Mornington-By-Mere – (91) The Manor Farm Mouse

 

In the late summer of 1943 Ronald Carrington stood on the platform at Roespring station in the inclement weather as the Purplemere train arrived.

The train was very busy but he managed to find a seat in the second compartment he came to.

Once on the train he fell asleep within minutes of the train departing the station, the motion of the train always did that.

When he opened his eyes again there were some new faces in the compartment, so he assumed he must have missed the stop at Nettlefield.

There were two girls sat across from him, one of which was a tall redhead with outstanding legs.

Ronald thought she was pretty enough, but he also thought she was all too aware of the fact and she positively preened when she realized he was admiring her legs, so he turned his attention to a quiet mousy girl sitting in the corner by the window.

The girl had long straight brown hair and a rather attractive, if heavily freckled face, but lovely hazel eyes, a cute nose and a thin-lipped smile.

She was a short, slim girl who he thought could have been anywhere between 18 and 25, wearing a rather faded floral dress and scuffed shoes.

The redhead, on seeing his transfer of allegiance, huffed quite loudly and flounced off to another compartment.

So Ronald and the little mouse spent the next twenty minutes exchanging glances amidst the occasional word.

 

He looked at his watch and they were only five minutes from Purplemere, he was sure he would easily make the connection for the bus to Mornington.

But that was before they stopped at a signal and waited there for what seemed like an eternity, presumably for a troop train, and when they eventually got going again it meant catching his bus was going to be an impossibility and even getting the next one was going to be a very close shave indeed.

As they approached the station the mousy girl stood up and reached up to get her case when the train lurched and she fell against him.

“I’m sorry” she said

“That’s ok, allow me” he said and easily lifted her case down

“Thank you….” She began

“Ronald” he said

“Thank you Ronald” she said “I’m Fiona”

“Please to meet you Fiona” he said and they shook hands and Fiona

smiled coyly, then as the train came to a halt she was thrown into his arms.

“That was very nice” he said as she gathered herself and then he turned and opened the door and stepped down onto the platform where he dropped his kit bag and then he helped Fiona down and said

“I do hope we can share a journey together again sometime”

“Me too” she said and blushed before she set off along the platform.

 

After watching her walk away he looked at his watch and rushed off towards the bus station and his worst fears wear realised when he saw his bus driving away.

“Bugger”

He checked the timetable and found he had an hour to kill before the next bus to Mornington and then it started to rain so he went and found a café to occupy his time and keep him dry.

 

As he left the café it was raining hard, very hard, so he turned the collar up on his RAF great coat and rushed over to the bus stand and boarded the Mornington bus.

He made himself comfortable and was quite confident that he would sleep and dream away the duration of the journey.

That was until a rain soaked figure in a dripping raincoat boarded the bus just in the nick of time.

There was only a couple of empty seats, one of which was on the back seat next to him, and the figure made its way up the aisle and had obviously selected that one.

They appeared in front of him dripping water everywhere, including over him, which was when he turned into his mother and tutted loudly.

Realising what they had done the figure turned around.

“I’m so sorry did I get you wet?” the figure said from beneath a head scarf, before continuing with surprise and a thin-lipped smile

“Oh Ronald”

He tried to recognise the owner of the voice but there was only a small circle of face visible and that had hair plastered to it and drops of rainwater were dripping off their eye lashes.

It was definitely a girl, small and wet, he suppose it could equally have been a small, wet effeminate man but he didn’t think he knew any.

Not having a clue who it was he did the only thing left open to and feebly said.   

“Hello”

The figure unbuttoned their raincoat and removed the scarf and he could see it was a short girl with straight brown hair and an attractive face, freckled cheeks, and hazel eyes, and when her wet coat was removed and she was wearing rather faded floral dress, he said.

“Fiona! I didn’t recognize you”

 

For the first half of the journey they chatted at length about themselves,

18 year old Fiona Blake lived in Nettlefield, where she had boarded the train, and lived with her parents where she was the youngest child of three.

Her two older brothers and her father were all in the Downshire Light Infantry, the former were last heard of in North Africa while her father was a drill instructor in Nettlefield.

She however was bound for Mornington as part of the Land Army where she had been assigned to Manor Farm.

Ronald Carrington on the other hand was 19 and was a pilot officer and was stationed at Mornington field

Which was originally used by the then newly formed Royal Flying Corps as a training base and it remained as a training squadron when the RFC became the RAF and right through to the end of the nineteen thirty’s, but when World War Two began it became a front line fighter base in the Battle of Britain and many sorties were flown from the field and many brave young men failed to return to it, Ronald himself had been there for the eight months since he qualified.

 

After they had got to know each other the second half of the journey passed in silence as she was sleeping against his shoulder, which he really liked, so he let her sleep but when they were approaching the village he gently woke her and she smiled at him before she gathered her things together.

She threw her wet coat down on the seat and was about to sit next to it when the bus lurched and she fell onto Ronald’s lap but she quickly pushed back against him and scrambled to her feet.

“Sorry” she said

The bus bounced once more and she again fell against him but once again she scrambled to her feet.

“Sorry” she said once more, but almost immediately the bus lurched again and she fell onto his lap.

This time as she scrambled to regain her feet he said

“Stop apologizing Fiona”

And after chastising her he sat her on the seat beside him.

“I’m not sorry in the slightest” he added “I rather liked it”

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” she said blushing

“Why not? It’s true,” he said and then she did something that he had wanted to do for a long time, she leant over and kissed him

It was only a quick peck but it held promise but as soon as her lips left his she was on her feet and tottering down the aisle.

He was quickly after her and caught her at the top of the steps,

“Meet me at the Old Mill Inn on Saturday night” He said “7 o’clock”

“I don’t know about that” she retorted “I’ve heard about you RAF types”

She went down the steps and walked towards the open locker where the driver was handing out the bags and when she had hers she looked at him and said

“Ok, 7 o’clock”

 

It was 6 days after he’d seen her and he was quite anxious as he waited outside the pub, he had thought of little else since he had watched her walk away the previous Sunday, despite the fact they had had a busy week of operations.

But his anxiety was not diminished by the fact that 7 o’clock came and went, as did 10 and 20 minutes past the hour and the big hand was rapidly approaching the half hour when he heard a plaintive cry.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry”

And when he turned towards the source of the voice he saw it belonged to Fiona who was running towards him in her faded floral dress and her old scuffed shoes, freshly polished, and when she reached him she was red faced and breathless.

“I’m sorry” she said “We were late finishing, one of the cows refused to cooperate”

“Don’t worry” he assured her “I’m just glad you made it”

She smiled in relief and the redness of her exertions on her face was replaced by a blush then Ronald took hold of her hand and they went into the pub.

 

The pub was packed and very noisy but he got to the bar and got their drinks, beer for him and port and lemon for her and then they found a quiet corner but it was so raucous that they couldn’t really have a conversation and she kept looking around the bar, it was much busier than he had hoped it would be.

“Too many people eh” he said and she nodded so he finished his drink and stood up and added

“Come on lets go somewhere quieter”

And he led her outside and they walked slowly around the village and they could at last have a conversation.

“This is better” Fiona said and held his hand.

“Next time we’ll get the bus into Shallowfield and go to the pictures” he said

“Next time?”

“Only if you want there to be a next time” he said

“I really do” she said and giggled

 

They held hands all the way home and then kissed goodnight at the gate to Manor Farm and he watched his little mouse all the way to the door where she turned and waved and he knew he loved her and that she loved him.