15
SAM
When we got back to the camp, I sent a message to Ruby straight away, asking if she could meet me that coming Sunday afternoon, at three o’clock.
Vera delivered her reply via Stanley the following day.
Will do my best to get away. Father better now but Grandmother being difficult. Will try to be there for 3 – if I’m more than an hour late assume I’m not coming. But I will try. R x
‘Jimmy,’ I said that evening, after dinner. ‘Help me with something?’
He grinned wryly at me. ‘What now? You’re not after any more dog leashes, are you?’
I shook my head. ‘Nothing like that.’ From across the dining hall, I spotted Freddie Gardner watching me, his eyes narrowed. ‘And don’t say anything to anyone,’ I added, lowering my voice.
‘But what—’
‘Tell you in a bit, OK?’
Thirty minutes later, he met me around the back of the dining hall. ‘If anyone sees us, we’re on a secret exercise,’ I told him, handing him a broom. I had one too, and a couple of oil lamps.
‘What the hell?’ he said.
I slung my broom across my shoulder like a rifle. ‘I’ll explain on the way. C’mon.’
‘Huh,’ he said when I’d told him what I wanted to do. ‘You really got it bad for that girl, haven’t you?’
‘Shut up.’ I was glad it was dark enough that he couldn’t see me blushing.
‘Jesus fucking Christ, Sam,’ he grumbled as we walked across the fields, mud sucking at our boots. ‘If you wanted to go on a midnight hike, why not just say?’
‘We can’t go through the front gates. It’s a goddamn military hospital. Unless you wanna get arrested?’
That shut him up.
Just as we reached the trees at the edge of the hospital grounds, the air raid siren started to sound in town.
‘You think we oughta go back?’ Jimmy said. I could just see his silhouette; he was looking up at the sky. Across the fields, back towards the sea, searchlights sprang into life, shining up into the clouds. I strained my ears, listening for planes, but it was impossible to hear anything over the siren.
I shook my head. ‘Nah. If the Krauts start dropping bombs right now, we’ll be caught out in the fields. Come on.’
We pushed on through the woods, followed by the wail of the siren. When we got to the lodge we climbed in through the window at the back. I lit the lanterns and set them on the floor.
‘Wow. This place is a mess,’ Jimmy said, looking round.
‘Yeah, well, that’s where you come in.’ I picked up my broom again.
He shook his head. ‘You owe me for this, Archer. Big time,’ he said, but he was smiling. Five minutes after we’d got to work, the all-clear sounded. Guess it was a false alarm this time, or they were just on a photographic mission. Thank God for that. We swept the floors, piling the dust into a closet in the hall, and straightened everything up. We returned to the camp two hours later, tired out, our uniforms smudged with dirt.
There was no Christmas paper to be had anywhere, so the next day I liberated some brown paper from the camp kitchen, drew holly leaves and bells all over it and used it to wrap the Emily Dickinson book, tying a tag to it with Ruby’s name on.
On Sunday, I arrived at the lodge early, climbing in through the window I’d got in before. I wondered if Ruby had been here since Jimmy and I had come to clean up. I didn’t think so; it had that same deserted feel as before. I dropped my pack, which was full, onto the floor, and spent the next half an hour getting the place ready.
When I was done I sat down in one of the armchairs to wait. How long had it been since I last saw Ruby? I counted on my fingers: two – no, two and a half weeks. And now it was less than seven days until Christmas. I checked my watch. Come on… come on…
Three o’clock came. There was still no sign of her.
I got up and paced around the room. Face it, she’s not gonna make it. That grandmother of hers caught her trying to leave and stopped her. Or she decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
Then I heard a noise at the window. ‘Sam? Are you there?’ Ruby whispered. ‘I’ve got Toffee.’
‘I’m here!’ I rushed over to help her lift the dog through the gap in the board over the window, and she climbed in after him.
‘Thank you,’ she said, brushing cobwebs out of her hair while Toffee bounded around my feet, overjoyed to see me. I bent down and unclipped his leash, rubbing his ears. Ruby was flushed and breathing hard, her hair coming unpinned. ‘Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry I’m late. I ran all the way over. I—’
Then she looked round her, and her mouth dropped open.
‘Whaddya think?’ I said, grinning, as she took it all in. I’d found some candles in the camp stores, and now they were on the mantelpiece and some of the windowsills, filling the room with a flickering, rosy glow. I’d also found a paraffin heater, which made the temperature in here just about bearable – if you kept your coat on, anyhow – and there had been an ancient gramophone in the bedroom closet, which now sat on a table in the middle of the room. On another table, one I’d fetched from the kitchen, was a picnic: chicken salad sandwiches, cake, and a thermos flask of coffee. And in the corner was the tiny Christmas tree I’d bought in a department store in London, small enough for me to bring back in my suitcase but big enough to hang with a few single strands of tinsel and some miniature paper decorations.
Ruby’s face was a picture. ‘What – where – how?’
‘You like it?’
‘I love it!’
‘I got you this, too.’ I handed her the brown-paper-wrapped Emily Dickinson.
‘Oh dear – I haven’t got you anything yet.’
‘Don’t matter.’
I watched, holding my breath, as she unwrapped it.
‘Sam!’ she breathed. ‘How did you know?’
‘How did I know what?’
‘That she’s one of my favourite poets!’
‘She is?’ I wondered if the old guy in the bookshop was some sort of wizard. ‘I haven’t written anything in it – I didn’t want you to get into trouble if your dad finds it, or your Grandmama.’
‘Thank you. Thank you.’ She flung her arms around me and hugged me, and it was like Christmas had come already.
‘You’re welcome,’ I said. How I kept my voice even, I have no idea. I felt as if every nerve ending in my body was on fire. I led her to one of the armchairs, where a rug was folded over the arm. She sat down and I tucked it over her knees. Then I wound up the gramophone. Soft classical music filled the air. ‘I dunno what this is,’ I said. ‘The label’s damaged and it’s the only one I found that wasn’t completely wrecked. But I thought it was kinda nice.’
‘It’s Bach, I think,’ Ruby said. She smiled and gazed round again, her face still full of wonder. ‘I can’t believe it. It’s like something out of a fairy tale. Where on earth did you get that tree! I didn’t even think I’d get a Christmas this year.’
‘Things are that bad, huh?’ Suddenly I noticed how weary she looked, despite her smile.
Her smile vanished. ‘Worse. You have no idea. Grandmother disapproves of me going out to work and sighs, and the way she looks at me every morning when I’m getting ready to leave – you can’t imagine those looks. According to her, I should be married by now and bringing up a family, like she was when she was nineteen. And oh, Sam, she snores. You should hear her! I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep since she arrived!’
‘Can’t your pa do something?’
‘No. He won’t stand up to her at all. It’s awful.’
Not knowing what else to do, I poured coffee and handed her a sandwich. ‘Well, she ain’t here, is she?’ I said gently. It’s what I always told myself about Kirk when he’d really gotten under my skin. Forget him. He’s not here. Think about something else.
Ruby sighed, her shoulders relaxing. ‘You’re right. She’s not. Anyway, what about you? Won’t your family miss you this Christmas, with you being so far away?’
I shrugged. ‘We never really celebrate. When I was a kid Ma used to try and make something of the day, but Kirk put a stop to all that. He thinks Christmas is a waste of money – in other words, he don’t want Ma spending money on me and Meggie that he could use to go out and get drunk.’
‘I’m sorry. You must miss them,’ she said.
I nodded. ‘Yeah. But at least Ma’ll be able to get Meggie something this year with the money I’ve been sending home.’
We worked our way through the sandwiches and cake, feeding Toffee the scraps, and listened to the music until the record ran out. I got up to put it on again and held out a hand. ‘Care to dance, ma’am?’
As Ruby stood, grinning, I realised she was right: it did feel like something out of a fairy tale in here. There was no Hitler; no bombs; no war; no Kirk; no bossy, interfering grandmother. As Ruby laid her head against my shoulder and I slid my other hand around her waist, my heart was beating so hard I was scared she’d be able to tell.
I could feel the warm weight of her body pressed against mine, the softness of her. She smelled of woodsmoke and something faintly flowery – her shampoo, maybe. The music was still playing, but we didn’t move. I looked at her, and saw she was looking right back.
‘Happy Christmas, Sam,’ she said softly. She tilted her face towards mine, and we kissed.