Page 41 of Neighbors at War

‘Is everything all right, Helen?’

Hearing her aunt’s voice, Helen returned to the living room. ‘I was thinking I should go up into your attic and see if can find anything useful.’

Her aunt lowered her knitting. ‘I’ve been trying to recall what’s up there. The ladder attached to the trapdoor in the ceiling is rickety and I haven’t dared use it for over a decade.’ She gave Helen an unsure look. ‘I’m not sure I’m happy with you going up there. Who knows what state everything will be in by now?’

Helen wasn’t worried. She promised to take care with every step. ‘There must be something and if you’ve lived without what’s up there for this long, you probably don’t need much of it now. It’s worth a look.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ Sylvia said after a brief hesitation. ‘You want to go up there straight away, don’t you?’

‘You know me well.’ Helen laughed, relieved she hadn’t had any objection from her aunt. ‘I want to light a fire tonight if we possibly can.’

‘No, dear. You’ve had a long day today and you’re tired. That’s when accidents happen,’ her aunt argued. ‘It can wait until tomorrow when it’s your day off.’

Her aunt had made up her mind, and Helen didn’t try to change it.

Chapter Twenty-Three

PEGGY

Peggy woke up after another cold night. She tucked her arm under the covers, making the most of the slight heat, and closed her eyes. For a moment she wondered why everything seemed quieter than usual. She couldn’t hear the usual car sounds passing their home, or any voices coming from the pavement outside. Something wasn’t right. She realised it must have snowed again and groaned.

It took a moment for her to remember that Tony had been arrested. Her heart dropped and a feeling of nausea flowed through her. Unable to lie down any longer she sat up and rubbed her tired eyes. She had only slept for a couple of hours, what with worrying about what might happen to him.

She got up and decided to make her way to the office. She needed to know if there was any news, and the only way that would happen was through Advocate Le Gresley. Knowing him, Peggy thought, he would already be there.

She threw back her bedclothes, swung her legs over the side and slipped her feet into her slippers so that they didn’t connect with the cold wooden floorboards. She grabbed her dressing gown and put it on as she walked over to the window. Pulling back the curtains she was stunned to see that everything was white. Again. It must have been snowing for hours and by the looks of the thick flakes drifting past her window there was little chance of it stopping soon. No wonder everything appeared quieter with all the sounds being muffled by the thick blanket of snow.

Though she only lived about fifteen minutes away from the prison, she would need to walk past the turn-off and on to her boss’s office near the Royal Square. That meant it would take another ten to fifteen minutes before she could collect the letter from her boss and then double back on herself to the prison, hopefully to see Tony. She hoped he was being well treated.

Dressing and not bothering with any food, Peggy put on her ankle boots, unsure how long they would remain watertight. Freezing toes were no trouble, though, if it meant she could spend even a couple of minutes with the man she loved.

‘You’re not going out in that blizzard, surely?’ her mother fretted. ‘You’ll catch pneumonia.’

Peggy had little choice. ‘Mum, I’d much rather stay here, I can assure you, but I have to go in today. Advocate Le Gresley has something very important for me to do and it won’t wait.’

Her mother didn’t look convinced, but Peggy couldn’t worry about that, not today.

She had barely walked several feet before her woollen tights were soaked through by the deep snow slipping in over the top of her boots. She looked behind her to check if there was a bus on its way, but the snow was falling too hard for her to see very far. Peggy decided to stop worrying about catching a bus and just get a move on. She would find a way to dry her tights and boots later.

‘Good grief,’ Advocate Le Gresley exclaimed, holding the front door open for her when she came gingerly up the front steps of the building. ‘You look frozen.’

‘It’s perishing out there,’ she said, shivering, her voice sounding strange through her chattering teeth. Almost biting her tongue, she closed her mouth and pointed upstairs to their offices. She was desperate to collect the letter for the governor and leave to see Tony. ‘I’ll make your coffee and bring it to your office, then we can get started.’

‘You’ll go and warm up first,’ he insisted. ‘Come to my office when you’re ready.’

She ran up to her office, tired from wading through the deep snow, and closed the door with relief. Dropping her bag onto her chair, she went to feel if the radiator was on. It was, but only just. Peggy wasn’t sure if the temperature was hot enough to dry anything, let alone woolly tights, but didn’t fancy wearing wet things on her legs for the rest of the day. That surely would lead to a chill, if not something worse. Why hadn’t she thought to bring a second pair to change into?

A short while later she heard a knock at the door. Expecting it to be one of the German messengers, she checked to make sure any view of her tights hanging over the radiator was obscured by her chair. Satisfied, she called for the person to enter.

It was one of the other secretaries. ‘Advocate Le Gresley has been called away, but asked me to bring you this.’ She placed a cup of tea on Peggy’s desk. ‘And this letter. He said you’d know what to do with it.’

‘Thank you…’ Peggy couldn’t recall her name. ‘Sorry, I…’

‘It’s Marie-Therese.’

‘Thank you, Marie-Therese. Is the Advocate in a meeting?’

The secretary, whom she had only met once before, nodded. ‘All the senior chaps have been called into the boardroom. I’d better go,’ she added. ‘I have mountains of dictation to type up.’