Daughters of the Mersey (12 page)

The whole family missed Milo and felt he’d been whisked into the army before he’d had time to think about what he wanted to do, and to make it worse, the letters he wrote home told them he wasn’t happy.

Last night, Pa had nagged June again, but she’d turned on him. ‘Pa, leave me alone. I don’t know what I want to do.’

Amy couldn’t believe that. ‘But you must know what you’re good at and what you like doing,’ she insisted.

June sniffed. ‘I’ve considered a hundred alternatives but Mum persuades me out of them. You do, Mum, you know you do. I’d quite like to join the WRNs. It’s a lovely uniform.’

‘That’s a stupid way to choose a
career,’ Pa told her heatedly.

‘If you’ve decided against clerical work, June,’ Mum said, ‘you could train as a nurse. Ida’s niece has decided it would be a good choice of war work. You could go to a hospital in a safe area. You don’t have to go far. What about Southport or Chester?’

‘I don’t want to leave home.’ June smiled at them. ‘I don’t want to go far from you and Pa.’

That seemed to please Pa but he was still putting on the pressure, and as usual June delayed making any decision.

Over the next few days Amy couldn’t help but notice that her mother was sorting through the drawers in her bedroom, washing and ironing and sewing buttons on her clothes.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

‘Pa and I have decided that in the event of war, it would be safer for you to live in the country. This could be a dangerous place, close to the docks and munitions factories. You love the country, don’t you? It’ll be like a very long holiday.’

Amy’s interest was captured. ‘Will I be going to the seaside? I like that too.’

‘We don’t know exactly where you’ll be going, pet.’

‘Those clothes you’re packing are not what I like to wear. I want to take the dress with blue birds on and the green one with poppies.’

‘You won’t need cotton dresses,’ Mum said. ‘Summer’s nearly over, it’s going to get colder. You’ll need jumpers and skirts and your winter coat.’

The next day Amy watched her mother pull down a suitcase from the top of a wardrobe and pack her things into it.

‘Come and
see if you can carry this.’ Mum snapped the case shut and slid it to the floor at her feet.

Amy found that scary. ‘Why?’

‘You’ll need to take care of your own things. Be responsible for them.’

‘I don’t want to go by myself. I want June to come with me.’

‘You know I can’t,’ June said. ‘I’m grown up and will have to do war work. This evacuation scheme is to keep children safe. You’ll be going with your school.’

‘But you need to be kept safe too, Mum said so.’

‘Come and lift this case.’ Mum’s voice was brisk. ‘Let’s see if you can manage it.’

Amy wanted to refuse but with her family watching, that was impossible. She lifted the case two inches off the floor and thumped it down again. ‘It’s too heavy,’ she announced, hoping that would be reason enough to cancel the whole project.

‘Take some of the stuff out,’ Pa advised.

‘She’ll have to take a change of clothes,’ Mum worried. ‘The case is heavy before anything goes in.’

‘Then let her use that smaller black one.’

‘I want space to take my teddy.’

‘You’re too old to play with a teddy,’ her family chorused. They’d said that when she’d asked for a new teddy bear for her eighth birthday but she loved the one she’d received. It was really big.

‘You won’t be able to take toys, not if you can’t manage your clothes,’ June said.

‘I want—’

‘Don’t be a pain in the neck.’

Pa, too, was growing
impatient. ‘They won’t abandon the child’s luggage, for heaven’s sake. Somebody will help her.’

‘It would be better if Amy could manage it herself.’ Mum’s lips were in a tight, straight line.

‘I don’t want to go, not by myself.’

‘You won’t be by yourself. You’ll be with your teacher and most of your class.’

‘Mum, I want you to take me.’

‘I’m sorry, pet, but that isn’t possible.’

Amy felt the coming war was messing everybody up, making them do what they didn’t want. Now, she could see her mother’s smile was slipping.

‘You can cope perfectly well on your own, you know you can,’ she said. ‘You’re always going out by yourself. Yesterday, for instance, you didn’t tell anybody where you were going and I couldn’t find you at suppertime.’

‘I wasn’t on my own and you knew I’d be with Pat. Pat’s family isn’t forcing her to go away. They want her to stay here with them.’

‘Oh, stop moaning,’ June said. ‘If there’s a war, we’ll all have to do things we’d rather not.’

‘It’s for your own good, pet.’ Mum’s voice trembled. ‘I wish we could all be evacuated with you, but we can’t. Don’t worry about the suitcase. I know how to fix that so you can carry what you need.’

Amy thought her mother could fix anything, and once her mind was made up nothing would persuade her to change it. The next day Mum made her a haversack from a length of light calico she had amongst her dress lengths. Then she wrote her name on it in block capitals with an indelible pencil.

‘If it’s a wet day,’ Pa said, holding
it up to the light, ‘all the child’s things will get soaked.’

‘No they won’t,’ Leonie said. ‘I’ll wrap her mac round her clothes before I put them in.’

‘Perhaps you’re all wrong,’ Amy said hopefully, ‘and war won’t come.’

‘Of course it will come,’ Pa exclaimed in a burst of irritation. ‘It isn’t a question of if any more. It’s a question of when.’

Amy was told not to talk during the wireless news bulletins these days and each broadcast seemed to darken the gloom. That evening, she heard the newsreader make an announcement about the evacuation of schoolchildren.

Afterwards Mum opened the haversack and said, ‘Amy, I’m putting in three stamped addressed envelopes for you.’ She pulled them out to show her. ‘Look inside and you’ll find a sheet of writing paper in each one and here is a stump of pencil. We won’t know where you are unless you write to us. We need to know the name of the people who are looking after you and the address where you are staying. You must promise me you’ll do that.’

Amy shuddered, it was definitely going to happen. ‘Yes, I promise.’

‘I want you to get one of these into the post as soon as you can because I’ll be worried until I hear from you.’

Mum would be worried! That terrified Amy. ‘Mummy, don’t send me away. I don’t want to go.’

‘Of course you want to go,’ Mum suddenly sounded very hearty. ‘It’ll be a great adventure. Once I have your address, I’ll be able to send you your teddy bear and some books. Perhaps later on I could come and see you. I want you to write me long letters
all about the people you’re staying with and about your new school.’

‘I don’t want to go to a new school,’ she wailed. ‘I like the old one.’

All day at college June looked forward to her evening with Ralph. She got off the bus near Birkenhead Park and walked the few yards to the lovely old house overlooking it where Ralph lived. She enjoyed nothing better than going to his rooms.

She reached the house and let herself in with the key he’d had cut for her. Ralph had said he couldn’t afford a whole house because he was paying alimony to his divorced wife. The rooms were rented out individually and the bathrooms shared. He had the original drawing room which was very grand and two smaller rooms on the ground floor. They were at the front of the house and only a few paces from the front door, so nobody need see her going in and out. Ralph said the other people living here were very friendly but the less they knew about his business the better.

He heard her come in and opened the drawing-room door before she reached it.

‘Darling June,’ he said. He drew her inside, pushed the door shut and took her into his arms to kiss her. Ralph was very romantic.

His big drawing room looked absolutely gorgeous. He’d redecorated and fitted it out to look very gracious. All his furniture was ultra-modern, he didn’t care for the old stuff Pa liked. June had helped him choose the turquoise satin curtains that hung from ceiling to floor at the big windows. He had a tea tray set and the cherry cake she loved all ready for her.

‘Don’t eat too much of it,’ he cautioned. ‘I’ve booked a table for dinner at the Central Hotel.’

He had
a little kitchen but he didn’t like cooking. Sometimes she cooked a simple meal for them, but Ralph liked taking her out to restaurants and pubs. He let her try wine and cigarettes and gave her money to buy clothes which she couldn’t take home or Mum would want to know where she’d got them. She felt sorry for the girls she’d known at school. She’d grown up and left all that girlie stuff behind.

After she’d had her tea she snuggled into his arms on the sofa and kissed him. It hadn’t taken her long to let him make love to her, she hadn’t been able to help herself. At college the girls spoke of going ‘all the way’ as though it was a huge divide. All girls were given to understand they must never allow that, not until they were married. Pa would kill her if he knew but having done it once there seemed no point at all in depriving themselves of the thrill of it.

Ralph was raining kisses up and down her neck, on her throat and across her shoulders until she had to satisfy her craving. She took him by the hand and led him to his bedroom. Unfortunately his rooms didn’t connect and they had to go out into the hall which was used by other people to reach his bedroom, so it didn’t feel very private. It was a nice room too. He kept the heavy curtains closed here and had a black and gold satin eiderdown on his bed and pictures of tigers on the walls. She kept the clothes he bought her in the big wardrobe with his own.

They spent an hour or so under the eiderdown. June loved to feel his body against hers, while he told her how much she meant to him. This was the time she enjoyed most. Then she crept to the cold
and ugly shared bathroom while Ralph picked out the outfit he wanted her to wear. She felt very sophisticated in a dress and coat that even Mum would think was high fashion, and most of all she loved her high heels.

Ralph drove into the town centre and parked close to the hotel. She took his arm as they went inside. He told the receptionist they had a reservation for the restaurant. ‘We’d like to eat straight away,’ he said.

They were being escorted to their table when he stopped. ‘Er, no.’ He half turned to June and she felt herself being backed out of the restaurant.

‘What’s the matter?’

He was drawing her towards the reception desk. ‘Sorry,’ he said to the girl manning it. ‘Cancel our reservation for dinner tonight. Something’s come up, we can’t stay. Sorry.’

He bundled June back into his car. ‘Whatever is the matter? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.’

‘Elaine was there. Tom too.’ He mopped his brow with his handkerchief. ‘But I don’t think they saw me. Anyway, they couldn’t have seen you. I turned round and shut off their view. Elaine would give me hell if she knew about us. We’ll go to New Brighton and get well away from them. We’ll find somewhere to eat there.’

Up till now, June hadn’t worried about being seen with Ralph. Her parents didn’t go out to eat and most of her old friends couldn’t afford to go to the places Ralph chose.

There were several big hotels along the seafront. By the time they’d been shown to a table, Ralph had recovered from his shock and was laughing at their lucky escape. He ordered champagne to celebrate and June had never enjoyed an evening more. She had to go
back to Ralph’s rooms to change her clothes. She loved his car and it was what made it possible to keep the deadlines Pa set.

It was only a few minutes after ten when Ralph drew up at her garden gate. He was in a more serious mood now. ‘I’ve been a fool,’ he told her. ‘I earned myself a reputation as a divorced man who preys on young girls, and I set out to do it all over again with you.’

June laughed and pulled him closer to kiss him. ‘I can’t believe that. You knocked me off my feet the moment I set eyes on you. You’re loving and kind and generous and I adore you.’

‘I should have had more sense than to let you meet me without your parents knowing. They’ll hate me if they find out. I want you to know that what I feel for you is completely different. I’ve never felt so deeply in love with anyone before.’

June found it very hard to tear herself away from him, but she had to observe Pa’s rules. Her parents were in the living room talking about the coming war yet again.

Pa asked for about the hundredth time, ‘Have you made up your mind, June, about what you want to do? There’s a job advertised in tonight’s
Echo
that might—’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I can’t think about the war now.’ She couldn’t stand any more of this tonight. ‘Goodnight, Pa, goodnight, Mum.’ She rushed to her bedroom.

June knew that Ralph was afraid the war could bring this golden interlude in their lives to an end. It was unsettling, and unfair. She hated the very thought of war, and she knew her parents were even more scared. They’d lived through the last one.

Later that week Ralph Harvey
drove home from the bank looking forward to seeing June again. He’d got through three empty evenings when he’d gone home wondering how to fill them. June couldn’t meet him as often as they would both have liked. She touched all his senses, he could think of little else but her beautiful face.

He wanted to end his man-about-town, bachelor life. Searching for girls and having a good time in restaurants and bars was no longer what he wanted. It had never been as much fun as it was cracked up to be. He wanted to settle down and marry June. Perhaps he’d grown up at last; it had certainly taken him longer than most to do it. The odd thing was, June had always seemed more mature than he was.

He let himself into his drawing room and she shot into his arms, radiant and laughing with sheer pleasure at being with him again. The way she greeted him warmed his heart, made him realise how lucky he was to have her.

She’d known what time to expect him and had a tea tray waiting for him set with a chocolate cake which she’d bought on the way because she knew it was his favourite.

Perhaps they didn’t go out so often now, perhaps they were spending more time in his rooms where June sometimes cooked a meal, but as usual they enjoyed their tea. Then because he couldn’t keep his hands away from her they ended up on his sofa. When they could wait no longer, he took her to his bedroom.