Where Bluebells Chime

‘You did – what?’

‘Signed up. I thought – what the heck! Drew’s in the Navy so that’ll do for me. I was fed up …’

‘Fed up? We call that chocker in the Navy.’

‘Okay – so I’m learning. I was chocker with that shop so I went in my dinner hour and did it. And I signed Dada’s name, too. I had to because I’m still a minor. He hit the roof, Drew. In the end, Mam gave us both a telling-off and it has sort of died down now because I haven’t heard another word from them.’

‘Not even about your medical?’

‘Nope. But I heard they were pretty choosy. Maybe I won’t hear any more.’

‘I think you will. There were two Wrens on my training course and they were smashing. And the Wrens who work in barracks are okay, too. You’ll look great in the uniform, Daiz. One of the blokes in our mess saw your photograph and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Where did you find a bit of crackling like that, Sutton?” he asked me, and I told him under a gooseberry bush – that you were my sister. I’ll tell him you’re joining the Wrens,’ he grinned. ‘It’ll make his day!’

‘Then you’d better tell him I’m engaged, too – and, Drew, can we walk? I’ve got something else to tell you.’

‘Which necessitates walking?’

‘Yes – oh, no! But it’s going to take a bit of explaining after so long, you see. And I hope you won’t think I’ve been sneaky and secretive about it, but nobody knows – well, only Mam and Dada and Aunt Julia. And Keth, of course.’

‘I’m curious. Where shall we go?’

‘Into Brattocks the back way, then down to the elms. I want the rooks to hear it, too.’

‘You believe all that nonsense about telling things to the rooks, do you?’

‘Mam does! Anyway, I want to tell them!’

‘Fine by me.’ He held out his hand and she took it, smiling up at him, glad he was her brother – her half-brother.

‘We-e-ll – it started when we lived in Hampshire. Do you remember Hampshire, Drew?’

‘Of course I do! I loved it when Mother and I came to stay with you. I thought it was great, having you and Keth to play with. Do you remember when they told us we were related, you and me? You threw the mother of all tantrums and ran out.’

‘Don’t remind me! But I was jealous, you see, when they told us Mam had once been married to your father. Funny, isn’t it, that Mam was once Lady Alice Sutton?’

‘Don’t see why, considering she married Sir Giles Sutton and they had me.’

‘’S’pose not. Does having a title bother you, Drew? Do the other sailors rag you about it – you being on the lower decks, I mean?’

‘The blokes in the Mess don’t know about it. I took good care not to tell them. I’m Telegraphist Sutton and that’s the way I want it.’

‘But hadn’t you considered a commission? You’d be a good officer.’

‘No better than a lot of others, Daiz, and anyway, I like it where I am. I’ve been with a decent crowd of blokes, training. I’m sorry we’ll all be split up, but that’s war for you – and here we are at the elms, so you’d better tell me what’s bothering you because something is.’

‘Not bothering me, exactly, but it’s something I want you to know and like I said, I wasn’t being deceitful, not telling you. I almost told you ages ago, when I told Keth, but he was so shocked by it, I decided not to …’

‘Daisy! Tell!’

‘All right.’ She settled herself on the grass, her back to the elm tree bole, arms behind her as if she were embracing it, connecting herself and her words to it and to the rooks that nested in it. It was the way she always did it. ‘Remember when Keth’s father and Mr Hillier were drowned?’ She took a deep, calming breath. ‘And that Mr Hillier left Windrush Hall to the miners as a convalescent home – because he’d been a boy down the pit before he got so rich?’

Drew nodded, careful not to interrupt because she was finding it difficult, he knew.

‘Well, he left everyone who worked for him a hundred pounds, the rest of his money to be invested for the upkeep of the home.’

‘I knew that, Daiz …’

‘Yes, but what you don’t know is that the money he left me wasn’t a hundred pounds. Oh, I thought it was. I felt rich; thought I could spend it on bikes and toys, but Mam thought otherwise. But what I didn’t know, Drew, and they didn’t tell me for ages afterwards –’ She turned to face him, one hand on the tree-trunk, still. ‘They waited till I’d got a bit more sense, knew how not to blab about it at school. That hundred pounds I thought I’d been left was more. Much more.’

‘How much more?’ he asked warily.

‘Mr Hillier left me ten thousand pounds!’

The words came out in a rush and it seemed like an age before Drew hissed, ‘Ten thousand pounds?’

‘Yes.’ She swallowed loudly. ‘I couldn’t take it in, not so much money, so Dada said it would be better if I thought about it in terms of things; said that if I imagined a road of newly-built houses; nice houses with bathrooms, mind, – twenty of them – then that’s what my money would buy.’

‘That much money would buy Rowangarth and the stable block and the lodges and all the parkland. You’re richer than me, Daiz.’

‘I’m not richer than you, Drew. Rowangarth and the farms and all Holdenby village are worth more than ten thousand.’

‘Not a lot more, because it’s entailed. I’ve got to pass it on. And houses aren’t what you’d call security in wartime. Hitler is bombing them or setting them on fire with incendiaries and you can’t insure houses and things against enemy action – did you know that? I reckon if you’ve got your money in the bank then you’re laughing.’

‘If Hitler doesn’t come before I get it. Because it won’t be mine till next June. The solicitor in Winchester and Sir Maxwell Something-or-other and Dada are Trustees and they’ll only let me have bits of my money for special, necessary things like education or if I got very ill and there were doctor’s bills that Dada couldn’t pay. They’ve been very mean with it this far.’

‘For your own good, I suppose.’

‘I accept that, but I’d have liked to get some of it to help Keth through university when he didn’t get a scholarship to Leeds, but I’d more sense than to ask.’ She shrugged because she had never thought of all that money as hers, really. It had just been something there, uneasily in the background. Until now, that was. The ten years since they’d told her about it suddenly seemed to have flown by.

‘Well, Keth got through university all right, as it happens. And I’m glad about the money, Daiz – or I will be when it’s sunk in. Suppose Keth’s had time to get used to it, now?’

‘I think he has, though he never mentions it. When I told him he said that he wanted to be the breadwinner – buy things for me and not the other way round. It was a bit awkward I can tell you, so in the end we decided our children should have the bulk of it – good schools and perhaps ponies if they wanted them. The rest, Keth said, should be invested for their future. If we ever have kids, that is.’

Her voice began to tremble and her eyes filled with tears. Such very blue eyes, Drew thought, fishing for his handkerchief.

‘Stop it, Daiz. Of course you’ll have children.’

‘Then how, will you tell me, with the flaming Atlantic between us? Have them by air mail, will we?’

‘Oh you don’t half go on about things. You’re almost as bad as Kitty when it comes to being a drama queen.’

Thoughts of Kitty led to thoughts of Bas and again to Keth who was with them still in Kentucky – or was it Washington now? But she blinked hard on her tears and blew her nose loudly. Then she took a deep, calming breath and tilted her chin ominously.

‘All right then, Drew Sutton – drama queen, am I? Well how about this, then? That money is in the bank, sort of. They invested it for me and on my birthday they always send Dada a statement about it. By the time I’m twenty-one, there’ll be more than fifteen thousand!’

‘Fifteen! Good grief! No wonder you wanted to tell the rooks about it!’

She stared at the grass at their feet, saying nothing, which only went to show, Drew thought, that Daisy too realized what a responsibility so much money was and hoping fervently that it wouldn’t make trouble between herself and Keth.