A Sister's Promise (36 page)

Even in the throes of war that had claimed many lives and much heartache, Molly’s tale seemed particularly poignant, and all were affected by it. Many of the women on the jury dabbed at their eyes. As for Mark, although his mother had told him everything, his heart ached to hear from Molly’s own lips how she had suffered.

He realised too in that moment that he loved her before any other, and quite understood why she had refused to get involved with men. An experience like that could put many off men for life, but he somehow knew that wouldn’t be the case with Molly. She had such strength of character, and he would be ready and willing to wait until she was ready.

All their friends congratulated Molly and Will warmly afterwards, and Mark shook Will by the hand, and said he had seldom seen a braver man. As for Molly, he wanted to take her away somewhere quiet and show her how much he loved her, but Molly was surrounded by people. He envied his mother, sister and Daisy, who could hug Molly with such ease, but he knew she would pull away if he tried, though he would give his eyeteeth for the chance to hold her in his arms.

‘You were both sensational,’ Norton said as the car took them away from the city. ‘God, we’ve waited for this opportunity for years. We’ll really nail the bastards now.’

‘When will sentence be passed?’ Will asked.

‘Not for some time,’ Norton said. ‘They are both wanted for a whole heap of other crimes – murder, drug-running, robbery … the list is endless. Saying that, though, we should have the whole thing wrapped up well before Christmas, but for you the ordeal is over. Put it behind you.’

‘If it wasn’t for Hitler,’ said Will, ‘I would say the future looks rosy.’

‘Don’t worry about Hitler,’ Norton said. ‘He’s just a bit player and we will soon kick him into touch.’

They were laughing as they neared Molly’s house and she saw the curtains twitching again.

‘Wonder what they make of this now,’ she said. ‘You have obviously released me and I have returned laughing my head off. Goodness, it will keep them going for weeks.’

Norton smiled. ‘Everyone will likely know all about it soon enough.’

The inspector was right, as Molly found out a good few hours later when a furious Kevin came home, waving the
Evening
Mail
.

‘Read that,’ he said, thrusting it in front of her.

Molly’s horrified eyes saw a picture of her and Will, and a full account of what she had said in court.

‘Bet you’re in the
Despatch
too,’ Kevin commented morosely, ‘and you treated me like I was five years old again and only told me half of what had happened to you.’

‘I was only trying to protect you, Kevin,’ Molly said.

‘Oh, yeah, it protected me all right,’ Kevin said sarcastically. ‘Reading about what happened to my own sister in the bloody newspaper and in front of all my mates was real protection.’

‘All right then,’ Molly burst out angrily. ‘You want the truth so you will have it. I was ashamed – yes, bloody ashamed – and for myself I would rather have gone and hid my head in the sand than put myself through what I did today. I took no pleasure in it at all. I only did it to stop other girls going down the same road. As you are such a reader of newspapers, maybe you will remember the case of Christine Naylor, who left home after a row and virtually disappeared.’

‘I think so.’

‘Well, the people who are in prison now had her too,’
Molly said. ‘That was the real spur that made me go ahead. She wasn’t even fifteen, younger than Helen’s daughter, Lynne, and for her sake and to keep others safe from the depraved clutches of those men, I spoke out today. If you are going to be all sniffy and narky with me for not telling you all this sordid stuff, you must get over it on your own. I’ve had about as much as I can take today.’

Before Kevin had time to answer this, there was a knock at the door. Curiously and a little cautiously, for they had few visitors, Molly went to open it. Mark stood the other side with a parcel wrapped in newspaper under one arm.

‘Mark,’ Molly said in surprise, really pleased to see him. ‘Come in.’

Mark’s heart had leaped at the smile in Molly’s eyes, and as he stepped into the hall he said, ‘I came to see how you are feeling now. Then, as I passed the fish-and-chip shop on the Chester Road, there was a queue forming and a woman told me there was word that there was some fish in, so I joined on the end. I thought I would be queuing until tomorrow morning, but I got to the counter in the end and I have three portions of fish and chips here. Could you and Kevin do it justice?’

Molly’s mouth watered and she realised she hadn’t eaten all day, she had just existed on cups of tea.

‘Thank you, Mark,’ she said. ‘That will be just the job, and a sight better than the whale meat I got last week. I’ll get the plates. Maybe you can go in there and talk some sense into Kevin, who is sulking because I didn’t tell him the whole story and he had to read it in the newspapers.’

However, before either of them could move, Kevin came into the hall, tears streaming down his face. Molly hadn’t seen her young brother cry since the time she had arrived at the Cottage Homes for the first time, and she wrapped her two arms around him.

‘I’m sorry, really sorry,’ he said, his voice thick with unshed tears. ‘I should never have said those things to
you. It was just that … well, you always said that we were in this together and I felt that you were shutting me out. When I read all about what you went through and that, I was bloody scared at what might have happened to you.’

Molly held Kevin away from her so that she could look in his eyes and said, ‘Listen to me, Kevin. I promise you here and now that I will never ever keep things from you. You are growing up and I need to recognise that. Is that OK?’

Kevin’s grin was a bit wobbly, but his voice was firm. ‘OK.’

‘Just two more things,’ Molly said.

‘What?’

‘The first is, if you keep swearing, young man, I will wash your mouth out with carbolic,’ Molly said.

Kevin had a fleeting memory of his mother threatening his father with the same thing, though he himself had been very small at the time, and he smiled and said in a singsong voice, ‘OK, OK. What’s the second?’

‘The second,’ said Molly, ‘is that from the sounds and smells coming from the kitchen, the fish and chips Mark brought are on the plates and ready to eat.’

‘Oh boy!’ Kevin cried, for shop-bought fish and chips was a real treat.

‘How hungry are you?’ Molly asked.

‘Are you kidding?’ Kevin cried. ‘For fish and chips I’m starving,’ and then with a sideward glance at Molly and a grin he said, ‘Absolutely bloody ravenous, in fact.’

Molly cuffed him over the side of the head playfully as he passed and they entered the kitchen laughing.

Mark’s heart nearly stopped beating as he saw Molly, her face alight with laughter, a Molly he hadn’t really seen, he realised, for this was a Molly released from tension and fear and the Molly he knew he would love until the breath left his body. However, he betrayed none of this. Instead he threw the tea towel over his arm to resemble a waiter, gave
a bow and said, ‘If madam and the young master are ready now, dinner is served.’

‘Thank you,’ Molly said, sitting down in the chair he pulled out for her. ‘Won’t you join us?’

‘Don’t mind if I do,’ said Mark. And the three sat and ate together, talking and chatting and laughing, completely comfortable with each other at last.

Kevin was not the only one to see Molly’s picture in the paper and hear the account of what had happened to her. So also did Hilda Mason. Just that day she had received the letter from Nellie saying that Molly had been in touch.

Hilda read Molly’s letter and was disturbed by it. Then that same evening she unfolded the
Evening
Mail
and saw Molly’s picture on the front page, and read her account of what had happened to her. Hilda’s mouth dropped open. She realised what a watered-down version she had given to those in Ireland and knew that she had to go and see the girl.

Molly’s address wasn’t printed in the paper, but in her account she said she worked in the Naafi at the RAF base at Castle Bromwich. The very next morning Hilda decided she would go out to the place and see if she could see the girl, if only for a few minutes.

Paul Simmons was another who read the paper in open-mouthed astonishment. It put him in such a rage he attacked Tom in a blistering letter, which Tom opened in the cowshed.

Tom read all the cuttings and then, unable to believe it, read them again. He imagined Molly standing there, having to say these things, his little Molly, who would never harm a fly, and for these dreadful things to happen to her.

He didn’t blame Paul Simmons for the tone of his letter; Tom felt he deserved that and more. He had failed Molly, and failed her badly, and he was still failing her. He sank back onto the milking stool, put his head in his hands and sobbed.

He couldn’t even seek Molly out either, while his mother chose to cling to life.

The doctor was baffled at Biddy’s resilience. ‘I would have said she wouldn’t have lasted so long,’ he’d confided just the other day. ‘She might go on till after Christmas at this rate.’

Tom wondered why she didn’t just die and get it over with. Despite her age, her eyes were as bitter and malicious as ever and her voice as recriminatory. It was Gloria that she really seemed to have it in for, whom she was really vicious with. She had no patience with the boy, Ben, either
and would scream at him constantly and often administer the odd sharp slap, for all Joe remonstrated with her.

Tom knew that much as he wanted to drop everything and run to his young niece’s side, he would be unlikely to be able to leave the farm until at least the New Year.

The next morning Molly knew from people’s reactions that many had read the papers. Her neighbours, for example, greeted her quite pleasantly, though this was done in a patronising way and using a conciliatory tone, as if she had just recovered from a long illness, or was mentally defective, and Molly was left wondering if their previous silences hadn’t been preferable.

Many greeted Molly in the camp, but that was normal, and the consensus of her friends in the Naafi seemed to be that she was incredibly brave and it was disgraceful that such things happened in this day and age.

Molly didn’t want to rehash the whole thing again. She had done all the talking she wanted to do in the courtroom; she just said she was glad it was over and she could get on with her life. In fact, what was filling Molly’s mind at that moment was her feelings about Mark, for she could no longer deny the attraction she had felt for him and yet the thought of any man touching her still filled her with abhorrence. She didn’t know what to do about that.

While she was still wondering, one of the guards from the gate tapped her on the shoulder. ‘Woman at the gate asking for you,’ he said. ‘It’s strictly against orders but I can let you have a few minutes.’

Molly frowned. ‘But who is she?’

‘She says her name is Hilda Mason.’

‘Hilda!’ Molly shrieked. ‘Are you sure?’

‘That’s what she said.’

‘Oh, Almighty Christ, she’s alive,’ Molly cried. She put her hands to her face and wiped away the tears that had seeped unbidden from her eyes. ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘I take it you want to see her then,’ the guard said.

‘You bet I do,’ Molly said, tearing off her overall as she spoke. ‘I mean that’s if …’ and she looked to the others.

‘Go on,’ said Edna. ‘Good friend of yours, by the sound of it.’

‘Our neighbour. She was like a second mother,’ Molly said, sticking her feet into her boots and struggling into her coat as she hurried after the guard.

Hilda was shabbily dressed in a shapeless grey coat and scuffed boots, a scarf covering her grey hair, but to Molly she looked beautiful and she waited impatiently for the guard to open the gate. Then she was in Hilda’s arms with a sigh of contentment.

‘God, girl, but you are a sight for sore eyes,’ Hilda said, wiping her damp cheeks.

‘And you,’ Molly said. ‘The neighbour said you were dead, or said she thought you were dead. I didn’t think I would ever see you again. This is wonderful, just wonderful, and we have so much to say and no time to say it because I can only take a little time. They are rushed off their feet in there.’

‘What time do you finish?’

‘Five tonight,’ Molly said. ‘But I live close at hand.’ She gave Hilda directions to her house.

‘Right, bab,’ Hilda said, giving Molly a kiss. ‘I will up this evening and we’ll have a proper old chinwag.’

It was as Hilda was walking away that she passed the well-dressed man walking towards the air base. His face was familiar but she didn’t realise who he was straight away.

‘Mr Simmons,’ she said suddenly.

Paul turned and looked at Hilda quizzically and she knew
that he didn’t recognise her. ‘Hilda Mason,’ she said, extending her hand. ‘Neighbour to the Maguires.’

‘Of course,’ Paul said. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘No need to be,’ Hilda said. ‘Why would you remember me? Are you hoping to see Molly?’

‘Yes, if it’s possible.’

‘Not a chance, I would say,’ Hilda said. ‘But I have her address and I am going there this evening when she finishes her shift. Why don’t you come too?’

‘That’s a very good idea,’ Paul said with a smile. ‘And you can give me the address while you share my taxi for the journey home,’ Paul said. ‘How does that suit?’

‘It suits very well,’ Hilda said with a chuckle. ‘And now I know why Ted Maguire said you were always a true gentleman.’

To say that Molly was surprised to see Paul Simmons with Hilda at her door later that evening would be untrue, for she was much more than surprised: totally amazed, in fact. She hadn’t thought of Mr Simmons in years and Kevin could never remember seeing him at all.

However, Paul soon put them at their ease, and when Molly confessed that she still felt shame about the whole Collingsworth episode, he took hold of her agitated hands.

‘Listen to me, Molly,’ he said. ‘If you believe nothing else in your life, believe this: you were not to blame, not in the slightest, and never forget that.’

‘It’s just that—’

‘Enough,’ Paul said firmly. ‘The perpetrators of this business are base and corrupt, and totally without either morals or a conscience. If it hadn’t been for the courage of that other chap, Will, you could have easily lost your life. I would very much like to meet him and shake him by the hand, and when this little lot is over, there will be a place for him in my firm if he wants it.’

‘I’m sure he will be delighted,’ Molly told the man. ‘You
are as good and kind as my father always said. I am sure that I can arrange a meeting with Will if you want one, but as for me … do you know, they don’t even know in Ireland? I couldn’t bring myself to tell them everything.’

‘Well, that uncle of yours knows now,’ Paul said. ‘I sent him the cuttings from the newspaper, along with a letter. I’m still so angry with him. I can’t believe he let you come on your own.’

‘He couldn’t have prevented me,’ Molly said emphatically. ‘There wasn’t a person living who could have done that, more especially after the cryptic note from Kevin asking me to come and get him.’ She faced Paul and said, ‘What would you have me do, Mr Simmons? I know I couldn’t have taken any other action than the one I did and it is my fault it turned out badly. No blame here can be attached to my uncle, who had a farm to run and a crabbed old woman to see to, and I will write and tell him so – Nellie and Cathy too, because if my uncle has told anyone, then it will be them.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Paul said. ‘I see now that you had no other course open to you and—’

There was another knock at the door and Molly said, ‘Well, I don’t know who that is, but I had better see to it. Can you talk to Kevin? He doesn’t remember you at all and maybe you can tell him about Dad. I’m sure he would like that, because he can’t remember everything. That terrible day blotted a lot out for him.’

‘I’ll do that with pleasure,’ Paul said. Molly watched him make his way over to the young boy, who was chattering nineteen to the dozen with Hilda.

It was Will at the door. Molly was surprised to see him, for he didn’t make a habit of visiting her in the evening.

She drew him into the hall, out of the bleak winter’s night as she said, ‘There’s someone here wants to see you, shake you by the hand, in fact. Anyway, take off your coat or you will not feel the benefit later.’

‘Who wants to shake my hand?’ Will said, doing as Molly bade him. ‘I’m not averse to a little commendation now and again.’

‘Bighead,’ Molly teased with a smile. ‘The man in question is my father’s ex-employer, Paul Simmons, and I think I told you how good he has been to us all.’ Will nodded and Molly went on, ‘He told me that he may have a job to offer you after the war.’

‘Did he?’ Will said. ‘I would be interested in that.’

‘Right,’ Molly said. ‘But since you didn’t know there were people in my house waiting to tell you how marvellous you are and offer you employment, what are you doing here?’

Will smiled, ‘Well,’ he said, ‘as I didn’t see you at the Naafi today, I came to tell you that I am leaving at the weekend because the other chap will be back.’

‘Oh, it will be strange not seeing you around the place.’

‘We were a good team, Molly,’ Will said, ‘better than you think. Norton came today and said numerous people are coming forward now and saying things against Collingsworth and his cronies. He came to see if I had any information on some of the claims people are making and I was able to help him a bit. He said all of Collingsworth’s lot are looking at hefty prison sentences.’

Yet another knock at the door caused Molly to raise her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Go in and see Paul,’ she said to Will. ‘He is dying to meet you.’

This time Mark stood outside the door. Molly willed her voice not to shake as she said, ‘Come in.’

‘I came to see if you were all right.’

‘You did that yesterday,’ Molly said with a smile, hoping he was unaware of her heart thudding against her ribs. ‘No fish and chips tonight?’

‘’Fraid not.’

‘Never mind. Come on in and join the party.’

Paul and Will were dispatched for beer, though Molly intended to stick to tea and ensure that Kevin did the same,
and it was as she was making the tea that Hilda caught up with her and, being Hilda, got straight to the point.

‘Who’s Mark?’

‘Just a friend, like I said when I introduced him.’

‘My eye he’s just a friend. I wasn’t born yesterday, you know.’

‘Honestly, that’s all he is,’ Molly said. ‘I was with his young sister in the hospital and, with visiting and all, I got to know her mother, Helen, and her brother, Mark.’

‘Maybe all that is true,’ Hilda said, ‘but I am telling you that that young man is eating his heart out for you. Don’t you feel the same?’

‘I don’t know,’ Molly cried. ‘No, I am kidding myself. I feel something deeply for Mark. I don’t know if it is love. How does anyone know?’

‘Well, how does he make you feel?’

Molly thought for a moment and then said, ‘When I opened the door to him tonight I trembled all over and my heart was going ten to the dozen. It was hard to act naturally. Sometimes,’ she admitted, ‘when I look at him, my legs feel as if they are made of water. Does that sound like love, Hilda?’

‘I’d say so,’ Hilda said with a chuckle. ‘And a bad attack of it too. So what are you going to do about it?’

Molly shrugged and Hilda burst out, ‘What’s up with you, girl? He’s a fine young man.’

‘I know.’

‘Then what’s the problem? He ain’t got a wife tucked away somewhere?’

‘No,’ Molly said with a smile.

‘Well then, is he a nancy boy?’

‘No, definitely not.’

‘Come on, girl, help me out,’ Hilda cried. ‘There you are, two young unattached people and he loves you and you love him, so what in God’s name
is
the problem?’

Molly struggled with herself because she had never told anyone the revulsion she felt when a man tried to become
even slightly physical, but eventually she confessed, ‘The problem is me, I can’t let a man touch me in that way.’

‘What way?’

‘You know.’

‘Tell him how you feel, ducks,’ Hilda advised. ‘He looks the understanding sort.’

‘I can’t, Hilda,’ Molly said. ‘However understanding he is, he will want to do more than hold hands eventually. I mean, I could manage that, but anything else reminds me of Collingsworth and that awful, dreadful night.’

‘I can’t believe this. You are letting that louse of a man pollute the rest of your life.’

‘Maybe I am, but how can I do that to Mark?’ Molly cried. ‘What if I was never able to let him near me? I care for him too much to do that to him. It would be better if he found another girl who could show her love properly.’

‘Shouldn’t I be the judge of that?’ said a voice from the doorway.

Molly spun around. ‘Mark,’ she breathed, ‘you heard?’

He was across the room in two strides. ‘I want no other girl,’ he said. ‘I only want you. I heard you say that you care for me. Is it true?’

‘Oh, yes, Mark, it’s true.’

‘D’you think you could love me?’

Molly hesitated, then slowly nodded. ‘I think I could, but it wouldn’t be fair. You see …’

‘Oh, darling, I love you, heart, body and soul,’ Mark told her. ‘I think I have from the first moment I saw you. I know why you have been so reticent with men and quite understand it. Never fear me, for I will never ask you to go further than you want to, or at a faster pace.’

That was so exactly what Hilda had said that she looked back to find the room empty except for the two of them. ‘When did Hilda leave?’

‘I don’t know,’ Mark said, ‘but maybe she thought we needed time on our own.’

‘Hilda,’ said Molly, ‘was always a very wise woman.’

She gazed in this new realisation that she really and truly loved Mark and she was filled with the newness and the joy of it. Carried away with emotion she suddenly said. ‘You can put your arms around me, if you like.’

‘Are you sure?’

Molly was anything but sure, but she wanted to please Mark and so she nodded anyway and waited to feel her body tense up and the bile rise in her mouth, as Mark’s arms encircled her. But nothing happened, and in fact it felt quite wonderful. She sighed and laid her head on Mark’s chest and he felt her heart beat and tentatively held her tighter.

‘Oh, Mark,’ she said in utter contentment and just the way Molly spoke his name made Mark’s heart beat faster

It was evident that something of major importance had happened in the kitchen between Mark and Molly as they came out hand in hand and slightly embarrassed. Hilda smiled her approval and Kevin looked them both up and down and then his eyes slid to Hilda’s beaming face and then back to Molly and he said, ‘You two going out, dating, like?’

‘We will be,’ Molly said. ‘Will you mind?’

‘Are you kidding?’ Kevin said. ‘It will be great having a pilot in the family, and when you get married—’

‘Hey,’ Molly protested, ‘who said anything about getting married?’

‘No one,’ Kevin admitted cheerfully. ‘But you will in the end, won’t you? Otherwise what’s the point of it all? All I wanted to know is, where am I going to live after?’

‘I think that is quite a reasonable question,’ Hilda said.

Molly did too. It was obvious Kevin might be anxious about that. ‘With me,’ she said determinedly. ‘Wherever that happens to be.’ And she saw her brother’s shoulders relax with relief.

* * *

The news flew around the camp of the courtship of Mark Baxter and Molly Maguire, and it got the seal of approval there too.

‘At least he’s a free agent,’ May said in relief. ‘I did think she might have fancied the other fellow, for all she claimed he was just a friend.’

‘No, she’s too sensible a lass,’ Edna replied.