Thursday
Aberdeen
Sweetheart,
It was good to receive your letter this afternoon. What a good soul you are. While you were sitting down to write to me amid the welter of unpacking, there was I sitting in the theatre and NOT writing to poor little Stelly-Well. I feel very guilty about that, love.
You have no idea how I miss you, but it’s good to know that you are feeling settled and cheerful and, in many ways, glad to be home again. I know what you mean when you speak of the house welcoming you. I have felt myself wrapped in the atmosphere of home routines when I have come in after a particularly hard and long day – such a day, or night, as I had when the raids were at their heights. The personal warmth of home was wonderful then. Almost like putting on a snug warm coat on a bitter winter’s day.
The reactions of the children were interesting. I wonder if Michael is going to grow up with a greater emotional depth, or is it just that he is younger? Wendy is a bit of a puzzle sometimes. Her affection for Mrs Grundy, for instance. I should have thought Jennifer would have held the stage against all-comers and that Wendy would have had eyes for no one else. I liked the story of Jennifer’s reactions to Mickey Mouse. Who else was it did almost the same thing? I can’t remember if it was one of ours or June or David! What, by the way, did you tell the children about me and what did they think of all the things you had to tell them of the journey? I suppose they fired questions at you every moment. Or were they too full of their own doings? I expect you will get the whole story from them by degrees. They would be disappointed not to find Tiger awaiting them. Has he turned up yet? He may have been led astray by some unknown successor to Blackie!
I could not give your good wishes to the boys who were going because, to be Irish, they had gone! But I did tell them that you sent your good wishes and I’ll send your invitation to them when I write them at Scotia. They have promised to drop us a line and give us the low down on what the place is like. I have no doubt there has been considerable exaggeration about conditions, but Arthur has promised to write us with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, a report I’m awaiting with great interest. Percy and Ralph are not likely to be stationed in Liverpool, but I will certainly tell them, at the opportune moment, to look us up if they are in Liverpool. I can just imagine what Percy would say if he did find himself tied down in Liverpool for the rest of the war.
Well, darling, time is slipping by and I MUST get to bed early tonight because, as I think I told you, we were at the baths this morning. Last night, just as I was about to strip for a wash and shave and early bed, in came Flo with supper and stayed talking to us both – there was no one else in the house and I think she misses the other lads, to whom she used to chatter a lot when at a loose end.
Angel, as I’ve said before and, no doubt, will say again, you don’t know what those days – and nights! – with you meant to me. Sunday was the nicest day we had, I think. It was so like the good old days to lie in the sun and rest my head on your breast. If only it could have been among the sandhills, the illusion would have been complete. Never mind, precious, the days are slipping past – to me it seems impossible that I will be “talking” Morse at 20 words a minute in so short a time so I’m working as hard as I can and hope to make the grade. I’ll go mad if anything happens to keep me here. Frank, for instance, has been here 20 weeks now and yet will not finish until we do, for he has now joined our class. I felt sorry for him when he saw the lads going the other day, for he was here before they were. He is still a bit fed-up over that.
Now, my darling, I must leave you. Take care of yourself and don’t waste the good effects of the holiday by getting too tired at nights, and tell me if you are sleeping any better. I love you, pet, so look after yourself. Hug the children for me.
All your own,
Arthur X
P.S. When are Madge and Hughie coming?