‘Has somebody said something unkind to you?’
Once more he shook his head.
‘Are you homesick?’
This time there was no shake of his head, just a sniff. To Florence it didn’t make sense that he would be homesick. Why long to be somewhere you were treated so badly? But Miss Romily had explained that that was often the way; that home, even when it was a place of violence and cruelty, was better than being somewhere strange where you didn’t know anybody. Florence had never felt that way; once she’d left home, she’d never longed to be back there. But then she was older than Stanley when she’d made the break.
She put a hand on the boy’s bony knee. ‘If you are missing home, Stanley, that’s okay. I’m sure you won’t have to put up with us for too long. Just as soon as the dust has settled, you’ll be home before you know it.’
He looked up at her. ‘D’yer mean that, missus?’
‘Yes,’ Florence answered him, hating herself for the lie. War had just been announced, and here she was telling the lad he’d soon be home. Well, who knew, maybe he would be? ‘Meanwhile,’ she said, ‘why don’t you try and enjoy yourself? Island House is not such a bad place to be. Would you like to come blackberry picking with me again later? You enjoyed that yesterday, didn’t you?’
He gave a small shrug of his pitifully thin shoulders. ‘Maybe.’
‘And then there are all the other children in the village to get to know when school starts,’ she said cheerfully. ‘That’ll be fun, won’t it?’
At the mention of school, Stanley’s lip trembled. ‘I don’t wanna go to school,’ he muttered.
‘I’m afraid you won’t have much choice in the matter. You went to school back at home, didn’t you?’
‘Not much. Me mum said she needed me at ’ome.’
His lower lip trembled again and he jammed the handkerchief Florence had given him against his eyes. Florence put her arm around him and gave him the hug she’d wanted to give him ever since he’d first arrived.
In the drawing room, the wireless now off, Kit was pouring out glasses of sherry and passing them round.
‘I don’t know about the rest of you,’ he said, ‘but I feel as if an enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders. The bank will soon be a thing of the past for me!’
‘How can you talk like that?’ said Hope with a shake of her head. ‘War is not a game, Kit. Thousands of lives are going to be lost, possibly even yours, so please don’t make light of it. I can’t bear it.’
‘I agree with Kit,’ said Allegra. ‘I’d sooner perish honourably and in action than die of boredom in a job I hated. And let’s face it, joining the RAF and learning to fly has to be a lot more thrilling than working in a bank.’
Kit smiled. ‘Thank you, Allegra; I’m glad somebody understands my point of view. I just hope I don’t have to hang around as a reservist for too long. I’m itching to get going with my training and then do my bit.’
‘War is not supposed to be thrilling,’ said Hope with exasperation. ‘You’ve been like a dog with two tails ever since you came back from the recruiting centre in London.’
With the conversation going on around her, and Annelise on her lap – for some reason the little girl had taken a peculiar liking to her – Romily thought how unreal the situation felt. She almost didn’t know how to react. Somehow she had expected to feel completely changed by the announcement they had all been waiting for. But she felt no different to how she’d felt when she woke this morning. Perhaps she was inured to shock, still numb from losing her dearest Jack and unable to feel any real depth of emotion. In which case perhaps it would simply take some time for the reality of the news to sink in. She had only been a young child when the Great War began, and her memories were patchy. She remembered more vividly the day her father was invalided out of the war, the joy at seeing him again, and later the day peace was announced.
She listened to Kit, Hope and Allegra as they agreed and disagreed with each other. It came as naturally to them as breathing, this constant wrangling, even on a light-hearted basis; they didn’t seem able to help themselves. Yet far from annoying her, Romily found it mildly diverting, for there was no malice in their exchanges. The three of them were much more comfortable around each other without Arthur in their midst stirring things up. Had he not been around, could they have come together as a family a lot sooner? Who knew? But as Roddy had said, often there was no obvious reason why a family fell apart other than a gradual unravelling over the pettiest of matters. For as far as Romily could see, it really hadn’t taken much for Hope, Kit and Allegra to form an alliance, even if it was a fragile one. Putting Arthur aside, was it too soon to believe she had almost achieved what Jack had wanted her to do? His will had seemed so very draconian in its instructions, but undoubtedly it had led to something positive.
It was three days now since Roddy had formally declared that having complied with Jack’s wishes, his children and niece would duly inherit as specified under the terms of the will and were free to leave Island House. His case already packed, Arthur had set off for the station straight away, without saying goodbye. Which surprised no one. The surprise was that he hadn’t left at once after that disagreeable scene at the dining table the evening before.
In the wake of his departure, an undeniable sense of calm and liberation had descended upon Island House. Hope duly apologised to Allegra for being so angry with her over Annelise, and in return, Allegra apologised for providing Arthur with the opportunity to play such a cruel trick. It was with this new level of accord firmly in place that Romily had made it clear that if they wanted to stay on at Island House, they were more than welcome. Kit too was welcome any time he wanted to come. She had told him this when he’d taken the train with her down to London on Friday. He had decided immediately to return with her that evening to spend the weekend with them all.
Only a short while ago, Romily’s life had been so very different; now it was as if she were suddenly responsible for a house full of people who needed a guiding hand. There was Hope, who was in loco parentis and struggling to cope; Allegra who had yet to share the secret of the baby she was expecting as well as decide what to do next; and Kit, who with his boyish exuberance seemed badly in want of a rock on which to lean. Every now and then Romily saw through his act of acute cheerfulness and glimpsed a young boy eager to impress and be loved. She had no doubt that that was what Evelyn Flowerday also saw, and who knew, maybe level-headed and assured Evelyn was just the person he needed in his life.
Romily would never describe herself as having a truly altruistic nature, but something in this trio roused in her the need to stand by them, to be the dependable adult amongst them. Not exactly a mother figure – after all, she wasn’t much older than they were – but perhaps a big sister, a figure they could turn to in their hour of need. They were also, apart from Roddy, the only real connection she had to Jack. They might not have seen the best of him, but they had known something of him that she never had, and deep down her heart yearned to know more of the man she missed so desperately. She hoped that in the days and weeks ahead, she could get them to open up more about Jack, and she in turn would share with them what she had known of him.
‘Here’s to giving Herr Hitler what he bloody well deserves!’ declared Kit, interrupting Romily’s thoughts and raising his sherry glass, a gesture that reminded her again of that awful evening last Wednesday when she had confronted Arthur.
How many other families in the village, and in the country, would be doing the same? she pondered as she reluctantly went along with Kit’s bullish sentiment.
Chapter Thirty-Five
To her very great relief, Allegra had now made a full recovery from the lethargy that had struck her so profoundly, as well as the worst of the nausea. Occasionally first thing in the morning she felt a little queasy, but it was nothing compared to what she’d experienced before. At Dr Garland’s encouragement, she was also enjoying a daily walk.
Out walking now, she thought how good it was to escape the frenzy of activity at Island House that had gone on for most of the day. Mamma mia, such a commotion over putting up a few blackout curtains! And such a fuss made over her remembering to carry her gas mask when she left the house. It was hard to imagine needing it when the sky was crystal clear and the afternoon so delightfully tranquil and warm.
