Love Changes Everything (12 page)

‘It's Andrew Bacon you're really interested in,' Ivy finished with a big grin.

The two girls looked at each other and shook their heads in bewilderment.

‘So are you going to come out with us?' Ivy persisted.

‘I'd love to, especially if Andrew is going to be there, but what about you? Are you sure you're not kidding me and that you really aren't interested in him?'

‘I like him in much the same way as you like Jake. That's as a friend, but nothing more. Don't worry about it,' she went on quickly as she saw the doubt in Trixie's eyes, ‘we'll be meeting up with Sid and Katy and heaps more chaps and girls before the evening's out. If you must know, I have my eye on another friend of Jake's,' she added with a winsome little smile, ‘but I'm not even sure if he knows that I exist.'

Twice Fred Linacre spotted them talking and told them off. ‘You can't do your job properly if you're gossiping,' he told them sharply.

‘You want to remember that there're almost two million people unemployed in this country and you'll both be joining them if I catch you wasting any more time, Trixie Jackson,' he thundered the second time he caught them doing it.

‘Miserable old sod, I thought he'd stopped picking on you, Trixie,' one of the older women commented when they stopped for their lunch break.

‘It seems he hasn't,' Trixie sighed. ‘I wasn't the only one talking.'

‘Well, don't let it get you down, kiddo,' one of the others said, patting her on the shoulder.

‘The trouble with Fred Linacre is he's got no one at home to nag so that's why he does it all the time when he's here,' another of them laughed.

‘Who'd want to be married to him anyway, sour old devil; he'd be a pig to live with.'

There was raucous laughter as they all laughed and joked about it but Trixie and Ivy kept quiet. They didn't want to say anything that might be repeated back to Fred Linacre and cause even more trouble for either of them.

On their way home, Trixie confided in Ivy about her special resolution for 1923. ‘I want to try and teach Cilla to read and write and perhaps even be able to do sums as well,' she told her. ‘What do you think?'

‘She should be able to; she loves looking at pictures and she can always name all the different animals and flowers and lots of other things such as all the little rhymes and songs my mum and Jake have taught her. How did she like her Bonzo dog?'

‘She recognised him right away from the comics your mum has shown her. She's taken him to bed every night and she talks to him a lot during the day.'

‘I expect my mum would help to teach her other things; that's if your mum is agreeable to her doing that,' Ivy suggested. ‘She wouldn't want to poke her nose in where it wasn't wanted, of course,' she added hastily.

‘There's no fear of that because Mum is always going on about how much your mum and Jake have helped Cilla. Anyway, I think it's time our mums met. I'm sure they'd get on well.'

‘They might even know each other already by sight,' Ivy commented.

‘You mean because they must use the same shops in Great Homer Street from time to time?'

‘That's right, so why don't you ask her if she'd like to come round next Saturday afternoon; you can bring her when you come round with Cilla,' Ivy suggested. ‘If it's a nice day we could take Cilla out and give the two of them a chance to talk and get to know each other.'

‘That sounds like a lovely idea,' Trixie agreed. ‘It will be safer than asking your mum to come to our place, because if my dad came home he might turn nasty.'

‘You mean if he knew who it was and that she was Irish,' Ivy laughed. ‘Remember the time he found me there and said I was never to put a foot over his threshold ever again?'

‘I'll see if I can persuade Mum to come round to your place on Saturday, then,' Trixie agreed. ‘The trouble is she never goes anywhere except to the shops. She used to take Cilla to the park but now she says she feels embarrassed if people stop and speak to her and ask why a big girl like Cilla isn't walking.'

‘That's daft! Lots of big kids ride in prams.'

‘Not seven-year-olds! You wouldn't expect your sister to be in a pram if she was still alive now, would you?'

Trixie felt guilty the moment she'd spoken. ‘I'm sorry,' she muttered as she saw Ivy's mouth tighten and her eyes fill with tears. ‘That was a thoughtless thing to say.'

‘It's all right. I understand what you mean and how your mum must feel.' Quickly she turned the conversation back to their own plans for the New Year; in particular, what they were going to do to welcome in 1923.

New Year's Eve was a night that Trixie knew she would never forget. She and Ivy had talked about it every moment they could, discussing every detail from the time they'd be meeting, to planning what each of them would be wearing.

At the very last minute they went along to Paddy's Market and searched through the rails of the second-hand clothes stalls to see if they could find a bargain.

‘I suppose we could wear the same dresses we wore to that birthday dance,' Ivy mused when they found they couldn't afford any of the dresses hanging on the rails and resorted to looking through the jumble boxes.

‘I'd like to have a dress of my own, not borrow your Hazel's,' Trixie protested. ‘Let's go on looking for a bit longer; you never know what we might find.'

Eventually, when they had almost given up hope, they had a stroke of luck. One of the stallholders who was packing up for the night agreed to let them each have a dress from her stock at a knock-down price when they told her they wanted something to wear on New Year's Eve.

‘It's only because I'm big-hearted and I was young once myself,' she cackled.

‘They're both going to need a bit of alteration, but my mum will help,' Ivy said after they'd counted out their pennies and handed them over to the stallholder, thanking her and wishing her a Happy New Year.

As soon as they got home Ivy had told Jake that they'd definitely be going with him and Andrew to the Dorrington Dance Hall.

‘That's good! Ivy and me will call for you around eight o'clock,' he told Trixie.

‘No, you mustn't do that!' Trixie exclaimed in alarm. ‘My dad might still be at home and he wouldn't let me go dancing,' she said uneasily. She looked across to Ivy for support.

‘You come round to our place just before eight, then,' Ivy said.

‘Where are we meeting Andrew?' Trixie asked before Jake could try and change the arrangement.

‘At the Dorrington. That's why I said we'd call for you. It makes sense because we can go along Virgil Street to get there.'

‘I'll leave home before eight and meet you on the corner of Virgil Street and Great Homer Street,' Trixie compromised.

‘What about if your dad's off to the pub about then and spots us all?' Ivy asked.

‘Well, if that happens, then I'll have to pretend I'm not with you, won't I?'

The subterfuge seemed to make it all the more exciting and Trixie spent Sunday in a dream. The only thing that worried her was that having only ever been to one dance before she still wasn't much of a dancer.

‘Could you or Jake give me some help to improve what few steps I do know?' she begged.

‘I wouldn't worry too much; the place will be so crowded that probably the most you'll be able to do is shuffle around the floor,' Ivy laughed.

The thought of doing that in Andrew's arms was bliss to Trixie and she counted the hours and even the minutes till it could come true.

‘You're taking an awful risk planning to go to this dance,' you know, Maggie said when Trixie told her what they were planning to do. ‘If your dad should find out, he's going to be terribly annoyed.'

‘Why should he be, Mum? Surely he can't expect me to sit at home for ever and not have any friends or go out and have some fun, now can he?'

‘You know how he feels about Ivy and if he ever finds out that you've not only gone out with her but that the pair of you have gone out with boys—'

‘Mum! Jake is Ivy's brother so we're not likely to get into any trouble with him.'

‘What about this other boy you're talking about; this Andrew Bacon?'

‘He's a friend of Jake's and I've told you all about him. I'm sure that even Dad would think that he was highly respectable.'

‘Yes, I know, luv.' Maggie reached out and stroked Trixie's hair. ‘I know you're growing up fast, but you're younger than Ivy so I can't help worrying about you even though I want you to have a good time.'

‘You might, but I don't think Dad does.' Trixie smiled ruefully.

‘He will if he finds you're still out gallivanting when he comes home from the pub. Do you know what time you will you be coming home?'

‘Probably well before one o'clock. Ivy says we'll see the New Year in and then once all the hooters and sirens from the docks have stopped sounding we'll head for home. Please, Mum, agree I can go because I really want to,' Trixie begged.

New Year's Eve proved to be an even more momentous occasion than the party. Jake and Andrew were both wearing smart suits and Trixie and Ivy were wearing the dresses that they'd bought in Paddy's Market.

Ivy's dress was in a red shiny material trimmed with black lace around the bodice and at the bottom of the full skirt; Trixie's was in a shimmering blue fabric that clung to her willowy figure like a second skin.

‘It's a pity we'll have to wear our ordinary coats over them because it spoils the effect,' Ivy sighed as they tried them on in Ivy's bedroom a couple of days before the big night.

‘We could always cadge a black shawl from our mums,' Trixie giggled, ‘except that would make us look right tatty and we might get mistaken for a couple of Mary Ellens from the back.'

‘When I've tarted them up we'll look more like Lady Muck,' Ivy laughed. ‘Ask your mum if we can borrow her shawl and bring it round to my place and I'll see what I can do to jazz it up. I've got quite a lot of ideas!'

Ivy was as good as her word; she transformed the two shawls. She threaded bands of bright red wool through her own mother's black shawl so that it matched her dress and she used some strips of white cloth that had once been a petticoat, to brighten up the shawl Trixie was going to wear.

‘Now, instead of wearing our coats, we sling these round our shoulders and then we'll look like a couple of film stars,' Ivy explained.

The evening was even better than Trixie had dreamed it would be. The dance floor at the Dorrington seemed immense. There were huge mirrors on the walls, glittering overhead lights and the band was on a raised dais at one end of the room. The highly polished dance floor was so crowded that, as Ivy had said, all they could do was shuffle in time to the music. The fact that she didn't know the steps didn't matter at all – whether she was trying to dance with Andrew or Jake.

The moment midnight sounded Jake kissed her and wished her a Happy New Year and then Andrew did the same. Unlike Jake, when he took her in his arms, he didn't give her a resounding, friendly kiss on the cheek but a deep, tender kiss on the lips which left her so breathless and happy she felt as if she was in heaven.

‘My New Year resolution is to see a great deal more of you,' he whispered as he released her and they exchanged greetings with Jake and Ivy and the rest of their crowd of friends.

The ships' hooters and sirens as well as horns and other noises were still sounding as they left the Dorrington and took to the brightly lit streets. There were fireworks going off on both sides of the Mersey, sending a rainbow of colour up into the night sky. To Trixie it seemed like fairyland, especially as Andrew had tucked her arm into the crook of his and was holding her hand.

When they finally decided it was time to go home Trixie paused when they reached the corner of Virgil Street.

‘I really will be all right, it's not very far from here,' she protested when Andrew insisted that he didn't want to leave her there, but intended seeing her right to her door.

Feeling rather embarrassed, she explained that her dad didn't know she was out so she was hoping to slip in without him finding out. ‘If he isn't in bed and he sees us together then he'll raise the roof,' she said ruefully.

‘I am going to see you again though, aren't I?' Andrew insisted. ‘You will come out with me, won't you, perhaps next week? We could go to the pictures or even go dancing again if you'd prefer that.'

‘I'd love to,' Trixie sighed, ‘but I can't promise because I'm not sure.'

‘You don't have to tell him that you're going out with me,' Andrew said a trifle impatiently. ‘Say you're going to the pictures with one of your friends.'

She shook her head, biting her lip uneasily. ‘I don't think he'd believe me because he doesn't give me enough pocket money for me to be able to go out to the pictures with anyone,' she explained, the blood rushing to her cheeks in embarrassment.

He looked at her in astonishment. ‘But you're working, so you're entitled to go out now and again.'

‘I'll see what I can do and let you know,' she told him nervously. ‘If I can come out with you, I'll arrange through Ivy and Jake for us to meet up. I do want to see you again, Andrew, because I really have enjoyed myself this evening,' she added, anxious that he wouldn't think she was putting him off.

‘So have I,' he breathed softly, pulling her into his arms for a final kiss.