Chapter 21

The journey wasn't that long, but Titty thought she had slept a little, and she was fairly sure Dick had too. It was perhaps just as well that the train terminated at King's Cross and the noise and lack of motion woke them both.

"Titty?" Dick asked, tentatively when they had stepped down onto the platform.

"Yes?"

"John's friend who came to the wedding."

"David Williams."

"Yes."

"Roger was right about you writing to him, wasn't he?"

"Yes. We wrote quite a lot. I think – I mean I know because he left a letter to be sent afterwards – his brother sent it. I think he …" She couldn't quite find the words to say it. Perhaps she ought not to say it.

"He loved you?"

Titty nodded. "And I liked him, but not as much as he wished I did. I think." It was unkind to Dick, but seemed unfair to David not to add. "He was kind and interesting."

"I'm glad." Dick said abruptly. "Unhappy about it – but glad."

Titty felt no need to ask Dick what he meant by the seeming contradiction. It seemed clear enough to her.

"I was wondering if you had an address for his parents."

Titty turned to look at Dick, startled. "An address? Yes, although only his mother is still alive – and the brother of course. Why?"

"It was what you said about last photographs of people. I took one of you and David dancing at the wedding. It did occur to me that it was very likely the last one that was taken of him. I wondered if his mother would like a print. That's if you don't mind. After all, it is a photograph of you, too."

Titty realised how much it had cost Dick to make the suggestion. She couldn't think of anything else to say without making him more uncomfortable. She kissed him on the cheek. He looked rather pleased and, considering that they were still standing on the platform, surprisingly unembarrassed.

"I'll see if I can get what I need for developing today. It might be easier in London. It's a bit early, but shall we try that telephone number? If there isn't a reply, we could always see if we can find some breakfast and then come back later." was all he actually said.

Titty was surprised at how quickly Nancy had come to the telephone.

"I was actually on the other side of the desk." came the jolly, confident voice, after giving the details Titty had asked for. "When are you coming then?"

"We're already at King's Cross."

"We?"

"Dick's here with me. We'll go straight there."

"Barbequed billy-goats, the able-seamen aren't letting the grass grow under their feet, whatever it is." Nancy was loftily ignoring than fact that Dick was Captain of the Scarab. "You'll probably be there before he is, then. Look here, I'll be off-duty by the time you're finished. I'll hang around and treat you to breakfast afterwards."

They said goodbye through the pips.

"Have we got enough for another call?" Dick asked.

"Yes. Nancy says she'll treat us to breakfast."

Dick nodded. "I heard most of it."

The telephone receiver did indeed seem peculiarly loud.

"Callum – where are you and what the blazes is going on? I've got Hardy here bleating about you having been spirited away by some girl without a bicycle. Is Miss Walker with you? And where are you?"

"We're in a telephone box and.."

"Callum, don't try my patience."

"Sorry sir. We're in London. And it's in quite a busy public place. It seems quite a loud telephone too, I afraid."

"What the heck are you doing there?"

"Well, last night we discovered something. The sort of something that the right person should probably be told about fairly smartly. Not the sort of thing that is anything to do with what we're doing, though. A different sort of thing. So you weren't the person to tell. I'll try to be back this afternoon."

"Callum, I have a perfectly good office with an adequate telephone. It's quite private if you shut the door. Why didn't you ask to use it instead of haring off to London?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think of it, sir. And, T.. Miss Walker would need to be there too."

The sigh at the other end of the phone was perfectly audible and almost theatrical.

"Better tell her about her future employment prospects if it will simplify things. And don't come back to work until you've had a night's sleep. Mistakes have a way of being expensive."

"Thank you, sir."

What had Titty and Dick found out? Dick was far too level-headed to succumb to one of the fifth columnist scares that were so rife. For that matter, Titty might be imaginative, but she wasn't short of common sense either. People did so much want to stick sisters into different categories. The sensible one and the sensitive, imaginative one. The chatterbox and whatever it was that people said about her. It was not as if Nancy was exactly monosyllabic herself. Peggy could take charge well enough when required and better than most. Titty could cook and plan and organise a camp nearly as well as Susan. Susan herself wasn't devoid of imagination. Susan might have disapproved of Peter Duck in some ways, but she had added some good points to the Missee Lee story. And Susan had been so upset about whatever had happened with Jim Brading. That hadn't been the reaction of a person lacking sensitivity.

Nancy Walker scowled at the paperwork in front of her. It was routine – and could wait until tomorrow night. She shouldn't let her mind wander like this, but it did when she was tired, especially if the task was dull.

"I've not gone." she said to the rating on the other side of the desk. "I'll be back in about ten minutes."

It would do no harm at all to take a walk around the building. There were enough Wrens dotted about the place in various roles, most of them very young. They would probably benefit from a word of praise (or in the case of that idler Forbes, a word of censure). The way things were going there would be little enough time for that sort of thing in a day or two.

They hadn't been allowed to wander around the building by themselves, of course. As Nancy came down the stairs she caught a familiar voice making small talk to a Wren in the corridor outside the first floor ladies lavatories. Prudence Sidebottom was so shy that she made Timothy look the life and soul of the party. It had been a wonder she had managed to speak enough to actually join up. Chatting about the weather, even to Dick, who must surely be the least intimidating of young men, probably counted as a great achievement for the girl. Nancy paused on the stairs.

As expected, Titty came out in a minute. What Nancy was not expecting to see was the grin on Titty's face, nor what she thought she had seen Titty mouth to Dick behind Prudence Sidebottom's back. She had certainly not imagined Dick's brief answering grin. Nancy remained rooted to the spot, unnoticed by all three as Sidebottom led the others the other way along the corridor.

Hearing voices coming up the staircase from the ground floor, Nancy disappeared into the only room where she could think without worrying about what showed on her face.

She wasn't in the least bit surprised that Titty and Dick obviously had a friendship that was close and confiding. Nancy was the last person to be surprised if romantic feelings had grown out of old friendship. And she could certainly understand getting carried away by your feelings.

She wasn't sure how long it had been – seconds perhaps, not more than a minute surely, at the most – before she wrenched her mind away from pleasant memories of John's kisses, John's touch, John's voice murmuring loving nonsense in her ear.

Nancy had recognised that sort of relieved smile. She had seen it a once or twice on girls with steady boyfriends at college. She had felt that sort of relief herself in the autumn. Everyone else had seemed to expect them to want to start a family as soon as they were married.

What Titty and Dick did together was their own business, but the probable consequences would inevitably fall more heavily on Titty than on Dick. Nancy was fairly sure that the Walkers would be extremely upset at the idea of an illegitimate grandchild. Nancy could understand that Titty might be reluctant to turn up without a ring on her finger at the sort of clinic where everyone was "Mrs", but Dick really should be more responsible. For the first time ever, Nancy regretted that she had been so keen to welcome Dick and Dorothea into their group of friends, that winter when the Lake had frozen over.

She should probably speak to Titty by herself first. When Nancy had thrown her bouquet, the idea of Titty and Dick marrying had seemed perfect. Now, she was not so sure. Much as she loved John, Nancy would have refused him if she had thought for a minute that he had proposed only to save her good name. Nancy certainly didn't want Titty to feel she had to marry Dick. Still less did she want a situation where...

Of course it was interfering. Being interfering hadn't stopped Nancy Blackett and wasn't going to stop Nancy Walker.