Authors: Ellie Dean
‘If you must know, it’s everything,’ she rasped. She balled the handkerchief in her hand and waved her fist distractedly. ‘It’s this house, these people – the lack of respect and the sheer vulgarity of it all. Rita and Ruby are little more than guttersnipes, Suzy’s a conniving little witch, and that Irish tart has no manners. Sarah and Jane aren’t too bad, I suppose – at least they speak the King’s English – but Cordelia Finch has a vicious tongue, and it’s time she was put into a home. As for Ronan and that dog of his . . . they are disgusting.’
Peggy stared in amazement as the vitriol poured from her sister. But as each cruel word struck her heart she hardened it, and the last shred of her patience disintegrated. ‘If you hate it so much, why insist upon staying?’ she asked coldly.
Doris fiddled with the handkerchief and didn’t reply.
‘You might think we’re beneath you,’ said Peggy, determined not to lose her temper. ‘But my girls are all good girls, and I will not have you talk about them like that. Cordelia will remain here until her last breath as this is her home and we love her. As for Ron and Harvey, they are the mainstays of this household now Jim is away, and Cordelia and I owe Ron our lives after that raid. If you find them so abhorrent, then you should have left long ago when it became clear that nobody wanted you here.’
Doris’s black mascara made tracks on her powdered cheeks as the tears rolled down and dripped from her chin. Her lips formed a thin line and her eyes hardened. ‘How comfortable you must be up there on that smug, sanctimonious mountain of yours. You clearly have no idea what it’s like to be derided, ignored and sniggered at – to be cast aside like an old shoe that is no longer of any use.’
Peggy shivered at the coldness in her sister’s voice. ‘Doris, that wasn’t what—’
‘I know when I’m not wanted,’ Doris interrupted. ‘I’m not stupid, but I stayed for you – and for Daisy – and this is the thanks I get. A nod and a wink and then it’s pack your bags and get out.’
Peggy realised the posh voice had disappeared and that a real passion was boiling inside her sister that had far deeper roots than this current spat. Her anger dissolved and she reached for her sister’s hand. ‘What’s happened to make you so bitter, Doris?’ she asked softly.
Doris snatched her hand away. ‘What do you care? You’ve got your precious family to look after you now. What happens to me doesn’t matter.’
‘That’s not true and you know it,’ retorted Peggy. ‘Talk to me, Doris. Tell me why you suddenly decided to change the habit of a lifetime and come to my aid. Tell me what happened to make you stay here when it was obvious you hated it and weren’t needed – and why you’ve been avoiding me these past two weeks.’
‘Why should I?’ she sniffed. ‘You’ll only gloat – and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to change things.’
Peggy gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Doris, stop making a drama out of everything and tell me what the heck is going on with you.’
‘I’ve been abandoned,’ she said as fresh tears washed the black mascara from her face. ‘Phyllis has gone off to work in a factory. Edward is never home, and Anthony rarely visits any more since he’s become involved with that silly girl. He hasn’t even bothered to ring me since he’s come back from his conference.’
Peggy gave a sigh of relief. ‘Is that all? Honestly, Doris, you do make a mountain out of a molehill at times. Anthony is a man now and entitled to come and go as he pleases. You can’t expect him to be tied to your apron strings for the rest of your life.’
Doris blew her nose and made a visible effort to pull herself together as she lit another cigarette. ‘I was made very aware of that fact the other night.’
‘Well, there you are then,’ Peggy soothed.
‘But where am I – tell me that?’ Her voice broke. ‘I can’t stay here, but I can’t go home either, and Lady Charlemondley has asked me to resign from her charity committees, and . . .’
Peggy felt a pang of alarm as she grasped her hand. ‘What do you mean, you can’t go home, Doris? Has the house been bombed?’
‘It might as well have been,’ she sobbed in deep distress.
Peggy hadn’t seen Doris cry like this since they were children, and an overwhelming sense of pity made her reach out and take her in her arms. ‘Tell me all about it, Doris,’ she murmured. ‘Come on, don’t keep torturing yourself by bottling things up and trying to put on a brave face.’
Doris allowed Peggy to hold her for a moment, then she drew back, her shoulders squared, her chin lifted in defiance of the tears she couldn’t seem to stem. ‘Edward has not been playing golf,’ she rasped. ‘He’s been having an affair. And it’s been going on for three years. Now he’s packed his bags and left, and wants a divorce.’
Peggy froze, stunned that the quiet, mild-mannered and rather boring Ted Williams had it in him to conduct an illicit affair for three whole years – let alone have the gumption to ask Doris for a divorce. ‘Good grief,’ she breathed. ‘Oh, Doris, my dear, how awful for you. No wonder you’ve been so reluctant to go home.’
‘I feel so betrayed,’ she sobbed. ‘And as if that isn’t bad enough, the woman is one of his shop assistants and lives on the council estate.’ She lifted her tear-streaked face to plead for Peggy’s understanding. ‘How could he do that to me, Peggy? How could he lie and cheat like that for all those years with some fat, plain, common woman who drops her aitches and has a laugh like a hyena?’
If it hadn’t been so tragic it might have made Peggy smile, for despite everything, it seemed Doris’s pain and humiliation had more to do with the class of woman Ted was having the affair with – rather than the affair itself. ‘I’m sure he’ll soon see the error of his ways,’ she soothed, ‘and once he realises how unhappy he’s made you after all the years you’ve been together, he’s sure to come back home.’
‘I don’t want him now I know he’s been with
her
,’ she snarled.
‘But I thought . . .’
‘It’s the shame of the thing,’ she hissed through a cloud of cigarette smoke. ‘How can I hold my head up in this town once this becomes common knowledge? My good name and reputation will be besmirched and Lady Charlemondley – who I thought I could count on as a confidante and friend – has made it very clear that this sort of scandal will not be tolerated. She asked me to resign my seat on the charity boards.’
‘Oh, Doris,’ Peggy sighed. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Doris puffed furiously on the cigarette and then mashed it in the ashtray as if it was Edward’s head she was mangling. ‘It’s Anthony I’m really worried about,’ she confessed. ‘I’ve yet to tell him, and he’ll be devastated to know how badly his father has treated me. If this endangers his important work for the MOD, I will never forgive Edward.
Never
.’
Peggy realised that the suppurating bitterness and shame that had been eating away at her sister was finally finding some release – but there was very little she could do but offer tea and sympathy and Cissy’s bedroom until things could be brought to some sort of conclusion. ‘You can stay with me for as long as you need, Doris,’ she said quietly.
Doris gripped her arm as the front door opened and they heard Ron talking to Cordelia in the hallway. ‘Promise you’ll say nothing to anyone,’ she said fiercely as Harvey scrabbled to greet them. ‘I couldn’t bear it if they were all sniggering behind my back.’
‘No one will know, I promise you,’ Peggy soothed. ‘Now, dry your eyes and I’ll put the kettle on while you telephone Anthony and ask him to come and see you after Suzy has left for her night shift this evening.’
For once in her life Doris looked bewildered and unsure of herself. ‘I don’t know how to tell him, Peggy,’ she whispered.
‘We’ll do it together,’ soothed Peggy.
Fresh tears threatened as she looked up at Peggy. ‘You’re being very kind,’ she murmured, ‘and I know I don’t deserve it.’
‘You’re my sister, Doris, and although we don’t always see eye to eye, I’ll always be here for you,’ she replied softly.
Chapter Twenty-One
RUBY GLANCED REPEATEDLY
at the big clock on the factory wall, wondering if Peggy’s planned escape had gone smoothly. It would be lovely to have her home and get to know her properly, and if it meant that snooty cow Doris was finally booted out, so much the better.
She had managed to catch Lucy before they started work and tell her about the invitation to the Canadians’ dance. Lucy’s eyes had sparkled with delight and she’d said immediately that of course they should go. They had started a later shift today, so their lunch break was at three, and coincided with that of the girls working on the washers and in the armaments factory. Having collected their food from the serving counter, they looked around the crowded canteen and discovered the only two spaces were next to the girls from the Mile End Road, and across from Flora.
‘Hello, girls,’ said Ruby cheerfully as she ignored Flora and sat down. ‘The weather’s turning out nice, ain’t it?’
‘Yeah,’ replied Gertie through a mouthful of stew. ‘Better than the smog we gets back ’ome, that’s for sure. We thought we’d take a picnic up in the ’ills this Sunday if the weather holds. Do you two fancy coming along?’
‘We’d love to,’ said Lucy and Ruby in unison, and then giggled.
‘Well, well,’ murmured Flora. ‘It’s little Miss Goody Two-shoes and her soppy friend. Are you two joined at the hip?’
‘Put yer claws in, Flora,’ drawled Ruby. ‘You ain’t impressing no one.’
‘We are in a sour mood today,’ she purred. ‘Get out of the wrong side of bed this morning, did we? Or was it the wrong bed you were kicked out of?’
Ruby chewed on the rather gristly meat stew and tried to ignore her as Grace, Gladys and Gertie pretended they hadn’t heard this exchange.
But Flora seemed determined to provoke some sort of reaction from Ruby. ‘It’s no good you trying to pretend to be prim and proper, Ruby Clark,’ she said as she lit a cigarette and blew smoke across the table. ‘I saw you both last night, all cosy in a huddle with those Canadians.’
‘They were just being friendly,’ protested Lucy, flapping ineffectually at the smoke, ‘so don’t try and make something out of it, Flora.’
A finely plucked brow arched and the eyes narrowed. ‘Oh dear,’ she sighed. ‘How naïve you must think I am. You were both positively drooling. Don’t tell me you didn’t let them have a bit of a kiss and a cuddle after they’d treated you to the pictures and a fish supper.’
‘Actually we paid for ourselves,’ said Lucy in her snootiest voice, ‘and I don’t appreciate your innuendo.’
‘Get you!’ Flora sniggered. ‘All posh and bristling with self-righteousness – if that isn’t proof you’ve got something to hide, I don’t know what is.’
‘Wind yer neck in, Flora,’ snapped Ruby. ‘We ain’t all like you.’
‘And what do you mean by that?’ she bristled.
‘Anything in trousers might be fair game to you,’ she shot back, ‘but me and Lucy ain’t like that. So don’t tar us with the same brush.’
‘Goodness me,’ Flora said with a dramatic sigh. ‘How fiercely you defend your dubious honour. I’m sure your husband will be eternally grateful to know that his little wifey has kept herself pure for him while he’s being a hero on some battlefield.’ She shot Ruby a sneer as she pushed back from the table. ‘It’s a good thing he’s not here to witness you flirting with Canadians, isn’t it? But then, when the cat’s away . . .’ She turned away and was gone before either girl could reply.
‘Bitch,’ muttered Ruby.
‘You wanna watch that one,’ said Grace as she tucked her short dark hair back under her headscarf. ‘She’s got the morals of an alley cat and a vicious tongue, and if you ain’t careful, Ruby, she’ll cause you trouble.’
‘She can try,’ said Ruby darkly, ‘but it won’t get ’er far.’
‘You were right about her not being very nice, Ruby,’ said Lucy as she put her knife and fork neatly together on her empty plate. ‘She certainly showed her true colours today.’
Ruby took no pleasure in being right, but at least Lucy had learned a lesson in how to see beneath the brassy gloss and glamour. She finished what she could of the stew and pushed her plate away. ‘You can have my jelly and blancmange, Lucy,’ she said, eyeing the gelatinous pink mess in the bowl.
‘But I thought you liked jelly.’
‘I did until I were given it every flamin’ day,’ she said, pushing the bowl towards her. ‘Besides, I get a decent breakfast at Beach View, and I ain’t that hungry.’
‘Oh,’ said Lucy, her blue eyes sparkling, ‘I meant to tell you. It’s the most extraordinary thing.’
Ruby smiled indulgently at her friend. ‘What you done? Bought a new frock without yer mum knowing?’
Lucy giggled and wiped a smear of jelly from her bottom lip. ‘I have, actually. It’s a gorgeous blue and just right for the dance next weekend. But that’s not what I meant to tell you.’ She leaned closer. ‘Councillor Fraser has resigned his position on the Town Council and left his wife,’ she said breathlessly.
Ruby’s attention sharpened. ‘When was this?’
‘Yesterday afternoon. Marjory came round to see Mother, and she was in a terrible state, poor woman.’ She fiddled with the spoon. ‘Mother bustled her quickly into Daddy’s study and shut the door – no doubt thinking I was far too young and innocent to be a witness to such hysteria. But I was so curious, I’m afraid I did eavesdrop a bit,’ she confessed with a blush.
‘What did you hear?’ prompted Ruby.
‘Well, it seems he’s run off with some woman, and has told Marjory he will provide her with the evidence she’ll need for a divorce. It all came as a terrible shock, because she’d had absolutely no idea what Harold had been up to.’
The truth would have been an even greater shock, thought Ruby sourly.
‘You don’t seem terribly surprised, Ruby,’ said Lucy with a frown. ‘Did you suspect something when you were living there?’
‘Nah,’ she replied quickly. ‘I weren’t in the house much, so I didn’t get to know either of them that well.’ She realised she was expected to say something sympathetic, and after a momentary hesitation, she said, ‘Poor Mrs Fraser. She’s a proud woman and will find it hard to deal with the gossip.’
Lucy scraped the last of her jelly from the bowl. ‘She’s planning to rent out the house and go and stay with her sister in Surrey until the scandal dies down,’ she said. ‘Mother will miss her. They were close friends.’