No:13

Maycot

16.1.40

7:30 pm.

Darling,

Another day has gone by and still no letter from you. I feel very sad as it is now 14 days since I received yours No: 15 (the second so numbered) which you wrote on Dec 30th.

It is awful waiting for each post hoping for word from you and it makes me worry so. I wonder all sorts of things and, particularly during this awful weather, whether your back has been troubling you again.

Darling you do love me don’t you? I can’t really believe otherwise after the great happiness we have had together now linked with little Jill, but when you make the intervals between your letters so long I feel so very far away from you, and that is why I am writing you tonight even though I wrote you yesterday.

I must have a letter to look forward to regularly, can’t you manage this darling, it’s very hard to go on when one is left wondering all the time.

I know circumstances are somewhat different but Tris hears from Vic every day, and her sister-in-law every other day. You know, after the last long lapse (12 days) you did promise it would not occur again and I think now of all times…

…you should make an effort to keep your promises.

Please forgive the little lecture but I feel very hurt deep down and rather depressed.

The weather since Christmas has been unspeakable. Very cold and frosty. Jill, like me, doesn’t like it so cold and I’m afraid she’s caught another cold despite all my care. I was up best part of last night with her and I’m hoping it won’t turn out to be such a severe one as the one she had at Christmas, especially as she’s been invited to Brian’s birthday party next Saturday.

We’ve not been able to go out much just lately, and except for my weekly lonely jaunt to the flicks, I have no recreation. I miss you terribly and even when I’m at the pictures I find my eyes filling with tears because it seems so long since I went there with you.

It was a terrible blow when I heard B.E.F. leave had been cancelled as I tried to persuade myself that, as I had not heard from you, you might be on your way home. I do hope leave will be resumed soon darling, and do let me have a cheery word in this connection when you can. Jim had seven days leave prior to Christmas, as well as 24 hours on Boxing Day, and I understand he is having…

…another seven days from the 24th of this month. It doesn’t seem fair.

I don’t know whether I mentioned it before but Leslie Baker expects to go to France any time now.

I was so longing for your leave and apart from the two nighties I told you I’d made, I bought myself a new black pinafore frock with some Christmas present money. I do hope you will like it.

RE Vic, as I mentioned in Jill’s letter to you late week Tris expects him over here any time now (I shall know sometime this week whether he has arrived) but he will be sent straight to hospital over here for about a month.

I think he must have been pretty bad as he wrote Tris, in a very gentle way, to be prepared for a shock when she saw him. She is very brave and sensible however, and says that she won’t worry too much as she knows that he will get better once he is over here. It seems almost certain that he will get his discharge from the army, Tris says he is rather sad not to be rejoining you and the boys and that he feels himself rather a failure, so darling, I think…

…it would be rather nice if you wrote him a comforting word.

I like Tris very much indeed and I feel she has that rare quality of being entirely sincere and genuine.

Poor little Jill keeps asking when is her Daddy coming home. She does miss you most awfully, especially when she notices other soldiers.

In view of Spencer Lewis’s extremely bad luck, I’m afraid we have seen the last of any money from this source. I really am sorry about him.

I felt so sorry for the troops on the Common today—even so I don’t suppose it’s as bad as you have had to put up with—but after the awful frosts, it’s blowing a gale today and snowed quite heavily. Tris tells me that Dorrington is once more on the Common.

Dearest, is there anything I can make you to keep you warm that you haven’t already got? I always think of you when I’m getting into bed and it hurts to think you might not be able to keep warm. Please let me know anything I can do for you and…

…also whether there is anything else I can send you.

Next time I go into Bromley I will get you some more writing paper, this is getting very expensive so that it’s a little cheaper to buy it in Bromley.

Kenneth darling, please remember that I’m always thinking of you and longing for you to come home for good so that we can take up our life together again, and though I may not always think to say it, I am very sensitive to all the hardships I know you and your comrades are enduring. I love you very dearly and am very proud of you for not complaining.

With all my heart,

Yours,

Terry.