Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [128]
‘Your father’s told Mr Parker that in his shoes he’d think again about Alan staying at home whilst other young men are fighting. Everyone knows that some unscrupulous families are getting their sons jobs in reserved occupations, and Daddy told him outright that he didn’t think that kind of thing would go down very well with the rest of the council, or in the newspapers if they were to get wind of it. People talk, and it certainly doesn’t create the right impression, not now that so many young men are volunteering.
‘No, I know. Alan’s joined the Local Defence Volunteers this week, so when he isn’t working, he’s out doing things with them.’
‘Daddy’s had a word about those refugees you’ve got billeted on you, and said how worried we are that running round after them all the time might be too much for you in your condition. I’m afraid, though, that nothing can be done at the moment, darling, not with all these new refugees coming over from Holland and Belgium.’
Bella nodded again. In some ways now that Jan had gone to join the other Polish pilots at Northolt, she didn’t mind quite as much as she had done about having the two women there. At least their presence meant that she didn’t have to be on her own with Alan, who thankfully had started going home to his mother’s for his tea, and not coming home until Bella was safely in bed.
Monday 27 May
‘They’ve said in the papers that Hitler’s given the order to the Panzers to halt so that the Luftwaffe can finish off the BEF, and then bomb England.’ Jean’s face was white and set, her voice shaking. ‘Do they know, do you think? Luke and all those other boys?’
‘Oh, Mum, don’t,’ begged Grace. It was her half-day and she had come home to spend it with her family, knowing that they, like her, would be filled with anxiety and despair over the increasingly bad news that had been coming in ever since Amiens and Arras had fallen to the Germans on 20 May, and the German Forces had then broken through to reach the English Channel, whilst the British Expeditionary Force retreated. But what would happen when they reached the Channel and were at Hitler’s mercy?
Even the twins were affected by the mood of fear and despair that was gripping everyone, their gramophone silent and their faces drawn with apprehension.
Francine listened to her elder sister, her own heart feeling as though it was being wrenched apart. She should not have come back. She knew that now. Better perhaps to have stayed in America and not known how Vi had betrayed her and she in turn had betrayed Jack. Nothing she could say could persuade Vi to change her mind and tell her where Jack was. She had even tried to find out from his school, but the school had told Vi, who had been furious with her – and anyway, as she had discovered, Vi had arranged a private evacuation for Jack, sending him away before his school had gone.
Now with Jean so obviously sick with fear for her own son, Francine couldn’t bring herself to ask her yet again to try to persuade Vi to relent. At least Jack was safe. But was he happy? Vi did not love him – Francine had known that immediately. That was the hardest thing of all for her to bear. How could she not have known before? Why had she not had a mother’s instinct to warn her that Vi had not kept her promise to her and loved Jack as though he truly had been her own?
‘What will happen to them, Sam? If the Germans take them prisoner.’ Jean’s voice cracked with fear.
‘General Lord Gort will have them all evacuated before that happens,’ Sam told her, but Jean could see that he wasn’t any more convinced than she was herself that it would be possible to bring so many men home safely so very quickly.
According to the papers, Hitler’s Panzers had now taken Calais and were surrounding the BEF at a place called Dunkirk, where they were now trapped. The inconveniences of war the month had brought, like the increase in the cost of petrol and the butter ration being cut, meant very little when compared with what was happening on the other side of the Channel.