Heartache at Blackberry Farm

Rosie Clarke

Description

Discover Rosie Clarke's bestselling Blackberry Farm series!
A story of life and survival during the war which is heart-rending and bitter-sweet, bringing you laughter and tears.

Cambridgeshire – 1941
As the war rages on in Europe, it brings untold heartache to the Talbot family at Blackberry Farm.
First Tom is missing in action and then his brother John. leaving the family distraught with worry.
Faith finds herself in trouble and turns to Lizzie for support as fear and grief bring them closer together.
But tragedy is never too far away and when it strikes, it may not be those who fight that suffer the most.
Will Pam’s prayers be answered and will both her sons return home?
And can the family at Blackberry Farm unite to overcome their heartache and find hope for the future?

Sujets

• Historical Fiction
• 20th Century
• Historical
• HISTORY
• Motherhood
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Military history
• Friendship
• Historical romance
• General officer
• Parenting
• World War II
• General
• Sagas
• Christian
• War
• Romance
• Fiction
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 05 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781804157176
• Langue: English

Extrait

HEARTACHE AT BLACKBERRY FARM



ROSIE CLARKE
First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Boldwood Books Ltd.
Copyright © Rosie Clarke, 2022
Cover Design by Colin Thomas
Cover Photography: Colin Thomas
The moral right of Rosie Clarke to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologise for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Paperback ISBN 978-1-80415-724-4
Large Print ISBN 978-1-80415-720-6
Hardback ISBN 978-1-80415-719-0
Ebook ISBN 978-1-80415-717-6
Kindle ISBN 978-1-80415-718-3
Audio CD ISBN 978-1-80415-725-1
MP3 CD ISBN 978-1-80415-722-0
Digital audio download ISBN 978-1-80415-716-9


Boldwood Books Ltd
23 Bowerdean Street
London SW6 3TN
www.boldwoodbooks.com
CONTENTS



Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43


More from Rosie Clarke

About the Author

About Boldwood Books
1
JULY 1940, BLACKBERRY FARM

Pam Talbot stood staring out of the window, a sigh escaping her lips. There was one of those early mists that sometimes crept across the low-lying fields of the Fens even in summer. The land lay at the bottom of the hill in Mepal, just a mile or so from the village of Sutton and only a few miles from the cathedral city of Ely in Cambridgeshire. It was a pleasant area, the fields opposite graced with chestnut trees and the surrounding fields with hedges that in autumn were laden with blackberries. At the moment, the fields were golden with ripening wheat or green with crops like potatoes and sugar beet.
A little frown creased Pam’s brow as she turned from the window. She ought to be accustomed to misty mornings after so many years of living on Blackberry Farm as Arthur’s wife, but it wasn’t the dull day that was weighing so heavy on her heart. Nor was it the grey sky or the unseasonable chill in the air. It was the war with Germany that had been raging for months now that was plaguing her mind. Especially after the trauma and horrendous suffering at Dunkirk, when the British Army had been trapped on the beaches, some dying, raked by enemy fire, others wounded, hungry and unable to escape the merciless attacks. Only the bravery of British fishermen and boat owners had saved many more of them from slaughter, when, harassed by enemy planes, the navy couldn’t get in close enough to take them away. Fortunately, hundreds of small boats had gone out to help and much of the stranded army had been saved – but the war was far from over.
‘We should be so lucky,’ Pam said to herself as she saw the headlines in her husband’s copy of The Times . She’d been collecting the old papers, which carried terrible pictures and headlines of the recent disaster – the occupation of the Channel Islands by German troops and what was described as the first daylight bombing raid on the British mainland – to make firelighters, and they didn’t make for happy reading as she flicked through them, making sure there was nothing Arthur wanted to keep. Her husband was a keen reader and also liked to do the crosswords, so she checked that he’d finished with them before using them to light her fires in the big black range that heated water, cooked their food and kept the house from freezing in winter.
When Pam had read about the terrible loss of life in the papers once more, she had wept again for the young men who were so valiantly giving their lives in the fierce struggle to keep the Germans at bay. The fact that two of her sons, Tom and John, were amongst those fighting made her sick with anxiety and she’d flicked away her tears, giving herself a mental shake. At the moment, the prevailing mood was fear; and she wasn’t the only mother terrified for her sons and fearful of invasion and losing this war that did not seem to be going well for Britain and her Allies.
It wouldn’t do to give way to her fears. She worried for her boys, but she was also very proud of them. Tom, her firstborn, was in the army, and John, her youngest boy, had recently joined the RAF and she had no idea what he was up to, because he seldom wrote to her. When he did, his letters would be bright and cheerful, telling her about the fun he was having, but never mentioning the war or the serious side to his work.
John would not want to upset her or cause her anxiety, but she worried all the same. Not that she had time on her hands to worry! Her second son, Artie, was still at home and working on the land with his father; she had two daughters, Susan and Angela, both of whom were lovely girls and gave their mother pleasure. She had great hopes for Susan’s future because she wanted to train as a teacher, and Angela was only eight and not old enough to know what she wanted to do when she grew up. Tom’s wife, Lizzie, a clever young woman, who owned a hairdressing salon in a small market town nearby, was living with them, to say nothing of the toddler, Tina, who often brought a smile to Pam’s lips. Tina was the granddaughter of Vera Salmons and the niece of Jeanie – a friend of Lizzie’s since she’d lodged with her family in London. Together with the land girls they employed, it made for a full household at breakfast time and Pam was always busy cooking, washing and cleaning.
Tina had come to them after the tragic death of her mother. Her grandmother, Vera, was a midwife and unable to take the child at present. Tina’s father, Terry, was still in hospital, months after being badly injured soon after the start of the war in 1939. He’d lost a leg, but his condition wasn’t helped by the death of his wife due to a fire at the flats where she and Tina had been living. It was a miracle that Tina had survived and her grandmother would have preferred to look after her herself, but with both her daughters away – Jeanie working as a land girl on Blackberry Farm, and Annie as a nurse – Vera hadn’t felt able to cope with the child.
Tina had initially come to the farm for a short time – but the weeks and then months had passed and, so far, Vera hadn’t asked to take her home. Pam secretly hoped she wouldn’t; Tina was safer here with them.



Just then, Susan came downstairs, holding the little girl by the hand. Pam smiled, her little fit of the blues blown away by Tina’s smile and the way she held her arms out to be taken up on Gan-Gan’s lap and fed her breakfast.
‘Are you going to study for your exams today?’ Pam asked Susan, as Angela entered the kitchen and gave her mother an old-fashioned look. She’d been the baby of the family until Tina’s arrival, and she might be a tiny bit jealous of the little girl.
‘No, Mum,’ Susan said in answer. ‘I have plenty of time to study before I take my exams. I did most of my homework last night, so if you need me to look after Tina or anything…?’
‘You can give Tina her breakfast if you like.’ She looked fondly at her daughter. ‘How are your studies going, Susan?’
‘Fine, Mum,’ Susan said and reached for Tina, to take her on her lap and feed her the bread-and-butter soldiers with her soft-boiled egg. Living on the farm, they got fresh eggs regularly from Pam’s chickens and she made her own farm butter, but there was never enough, because they had to meet their quota for the milk board.
‘What do you want for breakfast, Angela?’ Pam asked. ‘There’s a boiled egg or jam and toast…’
‘I’d like some toast with your blackberry jelly, Mum – if you have any?’
‘Yes, there’s a fresh pot in the pantry,’ Pam told her. She hadn’t had enough sugar last autumn to make as many jars of jam from the beautiful blackberries that gave the farm its name, because the papers had warned against hoarding, saying it was unfair to others. Arthur had said that some people were filling their attics with tinned goods that would become scarce and suggested she should at least buy enough to fill the pantry shelves, but she’d felt it wasn’t quite right, so she’d been sensible. Now that stuff like tinned or dried fruit was less available, and meat, fat and sugar were rationed, she sometimes wished that she had. Although Arthur supplied them with eggs, milk and some game, which meant there was normally plenty of food, the luxuries were becoming harder to find, perhaps because many people had hoarded them.
However, Pam knew how to make the most of food and she’d find alternative ways of cooking her family’s favourites. As long as they all came back when the war was over. The thought of either Tom or John being wounded or killed made her shiver, as though someone was walking over her grave.
As Susan fed Tina small fingers of bread and butter spread with margarine and her egg, Pam’s thoughts returned to the men fighting what was clearly a hard and horrible war. She offered a silent pra