Across the Mersey (7 page)

‘That old gossip?’

Ignoring him, Jean continued determinedly, ‘In fact if I was you, Sam, I’d say the same to a couple of them as you work with, and them that’s in the ARP with you as well. No need to say too much, mind. Just a bit of a casual mention.’

Sam shook his head, but he was smiling as well.
‘I can see you’ve got it all worked out. I’ve allus said that you’ve got a clever head on your shoulders, Jean.’

‘Well, I was clever enough to marry you,’ she agreed, ‘but any woman would want to do her best for her family. That’s only natural. Grace is ever so upset, love,’ she added quietly. ‘Cried her eyes out, she has. She thinks the world of you, you know that.’

‘Perhaps I was a bit hard on her, but she should have said summat to us first instead of going and doing what she did.’

Jean knew when to let things rest. Sam had his sticking points and what man had ever liked admitting he was wrong?

‘She’s learned her lesson, love, and, like I said, she didn’t mean any harm. You know what I think?’

Sam was looking at her with a twinkle in his eyes now. ‘No, but I reckon you’re about to tell me.’

‘I reckon it would be a very good thing indeed if you went along with Grace to the next meeting and had a word with this Sister Harris yourself. Explained to her, like, that Grace had got it wrong, and told her how proud you are to have Grace being offered such a chance.’

The last rays of sunshine were warming the greenhouse roof.

‘That way you’d be able to ask her a few questions as well, and find out exactly what’s going to be involved. Grace said something about her having to live in, and if that’s the case then we’ll have a spare room to let out.’

Sam was grinning now. ‘You think of everything,’ he told her admiringly.

‘Well,’ Jean told him practically, ‘it would be daft to have a room standing empty when it could be being used. I’ve said as much to Grace and told her as well that if she’d come to us first, we could have discussed everything properly and without all this upset.’

It would help to soothe Sam’s sore pride if he thought that she held Grace more to blame than him. Poor Sam. Jean could well understand how having to listen to Edwin’s boasting had upset him.

Luke aimed a morose kick at the pebble in the middle of the pavement. It was just so ruddy unfair. Why couldn’t he make his dad understand how he felt? All the lads he knew, the ones he’d gone through Scouts and then the Boys’ Brigade Band with, were in uniform now, all grinning broadly as they talked excitedly about doing their bit, whilst everyone clustered round them, especially the girls, especially Pam Harrison. Luke’s scowl deepened. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and slouched along the road.

He’d seen the looks they were giving him, looks that said he hadn’t got the guts to join up. Even ruddy Charlie was in uniform, although from what he said, he’d no intention of doing any fighting.

‘Fool’s game, that is, mate,’ he’d told Luke cheerfully.

There was no point in talking to his mum either. Normally he could rely on her to intercede for him with his dad, but everyone knew how mums were about this war. He’d already heard more tales than he wanted to remember from those who had joined up, talking about their mothers’ tears and protests.

‘Like I told me mam,’ Pete Riley, one of the other apprentices, had boasted only yesterday, after announcing he was joining the RAF, ‘I’m a man now, leastways that’s what the Government says. Mind you, I’m not saying there aren’t some advantages …’ He had grinned and winked before continuing, ‘That little redhead I’ve been running around after for the last six months is all over me like a rash now. Course, if me mam knew that she’d be making even more of a fuss.’

It was all very well for his father to talk about the importance of him getting into the Salvage Corps and saying that even if there was a war it wouldn’t last for ever, and he didn’t want to be in the same position as them what had come back from the last time with no job to go to.

‘You’ll be doing your bit, don’t you worry about that, son,’ he had told Luke. But to Luke the thought of working on dull salvage operations when all his friends were going to be heroes in smart uniforms, was one that only made him feel more desperate to join them.

He was beginning to suspect that even his boss thought he was a coward. There, he’d said it, the word that no one was saying but that he
knew everyone was thinking. He could see it in their eyes when they refused to look at him properly and the way conversation stopped whenever he walked in on the lads he had grown up with.

‘You want me to what?’

Bella looked at her brother. They were sitting in his car outside their parents’ house, Charlie having brought Bella back from the Tennis Club.

‘You heard me, Charlie.’

He shook his head. ‘If you want to try and force Alan’s hand then you go ahead, but don’t involve me in it.’

Bella looked at her brother with irritation. Did he really think that she’d have bothered involving him if she didn’t have to?

She had been furious when Alan had refused to come in with her after bringing her home, and even more furious when he had told her casually that he couldn’t stay because his parents were entertaining Trixie’s mother and father and that he was expected to be there.

She had every right to expect him to marry her, and somehow she’d find a way of making sure that he did.

It hadn’t taken her long to come up with a plan, but in order for it to work she needed Charlie’s help and now he was being difficult. Well, she had the answer to that.

‘Of course I’ve got to involve you in it; otherwise it isn’t going to work, is it? How can you
make a big fuss about Alan having to do the decent thing by me ’cos you’ve caught him out doing what he shouldn’t with me, if you aren’t involved?’

‘I still say it won’t work.’

A familiar stubborn look had tensed Charlie’s face and an equally familiar truculent note had entered his voice, but Bella was determined to get her own way.

‘Yes it will,’ she overruled him. ‘Look, all you have to do is come outside and find us, like I’ve just told you. And don’t forget, make sure you bring someone with you, like Mr Baxter.’

Charlie forgot about being stubborn, and twisted uncomfortably in his seat instead. ‘He’s the President of the Tennis Club,’ he protested.

‘I know that. And he’s a neighbour of Alan’s parents, as well,’ said Bella smugly, before returning to her plan. ‘I’ll be there crying, telling Alan to stop, and you can make a big fuss,’ she informed her brother. ‘Then I’ll say that Alan and I are engaged, and that he forgot himself a bit in the excitement of me saying yes.’

‘I’m not doing it.’ Charlie was determined and adamant but he was no match for Bella.

‘Yes, you are, Charlie,’ she told him sweetly, ‘because if you don’t then I’ll tell Dad about that little bit of business you’ve been doing without him knowing anything about it, and you pocketing the money.’

‘How do you know about that?’ Charlie cursed as he saw the look of triumph on her face.

Bella had always been a sly cat, and never more so than when she wanted something. He pitied Alan Parker if he did end up married to her. Bella had got him well and truly trapped now and no mistake. He’d have to go along with her stupid plan because if he didn’t he knew she would make good her threat.

Sisters! He’d just as soon not have had one.

‘Phew, I was beginning to think we were never going to get finished,’ Grace sighed in relief as she and Susan hurried down the staff staircase of Lewis’s and out into the early evening sunshine.

A last-minute message from Bella had meant that instead of getting changed at her Auntie Vi’s, Grace had had to change into her cotton frock in the cloakroom at Lewis’s, whilst Susan eyed her critically and gave her advice on her hair and makeup.

‘Are you sure I’m not wearing too much lipstick,’ she asked her uncertainly, ‘only—’

‘Of course you aren’t. You wait until some chap starts trying to kiss you, you’ll be glad you’ve put a bit extra on then,’ Susan assured her without explaining the logic of her statement.

‘Real mean of that cousin of yours, it was, to say you had to go ready-dressed, especially when she’d said first off you was to change at her place. I wouldn’t stand for it meself.’

‘I am beginning to wish that I hadn’t said I’d
go,’ Grace admitted. All she could really think of at the moment was the excitement of knowing that she was going to train to be a proper nurse.

‘Well, you are going,’ Susan told her, ‘and what’s more you’re going to put that cousin of yours well and truly in her place when she sees you in this.’

Grace’s eyes rounded in disbelief when Susan rummaged in the large bag she was carrying and produced a paper bag, which she opened to show Grace the green silk dress that was inside it.

‘Here, go on, take it,’ she commanded, pushing the bag towards Grace.

‘Oh, no, I couldn’t, Susan.’

‘Of course you can, and you’d ruddy well better an’ all after all the trouble I’ve bin to to get it for you. You’ll look a real treat in it and no mistake. I just wish I could be there to see the face on that snotty cousin of yours when she sees you in it.’

Susan had really taken a dislike to Bella, Grace acknowledged.

‘You can get changed into it in the ladies in Lyons. I’ll come with you and give you a hand.’

‘No, Susan, I can’t, honestly.’

‘Come on,’ Susan ignored her protests as she took hold of Grace’s hand and virtually dragged her along the road and into Lyons.

Half an hour later Grace was staring at her reflection in the mirror, feeling horribly guilty and ungrateful, whilst Susan puffed out her cheeks and demanded, ‘Now aren’t you pleased I got it for you?’

Susan was so pleased with herself, and Grace
knew that she had wanted to be kind. It seemed mean not to thank her.

‘It is a lovely dress,’ she agreed. ‘But taking it from the Gown Salon—’

‘Oh, give over, do. Like I told you, everyone does it, even Mrs James, I reckon.’

‘She never!’ Grace protested, diverted.

‘Come on, you’d better get a move on, otherwise you’re going to be late.’

With her own dress packed away along with her work clothes, Grace hugged Susan and then picked up her now quite heavy bag.

It was good job that her stole and her evening bag were both white and didn’t clash with the silk gown, she decided, feeling very self-conscious as she waved goodbye to Susan and set off for the ferry terminal.

‘Just you remember what we agreed,’ Bella told Charlie as she came downstairs, giving him a warning look before opening the lounge door and stepping inside.

‘What do you think, Mummy?’ she asked, doing a small pirouette in the new ice-blue gown she had persuaded her mother to buy her for the dance, whilst Charlie grimaced.

‘You look beautiful, darling. What time is Alan picking you up? I thought that Daddy and I would ask him in for a drink before you go. We really ought to have his parents round for a bit of supper soon.’

‘He should be here soon, but he’ll have that
wretched cousin of his with him, don’t forget.’ Bella pulled a face. ‘Seb and Grace will have to go to the Club with Charlie. There won’t be room in Alan’s car.’

‘There won’t be room in mine either,’ Charlie protested, but neither his mother nor his sister was listening to him.

‘There’s the doorbell now,’ Vi announced.

‘There’s no car outside, though. I expect it will only be Grace,’ Bella said carelessly. ‘You’d better go and let her in, Charlie.’

If Grace hadn’t already been feeling self-conscious and guilty because of the attention her frock had attracted during her journey to her aunt’s, the look on Charlie’s face when he opened the door to her would have certainly made her feel both those things.

‘I say …’ he told her, giving a long appreciative whistle. ‘Bags I the first dance with you, cos.’

‘Charlie, hurry up and close the door. I don’t want you standing there when Alan arrives. It looks awfully common.’

‘Hark at her ladyship,’ Charlie grinned, cocking his head in the direction of the lounge door. ‘Gawd knows what she’s going to be like once she gets Alan’s ring on her finger.’

‘Come on, we’d better do as she says.’

Grace always felt a bit uncomfortable around her aunt and uncle, and now she really was wishing she hadn’t agreed to come, what with the dress and everything. She’d been tempted to change out of it at the landing stage, but there’d been a queue
for the ladies and another one at the other end, so she’d pushed her guilt to one side and got on the bus instead.

Now, though, as she stepped into the lounge and its two occupants went completely silent as they stared at her, Grace wished that she had managed to get changed.

‘Where did you get that dress from?’ Bella demanded without bothering to welcome her.

‘A friend lent it to me,’ Grace told her. She knew that her face had gone red. Bella was giving her a narrow-eyed look whilst her mother was looking very cross indeed.

‘Well, I must say I’m surprised that anyone would want to lend out such an expensive-looking gown,’ said Vi.

‘Yes, so am I,’ Bella agreed.

‘I’m not sure that wearing it was a wise decision, though, Grace dear,’ her aunt announced patronisingly. ‘You don’t look very comfortable in it. That’s always the trouble when a girl tries too hard and steps out of her own class. It always shows.’

‘Alan’s here, Mummy. Just remember,’ Bella hissed at Grace as her mother went into the hall, ‘it’s Seb you’ll be partnering, so that me and Alan can have a bit of time to ourselves, so don’t start hanging around me all night. Charlie’s going to drive you and Seb there, aren’t you, Charlie?’

Without waiting for her brother to reply, Bella turned to check her reflection in the mirror above the new tiled fireplace, whilst her mother went to answer the door.

Grace couldn’t help noticing the speed with which Bella’s cross expression and demanding voice changed the moment her mother called out, ‘Bella darling, Alan’s here.’ Almost miraculously a smile replaced her earlier frown, her voice as soft and sweet as fresh cream as she jerked her head warningly to Grace, mouthing, ‘Come on’ before hurrying into the hallway.

To Grace’s surprise Alan Parker, instead of being the swooningly handsome matinée idol type she had imagined, was a rather ordinary-looking young man of around medium height and build, with a pugnacious expression, slightly protruding pale blue eyes, and brown hair.

‘Seb, do come inside properly and be introduced to my cousin,’ Bella instructed the young man who was half hidden by the open front door. ‘I should warn you that Grace isn’t actually a member of the Tennis Club. She works in Lewis’s,’ Bella added disparagingly. ‘I’ve told her that she’s not to disgrace you, though.’

Grace could feel her face starting to burn with misery and humiliation, which was made even worse when her partner for the evening stepped into the hallway. Alan Parker’s cousin was everything that Bella’s boyfriend was not. He was tall, broad-shouldered and very good-looking, the uniform he was wearing making him look distinguished and smart, despite the fact that his leg was in plaster and he was having to use crutches. His hair was thick and dark and nicely barbered.

‘I can see that your cousin is teasing us both,’
he told Grace, offering her both his hand and the kindest smile she had ever seen. It was so warm and understanding that she could feel her earlier misery melting away. ‘And I’m going to be escorting the prettiest girl at the dance.’

Bella flashed them an angry look. ‘You wouldn’t say that if you could see her in her Lewis’s uniform,’ she tittered angrily. ‘I really don’t know how you can work there, Grace, especially with that horrid common girl who works in the Gown Salon with you.’

‘Come on, Bella, otherwise we’re going to be late,’ Alan interrupted her irritably, thrusting a box containing a corsage of flowers towards her.

‘Oh, how lovely. Look, Mummy, my favourite flower. Alan darling, you are so thoughtful.’

‘Bet she ordered it herself and told him what she wanted,’ Charlie muttered irrepressibly in Grace’s ear as they all watched whilst Bella begged Alan with prettily sweet insistence to pin the corsage on for her.

‘Thank you, darling,’ she told him once he had finished, raising herself up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek and then pouting when he rubbed his skin, protesting that she was covering him in lipstick.

‘Seb, Charlie is taking you and Grace in his car. Grace can sit in the back so you’ll have plenty of room for your crutches. Alan, come on, darling. I dare say that everyone will be waiting for us to arrive.’ She gave a tinkling little laugh. ‘It’s so embarrassing, but everyone seems to take their
lead from me and Alan. I suppose it’s flattering really.’

‘And entirely natural,’ Grace heard her auntie Vi saying firmly.

‘I’m really sorry that you’ve been forced to travel with us, instead of with your cousin,’ Grace apologised to Seb.

‘I’m not,’ he told her cheerfully. ‘In actual fact, Alan isn’t my cousin. Our relationship is rather more tenuous than that. It’s very good of his parents to put me up, though, whilst I wait for the medics to pronounce me fit for service. With any luck I should be off their hands by this time next week and back with my unit.’

They had reached Charlie’s car, and Seb opened the door and told her cheerfully, ‘There’s no need for you to risk creasing your outfit clambering into the back. I’ll sit there.’

‘Oh, no, you mustn’t,’ Grace protested, but it was too late. Seb was already settling himself in the back of the car.

‘This is going to be such a wonderful evening,’ Bella told Alan, hanging on to his arm possessively as they walked from his car to the Tennis Club entrance. Through the open double doors it was possible to see into the square hallway, which was decorated with bunting in the Tennis Club colours and cleverly cut-out paper streamers of tennis racquets and balls. On a table underneath the central light stood an impressive floral arrangement provided by those mothers who were on the
roster for the church flowers, the flowers in shades of red, white and blue, but Bella wasn’t particularly interested in the effort the Social Committee had made to strike a cheery yet patriotic note in the décor for the dance. After all, she had far more important things on her mind than a few paper streamers and some flowers.

She breathed a deep sigh, keeping a firm hold on Alan as they went inside, whispering softly to him, ‘When we’re married and our children are growing up I shall tell them about tonight and how special it was.’

‘Now look here, Bella—’ Alan began grimly.

But Bella pretended not to be aware of what he was saying, exclaiming instead, ‘Goodness, look over there at Trixie, queuing to get in. What an awful fright she looks, doesn’t she? Poor girl. I really must give her a few tips about how to make the best of herself. Not that she’s got much to make the best of, mind you. Did you tell your parents that mine want them to come over to supper tomorrow? Daddy is getting awfully father-like about young men who take liberties, and the fact that you haven’t spoken to him yet,’ she told Alan archly, ‘but there’s no need for you to worry. He’s a pussycat really. Wasn’t I clever inviting my cousin along for Seb, so that we could be on our own?’

‘What exactly happened to your leg, or is it something you’d rather not talk about?’ Grace asked Seb with genuine interest, as they walked towards the Tennis Club together.

Although he had made light of it she was pretty sure that Seb had been uncomfortable in the back of the car, which was why she was deliberately walking slowly, letting others overtake them to join what was now a small queue waiting to get into the Club. Charlie, too impatient to wait for them, had gone ahead, and had already disappeared inside the building, following Bella and Alan, who had gone inside before the queue had formed.

‘On the contrary, I’d adore talking about it, especially to pretty girls,’ Seb grinned. ‘Or at least I would if the truth wasn’t so very dull. I broke it on a training exercise,’ he told Grace, bending down to whisper in her ear, ‘but normally I tell people that I was engaged on a highly secret mission that I’m sworn not to talk about.’

Grace giggled. She was enjoying herself more with every minute she spent in Seb’s company. She felt as comfortable with him as though she had known him all her life but at the same time something about the way he looked at her and the sound of his voice gave her a deliciously fizzy sensation inside her stomach that made her feel giddy and heady with excitement and happiness.

‘What kind of break was it? I’m going to be training as a nurse soon, you see,’ she explained when he gave her a quizzical look, ‘so …’

‘So naturally you find my leg utterly fascinating,’ he agreed so straight-faced that it took Grace a handful of seconds to realise he was teasing her again and she burst out laughing.

‘You’re a dreadful tease,’ she chided him, mock severely, ‘and from now on I shan’t take a single word that you say seriously.’

‘Not even if I were to tell you that you are the most enchanting girl I have ever met?’

Grace stared at him, the colour coming and going in her face, her eyes wide with shyness and confusion. She wasn’t used to men like Seb and she certainly wasn’t used to them flirting with her.

Her parents were very careful and watchful, and normally the only boys with whom she had any social contact were those she had known since childhood. Seb wasn’t just a boy, though, was he, she acknowledged. He was all grown up and a man. Her heart gave a flurry of fast beats.