Kay Brellend 3-Book Collection: The Street, The Family, Coronation Day

The chorus of joyous shouts issued from Alice and Bethany. Simultaneously the two girls launched themselves forward and hugged their father in a tangle of limbs before he was properly through the door. They’d been up early that morning doing what they could to tidy the place whilst awaiting his arrival.

Jack dropped his kitbag. He struggled to free his arms from where his daughters had pinned them to his sides so he could grip them tightly to him. He swung his face planting his lips on two dark heads, then another fierce kiss was bestowed on both girls before he let them go.

‘Got a surprise for you, Dad,’ Alice said. ‘Close your eyes.’ Jack looked from Alice to Bethany but neither was giving anything away. He swiped his hat from his head and put it on the table.

‘Go on, close them,’ Beth said excitedly and cupped her palms over her father’s eyes until he moved up his hands to replace them.

The door to the back room opened and Sophy and Danny crept out.

‘Can open ’em now,’ Sophy said softly. As soon as her father’s fingers had dropped away from his face Sophy launched herself at him, hugging him tightly about the waist and burrowing her face into his neck. Danny watched the scene indulgently before he approached Jack to shake his hand.

‘So good to see you both,’ Jack croaked through the tears in his throat. ‘Lovely surprise … lovely …’ he mumbled.

‘I’ll be back later,’ Danny said tactfully as Jack withdrew a handkerchief. ‘I’ve gotta go next door and see them all. Me mum’ll be on the warpath else.’

Jack nodded in understanding but kept Sophy clasped against his side as he dropped a kiss on her hair. ‘You’re looking bonny, Sophy,’ he choked out. ‘They’ve been feeding you well, I see.’

Sophy blushed. She knew she was getting plump. But she didn’t care too much because she was content. And besides, Danny said he liked her better with a bit of meat on her.

Finally Jack walked further into the room and gave his wife, who’d been sitting on the piano stool watching the scene with a smile, a searing look. But he went to Lucy who had jumped from the bed, giggling, and had been patiently awaiting her father’s attention. ‘Are you the birthday girl who’s gonna be five tomorrow?’ Jack teased Lucy with a grin. ‘Your daddy’s got you a present.’ He put his youngest back down on the floor and Lucy bounced up and down excitedly, barefoot, on the boards while Jack dug in his bag and brought forth a floppy doll with yellow wool hair and a red dress. ‘Come all the way from France that did, Luce,’ he told her as he handed it over and ruffled her soft curls.

Lucy hugged her present to her and climbed back on the bed to examine it.

Finally he turned his attention to Tilly. ‘It didn’t cost much at all,’ he said easily. ‘Worked out at just a few coppers …’ He knew how hard things had been for his wife trying to cope alone. Kids’ toys were no bloody use to people with empty bellies.

Tilly shrugged and continued to feast her eyes on her husband. She’d sooner have had the cost of the doll – and she reckoned it was shillings, not pennies – jangling in the kitty but she was too pleased to see Jack to start a row today. Besides, Sophy had brought her some money from her wages and handed it over before she’d had to ask. Jack sat down beside her on the stool and put his arm around her. He waited till she’d cuffed the wetness from her eyes before he bent his head and gave her a kiss on the lips.

Alice watched them. Now she was older she understood why they sometimes liked to have a bit of time alone. Despite yearning to stay with her dad and question him immediately about how he was, and what he’d been doing since they’d last seen him, she announced cheerfully, ‘Me ‘n’ Beth ‘n’ Sophy are going to get a cake and some pop so’s we can have a birthday party for Lucy.’

Tilly gave her a startled look that begged to know where the money for that was coming from.

‘We’ve all been putting a bit by from our wages, even Beth’s chipped in,’ Alice explained and avoided her mother’s eye. If Tilly had known a few savings were around she’d have turned the place upside down looking for the little stash.

‘We’ve ordered a sponge cake from the baker’s in Hornsey Road as a surprise,’ Beth said with a beam. ‘We arranged to collect it this afternoon.’

Once the sound of their older daughters clattering down the stairs had died away Jack gave Tilly another kiss, then another that was hungry enough to take her head back against his arm.

‘D’you reckon Fran ’ud do us a turn and look after Lucy for a bit?’ The words had been whispered against Tilly’s thick, fiery hair. Jack touched the crisp collar on her best embroidered blouse and tenderness flowed through him. She’d tidied herself prettily for him and he knew taking that sort of trouble wasn’t easy for a woman in a place like this.

Jack knew that once Lucy’s birthday tea party was over there’d be entertainment for the adults in the Keiver household. The neighbours would come by and it would be like old times; a warm feeling bathed his insides as he remembered those good days. Life was never easy in The Bunk but compared to what he’d experienced on the Somme it seemed wonderfully carefree.

‘I’ll see if Fran’s in and will have Lucy in hers for half an hour,’ Tilly breathed against his cheek

‘Half an hour?’ Jack growled with a wolfish smile. ‘Better make it an hour, love, I’ve not seen you in a while.’

‘Wish Dad didn’t have to go back,’ Beth said as they walked along in the direction of Hornsey Road.

It had been exactly the phrase that had been rotating in Alice’s mind. She sighed and nodded. ‘Got to keep cheerful though and make it a nice break for him,’ she warned her younger sister.

‘Sounds like it’s dreadful over there, don’t it?’ Sophy said, biting her lower lip. ‘He looks really tired and much older, don’t he?’

Alice nodded and blinked her eyes. They’d been reading in the newspapers for months about the terrible carnage in France. Having their dad back, and looking whole and healthy, if a bit grizzled, was a huge relief. The dreadful battles on the Western Front had killed and wounded so many. Their dad’s leave was less than a week this time so Alice knew they must squeeze every last drop of enjoyment from his visit.

‘Let’s hurry up ‘n’ get the cake and pop and go home,’ Alice blurted, suddenly unwilling to waste a precious minute more than was necessary that could be spent with her father. Her sisters nodded and linking arms the three of them huddled together in affection before breaking apart and trotting on.

‘Want to go for a walk round and about?’

Alice raised her eyes to Geoff’s face. They were standing out in the street, getting a breath of fresh air. It was summer and still light and warm despite the lateness of the hour. The atmosphere upstairs in the Keivers’ front room was stifling due to the crush. Sophy and Danny were having a fine old time regaling pop-eyed people with the wonderful life they enjoyed in Essex.

‘I’ll get me coat,’ Alice said and darted back inside. A moment later she was back at Geoff’s side. ‘Little Lucy’s had the best day,’ she told him as they strolled. ‘Dad got her a present from France; a doll with yellow hair and a red dress. Pretty little thing, it is. Can’t imagine how she’s sleeping through all that din!’ She chuckled. ‘Out like a light she is with her dolly in her arms …’

‘Did she like her party?’

Alice nodded vigorously.

‘You were right about Sophy and Dan,’ Alice said.

Geoff gave her a quizzical look.

‘They’ve both turned into a right couple of fatsos,’ Alice said on an impish chuckle.

‘He’s got four chins,’ Geoff said with a guffaw. ‘Glad now I didn’t go,’ he said self-mockingly. ‘Sooner stop here ’n keep me figure.’

Alice gave him a playful punch. ‘Well, I’m glad you stopped here ’n all …’

Suddenly they both started to attention and chorused, ‘Oh, no!’

They’d hardly got to Blackstock Road when the air-raid siren had started, prompting Geoff to grab Alice’s hand and jerk her around. They began to run back towards Campbell Road.

Breathlessly they hared up the stairs and hollered over the racket, ‘Air raid!’

Music and singing died away and a score or more faces stared at them. Jack’s fingers had stilled on the piano keys; now he lifted them to hover just above, and everybody tensed and listened. The whine was audible, and so was the much fainter drone of engines.

‘Lights out,’ Jack bawled and quickly candles and lamps were extinguished. An unspoken consensus of opinion seemed to have been reached by all: stay put and hope for the best, for nobody moved.

By touch alone Jack started to play the piano in the dark and then he started to sing too. He broke off to bellow, ‘Well them Hun buggers can’t hear us, can they?’

Laughter rippled through the room, getting more raucous as Jack continued to play with great zeal. After a moment everybody had joined in singing ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’.

Alice was in front of Geoff and as she felt his arms come about her in the dark, she sensed the reverberation of his singing voice through her coat. She leaned back against him, closing her hands over his, clasped together on her waist. She felt suddenly warm and unafraid and glad that her dad and Sophy were here with them. If the worst happened, and a bomb was dropped on them, at least she’d be with the people she loved and they’d all go together. When the droning was at its loudest, so was the choir, rising in a defiant crescendo of sound that seemed to shake the house. When danger was past, and the lights were eventually relit, the company seemed rather subdued. Within half an hour the party had finished and the neighbours had dispersed.

Chapter Nineteen (#ulink_5af1a540-1ed4-5ad2-b09b-69a10b75b16a)

‘’Ere, Til! Wait up!’

Tilly swung about to see Beattie Evans pounding the pavement behind her. She halted at once for her neighbour looked flustered and that indicated she had something import ant to tell her.

Beattie wobbled to a stop and wheezed in air. ‘Never guess who I just seen. Strutting bold as yer like up the top end …’