herself from turning tail and fleeing from the station.
Adam’s voice resonated in her ear. ‘Lucy Baker, will you stop fretting! Lord help me, I love you more with every day that passes. You’re the most caring, considerate, aggravating woman I’ve ever come across.’
‘And you’re beginning to get on my nerves.’
‘Let me bring you a hot drink then, and I’ll not say another word – unless, of course, you want me to?’
‘I don’t want you to. But I’d very much appreciate that hot drink. Honestly, Adam, I can’t imagine why you didn’t think of it before, instead of causing such an almighty fuss about me leaving the platform!’
While Adam went to get the drinks, Lucy’s anxious gaze scanned the far-off track, hoping to see the train as it appeared down the line. ‘What will I say?’ she fretted. ‘How will I greet her? We were close at one time, but it’s been so long, I don’t know how it will all turn out.’
Her nerves were jangling. In her mind she could see the old Vicky, pretty as a picture and lovely in nature. But what was she like now? Had she hardened over the years? Had she turned cold and resentful because of the shocking way her idyllic marriage had come to an end?
And what of the letter that had ended her present marriage? It was Lucy herself who had written it, and now she was beginning to regret it deeply. Maybe Adam was right after all. Maybe she should have let sleeping dogs lie.
Suddenly the shrill tones of the announcer came out of the loudspeaker: ‘The ten forty-five from London St Pancras will be arriving at Platform Two in precisely ten minutes. There are no delays.’
On board the approaching train, a similar announcement was given over the air.
‘Ten minutes!’ Vicky had grown more nervous with every passing mile. With only two other passengers in her compartment, she had found a seat next to the window, and managed to collect her thoughts.
She had never been one for travelling. In all of her life she had only ever made two long journeys; the first had taken her away from everything she had ever known. The second was bringing her back.
At least when she sailed away from Liverpool, she had believed Barney to be alive and well, although it had come as a terrible shock to learn of his death, a mere three years later. Doctor Lucas had relayed the news to Leonard, who in turn gently told her and the children. Yet part of her, a very deep part was not surprised. How could her beloved Barney survive without her love, and without the love of his children? God knew, it had nearly killed her to be without him, and look at the effect on their three children.
She glanced out of the window at the darkening rural landscape. Nothing here was familiar, though the patchwork of fields and the occasional spinney reminded her of the fields up North where she had worked alongside Barney. This area of Bedfordshire should have been meaningless to her, but it was important now, because this was where her husband had spent his last days, with Lucy, and their daughter, Mary.
She was not surprised that Barney had turned to Lucy, for the latter was not only a lovely-natured person, but she had been a close friend of the family, and like all of them, Barney had a soft spot for her. But for Lucy and Barney to become lovers and conceive a child? That would never have crossed her mind in a million years. It was a bitter pill to swallow.
Yet for all that, she looked forward to seeing her, and strangely, she also looked forward to meeting Barney’s other daughter. She wondered if Mary had a look of him, and if so, she would have a look of Susie, because Barney’s first daughter was more like him in appearance than any of his other children.
Thinking about her children brought a degree of pain to Vicky. When she needed them most, they had not been ready to forgive.
Unable to deal with it for now, she closed her mind to them and forced herself to remember the days when she was with Barney, happy, carefree days which would never come again. It made her heart sore to think they had gone forever, but gone they were.
Her fretful thoughts were submerged into the rhythm of the train wheels as they hurried along the track … Clackety-clack, marches the army, clackety-clack, I love you Barney. The sound of iron against iron merged with the hiss of steam and somehow it became a song in her heart, and the song created in her a soothing sensation.
Lucy was grateful for the cup of tea in a thick white mug that Adam had brought. ‘Did you water the plants on your way here?’ she quipped, staring into the cup. ‘It’s half-empty.’
‘An accident,’ Adam told her sheepishly. ‘There were people pushing and shoving at the ticket-desk. I dodged past them, trying my best to keep out of their way …’ He rolled his eyes. ‘The truth is, this infant ran in front of me and I tripped over. But I managed to keep hold of the cups.’
Lucy was at once sympathetic. ‘Are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?’
‘No.’ Having given Lucy one cup, Adam placed his own on the bench and brushed himself down. ‘There was help at hand.’
He pointed to a child now climbing onto a platform bench, and with him was a woman the size of a ten-ton truck, arms like a navvy and a turban wrapped round her hair, tied so tight her eyes seemed to pop out. ‘She picked me up,’ he said with some embarrassment.
Just then the woman turned round and gave him a wonky smile. Adam smiled back, his face bright red as he frantically brushed the dirt and dust from his best trousers.
‘That woman there? She was the one who picked you up?’ Lucy’s face crumpled. ‘Her unruly infant knocked you down, and she picked you up?’ In her mind she had this hilarious image of the elegant Adam going flying across the floor, arms in the air, and that enormous person who looked more like an all-in wrestler than a woman, manhandling him as he fought to keep the cups upright.
It was all too much. The laughter sparkled in her eyes and then Adam was giggling, and now as the woman sat herself on the bench, legs apart and bloomers showing, Lucy quickly had to walk to the waiting room where she erupted in a fit of laughter, tears streaming down her cheeks.
After a time, she managed to compose herself and return to Adam. ‘I would have given anything to see it,’ she told him.
‘You’re a wicked woman,’ he told her, still laughing at himself, and she gave him a kiss for being so entertaining.
Now, as the train-whistle blew, Lucy’s mind was focused once more on Vicky. ‘It’s here,’ she told Adam excitedly. ‘The train’s here!’
Standing their cups beside a bench, the two of them moved closer to the edge of the night-dark platform, where the train was already beginning to pull in.
As it chugged to a halt, the steam rose and all the doors opened. People spilled out and it was hard to distinguish them through the billowing clouds. ‘Where is she?’ Lucy strained her eyes, searching for Vicky. ‘Oh Adam, what if she changed her mind at the last minute?’
Philosophical as ever, Adam calmed her fears. ‘If she has, then there is nothing we can do about it.’
People thronged past and soon there was no one left. The station seemed suddenly eerie.
‘Look there!’ Adam pointed to the figure climbing out of the train. ‘Is that her, do you think?’
They
