Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys (3 page)

***

May spent her days at Garner’s, one of a cluster of leather factories situated in an area known as The Grange. Once the site of Bermondsey Abbey’s farm, all trace of its bucolic past was long gone. The air was no longer filled with the sweet smell of apple orchards. Instead the triangle of land exuded the many noxious tanning fumes, familiar to Bermondsey people. May, like all the other Garner’s girls, had long ago grown accustomed to the smells, but what she could not get used to was the tedium of her days spent sitting at a bench, trimming softened leather hides, or hanging them on stretchers to dry.

On one particularly dull December day, she and her two closest workmates, Emmy Harris and Dolly Dixon, had been put to work in the dying room. One by one, May and Emmy lifted the wet dyed skins, hung one corner over a large hook and stretched the hide to another hook. It took two of them as the sodden hides were heavy with evil-smelling dye, and it was back-breaking work. As she turned to fetch another hide, one of the hooks caught on May’s long golden hair, yanking her back and entangling her.

‘Help me, Em!’

‘You and your bloody hair. You should get one of those nets,’ Emmy complained as she tried to disentangle May.

‘What’s the hold-up?’

Eddie Barber, the young foreman, strolled over from his bench. He was more relaxed than the older foremen, who’d usually been fixtures at the factory for years.

‘She’s caught her hair,’ Dolly said with a mischievous look. ‘She needs a man to sort her out, Eddie.’

Eddie grinned back and stood in front of May. One hand taking the weight of the hide, he encircled her with his other arm and unhooked the last lock of hair.

‘What do I get for setting you free then?’ he asked.

May felt herself blushing a deeper scarlet than the dyed leather hide. It didn’t help that Dolly was miming a kiss behind Eddie’s back. She cursed her hair and vowed to change the girlish style at the earliest opportunity.

‘You could do worse,’ Dolly said once Eddie was back at his bench.

May picked up a corner of another hide and slapped it into Dolly’s hand. ‘Don’t! He’ll hear you!’

She’d worked at Garner’s since leaving school at fourteen, four years earlier, and mostly she’d been content to do her work and go home. While Emmy was funny and Dolly brash, May’s diffidence hindered her as surely as the long hair tangling in the drying hooks. But for some reason, the two girls had taken her under their worldly-wise wings and had made it their mission to set her up with a nice chap. It was largely out of kindness, but sometimes May knew they used her innocence as a foil to their bravado. Their latest target was Bill Gilbie, a young leather worker, who’d also taken on fire-watching and ARP duties at the factory.

‘Well, if you don’t want Eddie, I suppose I could let you have my Bill!’ Dolly said with a sigh and Emmy shot back, ‘Your Bill? He’s never looked twice at you, Dol.’

Dolly pulled a face. ‘Just where you’re wrong ’cause we had a nice chat at the Red Cow the other night.’ She looked at May. ‘He plays the piano there most nights.’ She gave a mock swoon. ‘He’s got lovely hands!’

As Dolly pretended the workbench was a piano, the object of their discussion opened the dying-room door.

‘All down the basement!’ Bill called out, so the whole floor could hear.

She heard Emmy and Dolly stifling their giggles. But May couldn’t help but notice his hands, one of which lay flat against the swing door. Strong, rather tanned from the leather work, his long tapered fingers were definitely those of a piano player. Bill wore a leather jerkin and an armband, identifying him as a fire warden. In the three months since war had been declared, every raid had been either a drill or a false alarm, so the girls took their time laying down the hides. Emmy and Dolly deliberately dragged their feet.

‘What you all hot and bothered for?’ Dolly asked Bill. ‘You’d think there was a war on!’

‘One day it’ll be a real one and then you’ll move yourself!’ he said. Pushing back a strand of dark hair that had fallen across his forehead, he hurried off to clear the lower floors. May, who could do nothing slowly, even when she tried, was well ahead of the rest of the girls as they shuffled down the stone staircase to the basement. She caught up with Bill, who shot her a quick smile, and she realized that his hands weren’t the only lovely thing about him.

‘At least someone’s taking it seriously!’ he said.

They arrived in the basement together and Bill took off his jerkin, tossing it over a chair by a battered old piano that the bosses had installed as a morale booster. Bill beckoned her over.

‘First to arrive gets first choice.’

He clasped together his long fingers and gave an exaggerated stretch before seating himself at the piano. ‘Any requests, madam?’ he said.

She thought for a minute. ‘Do you know “Happy Days and Lonely Nights”?’

‘Only too well,’ he said, looking down with a wry smile, so that for a moment she wondered if he’d broken up with a sweetheart. But as the shelter began to fill, he struck up the opening chords and soon a chorus of voices was joining in. ‘
You broke my heart a million ways, when you took my happy days, and left me lonely nights!
’ They belted it out and Bill didn’t seem to be shedding any tears, so May dismissed the idea. She noticed that he appeared more relaxed now he was sitting at the piano. Seemingly he could play any tune by ear: ‘Old Bull and Bush’ or ‘We’ll Meet Again’ – whatever the request, he picked the tune up in no time – and when the all-clear sounded they were reluctant to leave.

‘Bill, are you
sure
it’s safe for us to go upstairs?’ Dolly asked. It wasn’t just that she was flirting. The game was to string out the practice for as long as possible, anything to avoid the piles of hides stacked up waiting to be hung.

Bill raised his eyes. ‘I’ve done my bit getting you down here,
and
entertaining you. I reckon you can get yourself back up whenever you like!’ He shot May a parting look and bounded up the stairs two at a time.

‘He likes you,’ Emmy whispered and May let out a groan.

Although she resented her friends’ constant matchmaking, at the end of the day rather than rushing home as she usually did, she took her time in the cloakroom getting ready to leave Garner’s, and when Emmy asked her to come to the Red Cow with them on Saturday she surprised herself by agreeing.

*

May was checking her hair in the mirror above the fireplace when her father paused over his pipe ‘Blimey. You going out?’

May blushed and her mother shot him a warning look, so that he quickly turned back to his paper.

‘You look nice,’ Jack said. ‘Wait till I get ready and I’ll walk you down.’

‘No, no, I’m all right. I’m only meeting some girls from work,’ May said, escaping into the passage before she attracted any more attention. As she pulled her coat from the hook she heard her mother say, ‘Well, that’s a turn up!’

The Red Cow at the corner of The Grange was Emmy and Dolly’s favourite haunt. When May pushed open the corner door she was met by a blackout curtain. She waited there, unseen for an instant, and it crossed her mind to turn round and go home. But then she heard Emmy’s unmistakable throaty laugh, and she pulled aside the curtain.

She scanned the room and caught sight of the piano. There was no one sitting at it, and May felt an instant of disappointment before realizing the real reason she’d agreed to come here with the girls.

Dolly spotted her and beckoned her over. They were laughing, Emmy explained, about the last air-raid drill.

‘Did you see Bill’s face when he was trying to round us up?’ Emmy laughed.

‘Oh, I don’t know, I quite like him when he looks stern,’ Dolly said.

‘And you, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes,’ Emmy prodded May, ‘don’t rush to get down the basement so quick next time! We’re trying to string it out. All the time we’re on the drill we’re not hanging hides!’

‘But I’ll tell you something for nothing,’ said Dolly. ‘I’ve seen the way that Bill looks at you, May...’ She nodded her head sagely.

‘Don’t be daft, Dolly. I’ve not said two words to him!’

Yet later that night when Bill took his place at the piano, she saw him glance her way, and during his break he made a point of coming over to them. He’d obviously forgiven Emmy and Dolly for their earlier teasing. He sat at their table, drinking his pint and chatting easily to her friends, but May noticed that more often than not his ocean-blue eyes were fixed on her.

‘“Happy Days”?’ he asked her, before returning to the piano.

She suspected that Saturday nights at the Red Cow would become a regular thing from now on.

*

May might be spreading her wings, but at heart she was still a home bird and as the phoney war limped on towards Christmas she found herself increasingly drawn into her mother’s worries about Jack.

One night towards Christmas, she and Mrs Lloyd had spent the evening trying to make a Christmas pudding with a laughable amount of dried fruit and nuts. They’d made five puddings last year to give away, but this year there was barely enough for one. After snipping dates with scissors as small as they could and chopping almonds to a pale dust, grating a small lump of suet and a single orange peel, they were ready to give the mixture its magic stir. May made her own wish and then watched as her mother shut her eyes tight to make hers. With her expression unguarded, May saw for the first time how these early months of the war had changed her mother. She already looked defeated and when she opened her eyes, May saw they were brimming.

‘Was your wish for Jack?’ she asked softly, taking the wooden spoon from her mother’s hand.

‘I’m worried sick, love. I think he’s getting himself in with a bad bunch. He comes in all hours, and where’s he getting the money to take Joycie out? Over the West End and gawd knows where.’ Her mother rubbed her forehead and sat down. ‘Sometimes I don’t know which I’m more worried about, him going in the army or the villains he’s mixing with.’

‘Villains? Mum, you’re getting in a state over nothing. Jack’s either out with Joycie, or it’s Norman he’s with… and he’s harmless enough.’ She put an arm round her mother. ‘It’s just the war that’s got us all up the wall.’

‘I’m sorry, love, I shouldn’t be putting it on your shoulders. Your brother’s old enough to look after himself.’

Mrs Lloyd pushed herself up from the chair just as Jack walked in.

‘Mum! Come ’ere!’ It was Jack’s custom to greet his mother with a bear hug, and not release her till she begged to be let go. It amused him no end, and May knew no matter how much her mother slapped him away, she loved it too. But now, Mrs Lloyd had no energy to resist and Jack pulled away first.

‘What’s the matter?’ He looked to May for an answer, but she shook her head.

‘Just tired, son. I’m off to bed.’

Kissing him on the forehead, Mrs Lloyd walked heavily upstairs to her bedroom.

‘Blimey, what’s the matter with her?’ Jack asked, his ebullience all gone.

May found herself irritated at Jack’s incomprehension. ‘Don’t you know? She’s worried about you!’

‘Me? Why? Because I’ll be getting called up?’

May sighed. ‘That, and… she thinks you’re nicking stuff from the docks.’

‘Oh.’ He was silent for a moment.

‘So, does that mean you are?’

A cloud passed over his normal sunny features. ‘No! ’Course not.’ He hesitated. ‘But… promise not to say nothing?’

May nodded. ‘I’ve been helping George out a bit.’

May couldn’t think why it hadn’t occurred to her before. Perhaps because a villain in the family seemed like no villain at all. It was easier to think of them as coming from somewhere else.

‘They won’t like it.’

‘I know but, May, I can’t get by on casual work at the docks.’

May wanted to say that lots of other men did, but she knew that her brother’s idea of ‘getting by’ didn’t always refer to essentials.

Jack’s face had turned sulky. ‘Bloody hell, I was in such a good mood an’all. But now it’s spoiled the surprise.’

‘What?’

‘Well, I was going to tell Mum and Dad first, but…’ he said, spinning it out.

‘Tell me!’

Suddenly he broke into a broad smile, his chest puffing out ever so slightly.

‘Me and Joycie got engaged!’

‘Jack!’ She ran to kiss him and then she thumped his chest.

‘That makes
two
things you never told me about!’ May was used to being Jack’s first port of call, whenever he was either in trouble or confused. She didn’t like the idea of him keeping secrets from her. But her irritation with him disappeared the instant she saw how happy he was.

‘I only asked her today and she said yes!’ The brightness of his golden hair, which he pushed back from his forehead, was matched only by the radiance of his face. She’d heard that sometimes when people were deeply happy, their faces shone, and his really was shining. And though part of her was sad to be losing her brother, she couldn’t do anything other than share his joy.

‘Oh, Jack, I’m really happy for you! Mum’ll be so pleased. It’s just what she needs.’

But then a cloud dimmed his brightness.

‘What?’

‘Well, the reason I asked Joycie now is because I reckon I’ll get my call-up papers soon.’

‘But you don’t know that.’

‘Oh, sis, it’ll happen sooner or later. Some of my mates have already enlisted.’

‘Well, you’re not going to!’

For some reason this made him laugh. ‘If little sis says I can’t, then who am I to argue?’

She shoved his shoulder, laughing, but then turning serious, she said, ‘Just tell her the good news, eh? Leave out the rest.’

January–September 1940

The New Year had swirled in with snow and a biting wind. Everything in the world was colder, bleaker, and the darkness of the blackout seemed to cast its shadows into the days. When May looked back on that first Christmas of the war she realized it was to be their last truly happy gathering together as a family. She remembered a moment when, glancing up at the mirror above the fireplace, she had seen them all reflected as if in a photograph, raising their glasses of beer to toast Jack’s engagement. The flickering fire in the grate had flared and in spite of its heat, May had felt a sudden chill, which seemed prescient tonight as she lay on her bed listening to the angry voices rising up through the floorboards from the kitchen below.