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really knows. I’ll write more when I know. I love you, darling, but you’d be better to cancel the registry office.

      ‘Write and tell him about the baby,’ Tilly advised.

      ‘What can he do?’

      ‘Damned all maybe, but he has a right to know.’

      So Hannah wrote and Mike’s frantic reply came by return of post.

      Oh Hannah, my darling. I’m so sorry. What you’ve had to cope with all alone! I’ll see my commanding officer, plead extenuating circumstances, tell him all about you. Oh darling, something must be done. Even if I have just a twenty-four hour pass, I’ll make it and we’ll find a priest. It will be all right.

      But Hannah and Mike’s problem did not move the commanding officer one jot. They were planning an invasion on a scale never before imagined. What was one soldier and his pregnant girlfriend in the great scheme of things?

      Mike Murphy and his unit were shipped south.

      ‘It’s the big push everyone was talking about, isn’t it?’ Hannah asked fearfully. ‘Oh God, Tilly, what will I do?’

      ‘Go and see his parents. You get on with them all right.’

      ‘They don’t even know we were to be married. The ring Mike gave me is not an engagement ring.’

      ‘But they like you. You’ve always said that.’

      ‘They did like me. What if they think I’m trying to trap Mike?’

      Tilly said nothing. She knew that parents of sons, especially only sons, often behaved in an irrational way towards girlfriends and to pregnant ones they could be even worse. But something had to be done.

      ‘Could you go home?’ Tilly asked.

      ‘To Ireland?’ Hannah gave a shudder. ‘You don’t know what you’re asking me. God, it would be awful!’ She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t bring that shame, that disgrace, on my sister and her family.’

      ‘Then where?’

      ‘God, I don’t know.’

      Hannah sat with her head in her hands, sobs shook her body, and Tilly’s arms went around her and she held her tight. But she couldn’t tell her not to cry, not to worry, because by God, she had reason to do both.

      Hannah didn’t expect Mike home. He could say nothing, but rumours flew about; army camps were emptying all over the country and almost the entire force of the United Kingdom and its allies were all assembled on the south coast for the make or break invasion.

      Mike wrote again in mid May:

      I’ll write to my parents and explain, I’ll tell them the child is mine and you are to go to them until I come back and then we’ll be married. It’s all right, my darling. You will be fine and I’ll be home before you know it.

      ‘He’s writing to his mother and father,’ Hannah told Tilly. ‘They’ll believe him.’

      ‘Will you go to them?’

      ‘No. I’ll wait until they send for me. I don’t know how long letters take these days.’

      Mike’s letter did take time to reach his parents. It took him a while to even find time to write it for the whole camp was in an uproar. He’d never seen so many people concentrated in one relatively small area, nor so many tanks, jeeps, army trucks, cars and motorcycles littering the roads.

      The whole area was a no-go area for civilians and those in the small farms and villages were trapped there too. Orders were given by one officer, only to be quickly rescinded by another. It was mayhem. Everyone was in a state of flux and rumours abounded.

      There was little time for letter writing and certainly not for writing the type of letter he had to write to his parents. They had to help Hannah and to hell with the neighbours. His mind was constantly filled with Hannah and the child – his child – and worry about her filled his mind through the day and invaded his sleep at night.

      The letter did arrive at Colm and Bridie’s home eventually towards the end of May. Bridie and Colm were shocked. They’d thought Hannah such a respectable girl for such a thing to happen. They’d got to know her so well, especially when Mike hadn’t been so well. ‘Mind,’ Colm said, trying to be fair. ‘Our Mike must have had a hand in it.’

      ‘Aye,’ Bridie agreed. ‘But he’s a man. Everyone knows that it’s the girl’s place to keep feelings in check.’

      ‘Aye,’ Colm agreed with emotion, remembering his own frustrated courtship days. ‘But still we’ll have to help the girl. It’s what Mike wants and after all, the child she’s carrying is our grandchild.’

      Bridie agreed with her husband, but with reservations. She had a horror of the girl coming here with her belly sticking out and the neighbours knowing that there wasn’t even an understanding between her and their son – not that they were aware of, anyway. It would somehow besmirch their son to allow it. And yet Mike had asked them to take the girl in so they had no choice. The damage was done now.

      ‘Shall I go and see her?’ Bridie said. ‘Or write? I don’t know which would be best.’

      But in the end she did neither, for in the early hours of 6th June, Mike was housed in a troopcarrier on the choppy waters of the Channel heading for Normandy. The short summer night was fully over; the sky was grey and the light dusky. It was cold too, the wind damp and chilly and the men shivered.

      Mike was as frightened and nervous as the next, his stomach turning over at what lay ahead, but above everything else he worried about Hannah and how she was coping and hoped she was now safe with his parents. When he was out of this damned carrier and set up in camp somewhere, he’d write to Hannah, stressing his love and concern for her and their baby. Oh God, he wished he was there with her, supporting her.

      ‘All right?’ said Luke’s voice low in his ear.

      ‘Not bad.’

      ‘Still worrying about your bird?’

      ‘Wouldn’t you?’

      ‘I’m the love them and leave them variety, me,’ Luke said. ‘Though I have to say your Hannah’s a canny lass. Don’t worry, we’ll soon knock this lot into touch. I’m sure your folks will do the decent thing and take care of Hannah till she has the kid. You can still get married if you’re determined on it, just be a bit later, that’s all, and I’ll still stand you the meal I promised you.’

      ‘Thanks, Luke,’ Mike said warmly. ‘I’m really glad we’ve been in this together from the beginning.’

      ‘And we’ll stay together, mate, and one day soon we’ll be drinking a pint back in dear old Blighty, you’ll see,’ Luke said and Mike grasped his extended hand and shook it. ‘It’s a deal,’ he replied.

      ‘Stand ready!’ came the order from a young and nervous corporal and Mike looked about him. Some of the faces were apprehensive, some plain scared, and some of the raw recruits, who didn’t yet know what it was about, were excited. Christ!

      The light had brightened a little, the dawn hidden by the clouds a pearly grey as the carrier got near and nearer to the sandy shore and the men stood tense and ready.

      Above them, they could see and hear the German fighter planes. The constant tattoo from their automatic guns beat against their heads and was mixed with the shouts and screams as they found their mark. Mike saw soldiers wading forward suddenly jerk and then lie still, face down in the scummy sea. God, it was carnage! Another bloody Dunkirk. He was gutwrenchingly scared and he saw from the look on Luke’s face that he felt the same.

      And then the carrier stuck in the sand, the sides lowered and the men were out. Waist-deep in freezing water, their rifles held above their heads, they tried to hurry for the beaches and dodge the planes trying to prevent them.

      Soldiers ahead

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