CHAPTER 17
We were winding down a little bit as the little band Ernie’s dad had hired played some slower tunes, including a very slow waltz that got a lot of couples onto their feet and each other. I was sitting at one of the tables with Bill and the new groom as his lady wife went to powder her nose.

“What happened to that lass, Ginge?”

“What lass, Ernie?”

“One in Tadcaster whose dad had a pub”

“Er…”

He grinned. “Made it all up? I understand, lad. We were all sort of dropped into middle of being grown-ups, weren’t we?”

I sighed. “Aye, you’re not wrong. I really felt like a kid back then, what with Bob and the other lads who’d been through it all before. Felt a lot like a fraud, Ernie”

“I was the same, Ginge. Bob was a lot more experienced, and happen I thought as to how I could never get that wise, aye? That Belgian, French girl?”

“Dominique?”

“Aye, the chubby one. That were your first, weren’t it?”

My blushing was still such an obvious thing, still that of a child. “Er, aye, she were”

Ernie patted my shoulder while Bill just snorted. “Still young, you are, lad. Happen you’ll see right lass just when you’re not looking. Hang on, what the hell’s he here for?”

A policeman had come into the hall, his duty armband on, but on the wrong wrist. He spoke to the barman, who pointed over towards Ernie and me, and he walked over to our table.

“Ernest Roberts? Gerald Barker?”

I looked at Ernie, then back at the bobby. “Aye, that’s us, and this is Bill Hamilton, constable. What’s the matter?”

“Do you lads know a Wilhelmina Braithwaite?”

Just then, I knew. I didn’t know what I knew exactly, but I knew it was bad, it was dreadful. Ernie found his voice first.

“Minnie? Is she all right, constable?”

“Do you mind if I sit down, lads? I’m Constable Longstreet”

Ernie looked over his shoulder. “Dad? Can you get us cup of tea for this chap? Ta!”

The policeman was well into middle age, one of those too old to have been put through the places we had been and not quite old enough to have been with my own father. . He took his helmet off and undid his cape, but left it on “Thanks, son. I could do with a pint, but I’m on duty, and the sergeant would smell it on me, so a brew would be lovely. This is a hard one. You knew Minnie Braithwaite?”

Dear God, that one word, ‘knew’. I groped for the words.

“Not the lad as well?”

He mopped his forehead with a somewhat grubby hankie, and sighed. “No, thank the Lord. She put him safe. Had him in reins, like, tied them to a chair in ladies’ waiting room, so he didn’t see, when, well…”

There was no need for more. We all knew what he meant. Ernie looked down. “Was it quick, constable?”

“Aye, suppose it must have been. It were the Edinburgh-London express, not due to stop till York”

Ernie’s voice was so soft I had trouble hearing him. “And how’s the driver?”

A cup of tea arrived, and our new friend took a sip, considering his words. “Well, not good, but you know what these things are right, I can see that from ribbons on your jacket there. LNER will see he gets some time off to get himself back together, if he can. Tell me: when did you see her last? She left a note with the babby”

I tried a smile. “She were here at the reception, just for a few minutes, like”

“How did you know the lady?”

“Her lad were in our crew. Tanks, that is”

“Ah. He, em, got left out there?”

Ernie murmured “We got hit by an anti-tank gun and he didn’t get out”

The policeman took another long sip. “I really think, really believe, that we didn’t hang enough of them. I were stuck here right through, watching lasses try and pick up pieces when another bloody telegram came through. I were up in Middlesbrough during hostilities, and there are a lot of widows there. That doesn’t go away”

He moved, as someone went past the table with a puzzled look at his presence, and his cape moved. His left sleeve was sewn up, contents gone. He caught my gaze.

“Aye, son, not always safe away from the front line. It were a bomb splinter, when Jerry had a go at the town. Now, Mrs Braithwaite, I have to ask this, aye? Would you say balance of her mind were disturbed?”

“Why do you ask, constable? That should be obvious!”

That came from Ernie’s dad, who had been keeping an ear towards the conversation. The bobby sighed.

“Mr Roberts, is it? It’s like this. We know what’s happened, we know every bit of it. She left a good long letter with the boy, and two people on platform saw her run and jump, and the driver saw her as she went in front, and he is still seeing her now, I would wager. There are lads cleaning train as we speak, cleaning her from it. It’s never a pretty way to leave this world, Mr Roberts, but what we want is to see that the boy gets the right story, aye?”

He paused to have a look round at each of us. “He either gets story of heartless mother who takes easy way out of having to look after him on her own and leaves him in the lurch, or he gets the woman who does something on impulse, rotten with grief for her brave dead soldier. I am sorry to be so blunt, but if I were that lad I would prefer the tragedy for my memories of Mam. She leaves here, the sight of you lot---Mrs Roberts?”

Ada had returned, and Ernie gave her his best poker face. “Could you let us have a few more minutes, love?”

Her eyes widened. “Minnie?”

Ernie nodded. “Boy’s all right, love. Just a minute or two, aye?”

Her eyes brimming with tears, she hurried off to her mother. Our policeman gave another long sigh, shaking his head. “I hate having to do this, and at your wedding as well. Not right. Not at all. Look, if we can agree she left here, the sight of you newly-weds and your families made her think of her husband, and that disturbed the balance of her mind, and, well. Look, if there had been no other witnesses, we’d have tried for ‘accident, aye? Slipped off platform. We can’t do that now, so all we can do is broken heart and impulse. Boy would never lose shame of it if it were seen as planned”

Ernie senior was nodding. “Thank you, constable. I see you are trying to do everyone a kindness. Do you need someone to identify the deceased formally?”

Constable Longstreet gave him a look, then, and all I could think of was charcoal, charcoal with teeth gleaming, and I knew there would be no identification. Some things were just too brutal.

“Ernie?”

“Aye, Ginge?”

“Happen we’ll do what we can for littl’un. Agreed?”

He just nodded, and I realised he had his head down to cover the fact that he was crying. I turned back to the bobby. “And what happens to little Wilf?”

“Ah, they’ve got him down police station, with doctor by to make sure he’s got nowt wrong with him. Then it’ll be children’s home, orphanage, unless he’s got grandparents or other relatives”

Ernie senior shook his head. “Orphanage is no place for a lad that young, nobbut a babby. We could take him in”

The constable frowned. “Should be family first, happen”

Ernie’s head came up. “He is family, Constable Longstreet. His dad were family, just like Ginge here, just like Bob and Harry and Bill. His dad earned that”

Bill looked over at Ernie’s dad, and then back at Longstreet. “Might be better with us, pal. I’ll have word with Mavis, but we’re hoping for one in next year, and she would be right made up to have a brother for him, if you follow my meaning. Ernie’s right: we’re family”

He held up both hands. “Not a word, lads, I know I never met the boy’s dad, but he were family, you are family. There are debts here, and they get paid in full. I’ll have words with wife, and you do the same, Mr Roberts”

“Ernie to you, son”

“Confusing that, so I’ll stick to the mister while the boy’s around. Look, constable, there is no way that little lad gets put in any home but a real one. If you find out---ah, over here, flower. This is Mavis, Constable Longstreet, my wife”

She offered him her hand for a quick shake. “How do. I heard the news. What about the babby?”

Bill took her hand. “They want him in orphanage, and I said, well…”

She pulled his hand to her stomach, holding it tight. “That boy comes home with us, constable. Call it fostering, call it what you like, but he gets a home. You find his family if you can, but for now he gets a proper home and people to care for him. Where is he?”

Longstreet was grinning now, and shaking his head. “Down the station. How could I ever stand up against you lot?”

Mavis sniffed. “Happen bloody Adolf couldn’t, so why should you be different?”

Bill laughed out loud, the mood breaking. “Language, flower!”

“Language can go hang itself. Get the car, the constable can show us where to go. Mr Roberts, can you get Mrs Roberts to make up a bed for him, for now? Get the little treasure to sleep tonight and then sort out where he goes in daylight when we haven’t got heads full of ale”

He nodded. “Son, it’s about time you took our daughter in law off to Scarborough. You have your honeymoon, and we’ll sort this one out. Bill? Here’s my hand. I see my boy weren’t just lucky to have met Wilf”

I spent that night in my own bed, but all through the dark hours I was on a hillside watching people burn again.