‘That military jargon, is it?’
‘He’ll know what it means. It stands for Late Leave Pass.’
Gil frowned as he jotted the rest down. ‘“Ur…gent.” There you go. Nowt wrong, I hope, Miss?’
‘Just a bit of a family crisis.’
Bobby bit her tongue as soon as the words were out of her mouth, realising how they might be misconstrued. Gil was a lovely lad but he could gossip for England. The last thing she wanted was it being all over the village that ‘that Miss Bancroft from t’ paper is in the family way’.
‘My family, I mean – my sister,’ she clarified hastily. ‘I need Charlie’s advice.’
‘To do with your letter yesterday, is it?’
‘One of them, yes.’ Bobby changed the subject swiftly before he probed further. ‘Is that good to go, Gil?’
‘Unless you’ve owt else to add. You can have another two words for your ninepence.’
‘There’s nothing else I need to say.’ She coloured a little. ‘Actually, better add “love”. A few kisses as well.’
He smiled. ‘I should hope so. And the other?’
Bobby was glad Lilian had told her where she was staying so she knew where to direct the telegram. Clara Soames kept a boarding house on Southampton Street in Bradford, near their old home. Bobby gave Gil the address, praying her sister wasn’t married already. She had no idea what she was going to do, but she knew she needed to speak to Lilian before she committed her life to a man she didn’t love.
‘What’s the message?’ Gil asked when he’d taken down the name and address.
‘Just this. “In Bradford tomorrow: 7th. Do nothing till I come. Please.”’
‘Sure you want the “please”? It’s another penny.’
‘Yes, it’s worth the extra.’
‘All right, then with the priority that’ll be two and seven.’
The bell over the door jangled as Bobby handed over the coins. Her friend Topsy Sumner-Walsh came in, a worried look on her attractive, girlish face.
‘Oh, Birdy, you’re here,’ she said, coming forward to embrace her. ‘I was going to come to you afterwards if there was any news. Is there, Gil?’
He shook his head sorrowfully. ‘Sorry, Your Ladyship. Nowt from t’ airbase.’
Bobby frowned. As usual her friend seemed to think that whatever she knew was common knowledge, but several days of bad weather had kept the folk at Moorside closeted from any village gossip. Why would Topsy be expecting anything from an airbase, and why did she look so worried? As far as Bobby knew, she had no family with the RAF since her cousin Archie had been invalided out.
‘Topsy, what’s happened?’ she asked.
‘Oh my darling, didn’t you hear?’ Topsy blinked wide eyes at her. ‘It’s Ernie.’
Bobby felt her stomach plummet.
‘No,’ she whispered. ‘He isn’t…’
‘Dead? No. That is to say, I don’t know. Nobody does.’
‘That’s right, Miss,’ Gil said soberly. ‘Them Canadian fellers billeted with Louisa were expecting their mate back from a sortie three day ago, but he never turned up. There’s been so much of this bad weather about, blizzards and whatnot, you can’t help fearing the worst.’
There was a Canadian aerodrome just over the border in Lancashire, and a number of the airmen based had been billeted in nearby villages. Three of them – Chip, Ernie and Sandy – had arrived in Silverdale back in the autumn, to stay with postmistress Louisa Clough and her husband Wilf. However, Bobby hadn’t seen Ernie since before New Year.
She turned to Topsy. ‘Surely the base would tell Chip and Sandy if anything had happened to Ernie, wouldn’t they?’
‘Chip’s waiting for news. I’ve his permission to check if I come in.’ Topsy sighed. ‘My poor boy is worried sick. Teddy and Ernie had started to become ever so pally.’
