She had resigned as an ARP warden at the end of February, handing over her whistle to Gil Capstick, who had volunteered in her place. Bobby was sorry to say goodbye to the cold tin hut, but she was glad to call her evenings her own again. What with preparing for Topsy’s wedding, getting ready for her own imminent departure and making sure the cow house was ready for its two – well, two and a half – new occupants, there seemed to be an unending list of chores to be done.
Lilian and Tony would be arriving with their few belongings that evening. Bobby would then move into the box room at Moorside for her last two evenings as a civilian, before departing for her new life as a WAAF on Monday.
‘What’re you up to at this hour?’ her dad asked, emerging from his bedroom in the morning to find her standing on a chair, covered in plaster dust. ‘You look like the Ghost o’ Christmas Past, our Bobby.’
Bobby sneezed. ‘Ugh. This stuff gets everywhere. I’m sure I’ll be sneezing it out for weeks.’ She got down from the chair. ‘I’m plugging up some of the gaps to keep out the draught a little better.’
‘It’s man’s work, that. Leave me do it, or young Scott.’
‘I just want to know it’s done before I leave,’ she said, dusting herself down. ‘I’d hate Lil to get ill from sleeping in a draughty house now she needs her strength.’
Her dad winced, as he always did when anyone mentioned Lilian’s condition.
He hadn’t even been able to look at the little cradle the Athertons had given them to put in the Scotts’ room ready for the baby – Nancy’s old one, which Reg had kindly sanded and painted fresh. It looked very sweet at the foot of the bed: the wood now a fresh grass-green with little daisies painted on the sides.
‘What do you think?’ Bobby had asked her dad when she had brought it home from Moorside.
‘Bad luck, that. Bringing a crib over the threshold before t’ bairn’s arrived,’ was his gruff answer. Bobby couldn’t get him to look at it, or make any further comment.
While he seemed to have come to terms with the fact his daughter was married – and to the even more unpalatable truth that he now had Tony Scott for a son-in-law – Lilian’s pregnancy seemed to be taking her dad longer to accept. Bobby hoped this would wear off when he grew accustomed to seeing Lil every day. At nearly seven months pregnant, she would be a fair size by now.
While their father had the natural male squeamishness of his generation when it came to pregnancy and birth, the fact of it was hardly new to him. He had been at his wife’s side through multiple pregnancies – four babies who had lived, and one who had died before ever seeing the world. He was exceptionally fond of his two granddaughters – Rose and Susie, Raymond’s children – and of children generally. Bobby did so want him to have a good relationship with the new baby.
‘How are you feeling, Dad?’ she asked gently. ‘Things are going to be different after today, aren’t they?’
He sighed. ‘It’ll be a new life, all right.’
‘You’ll soon settle to a new routine. I hope I will too.’ Bobby glanced wistfully around the old barn. ‘I’ll miss this place. Funny to think last night was my final sleep under this leaky old roof.’
‘Wish you didn’t have to go.’
‘So do I. But I do.’ She summoned a smile. ‘Anyhow, we’ve got something joyful to celebrate before you wave me off. It’s the wedding tomorrow.’
Her dad smiled too. ‘You ought to get a move on and sort out one of your own, lass. I’ve been done out of one daughter’s wedding as it is. I won’t be cheated of another. Tell that Charlie Atherton to pull his socks up, eh?’
‘Charlie’s done his part – at least, he’s got his CO’s consent to marry. I need to do the same, then hopefully we can confirm it for the 2nd of May.’
‘Well, don’t be long about it. I’ll sing hymns at Her Ladyship’s wedding gladly but it’s for thee I’ll be dancing a jig, Bobby. Nice to have one son-in-law I can shake by the hand without reservation.’
Bobby laughed. ‘You didn’t always talk about Charlie that way.’
‘Aye, well. He’s not Tony Scott, which goes a long way in his favour.’
‘Dad…’
‘I know, I know,’ he said, picking up his cloth cap and jamming it on his head. ‘I’ll not make trouble. Don’t mean I’m happy about it.’
‘Tony’s doing everything he ought to, isn’t he? He’s about to start a new job, he’s made Lil and the baby respectable, and he’s not going to drag them to any of the blitzed cities. Wait and see, that’s all I ask. If he lets Lil down then I’ll be first in the queue to give him a bloody nose, but he’s earned himself the right to a chance.’
‘We’ll see how he goes on,’ was her dad’s non-committal answer. He scanned her customary weekend costume of jumper and trousers. ‘Are you not going to work? I thought Reg was keeping you on while tomorrow.’
‘He wants me to get him a walk for the next number, now the weather’s warmer,’ Bobby said, pulling on her walking boots. ‘After breakfast I’m heading up Bowside by the drover’s path, then I’ll type it up tomorrow before the wedding.’
‘All the way up there? Long way, that.’
‘I suppose Reg is worried Tony won’t be able to manage the walks page, with his asthma and weedy city legs,’ she said, smiling. ‘Either that or he’s trying to do me a favour.’
‘This is Reg’s idea of a favour, is it?’
