A Christmas Promise Read online

  ‘Oh, Barney, I didn’t see you there,’ Olive laughed, flustered now as she and Archie broke free of each other as if they had experienced an electric shock.

  ‘That’s OK, Aunt Olive. I just came out to say I don’t mind looking after Alice. It’s only half an hour.’

  ‘Oh, I’m not sure, Barney. Alice is still very young.’

  ‘Sally let me mind her the other day while she nipped out for half an hour. It’s just the same.’

  ‘Mmm, I’m not sure.’ Olive agonised over the decision.

  Then Barney said, in such a grown-up way, ‘Well, if it makes you feel any better, she will be in bed and I’ll be reading one of the American comics I got from a GI for going to the chippy for him.’

  Olive had to laugh; when Barney got an idea in his head, he was like a dog with a bone.

  ‘Anyway, I know exactly what to do if anything should happen.’ By ‘anything’, Barney meant an air raid. ‘As soon as the siren goes, I’ll have her in the shelter in the cellar. I know where everything is, it’ll be fine.’

  ‘Are you sure you don’t mind, Barney?’ Olive still wasn’t sure. ‘I could rearrange my appointment …’

  ‘Olive, the boy will be fine,’ Archie said patiently. ‘Sally will be home at seven and we’ll be back very shortly after, I should imagine.’

  ‘Well,’ Olive said reluctantly, ‘if you’re sure …’

  ‘We’re sure!’ Barney and Archie called in unison, and then laughed.

  ‘And to show our gratitude, Barney,’ Archie said, taking a seat at the table with the boy, ‘what do you think about going fishing next Saturday?’

  ‘That would be great,’ Barney said. ‘I haven’t been fishing for ages.’

  ‘Hello, Audrey, what are you doing here? You’re not hurt, I hope?’ Sally said as she came out of the ward and cut through the casualty department where a number of people in various stages of illness and distress were waiting to be seen.

  ‘No,’ said Audrey, smiling, ‘I was on my way home from evensong when I came across this poor man who had fallen in the road. I don’t think he’s been knocked down by a vehicle but he does smell strongly of alcohol so he’s not feeling too much pain yet.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Although he does have an egg-sized lump on the side of his head and he keeps drifting off.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Sally, ‘I’ll call someone now. That’s a nasty bump he’s got there.’ Moments later, Sally was back with a porter in tow, who was pushing a wheelchair. ‘They will take care of him now,’ Sally assured Audrey.

  ‘Right, well, I’ll be off then,’ Audrey said, gathering her bag and her moth-eaten gloves, which had been expertly stitched at the fingertips.

  ‘If you hang on a minute while I go and get my cape I’ll walk back with you, if you like.’

  ‘Oh, that would be wonderful. You can tell me all your news,’ Audrey said as Sally went to fetch her outdoor cape.

  A few moments later, just as Sally and Audrey were heading out of the hospital, the air-raid warning siren sounded.

  ‘Oh, not another one,’ Sally complained. ‘You’d think those ruddy Germans would have better things to do on a freezing night like this.’ She peered into the swirling icy fog as, closely linking each other for security, she and Audrey made their way from the hospital grounds.

  ‘Never mind them,’ Audrey said in that stoical way that made everyone around her feel safe, ‘tell me all your news. It’ll take your mind off the raid.’

  ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t go on all night,’ said Sally, moving slowly forward so as not to slip on the ice and bring Audrey tumbling with her. Urging their way towards Article Row, Sally told Audrey all about her engagement to Callum and how thrilled she was that they would be getting married as soon as the arrangements could be made. In another few minutes they would be safely back in Article Row, heading for Olive’s shelter in the basement, which had been made all nice and cosy by Archie, with whitewashed walls and even a few chairs and a table installed.

  Archie didn’t go in to see the doctor with Olive. He waited outside and read a tattered old magazine without taking in a word of it. He was so worried that Olive might be seriously ill. He couldn’t bear it if anything should happen to her too. Olive was the most wonderful woman. He looked up as the door opened and Olive emerged, looking even paler than when she went in.

  ‘Olive, what’s the matter?’ Archie threw down the magazine and went quickly to her now.

  ‘Let’s go outside,’ Olive said, waving to someone she knew. When they were halfway down the road, she stopped and said in a low, tremulous voice, ‘Archie, I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but I’m in the family way.’

  Those three words immediately turned Archie’s life upside down. Stupidly, they had never even considered … had never used … Oh my word! he thought.

  ‘Oh, Olive, I am so sorry,’ he said. ‘I never thought it could happen again.’ Secretly, he was thrilled that Olive was carrying his child, but he had to see what she felt about it first of all before he started to celebrate. Although, how they could celebrate such a thing, he had no idea. They would have to get married as soon as possible. He would get the ball rolling tomorrow. Then they had to decide where they were going to live. Her house or his. And Barney … he wanted to adopt Barney but he wasn’t sure how Olive felt about the matter. He would have to discuss it with her tonight; there was so much to think about.

  ‘Archie, you are very quiet,’ Olive said in a voice little more than a whisper. She was clinging to his arm so tightly her fingers had stiffened in the icy mist.

  ‘Your place or mine, Olive?’

  ‘Archie, this is hardly the time to …’ They sometimes sneaked into Archie’s house like a pair of lovebirds when the coast was clear and her own house was occupied, but …

  ‘No, not that.’ Archie gave a small deep laugh, ‘Although …’ He paused and then carried on, flustered now: ‘Olive, I’m thrilled if you are. Your house or mine after the wedding is what I meant! Did you know I wanted to adopt Barney? I’ll sort out the licence tomorrow! We could be married in three weeks. February isn’t such a bad month to get married, is it, Olive?’

  ‘Archie, slow down.’ Olive’s head was whirling.

  She had thought that part of her life was over, she had thought that at forty she was far too old to carry a child, but the doctor told her that although she would need to take extra care there was nothing that would physically prevent her carrying a normal, healthy child into the world.

  ‘What am I going to tell Tilly?’ Olive said as the enormity of it hit her. She had a twenty-one-year-old daughter who was serving her country, God only knew where, and she was having a baby!

  ‘Strange things happen in wartime, Olive,’ said Archie, putting his arm protectively around her waist and guiding her through the blacked-out bomb-damaged streets of Holborn, Their dazed reverie was rudely broken as the shuddering blast of an incendiary went off near the park.

  Olive gripped Archie’s arm in terror. ‘Dear God, we’d better get back to Barney and Alice.’ And they both turned quickly towards home.

  Barney had just settled himself down to read his well-thumbed Captain America Comic, which he had earned when he and Willy Simpson had gone to ask if the Yanks needed any errands running, in the hope they would be offered some chewing gum or chocolate – or ‘candy’, as they called it. He knew Aunty Olive wouldn’t be too impressed if she found out he had been hanging around the American base, but what the eyes didn’t see the heart couldn’t shed no tears over, he reckoned. Barney drooled as he unwrapped the prized Hershey bar and prepared for a blissful evening with his comic, when he detected the faint thrum of an enemy aircraft in the distance. He could tell the different sounds of the engines of all the planes immediately.

  The banshee wail of the air-raid siren, low at first, began to infiltrate every nook and cranny of the house, and Barney’s first instinct was to run for the cellar door. Then he heard Alice’s cry and remembered that she
was upstairs.

  ‘I’m coming, Alice. Don’t cry, Barney’ll save yer.’ Now Barney knew exactly how Captain America felt when he went to save some stranded victim. He didn’t have a magic boomerang that would do wonderful things to save the lost and frightened – like Alice – but he did have a bar of chocolate that would do the trick and calm her down. But as he reached the top of the stairs the whole house seemed to tremor as a huge boom and blast threw him to the floor.

  ‘It’s OK, Alice,’ Barney called when Alice’s terrified wail grew more shrill, ‘Barney’s here.’ He knew that if he could just clamber to her cot in the dark and get her downstairs, they just might stand a chance.

  Olive’s eyes bulged and she had a sudden inability to blink when she held on to Archie’s hand as he pulled her along behind him towards the relative safety of a shop doorway. In her haste, she managed to look up to the blackened skies that now showed signs of the crisscrossed lights given off by the ack-ack gunners scouring the hazy night sky.

  A suppressed scream was only a heartbeat away. She needed to be back home. Barney had never been left alone before. Alice would be terrified.

  ‘I promise, when this is all over, I am going to have a serious chat with Sally, and urge her in the strongest possible way to have Alice evacuated.’

  ‘I know, Olive,’ Archie answered. ‘And I saw Barney was so happy in the countryside, it was wrong of me to bring him back to this.’ He suddenly ducked and held Olive close when another blast went off close by.

  Shaking now, Olive cried, ‘It was so wrong of me to expect a fifteen-year-old boy to look after a young child – I feel so bad now, Archie.’

  Archie gently shushed her and held her closer.

  ‘We’ll make a run for it shortly. Are you all right, Olive?’ His voice was full of loving concern. Olive nodded but didn’t say anything and Archie could tell she was shaking with fear and not just the cold.

  A few moments later, they headed to the top road, before the turning that would lead them to the Row, the heat of the scorching buildings enveloped them as windows shattered and the loud splintering of burning wood could clearly be heard.

  ‘Do you think Article Row has been hit?’ Olive managed breathlessly as they ran towards home. But the faster they tried to get there the more hampered their journey. Falling masonry was as much of a danger as the bomb blasts.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he shouted over the loud bell of a fire engine racing towards the worst hit. Archie could already see the flames licking the night sky and, still holding Olive’s hand, he darted in and out of falling incendiaries, making sure that Olive was safely at his side. Neither of them was new to this kind of situation, but what they hadn’t experienced before was the sensation of feeling irresponsible enough to leave a fifteen-year-old boy alone, in charge of a three-and-a-half-year-old child, in the middle of an air raid.

  ‘I will never forgive myself if anything has happened to them,’ Olive cried, only just keeping up with Archie’s long strides.

  ‘They will be fine,’ Archie called over his shoulder. ‘Barney is a sensible lad; he’ll head straight down to the cellar and take Alice with him.’

  ‘Are you sure, Archie?’ Olive cried again, ducking as the incendiary bombs fell all around her and the acrid smell of burning assaulted her senses. The crackle and bang of exploding shells almost burst her eardrums. She held in the small squeals of fear as best she could, and trusted Archie to get them both back to the house and the children.

  Quickly, he grabbed Olive’s hand tighter and dragged her into the doorway of a blacked-out shop, just as the roof of a nearby building came crashing down around them, and this time Olive couldn’t prevent the small scream of terror.

  ‘Oh, Archie, are we ever going to get back to them in time?’

  ‘Sally! Sally, are you OK?’ Audrey dropped to her knees only a split second after Sally, who had been hit on the head by falling bricks. Dazed but still conscious, Sally struggled to get to her feet but was stopped by Audrey being flung down almost on top of her.

  ‘That’s a gas main, I can tell the sound,’ Sally said breathlessly as the smoke was drawn deeper into her lungs, but Audrey didn’t answer. ‘I hope everybody’s OK back home.’ Another incendiary dropped close by and she had to jump up quickly and stamp it out with her shoe. Eventually, the flare was put out and she turned to see Audrey still lying in the same position. Sally’s heart jumped up to her throat and her piercing scream fractured the hellish night mist. For a moment, time stood still. She was a qualified, highly trained nurse, she was used to dealing with emergencies, and none was more urgent than this.

  Crawling on all fours, Sally did not feel the jagged edges of demolished rubble piercing her knees as she edged her way towards Audrey, nor the splinters of glass as they embedded themselves into the palms of her hands. All she could see was Audrey’s motionless body sprawled half off the pavement and into the road.

  ‘Audrey! Audrey, speak to me! Are you all right?’ Sally took the weight of Audrey’s unresponsive body and pulled her onto the pavement where she slumped onto Sally’s legs and prevented her from moving. A man running towards her stopped when he heard her cries.

  ‘You all right there, gel?’ he enquired kindly as he dropped to one knee. Then in the red-shadowed glow of the burning buildings he lifted Audrey’s head.

  ‘Come on, gel,’ the man said quietly to Sally, ‘come outta there – there’s nothing you can do for her now.’

  ‘But I’m a nurse, I have to do something!’ Sally cried, her voice cracked with shock.

  ‘Be that as it may, gel, you ain’t God. Now come on out of there.’ He helped Sally to her feet and she could see he was right. Even though there wasn’t a single mark on Audrey’s lifeless face, Sally knew there was no hope.

  ‘C’mon, the shelter’s just over ’ere. You’ve got to get in there and save yourself.’

  ‘I can’t leave her!’ Sally knew she sounded almost hysterical. However, she had the sense to hold it together, just long enough to see for herself that Audrey was beyond her help.

  ‘She saved my life,’ Sally whimpered as shock took hold. ‘She threw herself on top of me and saved my life.’

  ‘Well, you just thank your lucky stars she was with you, gel, ’cause someone up there must be looking out for you.’ He looked to the skies and in an instant pulled Sally back on her feet.

  But before Sally could even say thank you, the man was gone and she was alone with Audrey, who would never sing again at evensong or have a cup of tea and a sympathetic ear ready for those that needed it.

  Barney had wrapped Alice securely in a woollen cot blanket and held her closely in his arms as explosions erupted all around them. His hands were shaking now as he tried to lift the latch on the cellar door.

  ‘It’s OK, little one.’ Barney gently stroked her hair as Alice whimpered with fear.

  ‘Barney, where’s Sally? I want Sally,’ the child cried, her eyes wide with terror. ‘Where’s Aunt Olive?’

  ‘They’ll be here soon,’ Barney said, trying to keep his tone calm so as not to frighten her any more than she already was. ‘Don’t you fret now. Barney won’t let anything happen to you.’

  He dragged the cellar door open and was inside with the door shut even before he found the light switch, but, when he finally pressed the switch, the bulb didn’t light up the cellar steps the way it should have done and he realised the blast must have dislodged something. Gingerly now, Barney edged his feet to the rim of the concrete stairs, all the time holding on to the terrified whimpering child.

  ‘Ssh, Alice,’ he said gently. ‘When we get down there, I’ll tell you a story.’

  ‘I want Sally!’ The child wailed now, her cries getting louder, and for as much as Barney could feel the rising terror almost choke him, he knew he had to show her he was calm and capable. If he went to pieces now, poor Alice would remember it for the rest of her life. He’d be a laughing stock. He had to be calm. What would Captain America have done?
He surely wouldn’t have cried like a baby because the light had gone out. But the further down into the cellar they went, the more Alice screamed, and who could blame her, he thought, feeling like a good scream himself.

  ‘You wait right there, you little monster.’

  Barney’s jokey voice sounded shivery and he was surprised when Alice laughed and said, ‘Your voice has gone all funny!’

  Barney resisted the urge to tell the child that what she was hearing was cold, stark fear. ‘I’ll just try and find the candle and the matches.’ He paused, before saying in a playful voice, ‘Have you hidden them? I bet you have.’

  ‘No, Barney,’ Alice said in her little voice, ‘I haven’t seen no candles today.’

  ‘If you’re hiding them … Oh, here they are … Now, let’s put a bit of light on the subject.’ He was saying anything that came into his head to try to drown out the sound of the falling bombs and the raging flames as buildings burned around them and the air was filled with the smell of scorching wood and plaster.

  Turning into Article Row, all lit up like a huge bonfire night, Archie and Olive were horrified to see the roof of Archie’s house blazing in the night sky.

  ‘Oh, my word!’ Olive cried as her hands covered her mouth and eyes. She couldn’t bear the sight of everything Archie had worked so hard for going up in flames. All his memories of his first wife and his young son, taken too early, were wrapped up that house.

  But standing in the freezing night air, the damp mist swirling around their faces and legs, did little to quell the flames. Already there was a fire crew on site, and both Archie and Olive set to work with nearby stirrup pumps and buckets of water. It wasn’t long before they knew that the house was beyond saving, but they had to help out, it wasn’t in the nature of either of them to leave it up to others. However, Archie was now worried about his future wife and her delicate condition. ‘Go and check on Barney and Alice. There is nothing else you can do here,’he told her.

  ‘Are you sure, Archie?’ Olive cried. ‘I don’t want to leave you here, alone.’