Lexi’s War: A heart-warming wartime saga to bring hope and happiness in 2018. Rosie James
here was an extremely busy one, as she’d known it would be when she took the position all those years ago. When she’d seen the housekeeper job advertised in one of the national papers, it had barely registered, until she’d read the last bit – that help with bringing up two small boys would also be required. The words had jumped out at her, and she’d applied at once. And after two interviews she’d been offered the post, and she had accepted even though her future employer did seem a rather unusual man.
Anna was extremely happy with her lot, and this family was the only one she was ever going to have. Fate had decreed it. Mr McCann was a reasonable employer, and although she didn’t have a regular day off each week she was free to come and go as she pleased. And Anna’s preference was, when the weather was nice, to stroll out into the countryside and be alone with her thoughts and memories. The fields were only a twenty-minute walk away from the residential area, on the edge of which was the children’s play park, and next to that a small cafe called ‘Bert’s Place’. Sometimes on her way back home Anna would stop and buy herself a drink and something to eat – a little treat that someone should serve her for a change. The owner of the cafe was Mr Bertram Bakewell, a retired merchant navy seaman, and he ran it entirely on his own. Apart from producing a good strong cup of tea, his sandwiches were always deliciously fresh, his scones melt-in-the-mouth, and his rice pudding at twopence a slice was a real treat.
Upstairs, all the presents were laid out on Johnny’s bed. Among them were a dartboard, a tin of Mackintosh’s toffees, and a thousand-piece jigsaw. Lexi studied the picture on the box.
‘Can we do this together, Johnny?’ she asked eagerly.
‘Yeah, course,’ he replied, ‘but it’ll have to be at the weekend because we’ve got the rounds tomorrow evening, haven’t we?’ Reynard always insisted that the rents were collected as soon as possible on Fridays before the men had time to spend their wages on drink.
Lexi glanced around her. Johnny’s bedroom was absolutely huge. Before she’d started doing the rounds with him last year she had never ventured up the stairs at all. But it was different now. She knew where all the rooms were and where the study was because the rents had to be locked away in the first drawer of the big desk.
Johnny opened the tin of toffees and they each took one, sitting side by side at the window, sucking contentedly. Then Johnny said –
‘Do you know when your father will be home again, Lexi?’
‘We never know that because of his work,’ Lexi said. ‘He stayed for nearly three weeks this time, so that was longer than usual. And he taught me some new songs and we went through all the ones I knew already. So I’m definitely going down to the Guildhall next week to ask for that audition.’ She shivered. ‘I shall be terrified – I know I will!’
‘Of course you won’t!’ Johnny said. ‘As soon as you start all your nerves will fly out of the window! Did you tell your father about it?’
‘No, I shall have to tell Mama first and wait for all her objections!’ Lexi paused thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps if I don’t say anything about earning a fee she won’t mind. And I wish I had told Dada, and I wish we saw him more often.’
‘Well I don’t see that much of my father either,’ Johnny said. ‘Of course, he’s here every night, but he’s seldom around until quite late each day and he never eats with us in the kitchen, he prefers to be alone in the study or dining room. So – we’ve both got absent fathers, Lexi.’
Lexi shot Johnny a glance. ‘I don’t think Mr McCann likes me. I mean he’s not nasty to me or anything … he just ignores me, looks through me as if I’m not there.’ She took another toffee from the tin Johnny was holding out. ‘Perhaps it would be better if he just told me to clear off.’
‘No, it would not,’ Johnny said emphatically. ‘Because you’d never come here again, would you? Anyway, he’s never said anything about you to me or that he doesn’t like you – so forget it, Lexi. It’s just his way with people.’
‘But he doesn’t know that I go into the study,’ Lexi said, ‘and that I know where he keeps things in the drawers. Would he be cross if he knew?’
Johnny shrugged. ‘Well – why would he be cross? We always leave everything in place, exactly as he likes it, don’t we?’
After a moment Lexi said – ‘Where does he go every Thursday evening?’
‘No idea,’ Johnny replied. ‘But it’ll be work. Always work.’
‘And that’s exactly what I’m always going to be doing,’ Lexi said firmly. ‘When I’ve got enough to buy our house we’ll never have to pay rent ever again and Mama can put her feet up sometimes. But I wish that was now, Johnny! Not some distant dream!’
And I wish I wasn’t going to college in September,’ Johnny said flatly. He paused before going on. ‘The thing is Lexi – I don’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps, and carry on the family firm. I really don’t. But he expects me to, me and Alfred, and I just can’t tell my father that I’d rather do something else.’
This was news to Lexi. ‘Goodness, Johnny – I thought your future was all cut and dried – not like mine! Anyway, what would you like to do instead?’
‘I want to be a travel writer, perhaps for one of the smart magazines,’ Johnny replied eagerly. ‘Imagine getting right away from England and going all over the world – and writing about it! That would be a cracking thing to do!’
Lexi smiled at his enthusiasm. She knew Johnny had won school prizes for his writing. ‘But wouldn’t you be homesick far away in foreign lands, where you didn’t know anyone?’
He grinned. ‘I’d risk being homesick! Anyway, I’d probably start with this country at the beginning.’ He sighed briefly ‘But that’s my distant dream, Lexi – because I’ve got to go to college and learn all about the construction industry and investments and town panning … but I’ll write every week, and you’ll write back, won’t you? Tell me what’s going on – especially about your singing?’
Lexi turned to face him. ‘I’m really going to miss you, Johnny,’ she said slowly, and he returned her gaze.
‘I realize my father doesn’t know how to make people feel welcome, but Anna does, doesn’t she, Lexi? You do like Anna, don’t you?’
‘I do, and so does my mother,’ Lexi said at once. There was no need to add that when she was younger she’d thought Anna looked a bit like a headmistress with her brownhair in a stern bun, and always with a pair of glasses on the end of her nose. But it hadn’t taken Lexi long to realize how kind the housekeeper was, and that she loved the boys and they loved her.
Presently, the two went downstairs and into the kitchen. Anna was dozing in her basket chair by the stove and as they tiptoed past she jumped up as if she’d been stung.
‘Oh, my good heavens!’ she cried. ‘I didn’t hear you come down … you gave me such a fright!’
Johnny walked Lexi back to the cottage and he grinned down at her. ‘Poor Anna,’ he said. ‘he was probably dreaming about our ghost. She only found out from someone last week that we have one at Grey Gables and she’s been jumpy ever since.’
‘Have you ever seen the Grey Lady?’ Lexi asked curiously, and Johnny sniggered.
‘No, of course not. Ghosts don’t exist,’ he replied. ‘When Alfred and I first heard about it at school a long time ago and asked my father about it he was so cross! Told us to grow up and not to believe such nonsense. And then, when Anna asked him about it last week he was absolutely furious because he could see that she really thought it was true! To calm her nerves he had to sit her down and pour her a glass of brandy!’
Cecilia hummed a little tune to herself as she