A Girl Can Dream

‘And whose fault is that?’ Terry said. ‘We never even knew about her till now.’

Sally burst into tears as Billy said mutinously, ‘Anyway, I don’t want to meet her.’

Sally scrubbed at her eyes with the edge of her cardigan and said, ‘Nor me. I don’t want someone to come in and try and be our mom. We had a mom and now we have you and I don’t want no one else.’

Meg sighed as Ruth, picking up the atmosphere in the room, began to grizzle, and as she cuddled her she said, ‘Now you’ve upset Ruth with your goings-on. You must all realise that if Daddy wants to marry this woman then he will, and none of us can do anything about it.’ She looked at the woebegone faces of her brothers and sisters and felt for them, but it was doing them no favours letting them feel that they could influence their father in any way.

‘Don’t know why he wants another wife anyway,’ Terry said. ‘We’re all right as we are, aren’t we?’

‘Daddy obviously isn’t.’

‘Didn’t he love our mom?’ Jenny asked.

‘He did,’ Meg said emphatically. ‘You know he did. I think maybe he’s lonely.’

‘How could he be lonely when he has us?’ Sally asked.

‘It’s a different kind of loneliness when you an adult,’ Meg said, ‘and I know Daddy feels sorry for this Doris, because he told me so.’

‘Feels sorry for her?’ Terry repeated. ‘You don’t marry someone because you feel sorry for them.’

‘Oh, I should imagine there’s more to it than that,’ Meg said. ‘And really you can’t help feeling sorry for her because she’s completely alone. Her first husband is dead, and their parents, they had no brothers or sisters and she had no children of her own. You must admit that’s sad.’

‘Yeah, I suppose.’

‘And added to that, she knows very few people here,’ Meg went on. ‘She comes from Yorkshire but was sent here to sew parachutes like Aunt Rosie.’

‘Where did Daddy meet her?’

‘In the Swan.’

Jenny’s eyes opened wide. ‘Was she on her own?’

‘I think there were two of them.’

‘Mom said she thought women who went to the pub on their own like that were no better than they should be. I heard her telling May one day,’ Jenny said.

‘You shouldn’t have been listening.’

‘I couldn’t help it,’ Jenny cried. ‘Anyway, that’s what she said. D’you think that?’

Meg did a bit, but it would hardly help Doris’s case to say so. She chose her words with care. ‘I don’t know really. The world is changing all the time. I mean, there are more women working now, married women with families like Aunt Rosie, often doing a man’s job. And more women in the Forces than there have ever been, and maybe that changes your perception a bit. Anyway, let’s not condemn the woman out of hand. Let’s give her a chance, because if Daddy has chosen her, then it would be better for all of you if you try to get on with her.’

As the family were worrying about Doris, news came of discontent spreading throughout central Europe with Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. Not only was the British Government alarmed, but also the governments of many other European countries, especially those near to Germany. Hitler, rumours of war and now Doris Caudwell – Meg felt weighed down with her anxieties.

Meg spent an uneasy couple of weeks with the children. But they were off school from Wednesday for the Easter holidays and she would be meeting Joy on Good Friday. Her father was off work then too, but he declared on that morning he had plans of his own and he would be out all day. Meg could barely bring herself to talk to him and so she said nothing to this and later he came up behind her as she was washing up.

‘You seeing Joy today?’ he asked.

‘Yes, of course.’

‘Then take this.’ He pressed a pound note into her hand. ‘Get some chocolate eggs for the children.’

Meg nodded. ‘All right.’

She had intended doing that anyway, as the children had given up sweets for the whole of Lent, so she thought they deserved chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday. She also relished the freedom of going out without Ruth because her siblings would look after her and, she thought wryly, she might be able to have a proper conversation with Joy and a hot cup of tea as she wouldn’t be charging around after Ruth all lunchtime.