A Christmas Promise. Annie Groves
else, he scolded himself. What made him think that she would be here, waiting? He would have to be crazy to think other guys wouldn’t fall head over heels for her, especially now she was wearing the uniform of the Auxiliary Territorial Service.
After spending months on his back, struggling to gain enough strength before they could even operate, not knowing if he would be able to move his legs, Drew hadn’t imagined he and Tilly would not be together for the rest of their lives. He couldn’t bear the thought of her seeing him as an invalid after the stories she had told him of her mother’s own struggle: how her own disabled husband had succumbed and died, leaving her with a small child to rear alone. He could not put his darling girl through that.
Yet, it was the thought of Tilly being within reach that had given him the courage to learn to walk. He had vowed that she would never see him bed-bound and feel the pity her own mother must have felt looking after her father. It had just never crossed his mind that she would take up with another guy.
Suddenly feeling like an outsider, Drew decided he couldn’t interrupt the rapturous greetings; he decided he would wait for a quieter time. But he knew he would have to see Tilly soon. Tell her straight that he hadn’t deserted her. Otherwise, it might be too late.
Resting now on the walking stick commissioned by his father and carved by craftsmen from the finest wood, he recalled the time in number 13 when he told Tilly that she would never lose him; that his heart was hers for ever, and he meant it. He knew she had the courage of a lion giving her love to him, a stranger from another land, trusting him, believing in him and making him feel like the king of the world.
Tears blurred his vision as Drew relived the time when they took their only holiday together, arranged by the vicar’s wife, Mrs Windle, who had written to the landlady in the guesthouse in the picturesque village of Astleigh Magna on the River Otter. He had planned the whole route, drawing diagrams that Tilly had been so enthusiastic about, thinking him so clever and organised and manly.
Then, when they finally settled into the guesthouse – in separate rooms – he could hardly sleep for thinking about her lying in the next room. He had wanted so much to be with her, wrapping her securely in his arms all night. But he had promised her mom that he would be a gentleman – and he had been. Drew groaned aloud now. He loved Tilly too much to compromise their future happiness with an unplanned pregnancy – or disapproval from her mother.
But it was Tilly who gave him the strength to be the man he wanted to be, the decent human being his father hadn’t recognised before and whom he thought he could bribe to stay in Chicago and do his bidding, while Tilly, with her love and her faith in him, as well as her lack of concern for his wealth and status, allowed him to be himself – his true self – for the first time in his life.
And then, when he was back home, after receiving news that his mother was desperately ill, and had subsequently died, his father thought he could rule Drew in the same way he had ruled his mother. But he couldn’t. He thought he could buy Drew with big cars and plenty of money, when all Drew ever wanted to do was to be back in the arms of the girl he loved.
Then his world collapsed when he was hit by an on-coming wagon, which almost killed him. His father had him in a top-notch hospital, being waited on hand and foot for months. Not that he knew anything about it, Drew thought now; he had been in and out of consciousness for months, his life in the balance.
Drew was glad his father hadn’t written to Tilly to tell her of his accident, even glad, when he was well enough to understand. He wouldn’t have wanted his darling girl to see him lying helpless in a hospital bed, unable to do anything for himself. He couldn’t bear the thought of her seeing him like that. But now, he thought, as pain clawed at his heart, he wasn’t so sure.
Drew recalled how, on their little holiday, after visiting the village church in the dead of night while the village slept and the moon was high, they crossed the river. Her gaze met his as he held her hand and gently pulled her to the unlocked door. Inside the ancient building, which smelled of dust and neglect, a moonbeam shone through the stained-glass window, casting soft colourful shadows over the worn pews and rested on the ancient stone floor.
He had picked up a dust-covered Bible from the pile near the door and guided his sweetheart over the smooth stone flags to the bare altar where, taking her left hand, and without any need for explanation, they had exchanged solemn vows and promised to love each other for all of their days …
That was when he removed the gold Harvard ring from the chain around her neck, which he had given her earlier, and put it on the third finger of her left hand, and then after sealing their vows with a chaste, respectful kiss, he promised that nothing could part them. He told her that he loved her and he always would. And he meant every word. And Tilly had said the same.
She had begged him to love her in the way a married couple loved each other, she told him she wanted to show him how much she adored him by giving him the most precious gift a woman could give – and he had refused! Damned fool that he was.
If he and Tilly had consummated their love that night everything could have been so different now. But if he was honest he wouldn’t have wanted to consummate their love in a way that would be tinged with worry. He wanted Tilly to be his totally, without fear or remorse, and for that he had been prepared to wait.
Drew let out a small despairing laugh now as he watched Tilly – darling, darling, girl – who was even more beautiful as the autumnal sunshine lightened the shiny rich darkness of her curls, partly hidden under her ATS cap. Her uniform made her look taller, shapelier, more adult than he remembered, and the picture he had of her in his wallet did not do justice to this heavenly woman. And she was a woman now, not the girl he left behind, but a living, breathing, beautiful woman.
His heart was heavy with hurt and regret, and he realised for the first time that he had totally messed up and should never have left her alone for so long. He should have gotten word to her somehow. Because looking at her now, so near – yet so distant – it looked like he had blown any chance of making her his girl.
‘Look, if it’s all the same to you, Tilly, I’ll pop around and see Dulcie, before she turns in for the night.’
‘Of course,’ Tilly said, giving Rick a small peck on the cheek. He was so sweet, meeting her at the station like that and then arranging tea at the Lyons Corner House in the Strand. He was a great man and he’d been through so much. But now he was on the mend and back in the army. Tilly was so pleased for him.
Olive and the girls had been talking nonstop for hours, trying to insert every moment of the last few months into the precious little time they had together, each talking over the other but all of them taking in what was being said, and all expressing concern about Callum after Sally had informed them that Dr Parsley had given him three-hourly injections of a new drug that had been used only for the troops up to now.
‘We’ve had women begging us to give it to their loved ones,’ Sally said sadly, ‘but there just isn’t enough to go around at the moment, and the fighting men are the priority.’
‘Well, let’s just hope and pray that there is enough to pull Callum through this awful predicament,’ Olive said, just as there was a knock at the front door.
‘Oh, no,’ Sally cried, ‘what if it’s somebody from the hospital to tell me …?’ But she didn’t finish her fearful assumption as Olive rose from the table and hurried to the door. Even though there had been hardly any night raids of late, she still turned off the hall light before she opened the door.
‘I just thought I’d call to see if everything was OK with you, Olive?’ Archie said, his majestic frame almost blocking the full moonlight. ‘I was worried about you and I know I won’t be able to sleep until I am sure that you are safe and well …’
Olive could not see the expression on his face as he had his back turned to the moon’s beam, but she could hear the gentle concern in his voice and she felt the shiver of delight course through her body.
‘Tilly’s home,’ Olive breathed, and in those two words she told him that they wouldn’t finish the day together as was their