Repost of an earlier story of mine with some reworking. Hope you all enjoy and leave a review!
Saying goodbye was always a challenge for any parent. These women were sending their children away to keep them safe. They had to, to save them from the bombs, and it was among the most difficult thing they had ever done. How could you send your darlings away from you to an unknown place and unknown people? First their husbands and brothers had gone and now their babies. It didn't bear thinking about.
The bustle of the train station was interrupted momentarily as the family of seven poured through the doors; the mother trying to hold onto two of the younger children, a baby balanced on her hip and the other three trailing behind.
"What train is it?" she screeched over the din of her children.
"I imagine it's the one with the kids hanging out of it," one of the girls muttered. She was the one who was being sent away today. A single dirty pillow case trailed on the ground behind her, containing all her worldly possessions.
"Don't you be giving me lip today, missus!" her mother snarled and cuffed her round the ear. To do this, she had to drop the hands of her younger two. They promptly bolted in opposite directions. Swearing like a trooper, she shoved the baby towards her eldest daughter and stormed off after them.
"Such language," one of the WVS ladies helping with the evacuation said. The eldest son dragged on his cigarette then stubbed it out.
"You talking bout me mam?" he demanded, blowing smoke in her face. She coughed and wafted the smoke away.
"Leave it, Jimmy. The posh bint ain't worth it," the eldest girl said, shifting the baby to her other hip. "Let's just make this easier on Nance."
The WVS lady tried her hardest not to turn her nose up and smiled painfully at the four of them.
"Who is being evacuated?" she asked with enforced brightness. The girl with the pillow case glared at her.
"Just me," she said flatly. "The other three are going in two days time. Jimmy and Dot don't get to go."
The eldest grinned and ruffled his sister's hair. "I turn eighteen next month and then I'm off, for King and country!" he said. "And this one's got her job to think about. Makes uniforms for our soldiers! She's a dab hand with a sewing machine," he added, wrapping a skinny arm around his other sister's neck.
"And your name is?" the WVS lady asked the younger girl, desperately wishing for their mother to return.
"Nancy Dempsey," the girl replied. The WVS lady looked her up in the records and carefully filled out the label. She tied it to Nancy's grubby cardigan.
"Now, you must keep this label on at all times," she said brightly. "It has all your information on it. You are a lucky girl; you will be staying in a lovely village deep in the countryside."
Nancy stared at her stonily. Their mother appeared from the crowds dragging her younger two by the hands.
"Oh my word, is she all set to go?" she asked, squinting at the label.
"Yeah," Jimmy replied. "She just has to jump on the train."
The baby began to grizzle on Dot's hip and she jiggled him up and down in an attempt to quiet him. Nancy kissed one of his chubby cheeks but he howled harder. "Bye, our Arthur," she said. "Bye, Dot."
Her older sister gave her a half-hearted hug. "See ya kiddo," she muttered. Jimmy ruffled her hair again.
"Watch yaself, Nance! Remember what I taught ya!" he said. She ignored him and turned to her two younger siblings.
"I don't wanna go with Peggy Sue an' Arthur!" her brother screamed. "I wanna go with Nance!"
"Well, you can't, Georgie. I don't want to go without you either," Nancy said.
"They get to stay together. And that boy looks like he's Dot's age!" her other sister, Peggy Sue, moaned, pointing. Nancy looked across the station at the family. They were richer than Nancy's. They had suitcases and cosy-looking coats instead of pillowcases and thin cardigans. Their mother was hugging each of them and trying to hold back tears. Nancy's mother was sucking on a new cigarette and ineffectually mopping at the dribble from the baby's mouth.
"They're posh knobs," Jimmy muttered, earning himself a smack round the head from their mother too.
"Better get on the train, dear!" the WVS lady said chirpily.
"Bye, sweetheart," her mother said, pecking her on the cheek. "Write to me and tell me all about where you are staying. And don't turn your nose up at any food; I know what you're like but you need to eat proper."
She paused and then gathered her daughter into her arms and hugged her properly. "Keep yourself safe," she said thickly. "I love you."
"Yes, Mam," Nancy said. "Love you too." She hefted her pillow case over one shoulder and pushed her way through to the train. She turned and waved at her family as the whistle blew. The train moved off with a judder and they were lost in amongst the crowd. Nancy turned and looked around her. She was surrounded by kids who were all far wealthier than her. They all had nice coats and actual suitcases like that other family in the station. She kicked her pillowcase miserably and wish she had something a little more substantial. She wished her brothers and sister were coming with her instead of being sent off with their primary school on Saturday.
She heard some giggling and her head whipped round. Two girls were eyeing her up and down.
"Wha'?" she snarled at them. They shrugged and vanished into a compartment.
She'd never been on a train before. 'Cept the Tube but that didn't count. Nah, this was a proper train with compartments and carriages and conductors. She walked along the corridor but all the compartments had children in them already. They looked at her as she paused outside the windows and she quickly moved on. They were all judging her, she knew it.
Posh knobs, she thought venomously. Jimmy had warned her this would happen. He had told her they would look down on her. Besides, what said she wanted to sit with them anyway! She stood by the window and watched the landscape speed past instead. Once they were away from the grey of London she was mesmerised. Everything was so green! It was greener than the local park!
Was this what Ireland was like? Her Pa was from Ireland and he told all of them about the land of his birth with a nostalgic twinkle in his eye. She wished she could see it one day.
The train sped through the countryside and, at each station, kids filed from the carriages. Eventually an empty compartment appeared and she scurried into it, thankful to rest her feet. She studied her label. It had her name, her address, even her school but it didn't say where she was going.
Eventually they reached one station and a voice called, "All remaining evacuees. All remaining evacuees are to leave the train please!"
She was in a group of maybe thirty or so other children. The village was a collection of neat redbrick houses around a green. They were led to the church hall by some new WVS ladies and made to line up in a neat row down the length of the hall. One of the ladies faced them, smiling widely.
"Welcome to Lower Whiteton," she said, "your home during the war. Shortly your new aunties and uncles shall come to claim you so be sure to smarten up and look your best! First impressions are key!"
"Oh no," the boy standing next to Nancy moaned. "This happened to my cousin."
He smoothed his hair down and neatened his tie. Nancy looked around and saw the other children making similar adjustments to their appearances.
"'Ere, what's happening?" she hissed to the boy. His eyebrows raised at her East-End accent.
"It's simply beastly; the ladies and gentlemen will come and pick us out like the side of beef they want from the butcher's counter," he said. His eyes slid over her worn dress and scuffed boots before adding plaintively, "The neat ones always go first."
She looked down at herself then tugged her socks up so they covered her knees. That, together with rolling down her cardigan sleeves, would hide the worse of her scrapes. If only she had a pretty ribbon to tie her hair back with, and for the first time in her life she was thankful that her mother had made her wash her face that morning. She knew she did not look nearly as well-turned out as the others.
The first of the villagers made their way into the hall and surveyed the children with kind smiles. They walked back and forth along the line, whispering to their spouses, until one brave woman stepped forward and took the hand of a little girl with golden hair.
"Good day," she said. "Would you like to stay with myself and my husband?"
"Oh, yes please!" the girl replied, her cornflower blue eyes shining with delight, and let herself be led over to the WVS ladies for the final records. Slowly, more and more children were claimed. Nancy waited patiently but the villagers' eyes passed right over her as if she weren't there. Soon all the girls except herself had gone and the boys were disappearing quickly too.
Eventually a couple walked over to her.
"You poor little thing!" the woman said pitifully. "Look at how little she has with her, John! It's as if her mother rushed her from the house before she could pack her things!"
"Y'wot?" she snarled. Expressions of shock passed over their faces as she spoke back.
"Me mam cried as she sent me away! Don't you dare say a word against my mam!" she shouted.
"That is enough!" one of the WVS ladies clucked, striding over to them. "Miss... Dempsey," she said sternly, peering at Nancy's label, "that is not proper behaviour. Apologise!"
She folded her arms defiantly. The man wrapped a protective arm around his wife's shoulders and turned to the boy next to Nancy.
"Come on, son," he said. "We have room for you."
The boy picked up his suitcase and smiled smugly at Nancy as he walked off behind them. She did not know how but now nobody would look at her. Her heart sunk further as each new family left the church hall. Even the scruffy little boys were taken. They had arrived in the late afternoon but it was now pushing early evening.
Her ears caught stray words as one couple entered. Someone laid their hand on the woman's sleeve and jerked her head in Nancy's rough direction.
"That one is difficult."
And right then she knew she had blown it. She was almost in tears by the time she was left alone. As soon as the door closed behind the last family, she ran to the table where the two WVS ladies sat.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Don't send me back to London, please, I'll do anything!" she sobbed.
"Thank you for the apology at last, Nancy, but you are too late. All the villagers have come and gone," one of them said to her.
"Come now, there must be some room for the girl somewhere," the other said. "What about our homes?"
"I can't, Joan!" the first said indignantly. "My nephews arrive tomorrow and I only have room for them."
"And I took those three lads in last week," Joan said. "We can hardly march her around the village knocking on doors until someone takes her in, Miriam. What about Professor Kirke?"
"He has four already! They went straight up there earlier today," Miriam said. "We shouldn't bother him with any more."
"I think they can manage to find space for one more little girl in that big, empty house," Joan said. Miriam pulled a face and edged closer to her. She lowered her voice but Nancy still caught her words.
"Look at her. Little East-End, half-Irish gutter child! She will pocket all of the silver and vandalise that beautiful house!"
Nancy fought the urge to say something about that as well. She weren't a thief! And her Pa was Irish; so what? There were worse things he could be! How dare that lady think that of her and her family!
But she stayed silent. She did not want to lose another potential place to stay.
"I think Jane shall be more than a match for her," Joan replied stiffly. She stood. "I shall see if the vicar will let me use his telephone," she said and walked from the hall. Miriam sniffed and began to finish the records before her.
"Jane Macready is a very good friend of mine, Nancy," she said. "Please be polite to her if she can find you a place to stay."
Nancy fidgeted. She didn't know what to say. Joan returned with a smile on her face.
"Come Nancy! Professor Kirke has agreed to take you in. Gather your things and I shall drive you up there now," she said.
Nancy all but ran for her pillowcase and quickly followed Joan out to the car.
"A train and an automobile all in the same day; my brothers will be so jealous when I write to them!" she said gleefully from the back seat as the car pulled away from the church grounds. Joan could not help but smile when she heard that.
She felt sorry for the little girl. Yes, she was rather thin and forlorn-looking and her mannerisms were going to get her into trouble one day but there was something so charming and endearing about her. This was only further cemented by Nancy's words as the car turned up the manor house's long driveway.
"Cor, it's like bleedin' Buckingham Palace!"
"I don't know what things are like in London but we don't tolerate that sort of language out in the country," Joan reprimanded, firmly but not harshly. She let the girl out of the car and walked her up to the front door. As the doorbell echoed away into the depths of the house, Joan turned to the girl.
"There are four other children staying here. Please remember how lucky you are to be here too," she said.
The door opened to reveal a severe looking woman. "Is this her?" she asked, her steely eyes sweeping over Nancy.
"Yes, this is Nancy," Joan said.
"Mrs Macready, housekeeper," the woman said to her. "Where is your suitcase? Please say that you did not leave it in the church hall."
"This is all I have," Nancy almost whispered.
"Hmm. And I thought the other four came with little," she said. She stood to the side to let Nancy into the house.
"Thank you," Nancy said to Joan. The older women raised her eyebrows; surprised at the sincerity in the girl's voice but pleasantly so.
"Don't thank me; thank Mrs Macready and the Professor," she said. "You and the other children are welcome to join me for afternoon tea on Sunday, if you wish."
Nancy smiled weakly at her and then took a deep breath. She stepped over the threshold and into the house that was to be home during the war.