After the conclusion of 'Another Life' a few people expressed the view that there were some unresolved questions. Although I wasn't intending to write any more stories after the Misunderstood stories, I found myself thinking about the characters and their new life and wondering what might have happened in later years. Those thoughts, combined with being away on holiday in wet weather, prompted me to revisit them and I realised that there was a little more of their story to tell. So, this isn't a new story but a short continuation of the previous tales. I know this version of Charles and Molly isn't for everyone but I think that one of the great things about fanfiction is that whether you like action, romance, drama, angst, historical, humour or AU there is something on this site to suit all tastes. I hope those of you who enjoyed 'Another Time Another Place' and 'Another Life' will enjoy this. Thank you for reading.
Chapter One
As Bella pushed open the front door at Greystones a gust of wind that had rolled up through the valley, gathering in pace and strength as it raced on its way northwards, whipped the handle from her grasp causing the door to bang against the wall in the hallway. The brass knocker rapped on the base plate, signalling her arrival.
"What the..?" called Molly emerging from the kitchen, wiping her soapy hands on her apron. She took in the sight of her sister balancing parcels on her right arm in an awkward fashion as she sought to recapture the open door with her left.
"Should've known it would be you," Molly said, rolling her eyes and hurrying along the hallway to shut the front door behind Bella.
Bella marched ahead carrying the parcels into the kitchen.
"Blimey, it might be spring but it's still nippy out," she called over her shoulder. The chill wind had brought a bloom to her cheeks, that and riding the delivery bicycle uphill all the way from Nethercombe. As she entered the kitchen she saw the twins, Edward and Rose, sitting in their high chairs and making a mess of something that looked like it had once been Shepherd's pie. Half of Edward's lunch seemed to be smeared across his face and the other half across the food tray in front of him. Rose, in a more presentable condition, was engaged in watching her brother. There was calmness about Rose. Almost from the moment they were born, Rose had let her brother do the talking. He always woke first in the morning, cried first when he was hungry, became bored and demanded attention first; Rose followed in his wake. Molly had observed to Charles that there were no flies on Rose. She had realised almost from her earliest days that there was no point in expending her energies making demands on her mother when her brother was prepared to do it all for her.
"Look at you, Eddie. You're in a right mess," Bella called out on catching sight of her nephew. She grinned at him and he returned the smile, kicking his legs and bashing the food tray with the spoon in his right hand. Rose watched him out of the corner of her eye but carried on munching sedately.
Molly walked into the kitchen and regarded her eighteen month old twins with a smile of resignation. She was grateful that William was at school as Edward and Rose were a handful at the best of times. When she had first discovered she was expecting twins, late into her pregnancy, she had been astonished but relieved to discover that there had been a good reason for the rapid expansion of her waistline at such an early stage compared to her experience with William. "At least I know I'm not having an elephant," she had joked to Charles. But no sooner had she felt relief at the explanation then it was superseded by the realisation that she would have far more to contend with this time around. In the weeks and months following Edward and Rose's birth, Molly's previous experience of motherhood had been invaluable, however, she found herself constantly comparing the events and realising how difficult everything seemed this time around with two babies to care for.
At Dr Sanderson's suggestion and Charles' urging, Molly had reluctantly agreed to go into a Maternity Home in Cirencester for the birth of the twins. She hadn't enjoyed being there especially as she was admitted early to allow Dr Sanderson to monitor her blood pressure and to give her time to rest. She had spent almost two weeks sitting around with very little to occupy her apart from magazines that Bella regularly sent her via Charles and books that the well-meaning Sister Jones had brought her from the local library.
"War and bloody Peace," Molly hissed at Charles waving the hefty tome in front of her. "How long is she expecting me to be in here?"
Charles knew that Molly wasn't a great reader. She wasn't accustomed to sitting around in idleness and didn't have hobbies that would help her pass the time in this situation. She was impatient for the birth to happen and desperate to get home again as soon as possible. It was hard on Will being separated from his mother and although Bella was doing a great job of looking after him, taking him to school and fetching him each day and trying to keep his spirits up, it was evident that he missed his mother very much and she missed him.
When, in the last week of October, Molly went into labour she was almost elated that everything was finally happening despite her concerns that something might go wrong this time. She knew there were greater risks with a twin birth but Dr Sanderson had tried to reassure her. He had attended the births of many twins over his years in practice and he had no cause to be worried, she was young, fit and healthy and there had been no problems with this pregnancy or the birth of William. All the signs were good. The labour progressed well and she had been fortunate that little Rose was born first, correctly positioned, head down. She was small, doll-like and perfect with a fuzz of red hair and piercing blue eyes which blinked as they became accustomed to the brightness of the room. Molly held her daughter in her arms, welcomed her and kissed her forehead, gazing in wonder at her; the miracle of birth renewed.
"Don't get too comfortable there, Mrs James, " Dr Sanderson had called, "we've a bit more work to do, yet."
For a brief moment, Molly was reminded of something Charles had once told her about the verbal slips intelligence officers sometimes made in the briefing sessions before bombing missions during the war, including themselves as part of the collective effort whilst merely flying a desk and she was tempted to call back to the doctor, "What do you mean 'we'?" As far as she could remember, she had done all the hard work so far. Instead she bit her tongue and trying to joke despite her exhaustion said, "Are you expecting me to do that again?"
"Don't worry," Dr Sanderson replied with a smile, "the second one is usually a lot easier."
Within a few minutes the contractions had started again but to Molly's relief Dr Sanderson had been proved right. In spite of Edward being in the breech position, the birth was easier and quicker. Within fifteen minutes of Rose's birth Molly was sitting up in bed proudly welcoming her second son into the world.
Later she had lain in bed watching the twins together in their cot. Rose, swaddled in a pink blanket had fallen asleep but Edward, wrapped in blue, had stayed awake for more than an hour gazing at his surroundings, unfocused but curious of the world around him and taking everything in.
"Look at him," Sister Jones murmured as she gazed into the cot. "He doesn't want to miss a thing."
Rose continued to sleep; she was already allowing her brother to keep watch over her.
When Charles had arrived to see them all two hours later, he had been speechless. He looked into the cot at his sleeping son and daughter and a smile overspread his face. He remembered the joy of William's birth on that freezing cold Februrary day in 1945 and the creeping realisation that he was finally a father and had a family and a whole set of new responsibilities. At that moment during the war he felt simply blessed to have been given the chance to take on those responsibilities and had welcomed and embraced them but this time as he gazed at his wife and newborn children he saw a lifetime filled with possibilities stretching ahead of him and knew it would be one in which his family would be his entire world.
Within a week of the twins' birth, Molly had returned home to William's great happiness. However, he soon grew tired of the crying that assaulted his ears every two hours without fail. It was mostly Edward who started crying but in that first week even Rose joined in from time to time. Initially, they decided to be hungry at different times and Molly found herself feeding one or other of them every hour. They had thrived although Molly felt as though she had lost all sense of time as life at Greystones was dominated by the unbending regime of feeds and nappy changes, day and night. At first she had tried to carry on with all the jobs in the house, feeling that she shouldn't let things slip. She had always been strong and capable but it had begun to feel like a never-ending treadmill punctuated by constant demands from screaming babies. It was only when Charles found her up to her elbows in buckets of soaking nappies at ten o'clock one evening, dark-rings around her eyes and unresponsive to his enquiries that he had taken her to one side and told her to leave the housework and concentrate on the children.
"None of us will be any worse off for a bit of dirt and dust in the house. You don't need to try to so hard, Molly, you're wearing yourself out." He looked at her with real concern. He knew her too well and words alone were unlikely to stop her.
He had been right; she was exhausted and despite help from Bella when she wasn't working, nothing was being done with any efficiency. In the end Charles had done more than just to talk to Molly. He had engaged a young girl from the village to come up and help Molly with the housework for a few months and it had been enough to turn things around. Edward and Rose began to settle down and once weaned Edward became less demanding and more content. The house was kept clean and shipshape and Molly regained her sense of perspective and humour. By the time the twins were six months old she was back on top of the housework and able to manage by herself, much to her relief.
It had been a difficult time for William too. He had longed for his mother to come home after the birth of the twins and been curious about them. Many of his friends at school had brothers and sisters but none of them had ever acquired one of each at the same time which made him feel special. He had high hopes for them, having been assured that he would have playmates in the future and had been boasting about their arrival at school. He had almost been jumping for joy on the day they came home with his mother. She had hugged him close to her and told him how much she had missed him. He had looked into the carrycot at the sleeping babies and felt disappointed that they were doing nothing very interesting. As the day wore on and the babies constantly took his mother's attention away from him he felt even more disappointed. It was hard to see what fun they could possibly be. He had sloped away to his bedroom to play with his cars and later when one of them had started screaming he had lain on his bed and covered his ears with his pillow to block out the sound.
As the days went on however, he had learned to live with the sound of them wailing and after a few weeks could sit in the same room as one of them whilst they screamed and pay no attention to the noise whatsoever. When Colin, his friend from school and the second oldest of five children, had come to play one afternoon he had seemed quite at home with all the disorganised comings and goings at Greystones and to William's horror said his mother had a baby nearly every year and William was lucky to have his own bedroom because he had to share a room with his two brothers.
When Molly had been putting William to bed that evening he had asked her with a look of concern on his face whether he would have to share his bedroom with Eddie.
"Do you want to?" Molly asked.
He shook his head vigorously.
"Then you don't have to. Why did you ask?"
He told her what Colin had said and she realised what a worried little boy he was.
"I'm sorry, I'm a bit busy with Eddie and Rose and the moment, Will, but they can't do anything for themselves, right now, not like you. You'll be able to show them how everything's done when they're bigger. You might not think a lot of them at the moment but they'll always be your family and you'll be glad of them when you're all grown up." She ruffled his hair and thought of life in the Dawes household before the war. She'd been the eldest child and could well remember the arrival of each of her siblings and the feeling that each time another baby had been born her mother had taken a step further away from her but she'd never doubted that Betty loved her and she was determined that Will would never be in doubt either. Now, eighteen months later, William seemed as comfortable with Edward and Rose as they were with him. Whenever he came home from school they would toddle towards him full of excitement at his appearance and he always bent down to hug and kiss them. Molly was sure that William was going to be the type of big brother to Edward and Rose that she had always longed for when she was a child. she gazed at the twins and smiled at the thought of all the fun they would have in the future until her imaginings were interrupted.
"Any of that Shepherd's Pie left?" Bella enquired, "I'm starving. I swear I must have ridden about ten miles up and down the valley road, today."
She wandered over to the stove and looked at the dish sitting on the top.
"Help yourself," Molly called. Bella started spooning the meat and potatoes onto a plate and looking over at Molly said,
"Mrs Stimpson got a letter from Tom yesterday. " Her voice was level and matter-of-fact. Tom's National Service was drawing to an end and in a few more months he would be returning from the army to take up his life here in Nethercombe again. Molly knew that Bella was counting down the days until his return.
When Bella had joined Molly and Charles at Greystones in the summer of 1950 it had been viewed as a temporary arrangement that suited all three of them. Bella had been out of work at the time and her mother's patience had been tested by her inability to settle in a job. She had been a great help to Molly, helping to get the house in order, looking after William and sorting out the gardens with the advice of Ted Chadwick and help from a young lad called Paul Miller who came up twice a week to keep the lawns and the weeds under control. Bella hadn't given her long-term future a thought. She had been expecting to stay for a few months until Molly's baby was born and then return to London and probably be persuaded to take up another secretarial post equally as dull as the previous two. But then, in that first week, she had met Tom and everything had changed.
Tom was Bella's first proper boyfriend. Their relationship had sparked from the moment of their first meeting when Tom had mistaken her for the domestic help at Greystones and felt the full force of her annoyance. She wasn't like the other girls he had grown up with in the village and he'd been intrigued by her. She was a girl of contradictions. She was a Londoner born and bred and used to the big city with all its charms. She was bright, feisty, quick-witted, alive with confidence and surety and yet she loved life in the countryside, appreciated its beauty and the slower pace of life and had settled down here easily and made friends. She had confounded Tom's expectations at every turn and he hadn't been able to help himself falling for her.
Their time together had been a short, sweet interlude before fate, in the form of the National Service Act, had intervened and sent Tom away for his basic training. After only two months of a fledgling romance they were separated. Bella had taken up the offer of working in Mr Stimpson's shop and she often joked that she knew his parents better than she knew him now. She'd certainly spent more time with them during the past eighteen months.
Robert and Marjorie Stimpson were a kindly couple who had taken to Bella and enjoyed her quick wit and chirpy nature. Working in the shop brought her into contact with lots of people in the village and had been the surest way of getting to know everyone. She was able and competent and remembered everyone's likes and dislikes. She loved to pass the time of day with everyone and conveyed all the local gossip to Molly and Charles. To Mr and Mrs Stimpson she was almost like the daughter they had never had. Tom was their only child. Mrs Stimpson had once confessed to Bella in a quiet moment that things hadn't gone well with his birth and the doctor had said there wouldn't be any more after him, not that she wasn't grateful for her son. She was proud of him but missed him while he was away and was glad of Bella's company.
Tom hadn't been a particularly good correspondent while he was away and Bella sometimes waited several weeks to hear from him. When she did get a letter it was often full of news about what he and his mates had been doing in their spare evenings when they were off duty and she couldn't help reflecting that although she was glad he was having a good time and enjoying himself, she didn't seem to be uppermost in his mind. Sometimes when she hadn't heard from him for a while she worried that he'd lost interest in her. She'd always been led to believe that absence made the heart grow fonder but she wasn't sure it was true in Tom's case. By contrast she had no doubts about herself.
"What's Tom been up to then?" Molly enquired
"Having all sorts of fun and games by the sounds of things," Bella replied adding, "I think he's enjoyed being in the army more than being here. He'll probably find it dull when he gets back."
Molly thought that Bella sounded as if she was concerned about him settling when he returned.
"He'll be glad enough to be back," Molly said. "He must have missed being with you. He's only had a few weeks here since he left."
It was true enough that Tom had returned home on leave on several occasions during the past eighteen months but each time Bella had barely become used to him being around before his leave was over. As soon as he returned to the army she found herself missing him all over again and in Charles' view, "Moping around like a wet weekend."
"At least he's only got a few more months to go, " Molly said, "so cheer up and look forward to it, the time will fly by, you'll see."
She glanced at the kitchen clock on the wall and saw that it was already a quarter past one. Bella must have been late returning from work as she was normally here by twelve thirty; she'd been right about all the time spent on deliveries today. Molly was due to meet Marjorie Stimpson in the village at quarter to two. She started untying her apron strings,
"I need to get a move on, Bella. Can you manage here?"
Bella rolled her eyes, "course, I can. What do you reckon, Eddie and Rosie?" She grinned at her nephew and niece. Edward stared at her open mouthed before grinning back. Rose looked at her in silence and then carried on eating.
"I'll fetch Will from school on my way back," Molly called over her shoulder as she hurried along the hall heading for the stairs. She looked down at her plain blue, everyday dress. It was fine for housework but she definitely couldn't go out without changing. She had been putting this off for months and now that the decision was made she didn't want to make the wrong impression. It was no good. The dress simply wouldn't do at all.
