Free The Armada Boy by Kate Ellis

have
thought of me. I was pretty back then.'
    She went to the oak sideboard and
took out a battered photo album. She opened it at an early page and passed it
to Rachel.
     
    'Is that you?'
     
    'Yes. That's me with Norman ...
there.'
     
    Rachel looked carefully. The two
youthful faces, fresh and apparently untroubled, looked back at her shyly.
Marion had been a rosy-cheeked, healthy-looking girl. Norman, with his shock of
dark hair and open smile, had been very good-looking - and very young, little
more than a boy: a boy with the prospect of death hanging over him. Rachel
almost fell like crying herself.
     
    'What happened to him?' She looked
at Rachel in realisation. I heard it on the radio ... an American tourist found
stabbed in Bereton chapel. It was him. wasn't it?'
    Rachel nodded.
    'You're not safe anywhere these
days. We used to meet there... do our courting.' She turned away, tears in her
eyes. 'It's spoiled all those memories now. To think that some young thug...'
     
    'I know.' Rachel put a comforting
arm round Marion's shoulder. 'You think it was a young thug who killed him? Any
particular reason?'
     
    Marion looked at her. surprised.
'Who else would it be? Those young tearaways are everywhere nowadays ...
nowhere's safe. You see it on Crimefile all the time. I always keep my windows and doors locked ... my son-in-law put
some good locks on for
me. Nobody locked their doors round here once. We never had to, not round
here....'
     
    'When Norman came to see you. how
did he seem? Was he worried about anything?'
     
    She shook her head. 'We hadn't seen
each other for fifty years. It was so wonderful to see him again ... talk about
the old times.'
    In the chapel?"
     
    Marion blushed. 'We were young ...
so young.' She dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief. 'And Norman had real
film star looks ... you can see that from the pictures, can't you?'
     
    Rachel nodded. 'I'd have fancied him
myself." She smiled.
     
    'Oh, you would, my luvver. you
would.' At least Marion was smiling again.
     
    Wesley came in quietly with three
cups of tea and put them on the coffee table, taking care to find coasters for
them first: Marion would be worried about the hot cups leaving rings on the
wood.
     
    'You said in your letter to Norman
that you had something to tell him.'
     
    Marion looked nervously at Wesley.
'You'll find biscuits in the top cupboard on the right, my luvver.' she said.
Wesley, now so used to the familiar Devon endearment that it had ceased to cause
him the amusement it had when he had first arrived from London,
took the hint. This was woman's talk.
     
    When he had gone, Marion leaned
towards Rachel. 'You have to understand how it was in the war. It wasn't like
today ... young girls were taught to respect themselves, if you know what I
mean. But when Norman and I used to go to the chapel -. . well, we
didn't know if we'd be dead the next day or...'
     
    'You slept together?'
     
    She nodded, blushing. 'After Norman
had gone ... when they'd gone to Normandy. I found I was going to have a baby. He'd
said he'd come back ... they all said that, the Yanks, but I never saw him
again. Then I read about this veterans' association in the local paper and how
they were planning to visit Bereton. So I wrote to them and asked them if a
Norman Openheim was a member ... I didn't even know if he'd got back alive from
Normandy, you see. They wrote to me and said he was and that I could contact
him through them... so I did. I wanted him to know he had a daughter.'
    Marion's eyes filled with tears
again. 'My husband was a good man ... took us both on. We never had children.   He brought Carole up as his own.'
     
    'How did Norman feel about having a
daughter?'
     
    'He was so pleased ... I showed him
all the photographs. He wanted to meet her. couldn't wait. But I said I'd have a
word with her first. I expected him to ring today. He said he would. Our Carole
said she wanted to meet him. I never forgot Norman . ..not in all those