The Angels of Lovely Lane Read Free Page B

Hotel, me mam calls it. She loved it in there, once she began to get better. I’d love our little Pammy to become one of those angels from Lovely Lane. God, I would be so proud I would burst if that happened. I think this one’s a lad, though. Never stops kicking, he doesn’t.’ Maisie laughed as she rubbed her belly. ‘I’m going to tell them to stop sending Stan home on leave. I don’t want another until this bloody war is over. Mind you, I suppose a year without is too long for any man and I don’t want our Stan getting wandering eyes, now do I?’
    Emily blushed to the roots of her hair, but even as she did so it occurred to her that her street was full of angels.
    The neighbours were wonderful. They took it in turns to sit with her ma, cook for her, bathe her, nurse her. The entire neighbourhood was full of angels and one of the best was Maisie Tanner.
    The noise of the air-raid siren ripped through the air without any warning.
    ‘Run,’ screamed Maisie, as the sickening sound of an explosion made their ears ring as the shop window shattered and shards of glass filled the air. They had never heard or witnessed anything so terrifyingly close and for a split second everyone in the queue dropped their bags and, covering their faces with their hands, froze to the spot. A moment of silence followed as the last splinter of falling glass dropped to the floor. The shopkeeper was the first to move, yelling for everyone to leave.
    ‘We’re too close to the bloody docks here,’ Maisie said breathlessly as they ran back towards the street.
    ‘Here, into the shelter, Emily. Maisie, come on,’ shouted a neighbour. It was the man who partnered up with Emily’s da in the Home Guard, checking every house at night to ensure that everyone had shut their blackout curtains properly. Not a shaft of light passed either of them by. He was standing at the entrance to the communal shelter, already joking with the children as they ran in.
    ‘I can’t. I need to get back to the kids and me mam,’ Emily shouted back.
    ‘Wait, Emily.’ Maisie grabbed her by her hand. ‘Rita will take the kids to the shelter at the other end of Arthur Street and your da will get your mam down somehow. He’ll carry her if he has to. Me mam will take our Pammy, so we’re safest here. Come on, queen – it sounds really close this time, the little bastards.’
    Emily looked towards the shelter and then back down the street towards home. The bombs were falling early. She knew, if she sprinted fast, she would be home in less than three minutes.
    ‘They will all be under cover in a min. Best we do what Tom here says.’ The siren continued and Emily could hardly hear Maisie above the noise, but when the older woman suddenly grabbed her by the arm again she knew that this time it was not to reason with her. The grip was too hard and urgent. Maisie Tanner’s face was distorted in pain.
    ‘Is it the baby?’ asked Emily in alarm.
    Maisie nodded, and Emily watched the pain fade from her face as quickly as it had come. ‘It can’t be, though. I’m only seven months, and I know that’s right because I know when Stan was on leave. I’ll be all right. It will stop.’
    Emily had taken part in the street rehearsals run by the Home Guard half a dozen times. She knew that Rita and the boys would be stumbling along George Street towards the communal shelter any second now. Rita had a routine practised with the kids and they would probably already be on their way, the two younger boys piled into the pram with Richard and Henry standing on the carriage holding on to the handlebar while Rita pushed. They would be heading away from where she now stood. Rita would encourage the children to pretend that they were playing the train game. ‘Choo choo,’ the children’s voices would whisper into the dark. ‘All aboard the shelter train,’ Rita’s voice would ring back.
    Before they ducked into the entrance Maisie and Emily turned towards the sound of another