Chapter XV

24th June 1942

My dearest Seb,

Your letters on their own make me feel so much happier and full of joy that I'm sure you can't even imagine just how much I love getting them. I wait for each every day and run to the mailbox as soon as I hear a postman coming by. Are you sure you want to be an opera singer? I think you were born to be a poet!

I know I say this in every letter to you but I think about you so many times during the day that it really is heartwarming whenever I get your letters and somehow they do reassure me that you are fine and will be as well. My darling, I do hope that you are writing to me only the truth about your safety and being fine. You know that I do worry about you no matter how many times you'll tell me not to. You are my sweetheart and I am yours and nothing will ever change that so I am very impatiently waiting for you to come home, to me.

I'm looking at the photograph of you in your uniform which is standing on my nightstand and I can assure you that that I'm smiling widely. Goodness gracious, darling, I do miss the texture of your curls... and the twinkle in your eyes when you're singing in your pure tenor voice which is so beautiful… (Two pages omitted because of Hester's evening time sinking into oblivion of romance)

Now let's go back to the news from our little Glen and Four Winds.

Lily came back from Redmond College last weekend and it's so extremely good to have her back, you have no idea, dear. She's this bright spot in our family and I even think that her hair defines that exactly. She has always been so joyful and it has always been her who was the definition and a metaphor for hope and positivity. She's still the same even with the war on and I am so grateful to consider her as one of my very best and closest friends. So right now our circle of friends is almost complete with us waiting for Ada to eventually come for the summer in two weeks' time. Then it will all seem as if the war wasn't on at all, that is only when our Group will be together in the Rainbow Valley because the war cannot be blocked out of our minds however much we will try.

Yes, of course, we all do lots of work for the Red Cross and we're knitting like crazy. I do enjoy doing it very much because not only it is a beautiful way for all of us to be together with our mothers and aunties and to talk with one another, (even gossip a bit for a good laugh!) and joke and even, believe it or not, sing. I'm sure that you, a future opera singer, would laugh incredibly if you were here with all us and hear us sing!

But of course the main goal and reason why we're doing it is because of you, Gilly, Selwyn, Walt, John and Marshall. We're doing all of this work for you, it's not much if you think about it but it's something and therefore it counts and that's what makes me very happy. I'm happy that I'm able to do at least that for you, even if it's relatively little and small.

Vance's older sister, Cornelia, is about to do even more than just knitting. She has left her home for her nurse-training yesterday and is in very high spirits about it, it gives her a real purpose, she said. She turned to us, when she was already dressed in her new uniform and was about to go to the train station, and said to all of us girls triumphantly "I'm going to be there for our boys, darlings. If anything, God forbid, will happen to any of them, I will be there to help them." and I had tears in my eyes because I felt so much lighter as I know that she means it with all her heart. But fear and worry were there in her eyes as she touched the shining diamond on her finger and we all knew she was thinking of Walt, her fiance and what could be happening to him right now.

And we were thinking of him too and my own Gil as well. There isn't an hour during the day or even during the night when I don't think about the both of them and where they are and in what state of body and mind the two of them are. It makes me want to sob into my pillow all over again but I'm not going to do that. I did it already, as you know yourself, when we all found out that they are "wounded and missing" but it was the first and the last time when I would cry, I promised myself, I won't cry even once before they will be found. Thank you, my darling, for praying for their safety as well, it really does mean ever so much to me! To all of us.

I know, I feel in my heart that they will be fine and that they will certainly come out of whatever the situation they're in right now. We all think the same thing and we all pray and hope for both of our handsome boys. Grandpa Meredith never forgets to mention both of their names after each of his Sunday's sermons and every time he does mention them I feel the presence of God in my heart and the feeling of reassurance that all is and will be fine with the world. I know thst you think that too, my dearest.

There will be another cousin of ours joining the war very soon, you know. I don't know him very well and the last time I've seen him was about four years ago because he and his family live in Gillingham, in a town near the unknown-land-to me called London. The cousin I'm writing to you about is called Tom Meredith and he just turned eighteen years old and two days after birthday he enlisted to the RAF just like Gil and Marshall did almost three years ago now. We received his very new photograph with him in his new uniform. We could not believe how much he changed in those four years time! He looks like a very grown up man even though he's still so very young! He indeed looks very much mature. I already wrote to him yesterday evening to wish him good luck and to make him promise to write to me as often as he can just to let me know that he is fine, wherever he'll be.

It's been a week since I've started working at the orphanage in the Lower Glen with my Auntie Una. Vance joined me too, of course, and we enjoy ourselves very much. It really is so heartening and blissful to spend your day with children all around you. They talk such silly and darling little things that sometimes I feel like my heart could explode with love over them even though it's been only a week since I've started to help out there. I spend my time there especially with the youngest children, and the youngest of them all is the eight months old baby girl called Daisy and she is just like her name, she is simply the sweetest and you, my darling, can't imagine how happy I felt when she fell asleep on my chest as I rocked her in my arms while watching how other children were eating their lunch. Of course, I can't know how it feels like to be a mother, I won't be able to say it until I will have children of my own but in that moment I felt as if I was one, even if it was just for that one darling hour with small Daisy in my arms and her blonde locks tickling my chin.

I was coming back home from the orphanage with Vance and Auntie Una by my side today and I told them both that if I could I would adopt all of our twenty-four beautiful children. They both smiled at me and Auntie Una, as you know she has worked there ever since she came back from India in 1927, said to me: "My dear Hester, if it was up to me, I would make sure to marry a King and take all of those children with me to live in a huge palace where they won't want for anything". She is truly my kindred spirit, that's all I can say.

I shall be going now, dearest. It's quite late in the evening and tomorrow I'm meeting with the very first mother of my student whom I'll start teaching in September. My student is just six years old but she's very eager to start playing the cello and I can't say I blame her, I will encourage her even. So I have to wake up quite early in the morning, you see.

Stay safe, my dear, and remember that I'm thinking of you every day and every night. I hope to hear from you soon although I know that you're busy.

I love you,

Always yours,

Hester

"So you're not going to be a missionary then, dear Marion?" Hester asked her brown-haired friend on the last evening of June 1942. The sunset was there, in the sky and on the horizon and beneath its colours was the ocean spreading before the Group of Hester's which was still incomplete as it still awaited the arrival of Ada but even so it did feel quite complete with the much-needed addition of Lily, their red-headed optimistic soon-to-be-lawyer.

They were all sitting on two huge blankets spread on the brown sand of the beach, the summer's warm breeze covering their faces like a veil and disarranging their hair. They did look beautiful, like always, and funny at the same time because their hair danced with the wind and each of their heads had a different colour of it, a feature which their family loved looking at.

Marion blushed slightly but smiled radiantly nonetheless "No, I'm not, Hester." she replied gently, putting a scarf around her shoulders "That is why I am very happy that the Glen's school, our very own school, accepted me in a position of the English teacher."

"Of course, they did, dear." Lily said assuringly and started to put her hair into a ponytail "You're no ordinary person and therefore no ordinary teacher." she winked at her younger sister and Marion smiled back at her "But it's a shame that none of you will join me at Redmond!" she groaned at this and really did look annoyed with the thought.

"Ada will go to study Mathematics." Hester put in and grinned lightly at her red-haired friend and a cousin.

"I know, I know…" Lily said hurriedly and then smiled again at the girls around her "I do like Ada and she is my friend but she's not a friend to me like all of you are, my dearest girls." she put her right hand on Vance's hand and her left one on Hester's and she smiled at Marion.

The girls smiled back at Lily "I know what you mean." Hester agreed "I do love Ada but because she lives so far away we don't share all the memories with her as much as we all here share."

The girls nodded in agreement "But at least she'll have someone she knows once she'll get to Redmond in September." Vance added kindly.

"That's true, dear." Lily said and grinned at her shy friend "And I'll feel very lucky to have her nearby, I'm sure. And even though you won't be going to Redmond, you'll all be so busy over here!" she clasped her hands together and shook her head as if imagining how busy all of her friends will be with their jobs even though still staying in the small Glen and Four Winds.

The girls around her laughed merrily and looked at each other knowingly "It's good that we'll be occupied." Hester said "It will take our minds off all the "what ifs" and so on…" she added absent-mindedly and she came back to earth only when Lily touched her hand gently and smiled lightly into her eyes.

"Don't worry, honey." she said to her "Both Gil and Walt will be found in no time, you'll see." she and Marion shared a very intimate glance of the two sisters who were equally worried about their older brother no matter how much they hoped and prayed for his and his cousin's safety.

All of them fell silent for a moment, as if a prayer was hanging in the air around them, giving the moment a religious feel and Hester thought that for that one moment there was really no war and no world around them but the beach and the ocean in front of them. It was a moment of peace they were all yearning for ever since the start of the war, all of those three years ago. In that small moment of calmness Hester knew that indeed Lily was right, their brothers will be safe and sound and they will found soon too, maybe not today or tomorrow but they will be.

Lily broke off the silence by smiling at her friends who smiled back at her "Did I tell you what Ada wrote to me recently in one of her letters?" she asked them all.

The girls raised their eyebrows in curiosity and leant closer together as if they were about to hear a secret of real importance "No, what did she write to you, Lily?" Marion asked her sister.

"She said that she's extremely excited for Redmond, and I really don't blame her at all. I'm excited for going back even now!" she chuckled sweetly "And also that besides from giving everything to the subject of Maths, she is really looking forward to maybe, as she said, having a romance of her own while studying there." she nodded towards the girls to announce that that was the end of the story.

"I think everyone hopes for a bit of romance while going off to a university or a first job." Hester said with a smile on her face, her eyes shining and her mind producing an image of a tall, handsome, young singer with blonde curls coming out of his military cap and her face turned dreamy.

"Says someone who already has a sweetheart of her own!" Lily touched Hester's hand and smiled at her while Hester blushed gently "How do I envy you, Hester." Lily's hazel eyes suddenly turned saddened and somehow far away. All the girls looked at their friend with worry in their own eyes and Lily looked up at them and knew that she had to say more of what she's thinking of "Sometimes, I feel like I won't be able to bear another day without writing to John and telling him all about my feelings for him so that he'd know, at least." she was looking at her hands attentively and then she looked at Hester, Marion and Vance once more "But then I stop myself from doing so because I wouldn't be able to bear his answer." a wave of warm tears sprang into her eyes and Hester instinctively put her arm around her shoulders and drew her into a warm hug.

"I know, dear." she said to her softly "Love isn't easy at all, is it?" Hester said half looking into Vance's eyes and both sharing a knowing glance, the two of them thinking of the two boys they both loved, Vance of Selwyn and Hester of her own sweetheart. Hester's own eyes filled with a sudden bucketful of tears "And don't envy me, Lily." she said to her once Lily sat back up "Seb is at the front now and if… if…" she started and had to gulp to continue speaking "-if he dies then my future with him dies too."

Lily squeezed Hester's right hand and Vance squeezed her left one "He'll be fine, Hes." Lily said to her firmly "And so will John and Walt, Gilly, Selwyn, Marshall…" she gave a glance towards Vance who smiled bravely at her "They will get through it, I know it."

The girls around her nodded but all cuddled up together on the blanket, their hands interlaced together with their heads bent and touching. All of their eyes were closed and suddenly Hester's voice filled the silence between them, her voice merely a whisper and a sound of the wind touching it softly made it sound like an almost unearthly voice: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…".

The girls surrounding her, all of their eyes still closed and hands linked, joined Hester in the prayer and even after it, they stayed like that for a while and they all forgot about the time and their minds were focused on the ones they held dearest to their hearts.

The sunset was slowly disappearing and the night was being born. Hester thought that it was quite funny how the nature remained the same, even though the people inhabiting its peace could so easily destroy its calmness and tranquillity. There was a war on yet the sunset was there each day, and the sunrise and the dawn and brisk and the moon and the sun as well. Yes, all was right with the world, after all, she thought to herself and that small thought made her heart to keep a steady and a calm beat as if for reassurance that everything will truly fall into place one day, on one sunny day.