Love Changes Everything (10 page)

‘If he works in a bank, then he probably comes from a posh home over Wallasey way, or somewhere like that; not from around Scotland Road.'

‘Mum, he's a friend of Ivy's brother, they went to school together. He probably lives in the next road to them, or perhaps even in Virgil Street,' she added with a grin.

‘That will do. Forget about him and whatever you do don't mention his name to your dad or he'll be down at Martin's Bank and demanding to know what he's up to. In fact,' she added thoughtfully, ‘it might be a good idea if you don't tell your dad which bank you've put the money in.'

Although she'd agreed with everything her mum said, Trixie couldn't stop herself thinking about Andrew Bacon. He was so different from any of the boys she'd known at school. He looked so clean and handsome and he was so polite and well spoken.

When she'd mentioned this to her mum, Maggie had laughed. ‘You'd probably find he was quite different when he wasn't all dolled up for work,' she'd warned.

‘I don't know about that. He looked very smart when we went to the dance. So did Jake, Ivy's brother,' she added with a smile, ‘and usually he's in greasy overalls when he comes in from work.'

‘Forget about him as well,' her mother warned. ‘As I've just told you, if your dad finds out that you are larking about with boys then he'll tan the hide off you.'

Nevertheless, Trixie found herself constantly thinking of Andrew Bacon. Every time her dad asked probing questions about the money, Andrew's handsome face came into her mind and with it a lovely warm feeling knowing that the money was completely safe because he was looking after it for her.

Fred Linacre had raised his eyebrows in a supercilious manner when he'd questioned her about the safe keeping of the money and she'd told him that she was banking it each week. The other women on the assembly line had also seemed rather surprised at such audaciousness.

‘Not just a pretty face, then; got yer 'ead screwed on as well, have yer!' one of them remarked.

‘I suppose you keep all yer money in a bank then, do you?' another jibed.

‘Fancy you're better than us now just because you've got a bank account, do you?'

‘No,' Trixie told them quietly, ‘but since the Christmas money isn't my money, I was determined to make sure that it was in a safe place so that none of you would have to worry about it.'

After that they began to treat her with grudging respect and a lot more consideration. They often took her side when Fred started ridiculing something she'd done wrong.

‘Give the girl a chance, Fred, she can't be a genius at everything and she certainly knows her onions when it comes to minding our Christmas money.'

‘Making a better job of it than you'd have done,' another woman told him. ‘At least we know where it is.'

Trixie and Ivy laughed about it all as they sauntered down Cazneau Street on their way home, chatting about what had gone on that day before they parted.

Their friendship was as strong as ever despite her father's vehement dislike of the Irish. Now that the weather was often wet and cold at the weekends Trixie usually took Cilla round to the O'Malleys' where Ella was always pleased to see them and to have the chance of playing with Cilla.

Trixie would have liked to have invited Ella and Ivy to her home but when she had suggested it Maggie had demurred. ‘I don't think your dad would stand for it. You know he warned you never to bring Ivy over the doorstep again. If he walked in and found the O'Malleys sitting here drinking tea and chatting he'd be bound to turn nasty and perhaps order them out. You know what he's like, especially when he's had a skinful.'

‘Well, perhaps you could come round to their place one day. Mrs O'Malley has said she'd like to meet you and I'm sure you'd like her. Cilla loves her and she's ever so good with her. She even lets her play with all the toys that used to belong to her own little girl who died when she was about Cilla's age.'

Maggie smiled and nodded, but refused to commit herself to any arrangement. Trixie wasn't sure whether it was because she didn't want to meet Ella or whether she was waiting for a proper invitation.

As Christmas 1922 approached the talk on the assembly line was all about how the women were going to spend their savings. Over and over again they asked Trixie if they could take a look at ‘the book' just to make sure they'd saved up as much as they hoped they had.

‘Discuss it in your break time and stop talking about it when you should be working or I'll confiscate the whole damn lot,' Fred warned them.

‘You'd have a job seeing as how you can't get your bleeding mitts on it,' one woman told him.

‘You'd probably have boozed it all away by now if you'd been the one looking after it,' another laughed.

‘Or else you'd have put it on a three-legged horse,' another woman chortled.

It was finally agreed that as Christmas Day would be on a Monday then they ought to have their pay out on the Friday or Saturday before in order to have an opportunity to do their shopping in time for Christmas.

‘If you go to the bank on the Friday then you can give it to us on Saturday morning,' Dora Porter told her.

‘I can't do that,' Trixie said quickly. ‘The bank closes before we finish work at night. In fact, I can't get to the bank till after we finish here on Saturday morning so you'll all have to hang around till I collect it and come back with it.'

There was an immediate chorus of disapproval.

‘That's no bloody good!'

‘We need our money to do our shopping as soon as we finish work!'

‘I can't hang around here waiting while you traipse off to the bank on Saturday.'

‘By the time you get back and share it out half the day will be gone.'

The women were getting more and more heated and annoyed, so Dora suggested that, if they were all in agreement, she'd ask Fred if Trixie could be allowed time off to go along to the bank and collect the money sometime during the morning on Saturday.

‘That sounds all right, but how do we know they'll have that much there in the bank to pay her out?'

‘Don't talk so daft,' Dora told her contemptuously. ‘The amount of money you lot have saved up is chicken feed to what they keep in the bank.'

‘Dora's right,' Trixie confirmed. ‘Anyway, I'll let them know that I'll be going in Saturday morning to collect it so the teller will have it all ready for me.'

‘Then make sure you tell him you want it all to be in shillings and sixpences and not in bloody great notes, so that you can share it out properly.' one of the women shouted.

‘Leave it with me, It will all be fine,' Trixie promised.

When she next took their money in to the bank she explained all of this to Andrew and asked if he could have it ready for her when she came in the Saturday before Christmas because she would only be given a few minutes' time off to collect it.

‘Would you like me to put it all up in separate envelopes and write the women's names on each one so that all you have to do is hand it out?' he asked.

‘That would be wonderful,' Trixie smiled gratefully, ‘but won't that be an awful lot of trouble for you?'

‘Well, let's say I wouldn't do it for everybody,' he joked, ‘but for a special customer like you it will be a pleasure.'

‘I'd be really grateful if you could do that,' she admitted, blushing furiously. Secretly she'd been worrying about collecting it and making sure that each woman received the right amount. If she was flustered, as she knew she would be, then it would be easy to make a mistake.

‘You have kept a list showing how much money each person has been giving you every week?'

‘Yes, of course I have.'

‘Then, if you let me have it,' Andrew went on, ‘I'll put the exact money in each envelope. All you'll have to do is to come into the bank, collect the envelopes, and then hand them out.'

‘I haven't got the list on me but I could let you have it later in the week.'

‘Right, well, if you give it to Ivy and tell her to ask Jake to give it to me, that will be fine,' he told her smiling.

‘Yes, that sounds a very sensible idea,' she said quickly, hoping he didn't think she was suggesting that they should meet up one evening.

Andrew nodded gravely. ‘If you can do that I'll see you in here next Saturday morning. That will be the twenty-third of December,' he added, jotting it all down on a notepad. ‘Can you come over about eleven o'clock?'

She nodded. ‘Of course!'

As she walked out into the street Trixie felt as if a load had been lifted from her shoulders. If she was collecting the money straight from the bank and taking it back to work, then her dad couldn't get his hands on it. What was more, she wouldn't have to sort it all out herself. She had been dreading doing that, knowing that if she made a mistake Fred would start taunting her.

Soon, very soon, she thought with relief, the onus of looking after other people's money would be over. She would make sure she never took on anything like that again.

The only part of the arrangements she didn't like was that she'd have no excuse to go into the bank again after Saturday, which meant she might never have the chance to really get to know Andrew Bacon and, she had to admit, she really did like him.

Chapter Nine

Trixie felt a warm glow of happiness as she dashed home with her pay packet and her envelope containing her Christmas savings. Andrew had kept his word and had the savings divided up into the right amounts and all in twenty neat little brown envelopes with the name on the outside.

The women had all been delighted and even Fred Linacre had been impressed by the businesslike way she'd handled things.

‘Perhaps your old man was right after all and you really were the brightest girl in your class,' he commented.

He had said it so many times that Trixie usually turned a deaf ear to it but this time there was genuine admiration in his voice, not the usual taunting sneer.

She'd rushed home to tell her mum how well everything had gone and also to share with her the money she'd saved.

As she ripped open the brown envelope and shook the money out on to the table she felt a massive hand clamp round the back of her neck, forcing her head down so that she banged her nose on the table with such force that it brought tears to her eyes.

‘What have I told you about opening your bloody pay packet! You hand it over to me and I'll dole out what's inside it.'

‘Hold on, Sam, she hasn't touched her wages, this is the Christmas money.'

‘That's mine, too!' Sam Jackson released his hold on his daughter's neck and his hand shot out and grabbed at the seven shillings on the table.

‘No, it's not!' Furiously, her eyes full of tears, Trixie tried to snatch it back. The answering blow sent her sprawling on to the floor.

‘It's mine by rights,' her father snarled. ‘If it hadn't been docked out of your pay packet each week then I'd have received it each week. As it is it's now in a lump sum,' he added as he shovelled it into his trouser pocket.

‘It's mine and I want it so that I can buy a present for Cilla and then share the rest with Mum so that we can have some extras for Christmas,' Trixie defended as she pulled herself up from the floor and held on to the edge of the table to support herself.

‘One more word from you and you won't even be here to see Christmas.'

‘Chuck me out into the street would you?' she snuffled defiantly, ignoring her mother's warning gestures. ‘That'll give the neighbours something to gossip about.'

Sam's eyes narrowed. ‘No, but I've something else planned for you my girl, just wait till after Christmas,' he added ominously.

Although she tried not to let her father's veiled threats spoil things over Christmas, it did put a dampener on things. She questioned her mother about it so often that in the end even Maggie became worried and told her rather sharply not to mention it again.

‘Enjoy what we've got and stop fretting about the future,' she admonished. ‘Your dad probably only said that to scare you because he was so angry with you.'

To please her mother Trixie did try to forget his threat but it wasn't easy. He kept giving her strange glances. She was glad when she could escape from Virgil Street to go shopping with Ivy.

It was something they'd both been looking forward to doing that Saturday afternoon; Maggie had promised to look after Cilla and they planned to buy presents for their families and make sure they didn't spend their money on anything else.

Scotland Road was packed with people all looking for bargains and they had so little money to spend, that it was very frustrating as well as exciting.

‘What are you looking for, Ivy?' Trixie asked as they paused in front of the different windows, most of which were brightly decorated as well as packed with all sorts of tempting items.

‘Presents for my mum and Jake. They will probably both be something they can wear. Not too practical, though, but the sort of thing they'd like to buy for themselves if they could spare the money. Mum hardly ever spends anything on herself yet she loves pretty things. I'm hoping to get her a really nice warm scarf; one that's as big as a shawl, almost, so that she can pop it on around her shoulders when she nips to the corner shop. The one she uses now is so old that even the darns in it have been darned again.'

‘And your brother?'

‘I'll probably buy him a new tie. He likes to look smart when he gets dressed up to go out in the evening. His friend Andrew – you know, the chap you met in the bank – is always dressed up to the nines and I know Jake tries to keep up with him.'