‘I promise,’ Grace told him fervently.
‘Good. Now eat your lunch before it goes cold.’
Obediently Grace did as he had told her although she wasn’t really hungry. However, whereas before she had been too miserable and upset to eat, now she was too excited and overjoyed.
She gazed at Seb with something close to hero worship. How lucky she was to have met such a wonderful person. She would never forget him. Never. And she would do as he had told her and work as hard as she could at her training.
They parted on the pavement outside the café, turning in opposite directions. Grace was halfway across the road when she changed her mind and turned back, running down the street after Seb. He stopped and turned round when he heard her.
She was running so fast she almost collided with him. He put out his arm to steady her. Grace looked up at him. She was slightly out of breath and her heart was pounding, and not just because she had been running, she knew.
She put her hands on his upper arms and raised herself up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. He was the first man she had kissed, apart from her father and her brother, and she was careful not to look at his mouth.
‘Thank you,’ she told him emotionally. ‘I shall never forget what you’ve done for me. Never.’
Seb looked down into her face. She was so very lovely. He thrust the dress box towards her and told her gruffly, ‘You’d better take this. It isn’t any use to me.’
And then as she took it from him, to Grace’s surprise, he bent his head and kissed her fiercely on the mouth.
The whole world seemed to go still and silent. Grace trembled, and lifted her free hand towards his face, but Seb had already released her and was
stepping back from her, and walking away from her.
Grace watched him until he had disappeared into the crowd. Her eyes were smarting and yet she felt happy – elated, in fact – as though she wanted to sing and dance and tell the whole world what a wonderful special person he was. Grace heard the bang of the daily One o’clock Gun from the docks as she hurried back to work, and as she registered its familiar sound she knew that it marked a place in her life that she would never forget, dividing what had been from what was to come.
From now on she was never going to forget how lucky she had been, and how much she owed to Seb’s kindness. Never ever again was she going to make the mistake of doing something she knew to be wrong. And what was more, she was going to be the best nurse she could possibly be, she told herself fervently.
Half-past six and Grace was normally home by now. Jean had been keeping an anxious eye out for her daughter ever since it had turned six o’clock, which she knew was daft because Grace didn’t even finish work until six. She hadn’t said anything as yet to Sam about what Grace had done. He had been so proud about the fact that she was to train as a nurse after his initial anger, and Jean knew how hurt and disappointed he would be. She would have to tell him soon, though. She gave a small sigh as she reached for the iron. Both Sam and
Luke were late in for their tea tonight as well, and she had been so on edge that she’d almost been glad of having the washing to iron. She tensed as she heard Grace’s footsteps outside the back door, knowing how upset her eldest daughter would be at having to give up her hopes of training as a nurse, but when the back door opened and Grace came in, far from looking upset she was glowing with happiness and excitement.
‘Mum, you’ll ever guess what’s happened.’
‘You’d better tell me then, hadn’t you, love?’ Jean suggested. ‘And pretty sharpish before your dad gets in because I haven’t said anything to him yet about what’s happened.’ Jean frowned as she saw the dress box Grace was carrying, and her frown deepened as Grace started to explain disjointedly and excitedly all about a certain Seb Atkins, who had saved her from disgrace and despair by buying the frock she had damaged.
The more Grace enthused about her rescuer the more Jean felt inclined to mistrust him. It was typical of Grace that she always thought the best of other people, but Jean knew what Sam would have to say about a young man who bought his daughter an expensive frock – if she were to tell him, of course.
‘Wasn’t that a wonderful thing of him to do, Mum?’ Grace was demanding.
‘I don’t know about wonderful, Grace. In my day a young man certainly didn’t buy a girl a frock, not if she was a decent girl, that is, and he respected her,’ she added warningly.
Grace flushed and gave her a reproachful look. ‘He isn’t that sort at all, Mum,’
‘Well, it’s plain you don’t want to think so, love, but you’ve only met him the once and here he is buying—’
‘He didn’t buy it for me, Mum. He bought it because he wants me to train as a nurse,’ Grace told her. ‘That’s what he said to me, and he made me promise that I would. Oh, and I shall, and I want to be the very best nurse there is, Mum.’ Grace clasped her hands together, the look of shining dedication in her eyes making Jean’s heart miss a small beat at the sight of so much vulnerability.
‘He said that if there is war then men like him will need girls like me, girls who are trained nurses … and then he gave me the dress and … oh, Mum, I can’t believe it. I was so sure that I’d gone and spoiled everything. But now…’
Jean watched her worriedly. What Grace had done was very wrong and yet, as her mother, she couldn’t help but feel relieved that she was not going to be denied her chance to do what she so desperately wanted to do, even if she also knew that Sam would not approve, and would think that Grace should endure her deserved punishment. He had such strong moral values, did her Sam, and she respected him for that, but a mother was still a mother, and now that Grace had let slip that this Seb was about to rejoin his unit and hadn’t made any attempt to suggest they meet up again, she was beginning to feel a bit less worried.
‘Well, let this be a lesson to you, Grace,’ she
told her daughter sternly. ‘You’ve been very lucky to have things work out as they have, but think on in future, and don’t go letting yourself be persuaded into doing what you know isn’t right. We’ve brought you up to know better than that and, like I said, your dad would be that disappointed if he knew what you’ve done.’ Jean paused. The last thing she wanted to do was to encourage any of their children to think they should keep secrets from their father but she knew Sam, and if he were to be told the full tale she suspected he would insist on Grace owning up to what she had done, even if it meant she lost her opportunity to do her training.
‘Your dad’s got a lot on his mind at the moment, what with being in the ARP as well as having to do his own work, so there’s no need to give him any more to worry about by telling him any of this. It would only upset him and he’s that proud of you.’
Jean reached for her overall and sprinkled it with water before unrolling it and starting to iron it. The colours were beginning to fade but there was plenty of wear left in it yet.
‘Yes, Mum,’ Grace agreed meekly.
‘Now you’d better take that box upstairs and get it out of the way. We can have a look at the frock later and see if there’s anything that can be done with it.’
Grace gave a small shudder, and looked conscience-stricken. ‘I could never wear it again, Mum, not after what I did.’
‘Maybe you can’t, but some other girl might be glad of the opportunity to wear it,’ Jean told her firmly.
‘The service is to be at eleven o’clock three weeks on Saturday, after the banns have been read, and the wedding breakfast will be at the Splendide Hotel.’ Vi took a sip of her tea, and then dabbed delicately at the corners of her mouth with a snowy white starched napkin. Really, one would have thought that Alan’s mother would have made a bit more of an effort with her appearance. Vi would have been ashamed to go out wearing such a dull-looking tweed skirt, not a Jaegar by the looks of it, and what looked like a hand-knitted twinset. The colours didn’t even match. The skirt was brown and the twinset navy blue. She looked down at her own teal-blue jersey afternoon frock with its lace cuffs, and felt happily superior to Bella’s mother-in-law-to-be.
‘The vicar said he’d never known so many couples come to him wanting to be married just in case it comes to war,’ she informed her. ‘He’s actually had to turn some people away but he said that of course he could make room for us, seeing as my Edwin is a councillor, and of course your own husband as well, Mrs Parker. Now, I’m seeing the printer tomorrow about the invitations and the order of service. We’re having Evans’s to do the catering.’ Vi gave Alan’s mother an arch look as she mentioned the name of Wallasey’s most expensive catering firm. ‘Mr Firth insists. He won’t have
anything less than the best, I’m afraid.’ Vi patted the pearls she was wearing complacently.
The two women were sitting in Vi’s smart new front room, and so far Alan’s mother hadn’t spoken a single word.
Well, of course Vi could understand that. After all, she must be feeling that ashamed of herself after the way her son had behaved toward Bella, frightening her like that. But as she’d said to Bella on Sunday morning when she’d taken her up a cup of tea, young men could get carried away with their passionate feelings, especially when they were as in love as Alan obviously was with her.
Naturally too she had tried delicately to find out exactly how far things had gone but Bella had been so terribly upset that she hadn’t pursued the matter. Fortunately she had managed to ascertain that whatever had happened had only happened for the ‘first time’ so that even if the unthinkable were to result, no one could possibly raise their eyebrows at a honeymoon baby arriving a couple of weeks or so early.
‘Bella wants to have her cousin Grace as one of her bridesmaids, of course, and, bless her, she’s said that she’d like to ask Trixie to be the other, just to show there’s no hard feelings. She’s such a thoughtful girl like that. I know already that you’re going to love her as though she were your own daughter. It’s such a special bond, I always think, between a mother and a daughter. Such a shame you only have a son, but then, you’ll have my Bella now.
‘I’m afraid that Edwin is still a teeny bit cross with dear Alan for the way he upset Bella. He’s such a protective father, but like I’ve said to him, we knew what was in the wind and that it was only a matter of time before Alan called to ask formally for Bella’s hand.’
Vi saw the murderous look Alan’s mother was giving her but chose to ignore it. After all, if anyone should be giving murderous looks to anyone it should be her. It was their darling Bella whom they had found in hysterics at the Tennis Club after Charlie had telephoned them and insisted they needed to be there. As she’d told Alan’s mother when they had driven round to see his parents, the minute he had realised what that happened Edwin had been all for forbidding Alan to see Bella again but, like any mother, she had wanted to see common sense prevail.
Of course, as she had also told Alan’s parents, thanks to the quick thinking of the Tennis Club President no real harm had been done and everyone knew that Alan and Bella were now engaged, but in view of the circumstances they naturally felt that the sooner the wedding took place the better.
Vi’s mouth hardened as she remembered how Mrs Parker had tried to suggest they call out a doctor to examine Bella to confirm whether or not Alan had a duty to marry her. She had soon put a stop to that.
All in all she was very pleased with the way things had worked out, especially once she had
realised just how close to the Parkers Trixie’s family were.
‘Of course, the young couple are going to need somewhere to live, and with your Alan working for his father I dare say you’ll want him close to you. There’s a detached house up for sale five down from you,’ Vi informed the other woman.
‘Mr Parker doesn’t like rushing into things,’ Alan’s mother told her coldly. ‘He says no good ever comes of it. There’s no reason why Alan shouldn’t stay where he is.’
‘Well, personally I think that a young couple should have their own roof over their heads.’
‘It wouldn’t be their own roof, though, would it, Mrs Firth, not with Alan’s father having to pay for it?’ Alan’s mother put down her tea cup and stood up. ‘I really must go. I’ve got a committee meeting this evening.’
‘Bella will be sorry that she missed you, but what with Alan coming round and insisting that he wanted to take her out to buy her her ring … Of course, it’s only natural that he wants to make it up to her for the way he behaved on Saturday. Bella was shocked at how much he’d had to drink.’
‘Drinks bought for him by your son, I believe,’ Alan’s mother told Vi in an arctic voice.
‘Charlie is just so very generous. Too generous really, sometimes.’
Mrs Parker looked pointedly at her watch.
‘Such a shame you have to go when we haven’t finished discussing all the arrangements yet. I’m taking Bella to choose a wedding gown next week,
and then there’s the bridesmaids’ frocks. I’ve telephoned Trixie’s mother to tell her that Bella wants Trixie to be her bridesmaid. It’s a pity she’s such a plain girl. Not a patch on Bella, of course.’
‘Mr Parker and I are very fond of Trixie.’
‘Well, yes, I’m sure you must be, but of course you’ll love Bella – everyone does. She’s going to make such a wonderful mother.’ Vi sighed sentimentally, but her eyes were cold as she watched the anger burn in Alan’s mother’s eyes.
She had known the minute they had driven round there on Saturday night that Mrs Parker was one of those mothers who thought their sons could do no wrong and who was prepared to defend and protect him no matter what. Well, she had soon made sure that Edwin let them know exactly what Alan had been up to with their Bella and how distraught she was. Far too distraught to come into the house. She had told Mrs Parker very bluntly that had her Charlie behaved like Alan then she would have insisted he do the right thing by the poor girl involved – not that Charlie would ever behave so badly.
Even then, knowing the whole situation, Vi suspected that the Parkers would have wriggled out of admitting that Alan had no option other than to marry Bella, if it hadn’t been for the fact that their engagement had already been announced in front of the President of the Tennis Club.