Ruby's War (20 page)

‘Ah, good,' she said. ‘Captain Leary is here. The two of you can go and get our guests a cup of tea. They'll be in my office.'

The door to the office was only just ajar, but they could hear Mrs Grey laughing. Ruby was about to knock and ask if they would like tea when everything went silent.

‘They might be kissing,' Pauline whispered. ‘My mum says she's no better than she should be. Folk say she's from London, and she leads poor Doctor Grey a right dance.'

As she edged nearer, Ruby was glad to see that Mrs Grey and the captain were standing on either side of the stout oak table.

‘May I be frank?' the captain was saying. ‘This isn't the army's idea. It's political. Can I offer you a cigarette?' he asked, walking around to her side of the table.

‘Well, if we're being frank,' Mrs Grey said, accepting a cigarette, ‘I would have thought they'd have been more suited to a warmer climate.'

‘The trouble is, you see,' the captain said, lighting her
cigarette, ‘they were sent because there's a lot of angling for the black vote in the elections.'

Relieved that Pauline had been wrong about Mrs Grey and the captain, Ruby tapped on the door.

‘Please, madam,' she said. ‘Miss Conway said to ask if you would like tea.'

‘Were they having a cuddle?' Pauline asked, when Ruby joined her by the chipped sink in the caretaker's room.

‘No. They were talking,' Ruby said, watching Pauline trickle cold water into the old enamel kettle.

The small room smelt of paraffin and dust and held broken desks and an assortment of tools. Pauline lit a gas ring on the small stove by the door, opened the wooden cupboard standing next to it and bent down.

‘What about? Did you hear? What was he saying? I think it's funny how they talk, don't you?'

Ruby bit her lip. She rubbed a finger in the fine powdery dust on the workbench and studied the rows of small wooden boxes hanging from the brick wall above it. She wasn't sure what she'd heard. It was something about the soldiers, but she hadn't really understood it.

Pauline reached into the cupboard and dragged out a brown teapot, two pale-green cups with matching saucers and a wooden tray with a picture of two bright-yellow birds painted on it. Then she got out a small milk jug, and taking off the cover – a circular cloth, held down with small red beads spaced evenly around the edge – she sniffed at the contents and swirled the liquid around. Finally, she added a matching sugar bowl to the tray and scraped the tiny amount of sugar sticking to the sides back down into the bowl.

‘What are you doing, girls?' Miss Conway called from the classroom door. ‘How long does it take to make a cup of tea? In here now, Pauline, please. Ruby, take in the tea and then come over to the hall, and be quick about it!'

‘My mam's going to be mad if I'm not home soon,' Pauline said, sprinkling the tea leaves from a black-and-gold tea caddy into the pot.

Ruby couldn't knock at the partly open door because she had the tray in her hands. As she hesitated, deciding if it would be better to take the tray back to the caretaker's room and then to knock, or if she should put the tray down on the stone floor, she heard the captain's voice.

‘… or limited access. One town, one colour. The town nearest each camp limited to blacks or whites. The solution to the problems with the Christmas celebrations … Though, I suppose we can't ask him to limit attendance at church services. What do you think?'

Mrs Grey, who was sitting at the table, picked up her pen. ‘So to recap,' she said. ‘Separate entertainment. Advice, unofficially, through church groups and the WRVS, about the risk of disease, and local shopkeepers to be told not to encourage them … Ah, there you are,' she said, getting up from the table and opening the door wide. ‘Good girl.'

Ruby put the tray down. ‘Shall I pour, madam?' she asked.

‘No, dear,' Mrs Grey said, giving Ruby one of her prettiest smiles. ‘Off you go. Ruby is such a clever girl, Captain. Not only can she play and act beautifully, she can also magic cups of tea out of thin air. Thank you, Ruby. The captain and I will help ourselves.'

When Ruby left the school building, the fading light
had turned the church into a greying hulk against the pale-gold sky. As she reached the yard the infants used as their playground, a truck pulled in through the gates. She could see Bo behind the wheel. She waved and slipped inside the hall.

‘That was Ruby,' Sadie said. ‘She could have stopped and given us a hand. Bet that miserable old bat of a teacher has her running errands.'

‘Before you start handing that stuff down,' Johnny Fin said, as he and Con jumped down from the truck, ‘let's get organised. Is it all going in the hall, Sadie?'

‘No. Some's goin' in the church, for the crib and the altar, but most of it has to go in here. I hope nobody asks how we got it.'

‘I'll say it was off a well-wisher.'

‘An' who's that?'

‘M-m-m-me,' he laughed. ‘I-I-I cut it down, so it's from me.'

With Bo and Lou's help, Sadie dragged the branches of holly and greenery off the back of the truck into two piles.

‘That lot's for the church,' she said. ‘You can help yourself to some of it. The rest is for the hall, and we'll need the stepladders and some nails.'

‘Steps is in the vestry,' Johnny said. ‘I was using 'em during the week. Nails is there as well. If you lads come with me, we'll bring the steps and nails and we'll bring the Christmas tree in off the lorry. If you climb down, I'll pass some of this stuff, and Lou can help you to start carryin' it in.'

As Sadie struggled to get the branches of holly through the door, the children came pushing out.

‘You packing up?' she asked.

‘Yep, she's sent us home, at last,' Pauline said. ‘She's got Ruby putting furniture back.'

When they staggered into the hall, Miss Conway looked up from the piano, where she was sorting through the sheet music.

‘We've brought some greenery for trimming up,' Sadie said.

‘Well, you can't do it now. I'm about to leave, and there's nobody to lock up.'

‘That's all right, I'll do that,' she replied. ‘I know how.'

‘But I can't just leave the key with just anyone … Ah, here's Mrs Grey. I didn't realise you were staying to supervise the festive decorations, Diana.'

‘I shan't be. What lovely greenery. Father O'Flynn is on his way over and he's agreed to stay and supervise. We've just finished our meeting. Here he is now with Captain Leary. I really must be going. Doctor Grey will be home shortly.'

‘Can I offer you a lift, Diana?' Captain Leary asked. ‘And Miss Conway, of course. I have to get back to camp, but I'd be happy to drop both you ladies off at your homes.'

‘That would be most kind. I must admit, I'm feeling quite exhausted.'

‘That's very kind of you, Captain,' Miss Conway said. ‘I'll go and collect my things from my classroom.'

‘It will be a pleasure, ma'am. We'll wait for you in the jeep. I'm sorry I have to leave, Father,' Captain Leary said. ‘I could ask for a detail to be sent over to help with the heavy work.'

‘No. Thank you for the thought, but as you can see,
I have plenty of helpers to put the decorations up in the hall.'

‘Indeed, Father. Thank you, again, for your generous invitation to my men. I'm sure your efforts will be appreciated, ladies,' he said, smiling at Lou and Sadie. ‘My, you have been busy.'

‘Oh, this is only part of it,' Sadie said. ‘There's some to go up in the church as well.'

As Captain Leary and Mrs Grey turned to leave, the door opened. Bo and Holt staggered in carrying the stepladder, followed by Con and Johnny Fin with the fir tree Johnny had cut down for them. For a moment, the group hesitated, standing awkwardly with the ladder swaying above their heads. Then Bo nodded to the officer and he and Holt carried the heavy wooden ladder over to the wall. Captain Leary didn't wait for an explanation, or for a formal recognition of his status, and in the darkening room, they heard the sound of his jeep as he rode back along the road.

‘Where's he from?' Bo asked.

‘That's Captain Leary,' Father O'Flynn said.

‘White camp,' Bo said, opening the steps and testing their stability.

‘I told you, Father,' Sadie said, ‘if we could have our dance, I'd get you all the greenery you wanted. You should see how much there is for the church, and Johnny's got a lot as well. No doubt, there'll be holly and mistletoe all over the pubs. Come on, let's get on with it. I've got all sorts of ideas and I've got some wire from Henry's shed. What we really need is some hooks. He claimed he didn't have any. Will you lads get the rest
of the stuff out of the truck? Ruby, love, put them chairs down and help Lou with the blinds, and then we can put the lights on.'

‘Sadie,' Father O'Flynn said, sitting down heavily on the piano stool. ‘There might be problems … about the dance. There might be difficulties about inviting the black troops …'

‘What?'

‘Mrs Grey tells me there have been concerns. The police and the authorities … There's been trouble in town, and it's not their custom … They – Captain Leary and Mrs Grey – they don't want them to be invited.'

‘Whose church is it? You tell them you'll not—'

‘Sadie, I'm your priest.'

‘Sorry, Father, but—'

‘I have the interests of all my parishioners to consider. The children are going to his camp, and it was suggested that his men come back here, as an appreciation—'

‘Well they can, but so can the lads from—'

‘No. They don't mix. It's how they are in their own country … There are very few contacts between black and white GIs.'

‘It's not how we are.'

‘They are our guests. The feeling is that we should … fit in.'

‘You're trying to fit in with the doctor's stuck-up wife and the Prendergasts. I bet they have something to do with it. There's some folk think the war's run for them. Never been so important. In charge of everything. The lads have helped in the village. Ask anybody.'

Ruby put down the stack of infants' chairs she was
carrying and sat down on one of them next to the window. Her knees were trembling. She remembered that Mr Prendergast had said something about dealing with the black troops the day Captains Leary and O'Donal came to tea. She'd been excited about serving, getting everything right. Then later, when she'd tried to hear what they were planning about the dances, Mrs Grey had caught her and sent her away. At the time, she hadn't understood what she'd heard, although she knew all about what had happened with John Bardley's tractor and the MPs.

In the dark hall, her nose filled with the smell of the dusty curtains, but in her imagination, Ruby was in the porch at Doctor Grey's. The meeting had finished, and the two American officers were leaving. Mrs Grey was smiling; her hair had turned to silver in the lamplight. As Captain Leary pulled on his gloves, he'd turned to her and said, ‘Would you go tell my boy we're ready to go.' At first she hadn't understood, but then Mrs Grey had said sharply, ‘Ruby, go and get the captain's driver.' And then she'd realised that he'd meant Michael.

She pushed her body against the grubby curtains, hoping that Sadie wouldn't be angry and want to know why she hadn't told her what had been said at the tea party. When the door to the church hall banged open again it made her jump, and across the dark hall, she saw Bo and Con staggering in under an unstable pile of greenery.

‘I thought you would have started already,' Bo said. ‘Is there something wrong with the lights?'

No one answered. Then Sadie took hold of Con's
arm and pulled him over to the piano stool where Father O'Flynn was sitting.

‘No there isn't,' she said. ‘Bo, put that light on. Look at him,' she said, turning Con's swollen face towards the priest.

‘Sadie, you are to respect my cloth, if not me.'

‘Never mind that. Look at him. That's your white soldiers, three of 'em, and he's just a kid. Well, you can forget your bloody greenery. Put it up yourself. Ruby, leave them tables and chairs. He can put them away himself as well. There'll be no dance. Not for you,' she said, looking over at Bo. ‘That captain, he said thank you for inviting his men, and they're white GIs. You've agreed with them. You're goin' to do what they say. It's not fair. They don't come to our shops and pubs and help our old folk chop firewood like these lads do.'

‘Yes, I have made my decision, Sadie,' Father O'Flynn said. ‘The white GIs will be invited by the church … as Christians, as Catholics … The church has a responsibility. Pastoral care. Let me finish. The men have a right to worship at Christmas and be offered the friendship of fellow Christians. I will contact Father Basil. His church is the nearest to Captain Leary's camp, and if he agrees to invite the white GIs there … Now, do you have something to say to me?'

In the starkly lit hall, Sadie bowed her head, but when she spoke her voice still sounded angry.

‘I'm sorry,' she said. ‘I should have—'

‘Yes, you should, and if I didn't need you to put up my greenery, I'd throw you out now. Still, I can think of a better penance. You can do the crib in the church, as well as decorate this place.'

‘I'm sorry. I was … Will you get in trouble? The Prendergasts and Mrs Grey …'

‘Probably so, probably so.'

‘Well, thank you.'

‘It's not for you, Miss Sadie, pretty though you are,' the old priest said, getting up from the stool and tweaking Sadie's flushed cheek between his fat fingers. ‘It's for myself. That I can look at myself and tell the Lord I did what I thought was right. That the good captain heard only what he chose to hear is no fault of mine. Now, I'm away to my supper. My housekeeper will bring something for yourselves, and when you have done, I'll be at the Railway Inn, waiting for you to buy me a drink or two to soothe my pride and steel me against the onslaught of the Prendergasts.'