Sam is now training at yet another hospital in London. I am afraid we do not hear from him very often, but the poor darling is apparently always up to his eyes. He did ring me up – very briefly – but that was weeks ago! I pray for his safety every night. London is not the safest place to be.
Take good care of yourself, my dear girl. I am so proud of you – as Ada would be. One day we will surely all be able to return to our old way of life and some normality. What a lot we shall have to tell each other!
With my love to you – Helena.
PS
I have sent on your new address to Sam because I am sure he will be interested. Perhaps he will find time to write to you, even if he doesn’t to me! I know you used to exchange letters, and he was always very fond of you.
For several moments, Alice could hardly move from where she was standing. She was glad to be alone in their bedroom, the others having already been despatched to their various duties, because she wanted a few moments to drink in what Helena had written. She wanted a few moments to savour the words – words which included her name with Sam’s…as if the very act of joining them together in the same sentence somehow provided a precious link…
She read the letter again, more slowly, Helena’s lovely character shining through the page. How lucky, how immensely lucky, she, Alice, was to have been part of that family. How lucky that Ada had applied for the position of nanny to their children all those years ago.
Alice let her moistened eyes linger on the best bit of the letter. “He was always very fond of you.”
Then she put it back into the envelope carefully, and put it with the rest of the treasures in her suitcase.
Now that they knew they were going home, Sunday couldn’t come quickly enough for the girls. Not just for seeing people again, but to get away from the farm, and to inhabit a different world for the day.
On the evening before, as they were clearing up the kitchen after their bathing session, Fay said –
‘I don’t know what you think, Alice – but after I’ve spent a couple of hours at home with Gran…and I s’pose I’d better see my parents as well,’ she added, ‘I’m going into the Centre. See a bit of life. Might go to the Llandoger for a drink.’ Well, there were usually Service types at the pub who’d be good for a laugh. Fay wiped her hip bath around vigorously with a towel, which she folded neatly and left in an enamel bowl on the side as instructed by Mabel. The others did the same.
Alice wondered about going into town. ‘Well – it would depend on what Gloria wants to do,’ she said. ‘She may be cooking us a meal, or having friends in for us all to have a chat and to see what I’ve been up to.’ Alice was also doubtful about the pub suggestion. Although she and Gloria had enjoyed a drink together now and then, that wasn’t the same thing as mixing with drinkers in pubs…which would obviously be smoky and noisy, and where the devil’s medicine would be freely available.
Fay shrugged. ‘Well – it was just a thought. I am certainly going in for a bit of fun.’ She threw Alice a shrewd look. ‘If you don’t think much of the Llandoger we could always have a drink at the Royal Hotel on College Green.’ She paused. ‘I used to know one of the doormen who worked there, and if he’s still around he’d see we had a nice little corner in one of the lounges. And perhaps we could have something to eat there as well.’
This sounded a far better idea to Alice, and she smiled quickly. ‘Well…when we know what time Roger will be picking us up to bring us back here, we could maybe arrange to meet, say outside the Hippodrome, an hour or so earlier? How does that sound?’ To sit somewhere in the Royal – that auspicious hotel near the Cathedral – with a little plate of sandwiches and perhaps an elegant pot of coffee in front of them suddenly seemed very attractive. She knew that it had been the venue for many of the posh events that the Carmichaels had attended over the years, and she’d be able to imagine them…entering the foyer and entrance hall in their glamorous attire…the object of everyone’s admiration.
Now, they left the kitchen, and Eve said – ‘I wish we lived in Bristol. Bath can be so utterly boring at times. Nothing ever happens.’
And being with her parents for most of Sunday would be boring, too, she thought. They wouldn’t bother to have people in to see her, and hear what she’d been doing. Her parents never had people in.
‘Well, Evie – why don’t you get the bus in from Bath and meet us outside the Hippodrome later, like Alice suggested?’ Fay said. ‘I know there’s a limited service on Sundays but there’s bound to be one sometime during the afternoon. Your parents would surely understand that you’d like to do that?’
Eve thought about that for a moment. Then – ‘Well, what I could do is not say anything about enjoying myself, but that Roger had asked me to meet him in Bristol instead of picking me up in Bath on the way back…and earlier than originally planned.’ This devious plan made Eve feel slightly ashamed – she never told untruths, and certainly not to her parents, but suddenly she felt determined to have her own way. She hardly ever went into Bristol – certainly not since the war had started. It would be fun to just walk around with the others, get a sense of what was going on.
‘Smashing! So that’s all settled,’ Fay said happily. ‘So look out, Bristol! The three wise monkeys are coming to town!’
On Sunday morning they were up even earlier than usual to make sure they were ready in time. Roger had said he’d make the van ready and drive it up to the farmhouse at 8 o’clock, and that he’d worked out that the Bath/Bristol trip should only take about an hour, or an hour and a quarter at the most.
They were just finishing their breakfast when Mabel bustled in, carrying three cardboard boxes. ‘Now then luvvers,’ she said, ‘’Ere’s just a little somethin’ for you to take home to your folks.’
The “little something” in each box were two dozen newly laid eggs, a pound of bacon, a large, freshly baked loaf, some rosy apples, a swede and a cabbage, and a brown paper bag holding some field mushrooms.
As the girls examined the contents of the boxes, Alice cried out when she saw the mushrooms. ‘Oh – where did these come from, Mrs. Foulkes?’ She put her nose to the open bag. ‘They smell – and look wonderful! I adore mushrooms!’
Mabel smiled at her enthusiasm. ‘Well, it’s always just right for ’em this time of year when it’s usually warm and wettish. And there was more of ’em down in the field than I’ve ever seen before,’ she said. ‘I had trouble not walkin’ all over ’em when I was picking ’em earlier.’
Alice stared at Mabel as the woman spoke. As well as everything else, she’d been up early, picking mushrooms! Did Mrs. Foulkes ever rest, Alice wondered? She seemed tireless, unstoppable…washing, cleaning, cooking – for six of them now – not to mention the daily bread-baking, caring for the dogs and the smaller animals and the birds, and taking her turn at milking the cows.
‘Mrs. Foulkes,’ she said, ‘you are so kind and generous! My landlady will be absolutely thrilled with all this. Thank you so, so, much.’
Fay and Eve agreed wholeheartedly. ‘You are a treasure, Mrs. Foulkes,’ Fay said, and Eve said that what her box held would be enough to last her parents until the end of the war!
Mabel waved their comments aside. ‘Oh well, we got all we d’need, and more, but it’s not s’easy in the towns, is it.’ She looked at them each in turn as they stood up to leave. ‘Well, as usual, you do look nice in your frocks, I must say,’ she said, a little pang of envy running through