Sweet Memories of You by Ellie Dean

Author:Ellie Dean
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473518827
Publisher: Random House

11

It was Saturday morning and Jack Smith’s few days of leave had come to an end. Peggy could tell how despondent Rita was about this, and had offered to go with her to the station to see him off. Rita had declined the offer with her usual stoicism, but Peggy could see that she was finding it very hard to keep her emotions under control.

Peggy waited until the girl had left the house to meet her father for breakfast at the Crown, and then gauged the length of time she would need to walk to the station. For all Rita’s protests, Peggy knew she would need company and she wanted to be there for her when the train pulled out.

As time moved on, Peggy pulled on her coat and hat and left Daisy in the care of Ron and Cordelia, with firm instructions to Ron not to take her into the hills on one of his poaching trips. He’d done it before, and the idea that he could have been arrested with her baby in tow had made her go cold.

It wasn’t long before she saw Rita and Jack walking arm in arm up the High Street and held back until they’d crossed the humpbacked bridge and were out of sight. The train was already in the station, for she could see the smoke billowing from its funnel, and hear the panting of the engine. Peggy looked down from the bridge and saw the two embrace, and then Jack was climbing aboard and Stan was poised to blow his whistle and wave his flag.

Peggy hurried past the Nissen hut and arrived on the platform just as the train slowly began to pull away. With a reassuring glance at a clearly concerned Stan, who’d made it his business to watch over the girls who lived at Peggy’s, she hurried along the platform.

Rita turned away as the last carriage disappeared around the bend, her little face streaked with tears, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

Peggy’s heart went out to her and she silently drew her into her arms and held her as she sobbed against her shoulder. ‘It’s all right, Rita, dear,’ she soothed. ‘He’ll write more often now, and he promised me he’d telephone the house the minute he arrived.’

Rita drew back finally and scrabbled for her handkerchief. ‘I know, he promised me too,’ she said thickly through her tears. ‘It’s silly of me to get so upset, isn’t it? After all, he’s been away for years – but seeing him again has made me realise just how much I’ve been missing him. And now he’s gone, and I’ve no idea of when he’ll come back.’

Peggy gave her a hug. ‘It’s not silly at all,’ she murmured as she found a rather cleaner handkerchief in her coat pocket and handed it over. ‘Come on, Rita. Dry your eyes, and just be thankful that you’ve had these few days together and that he won’t be posted abroad like Jim. Who knows, he could even get leave again before Christmas.

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