Captain Parry looked rather windswept at the barrage of talk and children.
‘What is this Ace, Jess?’ he asked his younger daughter. ‘A pet?’
‘He’s our puppy,’ Jessie told him proudly. ‘Ever such a clever puppy, Daddy, just like the real Ace – I mean Ace the Wonder Dog, from the pictures. That’s who we named him after. Uncle Charlie bought him for us and we’re training him to be a proper sheepdog.’
‘But you don’t have an Uncle Charlie.’
‘I know he’s not our really proper uncle like Uncle Jack is but we call him that because he sort of feels like an uncle, all the same.’
The captain looked helplessly at Reg.
‘Charlie is my younger brother,’ Reg said. ‘He can be rather… impulsive. He bought the girls a border collie pup at one of the local agricultural shows so they wouldn’t grieve too much when he left for the RAF. Of course, we don’t expect the dog to go back to London with you.’
Jessie shuffled round to look at her father. ‘But we wouldn’t leave him behind, though, would we, Dad?’
‘One thing at a time, Jess,’ he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. ‘At the moment we don’t have a home for ourselves, let alone pets. Besides, the city’s no place for a country dog.’
‘Yes, but he’s our dog! Please say we can keep him.’
‘We’ll talk about it another time. It could be a long while until we can go back to London.’
Mary came in with the teapot and started pouring out the tea. ‘Did your train journey give you much trouble, Captain?’
‘George, please. We’re not in barracks now,’ the captain said with a smile. He looked different when he smiled – warmer, and far less serious and formal. ‘You might even call me Ginger if you like, as the chaps do.’
Mary laughed. ‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that. But I’d be very pleased to call you George. Did you have any problems getting to us?’
‘There were the usual delays for bomb damage on the line and so forth, but we made good time, considering.’ He took the cup of tea she handed him. ‘Thank you. Jessie, you had better hop down so I don’t scald you.’
Jessie did so.
‘I’m going to fetch Barney and Winnie,’ she said. ‘You have to meet them as well as Ace, even though they’re not our particular dogs. Oh, and Daddy, you must meet Boxer too.’
‘Another dog?’
‘No, he’s our horse.’ She puffed herself up. ‘Uncle Charlie left me especially in charge of him.’
‘Boxer can wait until tomorrow. He’s certainly not going to fit in here,’ Mary said with a laugh. ‘I’m sorry, George. We’ve got quite a menagerie, as you can see.’
Jessie disappeared to go find the big dogs, leaving the adults alone.
‘Ah, it does them good,’ the captain said. ‘They seem to be blooming since they arrived in the countryside.’
‘Aye, it’s a good spot for bairns here,’ Reg said. ‘Fresh air, outside play and wholesome food. That’s what you need at that age to grow up strong.’
‘I quite agree.’ Captain Parry put down his tea, looking earnest. ‘And I wanted to say how grateful I am to you both, how very grateful, for giving them a home here. I wasn’t sure what would become of them after we lost our own home – I only knew they had to be removed from the bombs at once, before I lost the last two things I had to love on earth.’
‘Had you or your late wife no family?’ Bobby asked. ‘They spoke of an aunt.’
He looked at her. ‘You are… the daughter of the house, perhaps?’
‘Um, no,’ she said, flushing. ‘More a sort of… employee of the house. Bobby Bancroft. I work on the magazine with Reg.’
‘Oh yes, I recollect the girls mentioning a Bobby in their letters. I’d rather got the impression you were a man, I’m afraid.’
Reg laughed. ‘Don’t worry. It’s happened before.’
‘Bobby’s very much a daughter of the house in spirit, if not in fact,’ Mary told the captain. ‘The girls didn’t care much to live with their aunt, I think, George.’
