The Evacuee Christmas. Katie King

just after the school had broken up for the holidays.

      When Connie realised her aunt had seen her wondrous overarm lob, Connie begged Peggy not to say anything to her mother, and Peggy had agreed, as Connie’s hat had had a tough winter, having often been used to carry marbles and all sorts of other things, many of them filthy and sharply barbed, and it had got distinctly scruffy to the point that it wouldn’t in any case meet Barbara’s exacting standards as to what ‘would do’ for another winter.

      Peggy knew that Jessie had a grey worsted peaked cap that she didn’t doubt that he would be taking on his evacuation. It wouldn’t be of very much use in the keeping-warm sense when the harsh winter weather really set in, but she couldn’t imagine him wearing anything else that might be cosier (i.e., anything knitted) in case this led to a new and possibly more vicious spate of teasing.

      As they were about to leave the wool shop, Barbara saw some homemade knitted toys that were piled in a large wicker basket close to the shop door, and so she chose a small grey teddy for Jessie and a black and white panda for Connie. ‘I know they’re too big really for toys like this, but if they’re homesick they can take these into their beds for a quick cuddle,’ Barbara explained.

      ‘That’s a good idea. And why don’t you give the toys a dab of your best scent too and wrap them tightly in paper to keep the pong in, and then there’ll be a smell of you when they unwrap them?’ said Peggy, to which her sister nodded agreement.

      Then she reminded Barbara that the children would need new scarves and so Barbara bought some thick navy wool to knit them some, and some thinner wool in the same colour to make them both some gloves, saying luckily the weather was still summery and so she could get to this knitting once the children had left, as she was sure they’d love to receive a parcel from home.

      Just then Peggy spied a machine in the corner, clattering away nineteen to the dozen – she knew what it was: a name-tape maker.

      The headmaster had requested that all the children’s clothing was labelled with their names, and although at first the shopkeeper said his wife was too busy with other children’s names, he then looked at all that Peggy and Barbara were just about to buy from him and, with a sigh of defeat, he said that as a special favour the name tapes could be ready first thing in the morning if Barbara wanted to pay the ‘premium rate’ for a special service.

      For a moment Barbara baulked as she didn’t approve of anyone taking advantage of a situation where a customer had no choice, simply for a shopkeeper to earn themselves an extra few pennies when they had their customers over a barrel. But then she relented as the name tapes would save her so much time, otherwise she would have to embroider the children’s initials on each garment.

      With only the smallest discernible huff of irritation, Barbara looked the shopkeeper in the eye and said she would be happy to pay the premium rate, at which point Peggy turned her head sharply towards her sister as an indication of how unusual an acquiescence this was. The shopkeeper had the grace to look a bit uncomfortable in the glare of Barbara’s unnerving stare as carefully he jotted down the names of Jessie and Connie. Peggy didn’t like to think what would happen if he made a mistake in the spelling.

      A little further down the market, there was a luggage stall that had lots of bags and cases piled up. It too had run out of the small cardboard suitcases that Barbara really wanted, but fortunately it did have a wide collection of holdalls and so Barbara chose a sturdy blue one for Connie’s things to be stowed away inside.

      Another stall was selling children’s clothing and from here Barbara bought the children new vests, pants and socks, and a couple of shirts for Jessie (one grey and one blue) and a pretty sky-blue checked dress for Connie as well as a smart woollen red herringbone coat for her too.

      ‘Jessie had a new mackintosh last year that’s still got plenty of room for him, and although this red coat is going to be big on Connie, at least she’ll be able to grow into it,’ said Barbara, as she asked the stallholder to wrap the coat in brown paper, which he tied up with string, while all the other new purchases were carefully folded and placed in the holdall after it had had a good shake-out upside down with its zip opened, just to make sure there was no dust lurking inside. ‘And they have their school blazers that they can wear under their coats if it gets frosty or snowy. We’re so lucky being able to make sure they go with everything they need – I know some families are having to penny-pinch to send them away with even one decent set of clothes, let alone enough to keep them warm if they are away long enough for the bad winter weather to come.’

      Peggy looked up at the clear and sunny sky that had only the smallest and fluffiest of clouds dotted here and there, and thought it was very hard to imagine that it might be snowing before too long.

      Before she could get too lost in her thoughts, Peggy made herself rally and concentrate on what extra she might need to take for her own needs. She bought herself some new underwear, three pairs of natural tan fully fashioned Du Pont stockings (her favourite) and a pair of smart new gloves, and these too were placed into Connie’s holdall. Luckily it turned out to be a very forgiving bag as it seemed able to contain much more than it looked as if it could, which was just as well considering that Peggy had forgotten her own shopping basket, she had been so caught up in the drama of seeing Bill off.

      The sisters felt as if they had earned their toasted teacake and Camp coffee, and so they went into a small café on the way to the bus stop.

      As they sat down, Peggy felt once more that she was about to cry.

      Barbara saw immediately that it had all got a bit much for her, and so she said, ‘Let it out, Peg, nobody’s going to mind. It must have been very difficult for you to watch Bill go off.’

      Being given permission to have a quick sob did the trick, Peggy realised a minute later, as she’d been able after all to keep her tears in check.

      In fact, she was now smiling as she told Barbara for the second time how daft Bill had looked as he had angled his head so that he could shout to her as he was driven by in the charabanc with Reece Pinkly chuckling along beside him.

      There was a call from behind the counter, and as Barbara stood up to go and get their teacakes, she opened her handbag to retrieve something, and then pushed a small white paper bag in her sister’s direction. This was a surprise to Peggy, and she couldn’t prevent a cry of pleasure when inside she saw a brand-new Coty lipstick in her favourite Cardinal Red.

      ‘I nipped into the chemist’s while you were having a rest on that step at Elephant,’ said Barbara as she passed Peggy her teacake. ‘Pregnant or not, we can’t have you letting the side down outside London, and showing them we don’t know how to make ourselves presentable, now, can we?’

Chapter Seven

      The hours raced by over the weekend as everybody did their best to get ready for Monday morning.

      Connie had to be drafted in to help Barbara sew the last few name tapes in discreet places on the various items of clothing for herself and her brother as this turned out to be a much more fiddly job than anyone had anticipated, or at least it was at the speed they were trying to attach them.

      Barbara, while a good knitter, was impatient when sewing at the best of times, which wasn’t helpful in a situation like this when they were working against the clock.

      Often when standing behind the counter at Mrs Truelove’s haberdasher’s, when local women were asking advice on the merits of one thread over another for particular fabrics, she could barely withhold a private ironic grimace at the thought of her not practising what she preached, which was nearly always ‘feel your way into it, and go slowly until you are used to how much the thread and the fabric like one another’.

      Luckily Connie wasn’t a bad seamstress in spite of being so young. In fact, for the previous Christmas, she had designed and made Barbara a cloth carry-all that had various pockets and compartments for her mother to keep her knitting needles and patterns tidy in. The quality of both the design and the stitching was so good that Barbara felt