Welcome Home (9 page)

‘I’ll write,’ Beth promised, giving each member of her family a swift hug, and Lil and Irene too, but it was Archie who held her just a little longer than the rest and who
whispered in her ear. ‘Take care of yourself, lass, and come back to us.’

Beth hadn’t replied but she’d squeezed him tightly and then turned away quickly and boarded the train. As it left the station and began to gather speed, people began to drift away,
but Archie refused to move until the train was out of sight.

‘Things are getting serious in France, you know, Edie,’ Archie said early in May, prodding his finger at the newspaper he was reading. ‘Holland and Belgium
have been invaded. I don’t think it will be long before they fall and then I reckon poor old France will be next.’

‘What?’ Edie had stared at him, wide-eyed. ‘But – but Laurence is over there.’

‘I know.’

‘Are they bringing our lads back home, then?’

Archie had been about to say, ‘Of course not; they’ll stay and fight to the bitter end’, but the words remained unspoken. He couldn’t say that to Edie. Instead he said
mildly, ‘Let’s hope so, love.’ Then he added, ‘But there’s one bit of brighter news. Mr Churchill’s become Prime Minister. We’ll be all right with him at
the helm.’

Again he didn’t say that in the report he was reading of the new Prime Minister’s speech to the House, all Winston Churchill could promise was ‘blood, toil, tears and
sweat’.

Defeat, it seemed, was not a word that was in Mr Churchill’s vocabulary.

When Archie returned to sea, Edie no longer read the newspapers or listened to the news bulletins on the wireless, so she didn’t hear when Holland and Belgium surrendered to the Nazis or
how the German army pushed on into France and surrounded the remnants of the British army at a place called Dunkirk, trapping them against the sea. Though Lil heard and trembled to think of
Laurence, she said nothing to Edie. But even Edie could not remain oblivious to Operation Dynamo at the end of the month, the unbelievable evacuation of over three hundred thousand troops from the
Dunkirk beaches.

‘It’s nothing short of a miracle,’ Jessie enthused when Edie and Lil arrived at the WVS centre and even Norma said, ‘I wish we were there. I’d love to be meeting
the soldiers coming ashore, giving them tea and blankets. Poor things.’ For a brief moment they saw a softer side to Norma.

‘Our colleagues in the area will be doing everything they can and we’re doing our bit, Norma,’ Jessie said, for once in agreement with Lil’s surly sister, ‘by
sending supplies, even if we can’t be there in person.’

Edie stood still, trying to close her ears to the talk buzzing around her; it was all about Dunkirk and when Jessie asked her, ‘Have you heard from Laurence?’ she shook her head,
turned and walked away.

‘Leave it, Jessie,’ Lil whispered. ‘She never wants to know news of any sort when Archie’s away. And he’s been away longer than normal this time. She’ll hear
soon enough if . . .’

Lil left the dreadful words hanging in the air.

The arrival of a telegram boy on his bicycle in the street struck fear into the hearts of all those who saw him. Jessie saw him as she walked towards the town centre to join
the queues and haggle with the shopkeepers over the rations. Norma saw him as, dressed in her WVS uniform, she walked along the street where her sister lived with the intention of calling on Lil to
see if she was helping out today. But when she saw the boy pedalling towards her, Norma carried on walking. Lil saw him as he slowed his bicycle, stopped and actually leaned it against the wall of
her house. Watching him from her front-room window, she saw him search in the bag he carried over his shoulder and pull out the telegram. Then, slowly, as if he already knew the contents, he
knocked on Edie’s front door.

‘Oh no,’ Lil whispered, her fingers covering her mouth. She turned and hurried through to the back room where Irene was ironing and Frank – still unable to find work –
was cleaning shoes. As she opened the door, they both looked towards her, seeing at once that something was wrong.

‘Frank – there’s a telegram boy just – just gone next door. To your mam’s.’

Frank stared at her for a moment and then, galvanized into action, flung down the shoe and the brush he was holding and ran out of the house, through both yards and in at the back door of his
former home. He only stopped when he saw the pitiful sight of his mother standing in the centre of the living room holding the telegram in her hand, too afraid to open it. Gently, Frank eased the
paper from her stiff fingers and tore it open. He stared down at it for a long time before he raised his eyes and said huskily, ‘Oh Mam, it’s Laurence. He was killed on the beach at
Dunkirk. It – it says a letter will follow.’

The colour drained from Edie’s face as Frank helped her to sit down in the easy chair by the fire. Despite its warmth, Edie began to shake. ‘Fetch – fetch Lil,’ she
gasped.

‘I’m here, duck,’ Lil spoke from the doorway. She had followed Frank and had been hovering in the scullery. Now she stepped into the living room and went to kneel at
Edie’s side to take her hand. Edie clung to it like a drowning person.

There was nothing Lil could say or do to lessen the pain for her friend, but she was there for her.

The promised letter arrived the following morning and gave a little more detail. ‘He was killed as he waited to get on board one of the little ships. The enemy were dive-bombing the
beaches,’ Frank explained to Lil, but Edie just sat beside the range staring at nothing. She didn’t weep or wail; in fact, she was eerily silent. She hardly seemed able to speak and Lil
stayed at her side all day and through the night until Archie was due home.

But Archie did not arrive on the day they’d expected him and when Lil read in the paper about all the ‘little ships’ that had gone across the Chanel, she began to worry even
more.

Frank went each night to the docks in the hope of meeting his father but when there was still no sign of Archie’s trawler, Frank went to the dock offices.

‘Mr Reeves,’ he asked politely of the man in charge, ‘have you heard any news of my father’s ship? He was due back three nights ago.’

Jack Reeves avoided meeting Frank’s steady gaze. ‘You’d best go to his employers’ offices. They’ll tell you.’

Frank stared at the man, a shaft of fear coursing through him. ‘You know something, don’t you?’

Jack shook his head. ‘I know where he is – or rather where he went – but I don’t know where he is right this minute, Frank. Like I say, go and ask at the owners’
offices.’

Frank knew most of the office employees of the owners of Archie’s trawler and he was pleased to see one of his former schoolmates behind the enquiry desk.

‘Luke, me dad’s trawler is late back. Have you any news?’

The young man glanced around him to make sure no one could overhear before he came round the desk and said quietly, ‘I’m not supposed to say too much, Frank, but you’re one of
us, so I can tell you. A lot of our ships have gone down to Sheerness and then across the Channel.’ He paused and then whispered, ‘You understand what I’m saying, don’t
you?’

The room around him seemed suddenly unsteady and Luke’s face swam before Frank’s eyes. He thought for one dreadful moment that he might pass out; a very unmanly thing to do in Frank
Kelsey’s book. But the news was shocking and disturbing. They’d just had news that Laurence had been killed on the beaches, were they now to hear that another member of their family had
perished trying to rescue the soldiers?

In a cracked, none-too-steady voice, Frank said, ‘I do, mate.’

‘The Admiralty issued appeals for skippers, engineers and crew of small craft and anyone with knowledge of coastal navigation.’

Hoarsely, Frank said, ‘And I suppose trawlers were an obvious choice. Weren’t they?’

Soberly, Luke nodded.

‘I didn’t hear anything, Luke. Me mam won’t listen to the news bulletins when me dad’s at sea.’ He paused, then frowned, ‘But he’s on a regular trip
– he won’t have . . .’ He stared at Luke. ‘Will he?’

‘He came back earlier than expected.’ Frank blinked and focussed on what Luke was saying. ‘You should have seen it on the docks that night, Frank, after the appeal. We were
inundated with volunteers. They were queuing out of the docks and down the street. The skippers were choosing their crews and men were jostling each other to be picked. Old men who shouldn’t
really have gone, but they skived the medical and joined the ships. It was a sight to see, Frank, I don’t mind telling you. Your dad got his usual crew, so he was lucky because they’ll
all work so well together and ships were leaving on every tide – dozens of them. For the first time in me life, Frank, I wished I’d been a fisherman and then I could have
gone.’

‘But he never came home.’ Frank was amazed. But then he realized; Archie wouldn’t have wanted his family to know what he was going to do.

‘Thanks for telling me,’ he said quietly. ‘Will you – will you come to the house yourself if – if there’s any news?’

‘I will, Frank,’ Luke promised solemnly. ‘But I’d keep it to yourself for the time being, if you can. The ships are on their way home as we speak. We’ll know soon
enough.’

‘Haven’t you heard by radio who’s coming back?’

Frank shook his head. ‘Use of ship-to-shore radio is restricted now. You know that.’

Frank nodded. ‘Of course. I’m – just not thinking straight.’

He turned to go, his heart heavy. The thought uppermost in his troubled mind was:
Whatever am I going to tell Mam?

As it happened, Frank was spared saying anything to his mother. Edie was so sunk in grief that she was unaware of the passage of time, even oblivious to the fact that Archie was late back. She
just sat, staring into space with Lil sitting beside her or trying to tempt her to eat. But Edie could eat nothing, though she did drink the endless cups of tea that Lil made.

Frank confided his fears for his father’s safety to his young wife. ‘But don’t say owt to your mam. She might feel she’s got to tell her. They don’t have any
secrets from each other.’

Irene sat down suddenly in a chair and put her hand protectively over her swelling belly. Now, her baby would never know its Uncle Laurence. Would it also not have either granddad? The thought
was unbearable.

Frank knelt at the side of her chair. ‘Are you all right, love? You’ve gone awfully white. Mebbe I shouldn’t have told you either. Let me get you a glass of water.’

‘I’m all right – honest. It – it was just the shock.’

‘If you’re sure, then I’d best get back to Mam. Just you rest now. Promise?’

Irene nodded, but when Frank left the house and she was alone, she let the tears flow, not only for Laurence, whom she’d loved as a brother, but also in her dread for Uncle Archie’s
safety.

When Frank stepped back into Edie’s living room, he saw Jessie sitting opposite her. He went to stand behind his mother’s chair. Jessie bit her lip, glanced up at Frank and then her
gaze came back to her sister’s face. ‘Does she know about – about Archie?’

Lil looked up sharply. ‘What about Archie?’

Behind his mother, Frank made urgent signals that Jessie should say no more, but whilst Lil was anxious to know what Jessie meant, Edie didn’t even seem to have understood.

‘Oh, nothing, nothing.’ But Lil was acutely aware that there was something and that Jessie, and possibly Frank, too, knew what it was. It was to do with Archie and the reason for his
late return, she was sure, but Lil, in her overriding concern for her dear friend, never considered that Archie could have been involved in what she thought of as the greatest rescue mission ever
undertaken.

Frank squinted through the darkness at a young woman standing in the shadows, her gaze fixed on the lock gates, watching the ships coming through. He had come again to the
docks, but there was still no news from the dock master. Frank hadn’t seen the girl before and he thought he knew all the pretty girls around here. Not that he could see much of her face
through the gloom, nor the colour of her hair, which was covered with a headscarf, but he could tell she was slim, her hands pushed deeply into the pocket of her mackintosh. He sidled over to
her.

‘You waiting for someone too?’

She jumped, startled by his voice. ‘Y-yes,’ she stammered. ‘I am waiting for – for my boyfriend. He is on a trawler, but it is late.’

Frank frowned uneasily. The girl had a strong foreign accent.

‘Oh aye,’ he said, deliberately sounding casual. ‘What ship’s he on?’

The girl laughed nervously. ‘I don’t know. He goes on a different one sometimes. I don’t know which one this time.’

The girl spoke very good English, but there was no hiding the accent.

‘You’re not from around here?’

She shook her head, avoiding his gaze. ‘I am Swiss,’ she told him hurriedly. Perhaps she was a little too eager to impart the information to convince him that she was no threat.
‘But I live here now. I am a freelance reporter for the local paper. That’s why I am here. There are several ships late back. Do you know where they have been?’

Frank opened his mouth, but somehow the words stuck in his throat. Whether it was because he didn’t want to tell anyone else before his mam knew or whether it was some instinct that made
him cautious, he couldn’t have said. All he knew was that he didn’t want to tell this girl. Her accent troubled him even though he told himself that she was a Swiss national; she
wasn’t the enemy. Instead, he forced himself to say, ‘I haven’t a clue. They’re all very secretive about where they fish now.’

He couldn’t see her expression but he heard her mutter, ‘I know’, and there was a resentful edge to her voice as she added, ‘it makes my job very difficult. I rely on
news for my livelihood.’

‘It must do,’ Frank murmured, but still he wasn’t going to tell her anything.

The evening high tide was just before ten and so it was very late when the first trawler limped into number one fish dock and moored at its berth. But tonight there would be no fish to unload
and Frank could see the lumpers standing in readiness even though they were already realizing they probably wouldn’t be wanted tonight. Frank stepped closer to the ship that had moored; it
wasn’t his father’s ship,
The Havelock
. He turned away but instead of going back to stand near the girl, he approached the group of lumpers and sought out his uncle who, of
course, knew exactly where the trawlers had been.