Authors: Ellie Dean
‘There we are,’ Fran said cheerfully half an hour later. ‘And if I say so meself, that’s a vast improvement, so it is.’ She plucked the hand mirror from her beauty case so Kitty could see for herself.
Kitty was astounded at how feminine and pretty she looked, for Fran had layered her hair into soft, short waves that framed her face and curled neatly into her nape. ‘Goodness,’ she breathed. ‘You should do this for a living, Fran. It’s really lovely, and you’ve made me look much better.’
Fran beamed with pleasure and began to delve into the case again. ‘Now for your nails,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘They look as if they’ve been neglected for far too long. What
do
you do to them?’
‘Keep them clean and short,’ Kitty replied hesitantly. ‘I don’t know, Fran. I’ve never really been one for fussing about my nails.’
‘Then it’s time you did,’ she said as she reached purposefully for Kitty’s hand. ‘And I’m going to do your toes as well. You can’t be wearing that sandal with naked toenails.’
Kitty looked to Peggy for support, but she just nodded and smiled and carried on playing with Daisy who was now crawling about on the floor. ‘Well, all right,’ she said reluctantly, ‘but don’t go painting them red. That would be too much.’
‘Will you do my nails when you’ve finished there?’ asked Cordelia. ‘Only I’m going out for lunch with my pensioners’ group and Phoebe Harris is always showing off her latest manicure.’
‘Of course I will, Grandma Finch,’ murmured Fran as she smoothed cream into Kitty’s hands and massaged her fingers. ‘Why don’t you have a look in my box and choose a colour? The pale pink is very nice, or I could use the clear one.’
‘I want the red,’ said Cordelia determinedly. ‘I’m feeling adventurous this morning, and it will go with the flowers in my dress.’
Ron was experiencing the worst hours of his life, and as he sat with Rosie in her small sitting room above the bar, he couldn’t keep his mind on anything but Harvey.
‘To be sure, I never should have done it, Rosie,’ he muttered fretfully. ‘That poor wee boy trusted me, so he did. And I swear to God he knew what was coming when I had to virtually haul him off the pavement and carry him into the vet’s.’
Rosie was sitting next to him on the couch with Monty spread luxuriously between their laps. ‘You did the right thing,’ she soothed. ‘Monty’s sweet, but you really can’t risk having any more puppies dumped on your doorstep.’
‘Aye, I know,’ he said with a deep sigh. ‘But I’ve betrayed Harvey’s trust. ’Tis a terrible thing to do to my best friend.’
Rosie rested her head on his shoulder and held his hand. ‘I’m sure he’ll forgive you,’ she murmured.
‘Aye, he will that,’ he muttered. ‘Harvey’s a loyal wee dog, so he is. But it doesn’t make me feel any better about it.’ He could smell her perfume and feel her soft cheek nuzzle his own, and under any other circumstance, he would have been soothed. But his whole mind was taken up with Harvey as he imagined him lying on the operating table, out cold and utterly helpless as the vet cut and snipped and stitched.
Rosie ran a comforting hand over his bristled chin before she kissed his cheek. ‘When are you due to pick him up?’ she asked softly.
He looked at the clock on the mantel, surprised that only an hour had passed since he’d left Harvey. It had felt like a lifetime. ‘Not until five,’ he said mournfully, and then gave another deep sigh. ‘I hope he’s all right, because if anything happened to him I’d never forgive meself.’
‘I think you need something to take your mind off Harvey for a while,’ she said purposefully. ‘Come on, it’s no good moping about here.’
She tipped Monty rather unceremoniously onto the floor as she got up from the couch and pulled on Ron’s arm. ‘Let’s take Monty for a walk along the seafront. We’re both going to be stuck indoors over lunchtime, so it will do us good to get some fresh air and sunshine. And if it’s open, we’ll have a cup of coffee at the little café before we come back.’
Ron did his best to look enthusiastic, but all he could think about was the way Harvey had looked at him so soulfully with those great amber eyes as he’d left him with the vet. He wasn’t a praying man, for his faith had been killed along with most of his regiment in the stinking, rat-infested trenches of the Somme, but today he begged silently for Harvey’s safe return.
The morning had sped past as Fran conducted her beauty treatments in the kitchen, and Kitty was now admiring her gleaming, pale pink nails. There was no doubt about it, she thought, she certainly felt pampered, and could now understand why her mother paid regular trips to the Spanish beautician’s tiny shop in the nearby town.
Fran bustled about, and after she’d packed her things away and swept up the hair from the floor, she got a promise from Peggy that she would let her do her hair and nails before Jim came home on leave.
Peggy returned from the garden where she’d just finished putting the nappies on the line. ‘Your lift’s here,’ she said to Kitty. ‘He’s in the garden talking to Daisy.’
Kitty hung her handbag and gas-mask box round her neck and gathered up her crutches. Not wanting to keep the fireman waiting, she quickly said goodbye to Peggy and then bumped down the steps and over the threshold.
But it wasn’t a fireman who waited in the garden, and she felt a little stab of pleasure. ‘Roger? What on earth are you doing here?’
He’d been squatting by Daisy’s playpen and keeping her amused with her toys. Now he stood and looked at Kitty in admiration. ‘I say, you do look smashing this morning,’ he said quietly as he took in her new hairstyle.
It was lovely to see him, but his flattery was a bit embarrassing, and not at all what she was used to from him. ‘What’s going on, Roger?’
He suddenly looked a little unsure of himself, and he eyed her bashfully from beneath the peak of his uniform cap. ‘I hope you don’t mind, Kitty, but I’ve got some leave and so I spoke to John at the fire station and said I’d do the clinic run for the next few days.’
‘That’s really sweet of you, Roger, and I’m touched by your thoughtfulness. But surely you’ve got better things to do than run about after me?’
He shook his head. ‘I’d like to do this, Kitty. And I thought we could go for a picnic afterwards,’ he added in a rush. ‘I got one of the NAAFI girls to pack up a basket and it’s in the car.’ His voice tailed off as she remained silent.
Kitty regarded him affectionately and wondered why the thought of spending time with him on this summer day felt so right – and why she’d experienced that little unexpected tingle of pleasure when she’d seen him waiting for her. ‘That’s a lovely idea,’ she said softly. ‘It’s been ages since I had a picnic.’
‘Jolly good,’ he said in his usual bluff way. ‘Come along then. Your carriage awaits.’
Kitty went down the path on her crutches, but before she started along the alley, she looked back at the basement door.
Peggy was standing there with an enormous grin on her face. ‘Have fun, Kitty,’ she called, ‘and don’t feel you have to rush back.’
Kitty giggled and made her way down the alley on her crutches. Peggy was incorrigible, but if she thought she could see signs of romance, then she was sorely mistaken. Roger was just being nice to his best friend’s sister.
The drive down Camden Road took a matter of minutes, and soon Roger had parked by the ramp near the front steps. He opened the door and waited for her to get to her feet. ‘I’ll come in with you and wait outside, if you don’t mind,’ he said as she slowly went up the ramp.
‘There’s no need,’ she protested. ‘I shall be perfectly all right.’
‘I have no doubt of it, old thing. But I’ll feel better if I’m close by.’
She paused and looked up at him. ‘You mean if it’s bad news?’ At his reluctant nod, she carried on into the large, echoing vestibule and headed for the clinic. ‘Don’t let’s get ahead of ourselves, Roger,’ she said determinedly. ‘It’s early days yet.’
Peggy was quietly humming to herself as she gathered up Kitty’s washing and carried it downstairs. There was nothing like a bit of romance in the air to liven up the day, and it looked as if Roger was pulling out all the stops.
She smiled at Cordelia who was still immersed in the morning papers. ‘Your nails look very glamorous,’ she said as she paused on her way to the scullery.
‘I know what you’re up to, Peggy Reilly,’ she replied as she regarded her over her half-moon reading glasses. ‘But I’d be careful if I were you. That poor little girl has enough to contend with, without having her heart broken.’
‘Oh, I don’t think Roger has any intention of doing that,’ Peggy replied happily. ‘He’s obviously head-over-heels in love with her.’
‘That’s as maybe,’ said Cordelia. ‘But he’s also a Spitfire pilot, and in these uncertain times it doesn’t do to fall in love and make plans.’
‘Oh, Cordelia,’ Peggy sighed as she slumped into the nearby chair with the washing still in her arms. ‘That’s the very reason why it’s so important to fall in love, don’t you see? No one knows what the future might hold, but if we don’t keep our hopes and dreams, then it will all be for nothing.’
‘But Kitty isn’t in love with him,’ said Cordelia.
‘I think she is,’ replied Peggy firmly. ‘She just doesn’t know it yet.’
‘You really are an old romantic, aren’t you?’ Cordelia’s smile was gentle and affectionate. ‘My goodness,’ she murmured, ‘if you had your way, you’d be marrying off all our girls – and then where would we be?’
Peggy laughed and pushed back from her chair. ‘I’d be sitting down with my feet up and bemoaning an empty house – and you would be bored stiff because you had no one to complain about. Now, I really must get on, or the day will be over.’
She had just finished pegging out the washing when Cordelia called down from the kitchen window that her lift to the club had arrived.
Peggy ran back up the stairs, checked Cordelia had everything, and then watched as a very dapper elderly gentleman with a rose in his jacket lapel solicitously helped her down the steps and saw her safely into the little car.
Cordelia smiled and waved regally as she was driven away, and Peggy’s heart was warmed. For all her scoffing at romance, Cordelia Finch still enjoyed the company of a good-looking man.
Daisy was now asleep in her pram beneath the umbrella in the back garden, so Peggy scrubbed the scullery sink until it gleamed and then polished the copper boiler. Ron’s mess was beyond her, so she shut the door on his room and went to tidy and dust the kitchen before she washed the floor and started on the hall.
The girls were all very good at doing their own washing, keeping their rooms clean and their linen regularly changed, but the floor tiles needed a good scrub and the landing carpet hadn’t seen the vacuum cleaner for days. She worked happily, her thoughts skittering from Kitty and Roger to Suzy and Anthony, before finally settling on Jim’s homecoming.
It would be nice to clear out the abandoned dining room before he arrived so they weren’t quite so cramped at mealtimes. In the mood for a good day of housework, she opened the dining room door, and her spirits fell. There would be no cleaning today, she realised, for there was a lot of furniture to be moved out first, and those big, heavy curtains needed to be taken down and given a jolly good beating to clear out the dust and cobwebs.
Closing the door, she carried the bucket of dirty water and the mop back into the scullery and emptied the bucket into Ron’s water butt, then went back into the kitchen to make a well-earned cup of tea and some lunch.
She had just settled down to her sandwich and tea in the garden when she heard the squeak of the garden gate. Looking up, she smiled in delight. ‘Hello, Ruby, love. This is a nice surprise.’
‘I ’ope it ain’t inconvenient,’ Ruby said. ‘But me Mum’s at work, and I thought it were the best time to come and ’ave a quiet chat.’
‘You’re welcome any time, Ruby,’ said Peggy, noticing how fretful the girl was. ‘Come and sit down and share my sandwich. There’s plenty of tea in the pot. I’ll just get you a cup.’
‘No need,’ Ruby said hastily. ‘I know where everything is.’ She left her bag and gas-mask box between the newly refurbished deckchairs and was soon back from the kitchen with a cup and saucer.
Peggy poured the tea as Ruby settled into the other deckchair and adjusted her sunglasses. ‘I must say, Ruby,’ she murmured, ‘you’re looking very well, and that’s a pretty dress. Is it new?’
‘Me mum made it from an old dress she found in the Town Hall.’ Her smile was fleeting as she tucked the rich brown hair behind her ears and smoothed her fingers over the sprigged cotton frock. ‘And if I looks better, it’s because the sun’s given me a bit of colour in me face,’ she continued somewhat distractedly.
Peggy waited for her to sip some tea, knowing that this visit had a purpose and suspecting that Ruby had things on her mind she couldn’t – or perhaps was reluctant to – discuss with Ethel.
‘Mike’s up and about again,’ she said after she’d refused the offer of half of Peggy’s tomato sandwich. ‘But he ain’t gunna get the sight back in his eye. He’s ever so depressed, Auntie Peg, and I dunno what to do or say to cheer ’im up.’
‘I should think that just by visiting him every day you must make him feel better about things.’ Peggy laid a consoling hand on the girl’s slender brown arm. ‘After all, you’re a pretty girl, and he must be proud to have you by his side.’
Ruby’s head drooped. ‘He told me he don’t want me to see him no more,’ she said with a hitch in her voice. ‘He said I was to forget about ’im.’ She looked at Peggy with tears in her eyes as she gripped her hand. ‘But I can’t, Auntie Peg. Really I can’t. I loves ’im, you see, and it don’t make no difference if he’s blind in one eye.’
Peggy returned the grip. ‘Maybe not to you,’ she said softly, ‘but it clearly matters very much to him. He’s a young, strong, fit man who’s feeling very lost at the moment, because he simply doesn’t know what the future holds. Give him time, Ruby. He doesn’t really mean to send you away. He’s just confused and, I suspect, rather frightened.’
Ruby took a trembling breath, clearly trying to keep the tears in check. ‘But ’e were ever so unkind this morning,’ she said. ‘Told me to stop me fussing and go and find someone else to annoy ’cos he were fed up with me coming in all the time.’