Only a Mother Knows (42 page)

‘I found her!’ she cried. ‘But did I save her?’

‘Tilly, you did it! You did it! Mother! Mum!’ shouted Dulcie, trying to fight her way through the crowd, but it was impossible to get anywhere near the spot where her mother was lying on the pavement panting for breath, the forlorn scarf now around her neck. She couldn’t get close enough to reach her. There were just too many people in between and she was far too bulky to worm her way through. Dimly she registered the sound of approaching ambulances and fire engines.

Under ground, Edith, having gone below at the first sound of a siren, was growing increasingly worried for the safety of her mother and her sister. Would they have made for the shelter at the tube station? Or would they have found a way to avoid the raid? Slowly it occurred to her that something wasn’t right on the platform; there seemed to be an incident back towards the tunnel to one of the stairwells. Then, just as she saw the first trickle of injuries filtering through to the aid station, the first abdominal pain caught her and took her breath away.

‘Oh my Gawd,’ Edith exclaimed, ‘my baby ain’t gonna to be born in the bloody underground!’ Gripping her side, she couldn’t help but observe it was quite ironic really, because that was where the child had been conceived.

‘Tilly, Tilly, is that you?’ Olive asked, jumping out of the WVS van and hurrying towards her daughter. ‘Why are you here? Sorry, shouldn’t ask! We’ve been called out to help at this emergency, even though no bombs have dropped tonight …’

‘I can’t say anything, Mum. I have to get back to Whitehall, I’m on duty … Dulcie’s over there, she’s lost Edith … No, I mean Edith should be around here somewhere, Dulcie can’t find her … But it might be too late for her mother … Can you …? I’ll ring you …’ In moments Tilly, shocked to the core at what she had seen, left her mother with tears in her eyes, grabbed her discarded motorcycle and sped down Bethnal Green Road back towards her next assignment.

Agnes felt that her arms would break if she tried to heave another body from the pile that was now beginning to thin out a bit. Babies, young children, old people who were wide-eyed and lifeless … She would never get over it, she was sure.

‘You’ve been a heroine tonight, Agnes, if it hadn’t been for your help we would have seen many more casualties,’ said one of the regular staff at Bethnal Green tube station.

‘I didn’t do anything special,’ Agnes said in a flat voice; she would never forget this day as long as she lived. ‘It’s what anyone would have done. What everybody did. But have you seen my Ted? You know, he usually works as a driver out of Chancery Lane.’

‘No,’ said the man, ‘but that doesn’t mean anything. You can’t really see what’s what down here. Look, here comes the stationmaster, let’s ask him.’

But the stationmaster wasted no time when he reached them. ‘Come with me,’ he said to Agnes, who was startled to be picked out in this way. Full of trepidation, she edged past the pile of bodies that still remained.

‘Close the door, Agnes, there is something I have to tell you.’

When the stationmaster informed her that Ted had done all he possibly could to stop the rush of people coming down the steps to the air-raid shelter Agnes felt extraordinarily proud, but the feeling was fleeting when she heard the next words.

‘I’m sorry, Agnes, there was nothing anybody could do, and Ted was taken to the local mortuary at Whitechapel Hospital half an hour ago …’

Dulcie was amazed as she made her way over to St John’s Church across the road from the tube station, which had been commandeered and turned into a makeshift mortuary.

It felt unreal, but she found herself one of a number of people who were walking up and down the rows of tables searching for the faces of their loved ones. And as she approached the last row Dulcie could clearly see her mother lying there, red scarf now neatly tied around her neck, and it was obvious she was dead.

Only a Mother Knows

Easter Sunday was late this year and the weather was warm enough for Olive to put the table out in the garden, which was a good thing as there were so many arriving for tea. Tilly was coming over from Whitehall this afternoon, having been given a few hours’ leave. It was a good thing that she had some time off from that demanding posting, thought Olive as she finished ironing the dress she had made for Alice out of some pretty yellow material she’d paid coppers for.

Rick, after the tragic accident that killed his mother, was going to stay with his father, who was so quiet hardly anybody remembered he existed. Truly on the mend now, Rick was going to the pictures with Tilly after tea to celebrate standing as godfather to Edith’s child, Anthony, born prematurely in the Bethnal Green underground shelter.

It was strange, Olive thought, that Dulcie failed to mention Edith had been married to a producer chap who had gone to the desert to entertain the troops with a group of ENSA entertainers, but that was the war for you, she sighed, strange things happened all over.

Sally was still keeping herself busy working horrendously long shifts at the hospital to take her mind off poor George, although Callum’s letters seemed to be a comfort to her of late and little Alice was eager to see her favourite uncle when he came home again. God willing.

Whilst poor Agnes had recently decided that she could no longer set foot inside the ticket office again now that Ted had gone. She had decided that her place was on the farm her father left her and was leaving on Tuesday. She said she had tried to persuade Ted’s mother and two sisters to go with her to Surrey but Mrs Jackson was having none of it. She was born a Londoner, she’d said, and she would if need be die a Londoner. Agnes could only sigh, knowing it wasn’t her place to take responsibility for Ted’s family, but Olive knew she would have liked to help out if she could.

Dulcie was bearing up, as Dulcie always did, consoling herself with the knowledge she and her mother had at least made amends before Mrs Simmonds died. It transpired, after the post mortem, that the woman had suffered a heart attack and felt no pain whatsoever, which was some comfort, Olive supposed.

‘And how’s my favourite lady on this wonderful sunny Easter Sunday?’

‘Oh, Archie, you made me jump – I was miles away.’

Was I there with you?’ Archie’s smile twinkled in his eyes.

‘Oh, don’t let Nancy hear you talking like that or she’ll have it around the neighbourhood in no time.’

‘Let her,’ said Archie as he took Olive’s hand and gently kissed it, ‘life’s too short for regrets.’

‘Oh, Archie,’ was all that Olive could say.

‘Oh David …’ was all that Dulcie could say when she looked down at her brand-new baby girl. The birth was so sudden, just after Sunday lunch, before they were due to set off for Olive’s Easter tea, that they had barely had time to summon the midwife, let alone drive to hospital.

‘Our daughter is beautiful, my love.’ David had arranged for Dulcie to be taken to a private nursing home after the birth but now their child was here she was having none of it.

‘My mum had three of us with no hot water and an outside lavatory and we didn’t turn out so bad,’ Dulcie said contentedly.

‘Dulcie, you will have all the care you could possibly desire after giving birth,’ he said.

‘I’ve made the arrangements,’ Dulcie said with a sleepy smile as her eyes grew heavy, handing David his daughter whilst the midwife went into the adjoining bathroom. Moments later as the midwife quietly waved goodbye there was a gentle tap on the door and Dulcie was thrilled to see Olive tiptoe into the room.

‘I won’t stay long today, I just want to have a little peep … But you know where I am if you need me,’ Olive sighed as she looked into the crib. ‘Well, aren’t you a clever girl, Dulcie, and David is such a lucky man.’ She hugged Dulcie, thrilled that she now had something magical to hold on to – the gift of motherhood. Then she realised that Dulcie was gently weeping on her shoulder. It was a strange time for the young woman: losing her mother and gaining a daughter only seven weeks later – a little early by Olive’s reckoning, but it didn’t matter as mother and baby were perfectly fine.

‘Oh, Olive, what am I going to do?’ Dulcie cried. ‘I haven’t got a clue.’

‘Of course you have, my girl,’ said Olive in exactly the no-nonsense tone of voice that Dulcie needed right now. ‘You now have the most precious gift, only a mother knows …’

Only a Mother Knows

About the Author

Annie Groves was born and lived in the north-west of England all of her life. She was the author of the Pride family series, Ellie Pride, Connie’s Courage and Hettie of Hope Street, for which she drew upon her own family’s history, picked up from listening to her grandmother’s stories when she was a child. Her next set of novels were set during World War II and included Goodnight Sweetheart, Some Sunny Day, The Grafton Girls and As Time Goes By. These were followed by the Campion series, Across the Mersey, Daughters of Liverpool, The Heart of the Family, Where the Heart Is and When the Lights Go on Again, which are also based on the wartime recollections of members of her family, who come from the city of Liverpool. London Belles, Home for Christmas and My Sweet Valentine have introduced a set of glorious characters living in Article Row in London’s Holborn district.

Annie Groves, whose real name was Penny Halsall, also wrote under the name of Penny Jordan and was an international bestselling author of over 180 novels with sales of over 84 million copies.

Sadly, Penny Halsall died in 2011. She left a wonderful legacy of heart-warming novels for many more fans to discover. The final books in the Article Row series, Only a Mother Knows and A Christmas Promise, will be published posthumously.

Only a Mother Knows

Also by Annie Groves

The Pride family series

Ellie Pride

Connie’s Courage

Hettie of Hope Street

The WWII series

Goodnight Sweetheart

Some Sunny Day

The Grafton Girls

As Time Goes By

The Campion series

Across the Mersey

Daughters of Liverpool

The Heart of the Family

Where the Heart Is

When the Lights Go on Again

The Article Row series

London Belles

Home for Christmas

My Sweet Valentine

Only a Mother Knows

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © Annie Groves 2013

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2013

Cover photographs © Colin Thomas (woman and boy)

James Eadie/Mary Evans Picture Library (background)

Annie Groves asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Source ISBN: 9780007361571

Ebook Edition © March 2013 ISBN: 9780007492565

Version 1

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Only a Mother Knows

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au/ebooks

Canada

HarperCollins Canada

2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor

Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada

http://www.harpercollins.ca

New Zealand

HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

P.O. Box 1

Auckland, New Zealand

http://www.harpercollins.co.nz

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

London, W6 8JB, UK

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

10 East 53rd Street

New York, NY 10022

http://www.harpercollins.com

/*

Base Stylesheet for Palimpsest eBooks.

First Revision 9/12/2011

Second Revision 26/01/2012

Third Revision 24/04/2012 (After releasing HC guide lines on 24/04/12)

Forth Revision 30/05/2012 (After getting the reply of query on 24/05/12)

Fifth Revision 31/05/2012 (Added chronology classes)

Sixth Revision 10/10/2013 (To avoid overrides the alignment settings on the Amazon Kindle)

Seventh Revision 07/02/2013 (Addition of e-head)

Eighth Revision 15/02/2013 (Remove toc link color)

**************************

DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.

**************************

==================

Working guidelines:

===================

every style must use a class name.

class names must be predictable (see naming convention)

use h1