Sisters at War

1

A Parting and a Reunion

March 1940, The Atlantic Ocean

At some point his luck was going to run out. As a merchant seaman, Will Kidd was only too aware of the heavy losses sustained by merchant ships and yet, so far, he had come through the first months of the war with barely a sight of a German vessel. On the way south through the Bay of Biscay, towards Gibraltar, just two weeks ago, they had spotted the periscope of a submarine, only to find on closer inspection that it was a piece of driftwood. They had also identified a German warship off the south coast of Ireland but either it was running low on fuel and heading for home, unwilling for an encounter with a convoy, or somehow it failed to spot them. Either way, it sailed on without engaging. Such good fortune could not last forever.

This morning, Will was keeping watch as they headed back to England. The Christina was straggling along, heavily laden with cargo. Being low in the water, they’d been unable to sustain the eight knots the rest of the convoy were keeping to, and Captain Palmer had requested permission for them to continue alone. They were following a course as far from the Spanish and Portuguese coast as possible, as the risk of being sighted was less the further out to sea they were.

Will scanned the dark water around him with a practised eye, all too aware that somewhere out there, danger was lurking. The stretches closer to home were always the most perilous.

The Christina was an ageing tramp steamer. Will knew the ship like the back of his hand, having served on her between African ports before the war. The vessel was slow, cumbersome and would have been all too easily picked off trailing at the rear of the convoy. Better to take their chances alone, rather than slow the other ships down. But the problem of leaving the shelter of the convoy was that they only had a four-inch, low-angle gun, a relic from the last war. If a torpedo struck, they could be heading to the bottom of the sea before they had a chance to fire a shot back.

Night was falling. Will was near the end of his watch and looking forward to a few hours’ sleep. At first, he thought he saw a pod of dolphins, then realised it was moving much too fast – a line of bubbles crossing the bows from starboard to port. Grabbing the voice pipe, he sounded the alarm whistle and within moments Captain Palmer was beside him on the bridge.

‘Bring her about!’ Palmer ordered and the helmsman swung the ship through ninety degrees. The captain ordered them to increase speed but, even at full throttle, the Christina was too slow for a U-boat, even a submerged one whose speed would be constrained by battery power.

As the captain reached for the steam whistle to alert the rest of his sleeping crew, Will saw the unmistakable phosphorescent trail of a torpedo as it narrowly missed the Christina’s bow, closely followed by another.

‘Send an SSS with our coordinates,’ the captain instructed the radio operator.

The first officer appeared on the bridge. ‘Torpedo near miss off the stern.’

‘Turn her again. To port, hard about ninety degrees.’

The Christina turned again so that the stern of the ship faced the attacker. Will was astonished. Three torpedoes and none of them on target. He could barely believe their luck. It couldn’t hold out.

‘Full steam ahead.’ The captain was holding them on a steady course, hoping to put some distance between them before the U-boat fired another torpedo.

Will was the first to see the sub as it surfaced on the port side. He sent out an alarm as shells began raining down.

The radio officer was frantically sending out signals that they were under submarine attack; the Germans were targetting the ship’s aerial masts. The only gun, better suited to anti-aircraft defence, was little use at the angle required to fire at a surfaced submarine.

Palmer continued to steer the Christina on a random zigzag path, to make aiming as difficult as possible for the German vessel, aided by the cover of darkness.

But the shelling had only just begun. The Christina shook and groaned under the onslaught of fire from close range. Shells exploded everywhere across the decks.

Will looked at Captain Palmer, awaiting instructions.

‘Bastards.’ Palmer’s voice was grim. He grabbed the megaphone and gave the order. ‘Abandon ship.’

The booming of exploding torpedoes continued. Water rushed down the companion ways. Steam shot up as a boiler exploded. Torchlights cut through the blackness of the night.

Everything was happening so fast. Will staggered along the deck to supervise the lowering of the port lifeboat, under the constant bombardment from shellfire.

Looking back, he saw the captain flinging the confidential books overboard, consigning them to the depths, safe from German hands.

As the bosun climbed into the port lifeboat to ready it for lowering, a shell exploded on the deck beside them. Will watched in horror. The explosion killed the first officer instantly and sent the bosun and the lifeboat plunging headlong into the roiling sea. Blinding lights, confusion, noise, pitching back and forth. Will looked over the side but there was no sign of the bosun. Just a mess of shattered timber floating on the black void of the sea.

The Germans must have known that they were abandoning ship, yet the U-boat had fired regardless. Will and the rest of the crew followed Captain Palmer over to the other side where they managed to lower the starboard lifeboat and clamber on board, fumbling in the dark, lit only by torchlight. The waves crashed against the Christina and buffeted the lifeboat as it went into the water.

The boat moved away from the ship and the men watched as the German U-boat continued to hammer shells into the now-blazing hull of the Christina. It was sport – like throwing balls at a fairground coconut shy. Shattering. Blasting. On and on, remorselessly.

The pounding of the old girl was painful to the whole crew. A slow noisy torture. They sat huddled in the lifeboat surrounded by the cold sea, watching transfixed.

It took a full hour before the Christina gave a few earsplitting creaks, roaring like an animal in the jaws of a lion, before she finally succumbed and slipped beneath the waves. No one spoke. But there was a collective sigh as the vessel that had been their home disappeared.

The silence was broken by Captain Palmer reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Thinking of their two lost comrades, the men joined in or bowed their heads respectfully, regardless of their religious beliefs.

Its brutal task complete, the U-boat slid away into the darkness. The destruction of the Christina had been performed with complete disregard for human life or the terms of the Geneva Conventions. The men, drenched with salt water, shivering from cold and shock, began to sing to keep their spirits up, before hoisting sail.

Will exchanged looks with Captain Palmer. They were the longest-serving on the Christina. Will could imagine what Palmer must be going through having lost his ship as well as one of his three officers and a valued crew member. Whilst not the fastest or most elegant of vessels, the Christina had been home to them for a long time and both men had many memories.

The lifeboat limped along, through mercifully calmer seas, in what the compass indicated was towards the north-west coast of Spain. Will sent up a silent prayer of thanks that his life had been spared in his first encounter with the enemy. He would be seeing Hannah again soon.

Less than one hundred miles from the coast, they were bound to be picked up – they all hoped it wouldn’t be by a German vessel. The prospect of being taken prisoner and sent to a camp in Germany was their unspoken dread.

The survivors were hungry, weak and exhausted when, around sixteen hours later an Italian ship found them. The Vigevano was a merchant vessel heading north to the port of Cork in Ireland. It took the men on board, distributed blankets and hot soup, and agreed to make a diversion to drop them off in Penzance.

Will was leaning on the rails, staring out at the sea, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. ‘Amico mio. I am so happy to see you again, my Aussie friend.’

Before he could turn around, he was wrapped in a bear hug by his oldest, dearest friend, Paolo Tornabene.

‘Paolo, me old cobber. You’re a sight for sore eyes! I never dreamt I’d get to see you again. Oh, mate!’

‘Il Capitano Palmer, he say me you are here with him. I am so happy! Madonna! I happy you are alive.’ He punched Will lightly on the shoulder. ‘Come, I have some beers. We drink before my watch begins.’

The two men sat on the boat deck, their backs against the bulkhead, drinking beer. The air was cold, but they were sheltered from the wind by the mass of the nearest lifeboat.

‘I hope that’s the last time I end up in one of those.’ Will jerked his head towards the lifeboat.

Paolo insisted on a blow-by-blow account of the sinking of the Christina. ‘Molto triste. I loved that ship. Cazzo!’

‘Why did you leave the Christina?’ Will asked. ‘Captain Palmer told me you jumped ship.’

‘No. I no want to leave Christina. Certo, is not the same without you, amico mio, but I like il Capitano and I was happy on the ship. But in Salala in Egypt I go ashore, and bad men attack me in the street one night on the way back to port. They take my money, beat me. When I wake up Christina is gone. I have nothing. When Vigevano come into port, I find a job on board. But you? Il Capitano say you go back to Liverpool to find your girl. Is true?’

Will grinned. ‘I found her. I married her.’ He chinked bottles with his friend.

‘Come!? How is possible? She was already married, si? It was a lie?’

‘She thought she was married, but it was illegal. She and that fella were married by his father. He was supposed to be a minister – but it turns out his wasn’t a recognised church and he wasn’t qualified to marry anyone. It was all a sham. The poor fella she thought she’d married turned out to be a queer.’

‘Mi prendi in giro? You are joking me!’

‘I swear to God it’s true! The man never laid a finger on her.’ Will grinned at his friend. ‘He’s called Sam. A good mate of mine now. A real decent fella. Gave my Hannah and her sister a home after…’ Will swallowed and turned his head away.

‘After what?’

‘After her father murdered her mother. I got there moments after it happened.’

Paolo gasped. ‘Ma, no?’

Will nodded. ‘He’d have killed Hannah’s sister too, if I hadn’t turned up in the nick of time.’

Will told his friend of the events of that dramatic night, culminating in the arrest of Hannah’s father, Charles Dawson, and the fatal heart attack of her ‘father-in-law’, the man who had conspired with Dawson to marry Hannah to Sam. ‘Anyway, the upshot was she was free to marry me.’

Paolo shook his head, his eyes wide. ‘I am very happy for you, Will. Molto contento davvero. But the father of your Hannah? What happen to him?’

‘He’s dead, mate. They hanged him. And good riddance. He was the most evil man I’ve ever known.’

‘Noo…ch’e cazz…’ The Italian swore under his breath, incredulous.

‘Hard to believe, right? We must be the only couple on the planet to each have a father hanged for murder. But in her old man’s case it was justified.’ He took another swig of beer. ‘Look, mate, why don’t you come back to Liverpool with me. You can meet Hannah and we can celebrate me surviving my first encounter with the German Reich, as well as share a belated toast to our marriage. I’d always hoped you’d be my best man.’ He paused, thinking it through. ‘Captain Palmer will be looking for another ship. Why don’t I have a word with him and see if we can take you along too? You could jump ship when we get to Penzance. We could sail together again.’

Paolo’s eyes shone and he chinked his beer bottle against Will’s a second time. ‘Bravo, amico mio! Is a good plan. You think il Capitano agree?’

‘He knows as well as I do, you’re a decent man and a good sailor, Paolo. Don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for another ship, but they don’t like keeping sailors ashore when Britain needs food and arms.’

‘It will make me very happy to be away from this ship. Many of the men on board are fascisti. Not all of them, but I don’t like to be with so many amici di Mussolini.

‘Come and join the side that’s going to win this war.’

Paolo looked sad. ‘It will be soon, I think, that Italia will join the war with Hitler. I want to be away from the Vigevano before that happens. I don’t want to be on the other side from you, amico mio.

‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Will.

2

Sisterly Tensions

Orrell Park, Liverpool

Hannah dragged herself upright and swung her feet from the warmth of the bed onto the cold linoleum floor. She stretched out a hand to open the curtains. Not yet dawn, but a pale grey light was beginning to suffuse the gloom. Shivering, she reached for her candlewick dressing gown and shrugged herself into it, feeling in the dark for her slippers.

She made her way downstairs, through the silent house into the back parlour and scullery, where she drew back the blackout curtain, put the kettle on and set about preparing for the day ahead by lighting a fire in the grate.

Since the government had instituted rationing, she’d been trying to get used to unsweetened tea. So far, the regulations covered butter, sugar and bacon and she wanted to stretch what little they had. Glancing at the new buff-coloured ration book, she wondered how long before tea joined the list. With the steaming cup in her hand, she curled up in the threadbare nursing chair in the corner.

It was unusual for Hannah to be up before anyone else stirred. Their household at The Laurels was a strange one. They were a collection of misfits, each with their own story. Nance and Sam had become a surrogate family to Hannah and her sister. In normal circumstances they would never have met.

The large Victorian villa was owned by Sam who had been the equally unwilling partner in a sham marriage to Hannah that their fathers had concocted. A match that was neither legal nor consummated, Sam having a preference for his own gender. He had been kind to Hannah, allowing her to stay on at The Laurels, taking her sister Judith in too, as well as Will when he was in port. Sam had promised them all that until the war was over, he would make no decisions about the house, and in the meantime was glad of the rent and their company in the big draughty property.

This morning was a rare chance for quiet reflection. Sipping the tea, she thought of Will. Perhaps her husband was also enjoying a cuppa as he kept watch on deck. She tried not to dwell on the dangers he was facing, and instead imagined their future together once the war was over.

If Hannah counted up the hours she and Will had spent together before marrying, they hardly amounted to anything. Yet, the moment they met by chance on the Liverpool waterfront, it was as though they’d known each other all their lives. Finding Will was like discovering a part of herself she hadn’t known was missing. She hadn’t felt the lack of him until he was in her life but then couldn’t imagine life without him – even though they were apart more than together.

But pointless to dream of the future, when the war had thrown an impenetrable barrier in front of them. Even getting to the end of the month seemed an unreachable goal when she lived with the daily possibility that her husband might never return to her.

So far, the war was amorphous, remote – just words in newsprint or delivered over the airwaves in the sombre tones of BBC announcers or the nasty crowing of the loathsome Lord Haw-Haw. People called it The Phoney War – uneventful after the years of anxiety about the threat of Hitler’s Germany and the universal expectation that the losses and traumas of the last war would be repeated immediately. Apart from the appearance of Anderson shelters popping up in suburban gardens, the enforcement of the blackout, the carrying of gas masks and the evacuation of children from the major cities to the countryside, there was little tangible evidence that Britain was at war.

But for Hannah Kidd, the war was far from phoney. The harsh realities that might take months to manifest elsewhere, had begun immediately at sea. Rather than the Royal Navy, it was the merchant navy which had been the first target of German aggression. Within hours of Prime Minister Chamberlain’s declaration of hostilities on September 3rd, a German U-boat sank the passenger liner Athenia, voyaging from Liverpool to Canada, packed with women and children evacuees. One hundred and twelve passengers and crew were lost that night off the north-west coast of Ireland. This attack on a non-military passenger vessel marked the first evidence that the rules of engagement were there to be broken. It also marked, for Hannah, the beginning of acute anxieHannah ty whenever her husband returned to sea. Barely a day went by when there weren’t reports of shipping losses, as U-boats picked off merchant ships carrying essential supplies from all corners of the earth.

Hannah’s musings were interrupted by the door opening.

Nance, wearing a black lace negligée in defiance of the cold, breezed into the room. ‘I heard the kettle whistling. Tea in the pot, then?’

Hannah smiled. ‘Morning, Nance. Just brewed.’ She went over to the dresser and took down a cup and saucer, filled it from the teapot and handed it to Nance.

Nance’s constant optimism mixed with a biting cynicism often made her entertaining company. Yet there was a crudeness and a lack of sensitivity about her that sometimes stretched Hannah’s patience. And if truth be told, Hannah resented the way Nance and Judith appeared to have forged a friendship, cutting her out.

Nance had been the mistress of Sam’s late father. Despite being left a small legacy by him, she remained at The Laurels, shelving plans to use her inheritance to buy a cockle store in Southend-on-Sea, due to the war. Whether Sam was reluctant to challenge Nance’s assumed right of residence or, like Hannah, he’d become fond of her, wasn’t clear. But he allowed her to stay on and she was part of the fabric of the house – even though she did little towards its upkeep.

Nance swung one of the chairs around to face Hannah and flung herself onto it dramatically. ‘Blimey, it’s cold enough in ‘ere to freeze the balls off a––’

‘Thanks. We can do without the rest.’ Hannah passed her an overcoat hanging by the back door. ‘Put this round you.’

‘Ta, love. Couldn’t sleep.’ Nance glanced up at the clock on the wall. ‘Bleedin ’ell. It’s not even six o’clock yet.’ She gave an enormous yawn.

‘I couldn’t sleep either.’

‘What kept you awake then? Surely not the non-existent war?’

Hannah swallowed her irritation. ‘It may be non-existent for us, but it certainly isn’t for Will.’

‘He’ll be all right, love. Trust me, I’ve an instinct for these things. That man’s a survivor. Like me. Knock us down and we get up again. Roly poly toys, that’s what we are.’

Wishing Nance would disappear, Hannah gritted her teeth and said, ‘I hope you’re right.’

‘Course I’m right.’ The older woman leaned back in the chair and gave a dry chuckle. ‘I always am. And this war that ain’t even a war at all will be over before the year’s out. You mark my words. That Hitler’s all mouth and trousers! What with his screeching and screaming like a banshee and his horrible little moustache. Can’t even grow a proper one. He’s lost his nerve he has. I tell you he’ll be scuttling away with his tail between his bandy legs before you can say Jack Robinson.’

Hannah said nothing in response to the diatribe. She didn’t share Nance’s optimism about Hitler’s lack of staying power, but the last thing she wanted was an argument, which was what tended to happen lately when she disagreed with Nance. Even though Nance’s outbursts were short-lived and bore no malice, Hannah hated conflict of any kind, after years of enduring her father’s violent temper storms. It was important that they lived in harmony in this house with its motley collection of individuals, each here out of the kindness of their landlord’s heart. Hannah didn’t want to give Sam Henderson cause to ask her to leave. Besides, it wasn’t only herself she needed to think about. There was also her sister, Judith – not to mention her wish to ensure Will had a home to return to between voyages.

Hannah had married Will Kidd the day before war was declared. For years, her existence had been governed by the iron rule of her father. Then, just as she’d been liberated from his control, the war had come along and imposed its own constraints. As a result, they had enjoyed only a two-day honeymoon before Will had to return to his ship. Thoughts of giving up the sea and them leaving together for his native Australia were halted by the declaration of hostilities. Torn between the desire to move back to Australia with his bride and his sense of duty, Will had chosen to stay in Britain and support the war effort by continuing to serve in the merchant navy.

The two women jumped when the front door crashed shut. A few seconds later, Sam Henderson appeared in the back parlour.

Their landlord looked exhausted, his blond hair ruffled and his overcoat collar turned up against the cold.

‘What a long boring night.’ Sam was volunteering as a fire watcher but so far there had been no fires to watch for. ‘Any chance of a bacon sarnie? No time for a proper breakfast.’

Nance huffed self-righteously. ‘Bacon’s rationed. You’ll only get one rasher.’

Seeing Sam’s forlorn look, Hannah offered her own rasher to him. ‘You need it more than I do, having to go to work after being up half the night.’

Sam blew her a kiss. ‘You’re an angel, Hannah.’ He pulled a face at Nance.

Nance put the kettle on to boil again. ‘I’m going to freshen the pot. Want some?’

Hannah nodded. Above them was the sound of running water. ‘Someone else couldn’t sleep.’

‘Your Judith can’t get into work early enough these days.’ Nance sniggered. ‘I wonder why.’

‘What do you mean?’ Hannah was uneasy. She glanced at Sam, but he was already heading for the door to go upstairs to wash and change. She laid the bacon rashers in the pan.

‘Judith’s been leaving the house before seven, missing breakfast, and she’s not due at work until nine. You have to wonder what that’s all about. Very fishy.’

Hannah felt a pulse of alarm. ‘Where’s she going, if not to work?’

‘Oh, I’m sure she’s going to work. Not necessarily directly though.’ Nance raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes comically. ‘I reckon she has a gentleman friend.’

‘Judith?’ Hannah was incredulous. ‘You’re joking.’

‘Why?’ Nance looked affronted. ‘She’s young. She’s pretty. Why shouldn’t she have a young man?’

Hannah could find no answer. Had she been selfish, taking Judith for granted, seeing her as her supporter and confidante and not as a person in her own right? Judith had always been content with her job as a seamstress, intent only on avoiding their father’s wrath. Yet now, freed from Charles Dawson’s yoke, it was not only possible but even inevitable that she would want to spread her wings.

‘You’re right, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t have a boyfriend.’ But inside Hannah was hurt. Why hadn’t Judith told her? Once, they would have shared everything. Had Hannah been so caught up in her own worries that she’d stopped noticing her sister?

The kettle whistled and Nance busied herself making the tea.

‘Hey! go easy on that sugar. We have to make it last,’ Hannah said.

‘I’m using your ration. Shame to waste it.’

‘It’s not wasted – we need it for baking.’

Nance rolled her eyes. ‘You’re such a spoilsport.’

‘Not me. Blame Adolf Hitler.’

Nance sat down and pulled her cup and saucer toward her. ‘All right, all right. I’ll try and cut down a bit.’

‘Never mind try. We have to do it. Otherwise no cake.’ With a little laugh she said, ‘It’ll get easier anyway. They’ll be rationing tea before long. Let’s get back to Judith. You know something, don’t you?’

Ever since Nance had discovered Judith’s skill as a seamstress, she had cultivated a friendship with the young woman, bringing her treats and taking her to the pictures. In exchange, Judith happily altered Nance’s clothes and made her new ones on the Singer machine they’d found when clearing out the room that was now Judith’s bedroom.

Nance shrugged. ‘She’s not said nothing about a boyfriend, if that’s what you’re wondering. But she’s got a spring in her step that wasn’t there before. She’s usually glum – sad even.’

Hannah thought for a moment. ‘She’s perked up a lot lately now you mention it.’

‘It don’t seem right to be meeting a man at this hour. But she can’t be going to work.’

‘Why not? Maybe they have a rush job. A wedding dress or something.’ Hannah wanted to think the best.

Nance stared at her open-mouthed, eyes wide as saucers.

‘What’s the matter? What did I say?’ asked Hannah.

Nance ran a hand through her peroxide blonde hair. ‘Blimey. She ain’t told you, then?’

A chill spread through Hannah. ‘Told me what?’

‘She ain’t working at that place no more. Packed it in same time she changed her name.’

Hannah jerked the bacon off the burner and turned around. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

‘Don’t you two speak to each other at all these days?’

Hannah began pacing up and down the room, heart pounding. What was happening? How could she be so unaware of her own sister? Nance was right – Hannah struggled to remember the last time she and Judith had talked to each other