Leah Fleming - Orphans of War

‘But I don’t know anything about children,’ Plum was quick to add. Gerald and she had not managed to take a child to term and now that she was nearly forty, her chances of conceiving were very slim.

‘You’ll soon learn,’ said the billeting officer. ‘We’ll provide a proper nurse and domestic help. I see you have dogs,’ he smiled, pointing to her red setters, Sukie and Blaze, tearing round the paths like mad things. ‘Puppies and kiddies, there’s not much difference, is there? The ones we have in mind are a bit wayward, you see, runaways from their billets mostly. You look just the type to lick them into shape.’ The man winked at her and she blushed.

It was time she did some war work, and a house full of geriatric relatives hoping to sit out the war in comfort was not her idea of keeping the home fires burning.

‘My daughter-in-law has other responsibilities. There’s the house to run, and with so few servants I shall need her services,’ Pleasance countered quickly, sensing danger.

‘With respect, madam, I have checked, and Mrs Belfield is registered for war work, being of age, available and without children. It is her duty—’

‘How dare you come here and demand such sacrifices from a married woman? In my day, men like you…This is unacceptable to me—’

‘Mother, he’s got a point. I would like to help where I can,’ Plum interrupted. ‘We all have to make sacrifices. Gerald is doing his bit and now I must do mine. I shall only be down the lane.’

‘Who will make up the four for bridge?’ Mother sighed. ‘I don’t know what the world is coming to…I shall write to the West Riding and complain about your attitude, young man.’

‘You can do that, madam, but I have powers to insist that the stable block and servants quarters’ be utilised if needed. Would you prefer to have the kiddies on your doorstep or in your house?’

Plum almost choked at this obvious blackmail. It was good to see her bullying mother-in-law cornered for once.

‘Oh, do what you must, but I insist that Mrs Belfield returns each night. Who is there left to do the shutters for the blackout? None of my guests can stretch that far.’

‘I’m sure we can find a young lad from amongst the hostel to help you out.’

‘I want nothing to do with any of them, thank you,’ Pleasance sighed, patting her heart. ‘This’ll be the death of me, Prunella.’

‘She looks a gey tough old bird to me,’ muttered the billeting officer under his breath in his strong Scottish accent. The crafty blighters at the town hall had sent a stranger. No one in Sowerthwaite would have dared address her ladyship with such disrespect.

Plum grinned to herself. There were some changes already in this war that were long overdue. Mama was trying to sit out the war as if it didn’t exist. She refused to have a wireless in the house or a newspaper or any alteration to her regime, but one by one her maids and groundsmen, chauffeur and handymen had joined up, and they were having to make do in the kitchen with two refugees from Poland.

Why shouldn’t town children have fresh air and peace and quiet after all they’d been through? Why shouldn’t they romp through the fields and have rosy cheeks and strong limbs, fresh food? Her illusions were soon to be shattered by the first arrivals to the hostel three weeks later: ill-clad children in plimsolls, with scabby chins and nits.

‘Is this it?’ Plum said, staring in at the Victory Tree with disbelief. She’d never been inside the place before. It was a rough old stone building, little more than a long farmhouse, shuttered up and unwelcoming. ‘It needs a lick of paint.’

‘It needs more than that,’ said Miss Blunt, the new matron, sniffing the air haughtily. ‘I can still smell stale ale and urinals: very unhygienic. I thought we’d be using the big house…I’m not used to this sort of squalor. How will we ever get it ready in time? The children are due in a few days. Where will we get distemper, Mrs Belfield?’

‘That’s for the Town Hall to provide, or we can use lime wash; farmers always have lime wash.’ Plum refused to be defeated by the size of the task. ‘Everything else is ordered. At least they’ve got plenty of grounds to play in at the back, and there’s a wash house and stables for storage. The bar’s already been ripped out. This will make a good playroom for them to make a rumpus.’ She pointed to the large taproom.

‘This will be my sitting room,’ announced Miss Blunt with another sniff, eyeing the coal fireplace and the windows overlooking the green. ‘You’ll be up at the big house. I need somewhere to retire to…’

‘Why not make your room in the snug? It’s warmer and quieter in there. If we can give these children some space to let off steam,’ Plum added, thinking of ways to keep them out of mischief.

‘I’ll be the judge of that. They’re not dogs off the leash, Mrs Belfield. These are naughty girls and boys who don’t know how lucky they are to be housed. They must learn to run a home and stay in their place. Keep them busy and teach them domestic skills. Make them useful citizens and stand no nonsense.’ Miss Blunt was busy making her lists. ‘I shall need locks on all the doors. You can’t trust common children. They’re like wild animals.’

In the end they compromised by making the taproom the dining hall, with chairs and a bench by the fireplace. Old furniture from the servants’ quarters was brought down from Brooklyn Hall on a cart. The Town Hall sent two old men to whitewash throughout the building so it smelled fresh and clean and looked brighter. To everyone’s amazement, they installed a big bath and flushing toilet at the top end of the staircase. Most of the residents of the village had to make do with outside brick privies in the yard and zinc tubs.

‘It’s a right rum do giving strangers fancy plumbing. The Owd Vic’s gone up in the world. It were allus a spit’n’sawdust place afore,’ laughed one of the decorators as he sloshed the distemper over the bumpy walls. ‘Ah could tell you some right tales about this…but not for ladies’ ears, happen…There was a murder here once in the olden days. One of them navvies building the railway line threw some gelignite on the fire and near on blew the place up! They say there’s a ghost as—’

‘But why’s it called the Victory Tree?’ Plum was curious.

The old man shook his head. ‘Summat to do with the army recruits. Happen they mustered them up here,’ he said. ‘Before the last war, though. The Sowerthwaite Pals, they were called. Fifty bonny lads went out but you can count on yer hand the ones as came back. I was a farmer’s lad and never got to go…Lost a lot of my school mates. Her ladyship took it bad with losing Captain Julian, and then Arthur Belfield got a blighty…Never see him up here, do we?’

Old man Handby was fishing for information to take back to his cronies in the Black Horse but Plum’s lips were sealed. Even she didn’t know the full story of why Pleasance had dismissed her son with such venom.

‘Where’s the Victory Tree then?’ asked Miss Blunt, looking across the green to the stocks and the duck pond, expecting to see some big elm commemorating Waterloo or Balaclava.

‘Now there you’ve got me, lady. The only trees we have are those up the lane to Brooklyn planted by her ladyship in her grief. The big one at the top of the yard has allus been there…Dunno why it’s called the Victory Tree.’

Plum spotted some local children peeping through the windows to see what was going on. Once word got round the town that the evacuees were coming, she wondered just what reception the new arrivals would get when they turned up at the local school.

The world of children was a mystery to her. She hoped the man from the town hall was right and it was just a matter of training, obedience and praise. So far she’d been more a tennis court sort of gal, she smiled, driving a fast car with her dogs hanging out, a deb with not enough education and experience to be doing what she was doing now.