Her Garden Angel - Book 4, The Porth Kerensa Series

Chapter Twenty

Porth Kerensa, Spring 1944

Tom worked hard all winter, learning to walk around Anson House on his prosthetic leg. Evie thought it an absolutely marvelous invention and she had no qualms about helping him fit it to his stump or take it off at the end of his sessions. He hated it though, despite the freedom it gave him. She could see from the look in his eyes that it revolted him, almost as much as his stump did.

Oh, but she knew she’d never forget the day he first stood up in front of her. His trouser leg covered the wooden leg, and he stood balanced on crutches, with a fine sheen of sweat on his beautiful face from the effort it had taken him. He was tall, six foot three, and he towered over her. It didn’t take much for her imagination to picture them at the altar of St. Martin’s in a few months exchanging vows and rings, and she thought she’d burst with the love she felt for him.

He spent all his spare time getting to grips with his new leg. However much he hated the leg, he began to enjoy the freedom it gave back to him. He seemed to get more commandeering with every day that passed, and Evie realised how emasculated sitting in a chair, reliant on other people for help to do the simple things, had made him feel. He was a man born to standing straight and tall, towering above everyone else and commanding attention with his presence. Sitting in a chair had made him feel useless. With his new found freedom he found his confidence again and he no longer winced when Carolyn called him Captain Robinson.

1943 rolled into 1944 and the war rumbled on, with no signs of it ending. The Allies had taken Sicily but their progress had been hampered through Italy by the Germans getting their hands on Mussolini. The war seemed to be at a stalemate, but the injured troops kept on coming.

Tom became something of a hero to those young men. He was a shining example of a man determined to overcome the odds and integrate back into society as a fully functioning member of the community. He gave them pep talks and rallied them when they were down.

He came up with the idea of starting workshops for the men who would not return to the frontline and now had to find their place back on Civvy Street. Tom persuaded most of the local businessmen and tradesmen to come up to Anson House and give a talk and demonstration of the different skills the men could learn. He opened their eyes to the world again and the things it could still offer them. It was a wonderful thing to see; he was like a rose blooming and stretching towards the sun. Evie was as proud of him as she was Max.

Max, a sturdy little two year old, adored Tom and was fascinated by his new leg. He knew without being told that Tom was not the same as the rest of them and that a slow walk with a stick and a limp would be the best he could ever hope to achieve. In the mornings, after Max had spent a couple of hours in his garden with Bruce, he and Evie would walk down to meet Tom for lunch. He would trot between her and Tom, paying close attention to the ground for anything that might trip their beloved Captain up as they made their way slowly to the park for a picnic lunch. Max loved those times with them, and it was easy for Evie to allow her dreams, of what life would be like with their own children, to run riot.

On alternate Sundays, Tom and Evie joined her family at church and for lunch at the vicarage afterwards. It was always an awkward affair, for no matter how charming and charismatic he was, Aunt Helen could never be anything other than stilted and tense around him. They all knew that she couldn’t see past his stump to the man beyond. It was a measure of how much the man loved Evie that he allowed her to put him through it every other week.

Tom had decided to buy one of the cottages facing the sea, not far from the vicarage, before the winter of 1943 was out. Judy and Evie talked about how they would decorate it. It pleased Evie that Judy seemed so happy for her and Tom. She couldn’t help remembering when she’d first arrived in Porth Kerensa, and how she’d wondered if she and Judy could ever be friends. There was no real common ground between them, but she loved Judy and appreciated her help.