‘Promise.’
‘Come on, girls,’ Bobby said. ‘We won’t wake Mary. I can put you to bed tonight.’
‘Will you sing to us as Mary does?’ Jessie asked as she clambered down from her father.
She smiled. ‘All right, but you’ll need to instruct me.’
Florrie went to tuck Ace under her arm, then they kissed their father and Reg goodnight, leaving Mary to sleep. Bobby took them by the shoulders to guide them upstairs to the attic.
The windowless attic had never been intended as a bedroom. It was rather dark and gloomy, with low-hanging beams that meant it was impossible for a fully grown adult to stand up straight in there, but Mary had made it as nice as she could for the two evacuees. The old mattress they had slept on for their first few nights had been replaced now with a good-sized bed to share, including a warm, fluffy eiderdown, and she had persuaded Reg to repaper the walls with a suitably colourful patterned paper. A couple of night lights made the darkness of the room seem almost exciting as they cast shadows into the corners, like a sort of smugglers’ cave.
The girls were already in their nightdresses. They climbed into bed, with Ace eschewing his basket as usual in order to curl himself in the crook of Jessie’s knees on top of the eiderdown.
‘Bobby, why are Daddy and Reg and your dad so excited about Russia?’ Jessie asked as she snuggled under the covers. ‘I couldn’t understand all that war stuff they were saying.’
‘Well, because a few years ago when we realised there was probably going to be a war, we had hoped Russia would be on our side and it could be won quickly,’ Bobby said.
‘But they weren’t, though, were they?’
‘No.Stalin, who is like the prime minister in Russia, signed an agreement with Hitler to say his country would stay out of it. But now Germany has attacked them, the Russians really have no choice but to come in on our side after all. At the very least they’ll be fighting the Germans as well, even if they’re not officially our allies. That will help us to win the war sooner.’
‘Huh. We don’t need ’em,’ Florrie said, scowling fiercely. ‘We can win the war all by ourselves. We don’t need no Russians if they go round signing things with Hitler.’
‘I know we will win eventually, but the more countries are fighting back against the Germans, the sooner that will happen. And then there’ll be no more bombs, and people away fighting, like your father and Uncle Charlie, can come home again.’
‘Hm. Well, all right. S’pose they can be in the war with us then.’
Bobby smiled. ‘And now you had better instruct me on what to sing, for it’s a long time since I had children to put to bed.’
Jessie blinked sleepily at her. ‘Did you have some children, Bobby?’
‘Are they grown up now?’ Florrie asked.
Bobby laughed. ‘I’m not nearly so ancient as I’m sure the two of you believe, that I could have children grown and left home.’ She tucked their eiderdown tight around them. ‘But I was a big sister to two young brothers who had no mother, once upon a time. And one of them, at least, was still small enough to want to be tucked in at night.’
‘Where is he now?’ Florrie asked.
‘Oh, he’s grown up,’ Bobby said, somewhat wistfully. ‘Both my brothers are men now, away fighting in the war. It’s a long time since they wanted a song at bedtime.’ She forced a smile. ‘So you see, I’m rather out of practice. What lullaby does Mary sing to you?’
‘Sometimes she sings “Oranges and Lemons”, or “Bye, Baby Bunting”,’ Jessie said. ‘But I like it best when she sings “Lavender’s Blue”.’
‘So do I.’ Florrie yawned deeply. ‘She says that was her little girl’s favourite. Her name was Nancy, but she’s in heaven now. Do you know it too, Bobby?’
Bobby cast her mind back to her own childhood. Her mother in her pink dressing gown… yes, that’s right, and her father too, sitting on the edge of the bed she shared with Lilian. Her mother singing the melody, her father the harmonies… she had almost forgotten.
‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘Yes, I think so. “Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly, lavender’s green…”’
‘That’s right,’ Florrie said happily. ‘“When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen.”’
Bobby smiled. ‘I remember. Close your eyes now and I’ll sing it.’
She sang the lullaby softly to them. Jessie was breathing the deep, rhythmic breaths of someone in deep sleep before she reached the final verse.
‘Night night now, darlings,’ she whispered. She planted a kiss on the sleeping Jessie’s head, then went to the other side of the bed to do the same for Florrie. She thought the child was asleep likewise, but her eyes blinked open as Bobby bent to kiss her goodnight.
‘Bobby?’ she whispered sleepily.
‘Yes, my love?’
