The Bells of Bow (28 page)

‘Come on, Sal,’ Georgie urged her as he looked over his shoulder, signalling for the constable to do something, anything to help him, before the roof caved in completely. ‘Give us a smile. Come on, just to please me. Yer a right beauty as it is, but I bet you’re even prettier when you smile.’

The constable shrugged hopelessly, his face full of fear. ‘What can I do?’

Georgie closed his eyes, hooked his torn and bleeding hands under Sal’s arms and said, ‘Take a deep breath, darling. I’m gonna get you out. Now. One, two, three.’

Georgie took a deep breath himself, braced his leg against what remained of the wall and, with a superhuman effort, dragged Sal clear and out onto the pavement. As the debris shifted, the shop folded in on itself as if it were made of paper. Bricks, glass and timbers shattered around them, and Georgie threw himself over Sal to protect her.

The last thing he felt before he passed out was Lady sinking her teeth into his arm.

‘Yer did what yer could, Ringer.’ Vic was holding out a thick china cup full of tea that he’d fetched Georgie from the mobile canteen that had turned up.

‘She’s dead, ain’t she.’ It was a statement rather than a question. Georgie struggled to sit up.

Vic nodded. ‘Sorry, mate.’

‘What a sodding, bloody waste.’ As Georgie took the lighted cigarette from the constable, he winced with pain. He looked down at the ripped sleeve of his uniform where Lady had attacked him in her loyal efforts to protect her mistress. ‘Where’s the little dog?’

‘The girl driving the ambulance couldn’t separate ’em. The little thing wouldn’t leave the girl’s side. So when they …’ Vic looked into his cup, as though he would find the right words sitting there in the tea. ‘When they took Sal away, they took the dog and all. The driver said she’d keep it till they found it a home.’

Georgie nodded, his jaw rigid to stop himself crying. ‘I bet she winds up keeping it herself. ’Cos they’re all the same, ain’t they, young girls with dogs?’

Then, with his muscles stretched beyond what he thought they were capable of, Georgie held out his hand for Vic to help him stand up. Although he was almost dead on his feet, Georgie insisted on getting stuck in with the others as they finished their job, damping down and then rolling up the unwieldy lengths of hose. After the long hours withstanding such extreme water pressure, the seventy-five feet long hoses had become semi-rigid, the opposite but no less awkward problem to when they had almost melted in the intense heat when the fire had been at its peak.

It was the early hours before Georgie and the rest of the crew, faces black as coal, uniforms soaked through and weighing what felt like a ton apiece, were cheered for their bravery as they finally made their way home. But Georgie didn’t hear the people’s thanks as he concentrated on the road in the dawn light. All he could hear was the sound of Sal’s voice echoing round his aching head.

Two days later, Georgie stepped out of his street door and began walking along Darnfield Street, his hands stuffed deep into his pockets and his collar turned up round his ears. It was seven o’clock in the morning, still not fully light, and it was freezing. He had been home for only half an hour after three long days on shift and had thought that all he wanted to do was to get into bed, but with the image of Sal Turner’s pretty young face still going round in his head, he hadn’t been able to rest. Instead, he had sat in the kitchen drinking tea and smoking, waiting for the girls to come back from the shelter to get themselves ready for work. He intended to see them first then go back to the sub-station to check if there was anything he could do to help out for a few hours. But the girls were taking longer to come home than he had expected, so he decided to go over to the pub to find them.

‘Yer frightened the life out of me, Ringer,’ Minnie said as she and Clara practically fell into his arms as they stepped out of the front door of the Drum. Minnie squinted at him more closely. ‘Blimey, yer look like yer could do with a good night’s sleep.’

Georgie smiled, pleased to see their familiar faces. ‘Hello, ladies. And what’s this?’ He peered into the cage that Minnie was carrying. ‘Yer know, I never knew you had a parrot.’

‘We’ve only just got it, ain’t we, Clara?’

Clara nodded her head. ‘Polly, it’s called.’

‘This old girl in the ward, where we clean at the hospital,’ Minnie explained, ‘she died, poor old thing. Wasn’t no one else who’d take it. So me and Clara wound up with it.’

‘That’s good of yer,’ said Georgie. He touched the bite marks on his arm, thinking about Sal and Lady, the little dog who’d been left without a mistress. ‘Kind.’

‘Not really,’ said Minnie, obviously pleased. ‘You know how it is, Ringer. Wouldn’t like to think of even a dumb animal suffering ’cos of the war. They didn’t bloody start it, did they?’

Clara poked Minnie in the side. ‘Language, Min.’

Minnie laughed. ‘Aw yeah, I was forgetting. We’ve gotta watch every word we say now. The woman what owned this bird might have looked a nice old girl, but she must’ve had a tongue like a docker’s tart. Yer wanna hear this bleed’n thing swear!’

Clara giggled. ‘Come on, Min, we’ll be late.’

Minnie rolled her eyes at Georgie. ‘I dunno. She still worries about being on time, even in the bloody bombing.’ She linked her big, plump arm though Clara’s. ‘Still, we’d better get this little devil indoors then get ourselves off to clean them bloody offices.’ She looked back over her shoulder at Georgie and shook her head. ‘Then we’re off down to Bancroft Road to do the hospital. No peace for the wicked, eh, Ringer?’

‘No peace for no one lately, Min.’

Georgie still didn’t get inside the pub. Someone tapped him lightly on the back. He turned round. It was Maudie Peters.

‘I’m glad I caught you, Mr Bell.’ She was puffing as though she had been running. ‘I saw you talking to Minnie and Clara and wanted to find out how you all were. What with one thing and another, I’ve not seen either of the girls for days.’

‘Me neither. I’ve been on duty solid for the last three days.’ Georgie suddenly looked concerned. He jerked his thumb at the pub door. ‘Haven’t you seen ’em in here? They promised me faithfully they’d go in here to shelter every night.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m sure they have been. It’s me, I’ve not been in there. I’ve been round at the church, handing out blankets and tea.’

Georgie looked relieved. ‘Aw, I see.’

‘There’s been plenty of little things to do round there lately. Mind you,’ she said, looking up at him, ‘I still feel bad when I see how much other people are doing.’

‘We all do what we can.’

‘Well, to be honest, it’s a bit of a waste of time. There are more than enough volunteers at the church. Too many really, all getting on top of one another.’ Maudie laughed ironically. ‘With all the old maids like me around, the vicar’s attracted himself quite a following, elderly though he is.’

‘Yer shouldn’t knock yerself so much, Miss Peters.’

‘You’re being kind.’

‘No. No, I’m not. I mean it. And like I said, we all only do what we can.’

‘I think that some of us are doing a lot more than others.’

Georgie looked down at his boots. ‘I was thinking the other day,’ he said quietly. ‘There’s something I’d like to do for you. If yer like.’

‘Oh?’ Maudie sounded intrigued.

‘There’s always loads of timber on the bombsites. And I was thinking that I could fetch some home and chop it up for yer, for firewood. ’Cos this cold weather looks like it’s set in for the winter now.’

Maudie wrinkled her nose and blushed. ‘Oh dear.’

‘Is something wrong?’

‘I’ve got a gas fire.’

Now it was Georgie’s turn to blush. ‘I don’t suppose it’ll be much use to yer then, firewood?’

Maudie burst out laughing. ‘No.’

George grinned. ‘Yer know, that is exactly what I could do with, seeing someone laughing, Miss Peters. And you have got a very nice laugh.’

‘Thank you, Mr Bell.’ She smiled up at him, meeting his gaze for just a little longer than Georgie expected. ‘And I’ve also got very cold feet,’ she added. ‘In fact, I’m freezing. I’ll see you later.’

Georgie watched her as she hurried off along the road towards her house, his breath making little clouds as he whistled thoughtfully to himself.

As Maudie disappeared inside number seven with a wave, the door of the Drum opened and Babs and Evie were standing beside him.

‘You sound like yer in a good mood, Dad,’ said Babs after she had kissed him on the cheek.

‘Why shouldn’t I be, with two lovely daughters?’ He put his arms round their shoulders.

‘Careful, Dad,’ Evie groaned, pulling away from him. ‘I ain’t feeling too good.’

‘No?’

‘No. Must be having to sleep on them rotten, hard bunks.’

‘Yeah,’ he said cautiously, looking at the dark circles under her eyes. ‘Must be. Well, I just wanted to see that yer was both safe and sound before I nipped back to the station for a couple of hours. You eating properly, Eve? Yer wanna get home and get yerself some grub.’

Evie’s face turned even paler.

Later that day, Blanche Simpkins was coming to the end of her first day’s work at Styleways.

‘I know I’ve never met that young lad from the warehouse, but I hope he’s all right. Fancy him getting trapped in that building like that. Must have been terrifying for him, poor little sod. And I can imagine how his mother’s suffering.’

Ginny turned to Joan and said quietly, ‘She ain’t been here five minutes and hark at her. Yer’d think he was her kid the way she’s going on.’

Blanche might not have been there for very long, but it was still more than long enough for her to have got the measure of Ginny. ‘What was that yer said, Ginny? Something poisonous, I suppose. But yer wanna be careful what yer say in front of me, ’cos I don’t take no lip from no one. Wouldn’t do no harm for you to remember that.’

Babs cheered. ‘Go on, Blanche, you tell her, girl.’

‘Yer gonna have to watch that trap of your’n, Gin,’ said Lou, happily. ‘I’ve seen Blanche chasing her Terry down the street with a copper stick just for cheeking her before now. Gawd knows what she’d do with them tailoring shears.’

Ginny was fuming. ‘I thought working with a bloody Eytie was bad enough, but now we’ve got sodding Mother Hen to put up with and all.’

‘That’s me finished,’ said Blanche, pointedly ignoring Ginny’s taunts as she snapped open the foot of her machine. Then she stood up and went to the end of the work bench where she picked up a stack of completed army trousers from by the side of Evie’s chair and carried them along to the other end of the row to Maria. ‘There y’are, sweetheart,’ she said, smiling at her, and turned and walked slowly back to her place. ‘Yer know what,’ she said as she sauntered past Ginny’s seat, ‘I can hardly believe it’s this time already. I never would have thought the day could pass so quick. Must be all the nice, friendly company.’

Everyone in the workshop, except Ginny, started snorting with laughter, but their amusement didn’t last long – the all too familiar sound of the air raid warning had started its wailing.

‘Aw, bloody hell,’ said Lou, throwing up her arms. ‘Can’t they even wait for us to get home? I don’t wanna be stuck here in the sodding basement for another night.’

‘Perhaps it’s not too bad,’ said Maria, pulling back the corner of the blackout curtains and peering down into the street below. ‘Blimey, it is. Will yer look at them fires? They ain’t wasted no time tonight.’

Babs leant over Maria’s shoulder to look for herself. ‘Christ, Eve, we’ve gotta get home. Them fires. They’re over Bow way. Look.’

Mr Silver came puffing into the workshop; he had run up the stairs to make sure that everyone was following the procedure. He knew what a fuss the girls made about having to go downstairs to shelter; in fact, he thought they had all started getting a bit too relaxed about the warnings altogether lately and he didn’t want their injuries on his conscience.

‘Come on, girls,’ he urged them. ‘Switch those machines off and get yerselves down to the basement.’ He shook his head at Babs. ‘Don’t worry about yer bags and coats. Just leave them where they are. Please, just get yerself downstairs.’

‘Sorry, Mr Silver, I can’t. I’ve gotta get home to see if me dad’s all right.’

Mr Silver couldn’t stop her. Babs, quickly followed by Blanche and Evie, dashed past him and disappeared through the fire doors before he had the chance to open his mouth to protest.

‘I knew I shouldn’t have left the kids,’ Blanche panted as they flew down the stairs.

‘They’ll be all right,’ Babs said, jumping down the bottom three steps. ‘Mary’ll be sheltering at the factory with your Ruby. Terry’ll have made Len go in the Drum with him. And Janey’ll be fine at the nursery.’

‘Will she?’ Blanche didn’t sound convinced.

‘Course,’ Babs reassured her, pulling open the door to the street. ‘Now, come on, Eve, get yer coat done up, it’s perishing out here.’

It wasn’t only cold outside, it was dark, noisy and frightening. The three of them ran, the sound of their shoes hitting the pavement ringing in their ears. But Evie suddenly stopped.

‘You two go on,’ she gasped. ‘I’ll have to slow down.’

‘If yer think I’m leaving you here, yer silly cow, yer even dafter than I thought yer was,’ Babs said, trying to drag her along. ‘What’s the matter with you, Eve? Too much riding around in motor cars made yer soft?’

‘I feel sick, Babs.’

‘Yer wanna try staying in a couple o’ nights and getting some rest. Now come on.’

‘I mean it, Babs. And I ain’t arguing with yer.’ Evie leant back against the wall. She could feel the cold sweat trickling down her back. ‘I told yer, I feel ill.’

Babs sighed in despair. ‘You’ll have to go on, Blanche. See to yer kids. I’ll sort Evie out.’

‘I will if yer don’t mind,’ Blanche agreed hurriedly and ran off into the dark. ‘Look after yerselves,’ they heard her call back to them.

‘We can’t stand here like flipping targets, Eve. We might as well have stayed at work.’

‘I can’t help it.’ Evie’s bottom lip was trembling.

Babs bowed her head and took a deep breath before speaking. ‘Look, Eve,’ she said slowly and deliberately. ‘Yer gonna
have
to move. It ain’t much further and we’ll be at the station. If the trains’re running we can at least get to Mile End.’