London girl evacuated with her school to a place in Wales. There she met up with
a couple of girls from Birmingham that she became great friends with,’ Will said. ‘In early October the girls from Birmingham hit fourteen and went home. Christine Naylor wanted to do the same thing, but her parents were adamant that she should do the school cert first before she got any sort of job and she returned home a week ago to have it out with them. The result was a row and the following morning they found her bed hadn’t been slept in and many of her clothes and her savings book were gone. They could only assume that she has come to Birmingham in search of the girls.’

‘But she might not have done,’ Molly cried. ‘She could have gone anywhere. And even if she did come here, her disappearance might have nothing to do with Ray and Charlie.’

‘I saw them with her when I was shopping in the town when it was just coming on to dusk,’ Betty said. ‘I sort of knew Ray because I have glimpsed him once or twice, but I couldn’t remember at the time why his face was so familiar and I didn’t know the other chap at all, but I recognised the girl. As soon as I saw her picture in the paper I remembered where I had seen that Ray before and I told Will.’

‘That doesn’t prove anything,’ Molly protested.

‘Molly, she was dead upset, the girl,’ Betty said. ‘Crying fit to burst, she was, the poor sod. And that Ray had his arm around her and I heard him say that he knew of a nice place where she could stay the night. And you are so right, Molly,’ she went on turning to face her, ‘Ray looks so respectable and sounded so understanding and concerned, anyone would be taken in by him. The girl was, anyway, and they went off together. I should imagine that you wouldn’t need fifty guesses to know what will happen to her and where she will end up.’

Molly felt sick and Will put in, ‘And this girl is not yet fifteen.’

Fifteen! Younger even than Lynne, Molly thought. What if she had a row with Helen and just disappeared? God, it was unthinkable. What despicable people these men were. And if she did nothing, the practice would just go on and on. Could she live with herself, knowing that she had the power to change things?

She took a deep breath and said, ‘You’re right, this vile trade must be stopped. But there is Kevin. I don’t want him at risk.’

‘We’ll talk to the police about that,’ Will said. ‘They will look after you and Kevin. You will be the star witness in this and they won’t want to lose you.’

‘What about your family?’

‘Me and Mom are taking Sam to some relatives in the Cotswolds for a bit,’ Betty said. ‘They’ve been asking us to go for years.’

‘I’ll have to see my commanding officer too,’ Will said. ‘I may lose my job, may even be imprisoned for my part in it. Who knows? But one thing I do know is that I just can’t stand by and condone this any more. The girl’s whole family is distraught. There was a picture of her parents the following day.’

When Molly looked at the photograph of the saddened couple, beaten down with anguish at the loss of their daughter, she felt guilt flood her being. She knew she had inflicted exactly the same pain on Tom and Nellie, Jack and Cathy, all those who had cared for her, and tears of shame seeped from her eyes and trickled down her cheeks.

‘Don’t cry, Molly,’ Will said, ‘I know it’s scary, but—’

‘It’s not that,’ Molly said. ‘It’s looking at the girl’s parents and seeing their suffering, because I have done that to my uncle and friends I had in Buncrana.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ve not written to them, not once since I arrived in Birmingham.’

‘They probably think you are dead then,’ Will said. ‘Killed
in a raid or something. You should write to them, Molly. Surely they deserve that?’

‘Yes, of course,’ Mollie said. ‘But for God’s sake, Will, how do I write an account of all that has happened to me?’

‘Better you do it that they read about it in the papers.’