The Bells of Bow (38 page)

Maudie stood up. ‘Wait,’ she said, pulling on her coat. ‘I’ll go with you.’

Nellie pointed at Terry. ‘Youngster like you can run fast. D’you think you can go and see if Dr Land’s in?’

Terry looked pleased to be included in the excitement; he liked the idea of being able to do something for Evie, but he knew what his mum was like. He glanced over to her for permission.

Blanche nodded. ‘Go on.’

‘And tell him I’m paying,’ added Nellie. She held out her hand to Jim who immediately dug in his pocket. ‘And you make sure yer watch yerself. If it’s too bad out there, don’t take no silly risks.’

Alice surprised everyone by saying to her grandson, ‘You go with him, Micky. Keep an eye on him.’ She looked round at the shocked faces. ‘Well, it’s a baby involved, ain’t it?’

Terry and Micky disappeared along Grove Road in search of Dr Land, while Babs, Blanche and Maudie ran along Darnfield Street as fast as their legs would carry them, the metallic report of their shoes hitting the road sounding clear and sharp in the cold night air. But that sound could hardly compete with the droning of planes overhead, the staccato clatter of anti-aircraft guns coming from Victoria Park or with the blood pulsing in their ears.

‘Door’s on the jar,’ Babs gasped, shoving it open to let the other two inside. ‘Front bedroom.’

‘Thank gawd yer back,’ they heard Evie wail as they scrambled up the stairs. ‘I thought yer’d left me.’

‘I wouldn’t leave yer.’ Babs sat on the side of the bed and took Evie’s hand.

Blanche stood at the end of the bed. ‘Right, let’s see what’s going on here then,’ she said brightly, peeling off her coat.

‘I’m being ripped apart,’ Eve panted, digging her nails into Babs’s palm. ‘That’s what’s going on.’ She twisted her head sideways. ‘I wish Dad was here,’ she wailed.

‘Don’t think he’d be much use,’ Blanche said with a little laugh as she rolled up her sleeves ready for action.

‘I don’t think I’m going to be much use either,’ said Maudie from the doorway.

‘Yer can boil a kettle, can’t yer?’ Blanche asked over her shoulder.

Evie looked horrified. ‘What d’yer want boiling water for?’

Blanche went round the side of the bed and stroked Evie’s forehead. ‘To make us all a cuppa tea, yer daft hap’orth.’

‘I’ll be two ticks,’ said Maudie, glad to have a job.

‘Bring that lamp over here, Babs. Have yer got a clock?’ She looked down at Evie. Her hair was soaked with sweat and her lips were drawn back over her teeth as she panted through another contraction. ‘Don’t suppose yer’ve been timing ’em or nothing, have yer?’

Babs shook her head and answered for her twin. ‘I didn’t think.’

Blanche smiled up at Babs. ‘Don’t fret. We’ll get by. And anyway, this is all good practice for me. My Ruby’s due next month. Yer should see her Davey’s letters, he’s been getting himself in a right state. Made me promise on me life to be there with her. As if I wouldn’t.’

Blanche timed three contractions. They were close together, very close.

She looked into Evie’s eyes; there was real terror in them. ‘Got any draw sheets ready?’ she asked, being careful to keep a cheery lift in her voice.

‘Draw sheets?’ Babs said blankly.

Evie looked imploringly at her sister, and then her face crumpled in despair. ‘I ain’t got nothing, Blanche. I didn’t think this was ever really gonna happen.’ She started sobbing. ‘I thought I’d wake up and it’d all be gone away.’

‘Yer silly little thing,’ Blanche said softly, stroking her hand. She felt choked for Evie, she looked so scared. She was no longer the noisy, boisterous young woman who’d stand up to anyone and do anything for a laugh, but a frightened little girl. ‘Don’t you worry yerself. We can make do for sheets.’

Maudie came back into the bedroom carrying a tin tray laden with a teapot, cups and milk. ‘I’ve got plenty of linen indoors,’ she offered, setting the tea things on the dressing table.

‘Good.’ Blanche was now all calm efficiency. ‘And if yer’ve got any brown paper, fetch that and all. Or newspaper if yer ain’t.’

Evie groaned again.

Babs gnawed at her bottom lip as she felt herself getting close to panic.

As Maudie put her coat back on, they all looked up at the ceiling as the sound of an aircraft engine grew louder and closer.

‘One of ours,’ said Blanche confidently.

‘I don’t like it, Blanche,’ Evie shouted. She grasped the sides of the mattress, her knuckles white with the strain. ‘Stop it hurting me. Please.’

‘Ssshh,’ Blanche soothed her. ‘You wait till it’s born, yer won’t remember none of this. How yer feel for ’em takes all this away.’

Blanche continued chatting, trying to keep Babs’s and Evie’s spirits up, trying to remain calm while Babs grew paler by the minute and Evie became more and more distressed.

She soaked a flannel in a basin of cold water and put it gently on Evie’s sweat-soaked forehead. ‘They kind of become part of yer, kids. I miss my Lennie so much, yer know. Little sweetheart, he is. But that’s what he had his little heart set on, going back to Cornwall. So I couldn’t disappoint him, could I? Mind, bit of luck our Terry never got it in his head to go back there with him. Dunno what I’d have done. He’s running that stall with Micky a treat, he is. Just like a proper little man.’ She wrung the flannel out and resoaked it. ‘He’s always had an eye for you twins, yer know that Terry, young as he is.’ She laughed. ‘But then, what feller ain’t?’

Evie’s face twisted in pain.

‘And my Archie, well, I miss him more than I can begin to tell yer. He writes regular but, I don’t know, yer still worry about what might happen.’

A loud crash came from somewhere nearby. The dressing table shuddered and a sprinkling of plaster fell from the ceiling onto the bed.

‘Listen to them bombs.’

Blanche couldn’t quite keep the edge of fear from her voice. ‘Maybe we should get you downstairs, darling.’

Evie screamed, then she began whimpering softly to herself; it was the sound of a frightened child. ‘I don’t wanna have it, Blanche. Blanche. Please. Help me.’ She thrashed her head from side to side. ‘Please. Please, make it stop.’

Blanche grabbed her hands. ‘It’s too late for that, darling.’

Babs looked ready to bolt as Evie screamed again.

‘All right, all right.’ Blanche’s voice came in gasps from the pain of Evie sinking her nails into her arm. ‘Now, calm down. There’s a good girl.’ Blanche looked over her shoulder at Babs. ‘Tell yer what,’ she said, desperately trying to keep smiling. ‘I’m glad we never got them Anderson shelters down Darnfield. When they first come out, I was like Alice, right jealous. Wanted one for the kids, see. But now I’ve heard how they flood right out in this bad weather. Can you imagine? Horrible. All that mud. We’re better off in the Drum, I’m telling yer.’

As she heard Maudie coming up the stairs, Blanche could have wept with relief that she was back – someone who wasn’t panicking and who could give her a bit of help was just what she needed. But when Maudie appeared in the doorway, Blanche’s relief melted away.

‘Whatever’s up, Maud? Yer look like yer’ve seen a ghost.’

‘This is all I’ve got.’ Maudie sounded stunned as she put a few sheets of paper, some big white towels and a set of sheets on the end of the bed. She looked round at Babs and then back to Blanche and Evie. ‘I had something for you, Eve. Something I’d been saving for today. A lovely lace nightgown, it was.’

‘Here, sit down.’ Blanche stood up and put her arm round Maudie and guided her to the dressing table stool. ‘Yer place ain’t been hit, has it?’

‘No. It’s not that.’ Maudie shook her head sadly. ‘The Dintons, my lodgers. When I got back they’d disappeared. Been right though my wardrobe. Taken all the things that I kept in there. A whole pile of stuff. Things that I’ll never be able to replace.’ She swallowed back her tears. ‘And the nightgown. Someone bought it for me years ago. It was lovely, Eve. And it was for you.’

‘Yer know what they can do with the sodding nightgown, don’t yer?’ panted Evie. Her hair was stuck flat to her head, and her eyes were closed tight with pain. ‘Same thing they can do with all sodding men. I hate bloody men. All of ’em. Every single, sodding rotten one of ’em. They can—’ She let out an ear-piercing shriek. Her fingers dug deep into the mattress.

Blanche bent over her. ‘Come on now, Eve,’ she said briskly, knowing she had to keep her going, that she mustn’t let her get hysterical. ‘Yer nearly there. Just a few more pushes.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Don’t be silly. Come on,’ she encouraged her. ‘Just get on with it. Soon be over.’

Evie puffed and swore and grunted and cursed all men. Then she gave one almighty yell.

Blanche bent over her and then nodded to Maud to hand her the scissors.

‘Hello, sweetheart.’ Blanche no longer sounded cool and capable – she was cooing in a tone of voice that Maud knew could mean only one thing. ‘Let’s just snip this for yer, shall we? Then we’re in business, ain’t we? Yes, we are.’

When she straightened up, Blanche had a baby in her arms.

Blanche looked down into the tiny infant’s screwed up little face. ‘Right in the middle of all these bombs and you popped out, all perfect and beautiful, and right here in the front bedroom of yer grandad’s house. Just wait till he sees you, you little angel.’

Babs stood there with her mouth open.

Maudie got up and rushed round to the head of the bed and plumped the pillows, making Evie as comfortable as she could, all thoughts of the Dintons banished from her mind. Like Babs, she was on the verge of tears.

Evie just looked dazed and exhausted.

The baby let out a lusty, lung-stretching screech as Blanche wiped its eyes, nose and mouth with a flannel. ‘March the ninth, nineteen forty-one,’ she said softly. ‘It’s your birthday today, darling. Yes, it is. Aw, you’re so beautiful. Look at them little fingers and toes.’

Blanche carefully wrapped the baby in one of Maudie’s towels and handed it to Evie. ‘There y’are, darling. Yer’ve got a lovely little girl.’

Evie gingerly took the child in her arms. ‘Betty,’ she said, her voice hoarse from her exertions. She looked up through puffy, bloodshot eyes. ‘After Betty Grable.’

Babs didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

A loud knocking made them all look up.

Maudie leant forward to get a closer look at the baby then said, ‘I’ll go down and see who it is.’ She was no longer bothering to hold back her tears. ‘And I’ll make some more tea.’

Evie held the baby out for Blanche to take. ‘Try and straighten me up a bit, Babs,’ she said urgently. ‘It might be Albie.’

Blanche took Betty reluctantly. ‘Yer should be putting her to yer breast, yer know, to get the milk going.’

Evie looked up at Blanche as though she’d taken leave of her senses. ‘It might be Albie, Blanche.’

Babs looked across the bed to Blanche, willing her to say something.

‘I don’t think so, Eve,’ Blanche said. ‘Albie won’t know yet, will he?’ She put the baby over her shoulder and patted its back. ‘It’s probably Dr Land, Terry and Micky went for him.’

Eve sank back into the pillows and closed her eyes. She made no attempt to take the baby back from Blanche.

Someone rapped on the frame of the bedroom door.

‘Come in,’ Babs said and did her best to shift out of the way in the already crowded room.

Dr Land came in and sat on the edge of the bed. He smiled down at Evie. ‘You’re Evie? Babs?’

‘She’s Evie,’ said Babs.

Dr Land nodded. ‘So, Evie. How did you do?’

‘How d’yer think?’ Evie said. She had a sad, distant look about her.

Blanche laughed pleasantly. ‘It was fine, Doctor. I only had to catch the little mite.’

Evie said nothing.

‘Evie, would you like them to wait outside while I check you over?’

Evie shrugged noncommittally. ‘They can stay if they like.’

‘We’ll go if yer prefer,’ Blanche said kindly. ‘Leave you to a bit of privacy, eh? Coming, Babs?’

‘Don’t go. Please.’ There was panic in Evie’s voice. ‘I don’t wanna be by meself.’

Blanche grinned at Dr Land. ‘Yer’ll regret that in a day or two. You wait, yer’ll be willing to do anything for a bit of peace. Why don’t yer make the most of it?’

‘I don’t wanna “bit of peace”.’ Evie sounded hard. ‘I don’t wanna be quiet. I’m fed up with being quiet.’

‘All right, Eve,’ Babs reassured her. ‘We’ll stay here with yer.’

While Dr Land got on with his examination, Blanche handed Babs the baby, knelt down on the floor and set about improvising a cot from one of the dressing table drawers and the rest of Maudie’s towels.

Babs sat down on the stool in front of the dressing table. She looked at the reflection of herself holding the baby, her niece, Albie Denham’s daughter. ‘Should I send a note round for Albie, Eve?’ she asked.

‘Terry’ll go, if yer like,’ Blanche said, lifting her head. ‘If yer want him to, that is, Eve.’

‘Yeah, send him a note, Babs. But to the flat. Not round to his mum’s. I don’t want that old cow Queenie coming round.’

Dr Land frowned. Albie? Queenie? Those names were familiar.

Maudie stood in the doorway with another tray of tea. ‘I’ll just bring this in.’

‘I mean it, Babs, I don’t want that old bag near me.’

‘It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you, Evie, or your twin.’ Dr Land said. ‘I don’t even know your married name.’

‘Denham,’ Evie said flatly. ‘Mrs Albie Denham.’

Dr Land stood up and busied himself with washing his hands in the basin on the bedside table. He wasn’t a native East Ender but, like anyone who’d lived there for any time at all, he had learned to mind his own business and not to offer any opinions about people’s way of life. And he knew all about the Denhams and certainly didn’t fancy getting involved in their family squabbles. He’d make sure the girl and baby were all right – he wouldn’t want to upset anyone – then he’d be off. As soon as possible.

‘Promise me, Babs,’ Evie pleaded. ‘Keep her away. All she wants to do is poison Albie against me.’

The baby started crying.

‘Now, you have to calm down,’ Dr Land said firmly. ‘You’re absolutely fine, young lady but if you start getting yourself all worked up, you won’t be able to feed her. And that’s what she wants now. She’s hungry.’