Under the Apple Tree (49 page)

a baby whose father’s never coming home. As for those folk

who look down their noses and cross the street when they

see you coming, well, all I can say is, good luck to ‘em and it makes more room on the pavements for the rest of us!’

Everyone else laughed. Judy looked at them and opened

her mouth in exasperation, but Polly cut in swiftly. Tm

sorry, Judy, I can’t write it all down. We’re just saying we’ll do all we can to help Jeanie, that’s all.’

‘But you laughed,’ Judy said. ‘You all did. You made a

joke and everyone else laughed, and I don’t know what it

was. It’s the worst thing of all,’ she added, ‘not knowing

what jokes are. I never get anything to laugh at now.’

There was a brief silence. Then Polly wrote down some

words quickly and Judy read them and flushed with anger.

She bit her lip, and then sighed and nodded.

‘Sorry, Poll. You’re right, I’m getting sorry for myself.

And it’s Jean we’ve got to be thinking about.’ She turned to

Jean. ‘Look, I was wondering - if you want to go away,

maybe we could ask Mrs Sutton to have you for a while.

She’s our Sylvie’s foster-mother, out at Ashwood. I’ve just

come back from there and she’s ever so nice.’ She looked at

Polly. ‘What d’you think?’

‘Well, it’s an idea,’ Polly said. Cissie came in with the tea

and passed cups round. ‘Judy just suggested Jean might go

out to the Suttons’.’

‘I know, I heard her.’ Cissie sat down again. ‘But would

Mrs Sutton want her? Not that she’d be nasty at all,’ she

added quickly. ‘I mean, I haven’t met her myself but Judy

and Polly both say what a nice woman she is. But she’s

already taken our Judy in, and I don’t know that we could

ask her to take Jean. She’s not running a convalescent home,

after all. And she couldn’t do it for nothing. Where would the money come from to pay her?’

‘And Jean would have to sleep in with Sylvie,’ Polly

added dubiously. ‘She hasn’t got another spare room.’

Jean sipped her tea. She was looking better now, the

colour back in her cheeks, although her eyes were still

swollen. It would be a day or two before that went down,

Polly thought, even if she didn’t cry any more, and she

probably would. ‘What about your job?’ she asked suddenly.

‘Do they know why you haven’t gone in to work today?’

Jean nodded. ‘Well, they know about Terry, of course,

because that’s where I was when Mr and Mrs Taylor came

to tell me. And I think Miss Anstruther must have realised,

when I fainted. She’s passed one or two remarks lately about

my figure. I needed a new black frock for working in the

shop, and I had to have a bigger size. She’s been putting two

and two together for a week or two now, I think.’

‘What will she do? Will she let you go on working there?’

‘I don’t know,’ Jean said miserably. ‘She might if I was in

the office or the stores, but I don’t know about serving the

public. It gives the shop a bad name, see.’

‘Perhaps she’ll let you change over to something else.’

‘But I couldn’t work in the stores because of lifting

things,’ Jean pointed out. ‘And I don’t know anything about

office work. I can’t type, and I don’t understand invoices and

they’re not going to teach me, are they, not when they

know I’ll have to leave soon anyway.’

‘But you’re going to need a job afterwards,’ Polly said.

‘Will she take you back then?’

‘I don’t know,’ Jean said again. ‘And anyway, I’ll have the

baby then, won’t I? I don’t know what I’ll be able to do.’

They gazed at her, beginning to realise the difficulties of

her situation. Then Judy was struck by an idea.

‘But you’ll be eligible for evacuation! If you’ve got a baby,

you can go out to the country. You can go to Ashwood, if

there’s anyone who can take you in, and Mrs Sutton will

help look after you, and you can see Sylvie too. I know you’ve still got to pay the billeting money,’ she added

doubtfully, ‘but can’t you get National Assistance or

something?’ She looked at Polly. ‘They’ll know at the office,

won’t they?’

‘Of course they will. And even if there isn’t anything

official, the WVS will help. It’s what we’re for. One of the

things we’re for, anyway. Look, I’m going in tomorrow, I’ll

find out whatever I can and come straight round to your

house to tell you, Jean. That’s if it’ll be all right to do that,’

she added, remembering Mrs Foster’s attitude.

‘It’ll be all right,’ Jean said. ‘I still live there, after all. At least, I suppose I do.’ Her mouth creased. ‘I don’t think Dad

will let Mam turn me out that easy.’

‘Poor Jean,’ Cissie said after she had gone. ‘It’s only when

you start to think about it that you realise what a terrible

position she’s in. In a lot of ways, it’d be easier for her to

give the baby away and start afresh.’

‘And could you have done that?’ Polly demanded. ‘Given

Judy or Terry away, just because it wasn’t convenient to

have them? I know I wouldn’t ever have parted with my

Sylvie, no matter what it cost to keep her. And now I’ve had

to part with her anyway,’ she added sadly, thinking of the

months it had been since Sylvie had lived at home and

wondering how many more months, perhaps even years, it

would be before she could return. ‘But at least she’s still

mine.’

Cissie glanced at Judy and her eyes filled with tears.

‘You’re right, Polly. I know it would have torn me to bits to

let my babies go. But this is different, isn’t it? We didn’t

have the problems Jeanie’s got.’

‘It’d still hurt her just as much,’ Polly said. ‘Maybe even

more.’

They were silent for a while. Cissie gathered up the cups

and took them out to the scullery. Judy joined her there and

said, ‘I’ll do these, Mum, and then get the supper ready.

You go in with the others. You’ve got a lot to talk about and I’m not much use at that, the way I am.’

‘Judy, don’t talk like that! Of course you’re useful. Why,

it was you who suggested Jean could be evacuated.’ But

Cissie knew that Judy was right. It was too difficult to

include her in discussions between several people, and you

couldn’t write down everything. She laid her hand on her

daughter’s arm. ‘I know how hard this is for you, love,’ she

said, speaking slowly. ‘It’s horrible for you. I just wish there was something we could do about it.’

Judy gave her a wry smile. ‘Well, the doctor said it might

come back all of a sudden, so perhaps it will. She said a

sudden loud noise might do it — or a shock — or just nothing

at all. I might wake up one morning and be able to hear all

the rude things you’re saying about me!’

Cissie laughed, even though she felt more like crying - a

sensation that was becoming all too familiar these days - and

went back to the others. Polly and Alice were discussing the

possibility of Jean’s being evacuated, while Dick listened.

He was looking grey again, Cissie noticed, and breathing as

if it hurt.

‘Are you all right?’ she asked, and he nodded impatiently.

She folded her lips and made up her mind to keep an eye on

him. The last thing they wanted now was for Dick to be ill

again. They had quite enough on their plates, without that.

‘Well then,’ she said, sitting on one of the straight-backed

dining chairs and looking around the room. ‘Let’s start

making plans. We’re going to have a new baby in the family,

and I for one want to make sure we’re ready to welcome the

poor little mite as we should!’

When Polly arrived at the Royal Beach next morning, she

went straight to the Lady Mayoress’s office and asked to

speak to her. The Mayoress was busy with a list of all the

personnel of HMS Hood, trying to arrange visits to all the

families who lived in Portsmouth, but she stopped what she

was doing to listen to Polly’s story.

‘Jean knows they did wrong,’ Polly finished. ‘But I think

it’s understandable, madam, and I don’t suppose they’re the

only ones, not by a long chalk. It was just Jean’s bad luck to

get caught.’

The Mayoress nodded. ‘Poor child. She must be in a

terrible state, hardly able to grieve properly over losing her

sweetheart because of the trouble she’s in. Well, it won’t

help anyone to be judgemental over it, Polly. What we have

to do now is think how best to help her. You say she’s

determined to keep the baby?’

‘Yes, madam, and we want to help her. It’s our Terry’s

baby, you see - none of us wants it to go to strangers.’

‘You realise that the baby itself will face difficulties as it

grows up? There’s a terrible stigma to being illegitimate.’

‘I know, madam.’ Polly flushed at the use of the word

they had all avoided. ‘But there’s going to be such a lot of

kiddies without fathers, we thought perhaps after a while

nobody will think too much of it. I mean, they’ll just think

he was lost in the war. As he was. And Jeanie could call

herself Mrs, couldn’t she? It’s not against the law, is it?’

‘No, although she couldn’t use it on legal documents.

Well, those are problems for the future. So long as you’re all

aware of them.’ The Mayoress tapped her teeth thoughtfully

with her pencil. ‘Now, you’ve suggested the idea of

evacuation. I think that would be a good idea, if only for the

girl’s own safety and that of her child. And she’ll certainly

be eligible.’

‘It’s money that’s the problem,’ Polly ventured. ‘She

doesn’t think she’ll be able to keep her job at the Landport,

you see, and we haven’t got much to spare. I don’t know

about her own family, but if Mrs Foster isn’t willing to

help…’

‘I expect she’ll come round,’ the Mayoress said. ‘Mothers

usually do, especially once the baby’s born. It’s fathers who

are usually the problem. But I think we can find some help

for her in one of our funds, and I’m sure she’ll be entitled to National Assistance. The people to ask about that are the

Citizens’ Advice Bureau. The Misses Kelly will know,

although I believe they’re snowed under with requests for

help.’ She sighed. ‘One Bureau in a city that needs at least

five! If only we could have a little respite - just time to get ourselves properly organised. We seem to lurch from one

crisis to another.’

Polly had heard a great many complaints about this. The

townspeople of Portsmouth were forever grumbling about

the Council offices being ‘all the way out at Southsea’ and

the Citizens’ Advice Bureau practically unfindable. They

seemed to have no idea how difficult it was to run a city in

wartime, especially one that had been bombed as heavily as

Portsmouth. You never knew what was going to happen

next, what new situation would face you, what needs there

would be. She thought of the plans the authorities had made

to treat the injured and bury the dead — hundreds of

thousands of them - when what they should have been

planning was how to help the homeless. But how could they

have known that? There had never been a war like this in

the entire history of the world. No country had been

subjected to these massive and sustained air raids. Nobody

had known what the effects would be.

‘Nobody knew there was going to be a war,’ she said,

trying to comfort the other woman. ‘Nobody knew we were

going to have to do all this.’

‘But we should have done! We were warned enough. Mr

Churchill himself tried to warn us, and what happened? He

was laughed at. Treated with scorn. Now he’s leading us,

and we all realise at last what a great leader he is - but we

could have lost him, you know, Polly. We could have

thrown away the only man who seems able to reach the

people, to touch our hearts and to give us strength to carry

on.’

She sighed again, her face creased with worry, and then

seemed to pull herself physically together. With a brisk lift

of her head, she looked up at Polly and said, ‘Well, we must

get on. We’ll do whatever we can to help your brother’s

fiancee. And we have a lot of other tasks this morning too,

but before you go, tell me about Judy. How is she now?’

‘I’m not sure really,’ Polly said, pausing in the doorway.

‘She came home as soon as we told her about Terry, of

course. I think it did her good, being in the country - she

looks a lot better - but she still can’t hear anything much,

and it’s making her so miserable. She feels left out of

everything. She’s been working out there though, making

camouflage, and collecting moss for soldiers. It heals their

wounds, apparently. I’m not sure I’d want a lump of dirty moss slapped on a cut, mind you, but they say it really helps to heal them.’

‘Well, I’m sure it will be good for her, working out in the fresh air. When is she going back?’

‘Oh, she’s not. She wants to stay at home now. She says

she’d like to come back to work if you’ll have her.’

‘Have her? I’ll be delighted. Tell her to come in as soon

as she feels ready and we’ll find work for her to do. And

now,’ the Mayoress drew a pile of papers towards her ‘I really must attend to these. Thank you for coming in, Polly.’