The war bride club, p.1
THE WAR BRIDE CLUB, page 1
THE WAR BRIDE CLUB
SORAYA LANE
A Note From Soraya
When I first started researching British war brides from World War II, I couldn’t believe how many women were prepared to marry American soldiers, knowing they would have to move halfway across the world, leaving their families behind forever. Back then, moving to America was like moving to the moon – it was so far away that most women would never see their friends or families ever again. This kind of love is perhaps what gave people hope during wartime, and while many wartime marriages ended in heartache, many more resulted in life-long love affairs.
This story has been a work-in-progress for many years, but it’s one that I’m so thrilled to share. Many of my books are dedicated to my mother, and this one is no different – without her help with my young son each day, I’d have no time to write!
I love to hear from readers, so please visit my website www.sorayalane.com to contact me direct. You can also connect with me on twitter - https://twitter.com/Soraya_Lane.
You may also enjoy my other best selling books, including MONTANA REUNION, THE NAVY SEAL’S PROMISE and THE SOLDIER’S SWEETHEART.
At the end of World War II, more than 100,000 British women had married American soldiers. These women, some with children, were desperate to travel to America to be with their husbands, and in 1945 the United States Embassy in London was picketed with war brides demanding ships.
On December 29th 1945, the War Brides Act was passed by the United States Congress, which allowed war brides and minor children of American citizens entry into America.
The War Department commenced project ‘Diaper Run’, an operation to reunite husbands with their foreign brides and children in America. The first ship set sail on January 26th 1946, arriving in New York Harbor to sounds of ‘Here Comes the Bride’.
“You have undertaken to become an American – just as millions of other people have done before you. Getting to know your adopted country will be an exciting adventure: the future is before you.
You have no doubt heard a great deal from your husband about the part of the United States you will probably live, but you may still be wondering how you will get acquainted with people, what they will be like, and how you will manage your new home. This short guide cannot answer all your questions, but it may help you in making plans and adjusting yourself to American ways of living.”
-Good House Keeping Magazine (1945)
P A R T O N E
CHAPTER ONE
MADELINE Parker clutched her hat to her chest and waved goodbye to her parents. The ship groaned and heaved beneath her feet, as if straining beneath the weight of so many women. Heels cascaded over timber, the decibels of high-pitched female voices assaulting her eardrums, but nothing could quell the excitement beating a steady drum in her stomach. This was it.
A ship that had once transported soldiers to war was now taking them across the ocean to their husbands. To a new life so far from London they could have been travelling to another world.
A shriek made Madeline turn. She watched a young woman fall to her knees, sobbing as the ship pulled away. Madeline looked back to catch a final glimpse of her own mother, of her father bravely holding his wife against him. Tears fell absently down her cheeks, but she held her head high. She was leaving home for the man she loved. It was time to start her own adventure, and she couldn’t wait.
All around her, women cried, giggled, screamed and chatted. It was incredible. All these girls fleeing their families, leaving everything they’d ever known, to be with their handsome GI’s.
“America,” whispered Madeline. America. It sounded so exotic, so unknown, so decadent.
Her heart skipped its rhythm just thinking of her husband. Three weeks they had known one another, three exhilarating, exciting weeks they had spent together in total, and now she was finally going to be with him. All those months of waiting, hoping, and the day had finally come.
Madeline lifted her bag and moved away from the ship’s edge, the people on the dock like specks now, dots in the distance.
She was surrounded by women, although she knew no one. But she didn’t feel alone. They were all leaving England with the same purpose, all wives who had patiently waited to be transported to their new homeland.
Signs had already started to be pinned to boards, with different States scribbled across the top. Madeline watched as a group of women scrambled to add their names to a list. At the entrance to the lounge was a huge poster – a map of the United States of America. She could see painted fingernails tracing every inch of it.
The flutter of identity cards pinned to jackets made her look down, then finger her own. Each color represented the state they were destined to live in, and right now hers made her feel like a refugee or cargo being shipped to the other side of the world.
“Great idea, don’t you think?”
Madeline turned. The voice belonged to a pretty blonde, her hair a shimmer of short curls falling almost to her shoulders. A sweep of red lipstick adorned full lips that were set in a wide smile.
“Ah, yes, it’s clever.”
“Alice Jones,” said the other girl, extending a petite hand. She turned her shoulder to reveal another woman, standing behind her. “And this is June West.”
“Madeline,” Madeline replied.
They shook hands and smiled, before a shyer June stepped forward.
“Where are you headed?” asked Alice. “Besides into your husband’s arms, of course!”
Madeline couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips. She held up her red identity card.
“New York.”
“Oh my goodness. Us too!”
Alice clutched Madeline’s hand and linked arms with June, before marching them off in the direction of the lists.
“We must sign up now. Imagine who else we could meet.”
“Are we assigned to rooms?”
Alice shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’ll bribe whomever we have to so we can all room together, don’t you think?”
Madeline nodded and hurried to keep up with her new friends. She guessed, from the still-shy expression on June’s face that she was a new recruit of Alice’s too.
She was relieved. It was going to be a long journey and having someone fun to pass the time with was precisely what she needed.
The beat of heels on the wooden deck was deafening, the sway of the ship as she moved out in to deeper ocean already sending unwelcome rumbles through her stomach. Betty Olliver pressed one hand to her belly and tried to focus on breathing. In and out, she reminded herself, but it wasn’t as easy as that. She had forced her over-size stomach in tight under her blouse, terrified one of the authorities would notice her pregnancy, and now all it was succeeding in doing was making her feel faint. So faint she had a feeling she was about to keel overboard.
Betty grasped a nearby railing and wished she could just let her waist out from its restraints. She’d been determined not to wait around at home and give birth without a husband near, but now she was starting to feel differently. Very differently indeed.
When the letter had arrived telling her it was time to depart, there was no chance she was going to be left behind. But now.
“Oh dear, are you okay?”
She looked up and into the kindest blue eyes she’d seen in a long time. Betty just nodded, squeezing her own eyes shut for a second as if the act itself would give her strength.
“Oh no you’re not,” said the voice again. “I shall call an official over.”
“No!” Betty expelled the word with all her might, reaching for the woman’s wrist. “No.”
The blue eyes turned from kindly to uncertain. Betty released her grip. She noticed two other women standing slightly to the left, and wished she hadn’t spoken so rudely.
“I’m sorry, it’s just, well,” she dropped her voice an octave. “I’m in the family way.”
The three women looked at one another. Betty felt dread shiver down her spine. Had she been too quick to voice her condition? Too trusting?
“Alice,” said the first woman, her smile reaching her eyes. “And this is Madeline and June.”
Betty smiled back at them, grateful they were being so kind.
“Betty Olliver.” She regained her composure and straightened her shoulders. “I’ll be fine in just a moment.”
“Do you need to sit down?”
She didn’t need to think that one over. She’d never been so in need of a seat. “Yes. Oh yes.”
Alice wound her arm around her and took her weight. Betty didn’t want to be a charity case but she wasn’t above admitting she needed help.
“I really owe you,” she managed, feeling a sharp pain with every step despite the help. “I just…”
“You’re not wearing a corset under there are you?” Madeline hissed, pulling at the back of her cardigan. “Ooohh, you are, aren’t you?”
They all stopped. Betty knew she looked guilty, but what could she say? It was wait around alone or get on the first ship to find her husband. The first plan wasn’t an option she could have ever entertained. Not when she had no family at home in London.
“I might not know a lot, but medical matters are what I do know something about. You could hurt the baby, not to mention yourself. And what if it brought the labor on before you’re both ready?”
Madeline looked angry and Betty didn’t have the will to fight. Maybe it had been a silly plan, but she was on board now and there was no going back.
“Quickly, l et’s undo these laces and you can throw this shawl over yourself. No one will notice, not with everything going on.”
“Thank you.” It was all she could say. “Thank you, thank you so much.”
Madeline tsked and Alice just smiled kindly. So did June. Betty was on the verge of bursting into tears. It was nice not to feel so alone, to have company after so long without it.
“There are medics on board,” said June, her voice whisper-soft. “If something does happen, there’ll be someone to care for you.”
“Come on, let’s find a cabin,” announced Alice, holding out a hand. “I’ve heard there are eight hammocks in each, but the ship’s not full and I’m sure we can get one together.”
The girls huddled around Betty as she attempted to catch her breath. Lying down, without the corset, was helping. Her lungs still felt like they were heaving, even now her breathing had slowed, and she was grateful for the help. With her parents dead and no siblings, she’d been pregnant and alone for so long. For once it was nice to be cared for.
“How many months are you?”
Betty gulped. This was not a question she wanted to answer. The girl, Madeline, seemed to know a lot about pregnancy, and she’d probably think even less of her once she knew.
“It’s okay, we won’t tell.”
Betty smiled at Alice who, she’d decided, was perhaps the prettiest girl she’d ever met. All smiles and dimples, with a face that couldn’t be called anything other than beautiful.
She noticed that Madeline was pursing her lips. She had a feeling she was the one who would tell. Or judge her. But maybe she just knew the most about babies. And dangers.
Betty felt all eyes on her. There had been times she’d wondered what it would feel like to be interrogated, to be a prisoner of war like she’d feared her husband could have been, and now she had an inkling of what it might be like.
“Betty?”
They deserved to know. She knew that. They had shown her kindness, helped her, when she needed it most. But could she risk it?
The faces around her were smiling, worried, tense.
She blew out a deep breath. There wasn’t an easy way to say it. “Eight months.”
“Oh my goodness, and you were trying to wear a corset?”
Betty’s face flushed burning hot, her breath caught in her throat, but a warm hand thrust into hers helped to steady her. It was Alice’s face she braved a look at first, followed by June – who was looking upset but not angry, and then Madeline. The other girl still looked alarmed.
Betty swallowed her emotion and thrust her chin up.
“I just didn’t want to do this alone. I wanted to be with my husband. I’ve no one else.”
The nodding of heads around her made her realize she wasn’t alone.
“And you felt like you’d waited long enough?” asked June.
“There are lots of pregnant women on board,” said Madeline, her voice reassuring. “It’s not like being pregnant or having a child with you is forbidden.”
She shrugged and glanced at the girls. “They would have wanted a doctor to examine me first, and I’m too far along to be allowed on the ship.” She rubbed her belly. “There’s more than a chance I’ll have this baby on board. Once we’re out at sea there’s nothing they can do, but they could have stopped me getting on in the first place.”
They looked at her, a combination of smiles and frowns. She guessed they all understood, in a way. As would the women divided into the other side of the ship with their children. What had the paper called them? The floating nursery?
It was a feeling they all knew well, that desperation to be with their men. It wasn’t every day you were surrounded by women who felt the same way, who were in love and desperate to see, to feel, their husbands in their arms again.
“So how did you meet yours?” Betty asked.
Alice laughed. A gentle noise that made even Betty, with her still-aching stomach, grin.
“You do realize we’ve all got different answers to that question,” Alice pointed out.
“And we probably all have really long answers to that question,” chimed in June.
“Just so happens I’ve got all night,” said Betty.
“I think what we need is something to eat, then we can yap all afternoon.”
Betty smiled at Madeline. “I’m all for eating,” she said, rubbing her belly. “But I think I’ll stay put here for a bit longer.”
Madeline stretched and stood. “I’ll go investigate. Anyone else want to come?”
Alice jumped up and joined Madeline, leaving Betty to stay reclined, with June tucking up in the adjoining hammock bed beside her for company. June might have been quietier than the others, but there was something very reassuring about having her near.
It seemed odd lying next to a pregnant woman who she’d only known for an hour, but somehow it felt right. They both lay in silence – the sort of silence that wasn’t empty, that didn’t need to be filled.
“So how long have you been married?”
That made Betty smile. “Guess?”
“Don’t tell me. Eight months?”
They both laughed.
“I got pregnant on our honeymoon. We spent a weekend together at a little guest house, and I’ve only seen him once since.”
June nodded. “I haven’t seen my man since he left after our wedding.”
“Are you nervous about seeing him again?” Betty asked.
Their eyes met, warily at first, but June recognized her feelings reflected in her new friend’s gaze. It was a hard emotion to describe, one that only another war bride could ever share, but still June had worried that she was the only one terrified of seeing her husband again. They had met and fallen in love so quickly, faster than would ever have been allowed if the war hadn’t been breathing down their necks. But fallen in love she had, and now she’d left everything she had ever known behind. Forever.
“So tell me about him. Your man. What’s he like?”
Betty had looked exhausted, but the question about her husband seemed to revive her.
“I need a few more minutes to catch my breath.” Betty smiled and changed position. “You go first.”
June reached over to plump the two pillows behind Betty’s back and wriggled to sit cross-legged on the hammock beside her, thankful it was sturdier than it looked. It was like sitting with her sister, like they’d always done at night, gabbing away about what they had seen that day, who they had talked to, and of course who they’d fallen in love with.
A pang of sadness made her ache, but she did her best to ignore it. She’d agonized for months about leaving her family; about never seeing her sister again or her mother and father. For all twenty-one years of her life, they’d meant the world to her, and now she’d left them forever to follow a handsome soldier she hardly knew. But then she had known that when she’d married him, that if he survived the war she would have to travel to be with him, and besides, she’d made a promise before God.
“You want the short version or the long version?”
Betty rubbed her hands together and smiled. “I want every last detail,” she said, resting her hands on her belly. “I’m a hopeless romantic, in case you hadn’t already figured out.”
The clatter of heels made them both turn to look, and Alice and Madeline appeared in the doorway. They’d managed to smuggle four cups of something steaming, and what appeared to be some tomato sandwiches.
“You’re just in time,” announced Betty.
“For what?”
Madeline passed two cups to Betty and climbed onto the edge of the facing sling. Alice did the same for June.
“June’s about to tell me how she met her man.”
All eyes turned to June, and suddenly she wasn’t sure if her story was even interesting enough to tell three other women.
“It’s really not that interesting.”
“Nonsense,” insisted Betty. “Now settle back down and get talking.”
So she did. With three pairs of eyes on her and a cup of sweet tea in her hands, June let her mind drift back to almost eighteen months ago, when she’d first met the man of her dreams.
