The Chilbury Ladies' Choir(89)

“It’s the war,” I replied. “It puts everyone on a different footing, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Venetia said quickly, with a small laugh. “It’s us women in charge now,” she said in more of her old cavalier style. “The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir will rule the world.”

Through all the pain as she cleaned my wounds, I found myself grinning, and through all the background noise and darkness surrounding us, I had a strange feeling that everything was going to be all right.





CHILBURY MANOR, CHILBURY, KENT.


Saturday, 10th August, 1940



Dear Henry, I could dance for joy as you have made me the happiest girl in all of England, comfy and warm in the knowledge that I am now your girl. When I remember this afternoon, after you left the Manor and I walked you home and got you out of that horrid temper in the little outhouse in the wood, I can’t imagine such happiness could truly be mine. And no matter what happens, I’ll know that you’re there thinking of me, waiting to be with me again once this silly war comes to an end.

So I’ve handed in my notice at Chilbury Manor, just as you said I was to do. I thought they’d ask what I meant to do next, but they didn’t seem bothered, which was just as well as I didn’t know how they’d react when I’d tell them that you and I were to be married. The Brigadier is so old-fashioned that he’d have a heart attack at the maid marrying one of the nobs. Now, that would be a sight!

I’m a bit unsure where I’ll go for now. I have only to stay my notice period, and then I’ll have to move. I have a good mind to ask your mother if I can come and live with her, as we are now together. I know she won’t like the idea of you marrying me, but she’ll have to get used to it. I thought maybe you could write her a letter, telling her about us and asking if I can stay.

That’s all for now, my love. I think of you all the time and our beautiful afternoon together. Please write soon.

All my love,

Elsie





LITCHFIELD HOSPITAL,

LITCHFIELD,

KENT.


Saturday, 10th August, 1940



Dear Clara,

I am lucky to be alive! Although I fear this may not be the case for much longer. I am terrified, Clara. Terrified, and unable to think what to do.

In walked the Brigadier at morning visiting time, frothing at the mouth like a poisonous toad. Dressed in his usual army uniform, his medals and paraphernalia showing the world who’s boss, his shoulders forward ready for a fight, he looked around the beds of worried women until he spotted me, even though I was half hiding beneath the blankets. Striding over to my bed, he stood towering over me seething with fury, his face reddish purple and the veins in his throat and temples blue and throbbing like sinewy snakes.

“What have you told Mrs. Tilling?” he roared at me. “I might have known you’d mess it all up, land us in trouble with your shoddy stupidity. I should never have trusted a woman.” He bent forward and leaned his fists on the bed, his face hovering just above mine, his breath like spoiled meat or some other animal flesh in a state of unrelenting decay.

“I didn’t tell her a thing, you stupid man,” I whispered loudly to him, spitting the words out with pent-up anger. “She ruddy well guessed.”

“How could she have guessed?” he shouted, standing back up and putting his hands on his hips, looking like a brutish dictator. “How could she have guessed unless you didn’t do the job properly?”

I offered him a meaningful look at the nurse, who was sitting at her desk taking a keen interest in our exchange.

“Hello, there.” I smiled at her cheerily, a small wave.

His voice lowered to a brutish whisper. “How could Mrs. Tilling have guessed if it weren’t for you leaving clues everywhere?”

“The girl baby is the spitting image of Venetia,” I said matter-of-factly. “The other baby looks like Hattie. The rest of the pieces just fell into place. A lucky guess.”

“She knows too much for it to be a guess.”

“She has no proof of anything, and there is no conceivable way she can get any unless one of us tells her.”

There was a pause, and he looked at his hands, pink and wiry, like some form of dried-out seafood, a shellfish crawled loose from its shell and left to crust over. Then he turned and sat on the bed with a defeated thump.

“She’s threatening me,” he said quietly.

“Bribery?” I asked softly.

“Nothing as base as that. Trust your rotten mind to leap to such conclusions!” he muttered angrily. “Exposure.” He looked out of the window, at the hefty clouds collecting as if there might be rain later. “Prison.”

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure we deny everything and admit nothing,” I said sharply. “No one has any proof. They’d have to get an admission from one of us. We have to stick together.” And, with this as my final conclusion, I turned to the nurse. “My companion is leaving now, and I need some help with my leg,” I said evenly, and she came round to see what I wanted in a most obedient manner.

He shot me a look of disgust, getting up briskly. “I can’t think of anything worse than being stuck with the likes of you. Just you wait until you’re out of here, Miss Paltry.” Then he added, all menacing, “There’ll be a proper discussion about this waiting for you.” With which he turned on his heel, gave first me and then the nurse a vile growl, and strode purposefully toward the door.