‘Yes, Mary,’ the pair chanted dutifully.
‘Do Reg and Mary know?’ Bobby murmured to Topsy as she followed her into the bedroom. ‘The extent of his injuries?’
‘No,’ Topsy whispered back. ‘He only told them he’d been wounded in the leg. I don’t suppose he’d want them to know.’
When they entered Topsy’s room, Mary took a dress from the cupboard. ‘Here we are.’
Bobby smiled. ‘My Cinderella ballgown.’
‘I always had intended it for a bride. I’ve trimmed it up with new lace, and the girls have picked fresh flowers to ornament it.’
‘I thought you’d rather have some of our hothouse roses, but Mary was sure you’d prefer wild flowers from the hedgerow,’ Topsy said.
‘Mary was right,’ Bobby said, smiling at her friend.
‘Now, get into your dress and we’ll set this pair of troublemakers on your hair,’ Mary said. ‘How will you wear it, Bobby?’
‘Loose, I think,’ Bobby said, rather dreamily. ‘I know it isn’t the fashion, but it feels right. Just brushed over my shoulders,with a garland of flowers. And no rouge, please. Only a little powder.’
Mary smiled. ‘Aye, he’ll like that. All right, ladies, let’s go to work. We don’t have long.’
‘Let me take down your hair,’ Lilian said, leading Bobby to the chair at Topsy’s dressing table. She took off her sister’s WAAF cap and began removing hairpins.
‘A wedding day at last,’ she said softly. ‘I don’t suppose this is how you pictured it.’
‘It’s exactly how I pictured it, Lil. I never did picture a wedding the way you always could. I only saw Charlie.’
‘Yes, I suppose you did. Well, perhaps you had it right after all.’
‘This is the third wedding in our little circle this year, and every one different from the others,’ Bobby said. ‘You and Tony. Topsy and Teddy. And now Charlie and me.’
‘They say things are lucky that come in threes,’ Lilian said. ‘I hope for all our sakes that they’re right.’
Once Bobby was dressed, she went to present herself to the folk in the parlour. Her dad actually had a tear in his eye as he took in her loose, flowing hair and the simple but elegant white dress Mary had fashioned from odds and ends of material.
‘By, but you look like your mam,’ he said quietly.
‘Bobby, you are quite beautiful,’ Teddy said.
Mrs Hobbes nodded. ‘And so say all of us.’
‘Even I have to admit you don’t scrub up too bad,’ Tony said, and Bobby laughed.
‘Well, come on then,’ her dad said. ‘If I’m to give a daughter away today, I want to get it over with.’
Bobby smiled and took the arm he offered.
‘Matron’s been recruited into our cabal, along with the chaplain, of course,’ Topsy told them as they set off for Sumner House. ‘She’s going to unlock the back door to the orangery –that’s what we use as the chapel – and we can wait at the pulpit for Reg to lure Charlie to us.’
‘It’s going to be a strange sort of wedding, with the groom walking down the aisle instead of the bride,’ Lilian said with a laugh.
‘And him not having a clue about it.’ Topsy’s eyes sparkled. ‘A surprise wedding. It’s the most romantic thing I ever heard of. I can’t wait to see Charlie’s face when he sees how beautiful you look, Birdy.’
Bobby was starting to feel nervous now. She had been so sure this was a good idea. It seemed symbolic, in a way. So many times when Charlie had been eager for their wedding, she had tried to persuade him to wait until things were more settled. She felt differently now. She needed to be with him, having come so close to losing him. Needed to prove once and for all that it was him she wanted, no matter what.
And yet… would he be angry that she hadn’t told him what she was planning? Suppose he said no – just walked away? She had spent the past week imagining the look of joy on his tired, haggard face when he saw her, waiting to promise herself to him at last. It hadn’t occurred to her, until now when she was on the brink of meeting him at the altar, that she might see a different emotion written there.
The chaplain and matron were waiting for them when they reached the orangery. The matron was so stern usually that it felt strange to see her wearing an unaccustomed expression of benevolence.
