The Heart of the Family (26 page)

Such an obvious desire to have her approval made Bella feel very much in a position where she had to do the right thing by Lena. Had this Gavin been the sort she thought would take advantage of Lena she would naturally have suggested that Lena refused, but he seemed decent enough, and perfectly respectable. Taking charge in a businesslike manner, she gave Gavin her address. Witnessing Lena’s pink-cheeked pleasure and Gavin’s own male approval, she felt, Bella recognised with a small start of surprise, as though she had passed some kind of unexpected test.

And she had managed to persuade the saleswoman to sell her a second pair of precious rubber baby pants.

Inviting Gavin to join them for a pot of tea, Bella told Lena about her Lewis’s triumph, adding, ‘All we need to do now is to find someone to paint the nursery for us.’

‘Well, I can do that,’ Gavin offered before he could stop himself.

‘Oh, Gavin, could you?’ Lena was thrilled at the thought of being able through someone she knew, to remove at least one of the preparations for her coming baby from Bella’s shoulders.

Bella thought for a minute. Knowing an able young man who could turn his hand to various domestic tasks would be a bonus she’d be a fool to turn down, and it would also prove, just in case anyone might think to query it, that she was not misusing her position at the crèche to get things done at home.

Yes, she decided approvingly, when Gavin had taken his leave of them after insisting on paying for their shared pot of tea, the trip to Liverpool had been
an extremely profitable investment of time, what with getting two pairs of rubber baby pants and finding a personable-looking man who was willing to come round and paint the nursery.

‘I dare say that your friend will even know the best place to get his hands on some distemper for us,’ she said to Lena cheerfully when they were seated together on the ferry taking them back across the water.

Lena nodded enthusiastically and felt proud that Bella approved of Gavin, as well as grateful to Gavin himself for his kindness to her.

The weekend hadn’t gone anything like as well or been as happy as Grace had expected, and all because of that horrible, horrible Sybil, who seemed to haunt their footsteps almost as though she was deliberately following them, even though when Grace had said as much to Seb, and Seb, who never, ever criticised her, had taken her completely aback and hurt her too by saying tersely that she was being silly and exaggerating the situation out of all proportion.

That had been over an hour ago now, but just thinking about it still made her feel like having a good cry. Not that Seb would notice if she did, not with it pouring with rain like it was, and them not even being able to cuddle up together under an umbrella because there was a market on in the town and the streets were packed with farmers and their families who had come in to join the townsfolk. They hadn’t even been able to get a table in the café, never mind a nice bit of lunch in the pretty pub where Grace had been looking forward to sitting nestled next to Seb in front of an old-fashioned open fire. But what hurt most of
all was the fact that not only did Seb not seem to understand why she was so upset by Sybil’s behaviour, even worse, he actually seemed to be cross with her instead of supporting her and agreeing that it was Sybil whose behaviour was unacceptable.

But then if he had supported her in the way that a loving fiancé should support his girl when another girl tried to attract his attention, none of this misery would have happened in the first place, Grace thought. Surely last night when Sybil had come up to their table and perched there for all the world as though Grace simply hadn’t existed whilst she flirted with Seb, Seb should have clearly, very firmly and publicly put her in her place and told her what was what – that he was an engaged and soon-to-be-married man and that he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with her.

Grace had said as much to Seb later on when her landlady had allowed them an hour alone together in her front room before announcing that she wanted to lock up for the night and that it was time for Seb to leave. But instead of agreeing with Grace Seb had said that it was both unnecessary and impossible for him to take that kind of attitude. Unnecessary because in his opinion Sybil meant no harm and her manner was just her way of behaving, and impossible because as Sybil’s superior it would undermine his own authority if he had to start complaining about her natural friendliness.

‘It’s just her way,’ he had kept on saying, ‘and best ignored.’

‘You mean like she was ignoring me?’ Grace had demanded, and Seb, who had been on the point of taking her in his arms, had drawn back from her to
say quietly, ‘This isn’t like you, Grace, and I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed. Surely you know how much I love you?’

‘Yes, of course,’ she had told him immediately.

‘Then I don’t understand why you are getting so cross about Sybil. What harm can she possibly do to us, after all?’

She had felt obliged to agree with him, and she had woken up this morning determined to put last night behind her, and determined as well to insist despite Seb’s having bought two tickets for the dance that was apparently being held at the church hall, that they did not go.

Because of this wretched Sybil they had hardly spoken at all about the wedding or their own plans, and now Seb had just announced that despite everything she had said he felt that they really ought to go to tonight’s dance.

‘How can you say that?’ Grace demanded.

‘You’ll enjoy it, and besides, what else would we do?’

‘I thought the whole idea of me coming here was so that we could have some time alone together,’ Grace reminded him, almost in tears.

‘Well, yes, but it isn’t as though it’s summer and we could go for a long walk, is it? Mrs Philips has made it plain that she doesn’t want us occupying her front room, and I can hardly take you back to my billet. Come on, don’t be a crosspatch, Grace. You’ll enjoy it if you’d just let yourself.’

‘I’d enjoy it a lot more if Sybil wasn’t going to be there.’

Seb exhaled loudly, and then swung round to face her.

‘Darling, please, do stop being so silly about poor Sybil. She doesn’t mean any harm really.’

How could he possibly believe that? Grace felt as though her throat was choking on the unfamiliar mixture of anger and disbelief that Seb could be so dim.

She would have said what she thought to him, only someone trying to get past them jostled her, causing her to grab hold of Seb’s sleeve to steady herself.

‘Come on,’ Seb coaxed her with a smile. ‘At least if we go dancing I’ll be able to hold you close.’

‘Are you sure it is me you want to hold close?’ Grace challenged him. ‘How do I know that you don’t secretly want to go to this dance just because Sybil’s going?’

The humour had died out of Seb’s gaze and Grace’s heart gave a frightened little flurry of beats. He was so easy-going, was her Seb, that she sometimes forgot that he was also very strong-willed and determined. In the past she had only ever seen that strong will and that determination used to her advantage, but now suddenly she had a feeling that reminded her of the fear she had felt the night the hospital had been bombed at the height of the blitz.

Driven by that fear she continued, ‘When you first told me you were coming down here you never said anything about you being put in charge of any girls.’

‘I’ve already explained that to you. They only arrived a few days ago and they are only here temporarily. It is my job to help train them, Grace, and I’m sorry if that upsets you but that is my job and part of my duty to my country.’

What about your duty to me? Grace wanted to ask him, but somehow she couldn’t.

Was she really getting too old to enjoy dances any more, Katie wondered as she sat sipping her shandy, whilst keeping a watchful eye on the twins, who were both up on the floor, Sasha, all smiles and pink-flushed cheeks, dancing with Bobby Lyons, the young bomb disposal sapper, who had made a beeline for her the minute he had arrived, and Lou dancing nothing like as enthusiastically with one of his friends, or was it simply that she was missing Luke too much to want to enjoy herself?

Luke wouldn’t really like her being here, she knew that much, but even he would have to admit that she could hardly have refused his mother’s hint that she would feel much happier about the twins going to the Grafton if Katie was with them to keep an eye on them.

Carole certainly seemed to have no qualms about what Andy might think of her going out dancing. She was on the floor and in the arms of a young man Katie didn’t recognise, but who she guessed must have asked her to dance whilst Katie had been in the ladies.

It was no fun coming here and being asked to dance with one of Bobby’s friends just so that he could dance with Sasha, when really she would much rather have danced with her twin, Lou thought miserably. But then life was no fun at all at the moment in her eyes. She hated the telephone exchange and thought the work they were learning to do was the dreariest thing imaginable. Mrs Withers, the stern supervisor who was in charge of them, had made it
plain that she didn’t like her and was always criticising her and finding fault with her whilst praising Sasha, even if Lou was deliberating getting things wrong and sabotaging her own success. Once she and Sasha would have giggled together about that, sharing the secret of what she was doing, but even Sasha was frowning disapprovingly at her when she failed to make the right connections in the boards. She could have been just as good as Sasha if she’d wanted to be, but she didn’t want to be. The work was dull and boring, and the place was stuffy and dark, and she longed for the kind of excitement and adventure that was not limited to a Saturday night dance at the Grafton with a gawky UXB sapper.

Out of the corner of her eye, and over Bobby’s shoulder, Sasha watched Lou anxiously. It made her feel all squeezed up inside and tight with misery just thinking about her twin these days because that meant acknowledging how much things had changed between them. What would happen if they went on changing? Would they end up like their mother and Auntie Vi, who were also twins but who were not close at all? Was that what growing up meant?

Deep down inside Sasha knew that there was much more to the widening distance between them than just growing up. She loved working at the exchange, and living at home, she enjoyed knowing that on Saturday evening she would be coming to the Grafton and that Bobby would be there, and that he would ask her to dance and that one day when they were both old enough he would ask her to be his steady, but Lou was just the opposite. That she hated working at the exchange and was doing everything she could
to get herself dismissed really upset and frightened Sasha. If that happened then for the first time in their lives they would end up being properly separated, unless she left with Lou, and she admitted to herself, she didn’t really want to do that.

Growing up was so very difficult. She didn’t want to betray her twin by telling their mother just what Lou was doing at the exchange, but neither did she want Lou to be dismissed. She’d talked to Bobby about it and he’d offered to have a word with Lou on her behalf but Sasha knew that she couldn’t let him do that. Even so, it had pleased her that he had been so keen to help her. He was ever such a nice lad and her parents liked him as well.

Katie sighed to herself when she saw Carole returning to their table accompanied by not just one but four young men. Giggling, she introduced them all to Katie, ending her introduction with, ‘And this is Danny.’

Katie found herself face to face with an extraordinarily good-looking young man with thick almost black curly hair worn longer than the military male haircuts she was used to seeing, his deep green eyes framed by thick long lashes any girl would have envied. When he spoke it was with a soft Irish accent and a look of admiration in his eyes that had the colour storming Katie’s face just as much as the way he was holding on to her hand for conspicuously too long. A little anxiously she looked for the twins, half wishing they would return and half hoping they would not. This was exactly the sort of situation Luke had warned her against, and Katie was bit cross with Carole for putting her into it by bringing over these boys, especially this far too wickedly handsome
one whose gaze said much more than it should on such a short acquaintanceship.

‘So is it true then that you’re sitting there all day reading other people’s love letters?’ he asked, as soon as they were all seated, with him sitting at Katie’s side.

His manner was so engaging that Katie couldn’t object, but nevertheless she gave Carole a reproachful look. They were not supposed to talk about their work.

‘I dare say then that you’ll know all about those things a fella says to a girl when he wants to sweet-talk her?’ Danny continued, even though Katie hadn’t answered his first question.

‘Pay no attention to our Danny,’ Mick, one of the other young men, told Katie, his Irish accent flavoured liberally with Liverpudlian intonation.

‘Or his Irish accent. He just puts that on to impress the girls, don’t you, our Danny?’ put in Liam, another of the young men.

A look seemed to pass between the men.

‘It comes of living with Mam’s family for a few years when I was a little ’un,’ he defended himself, giving Katie another smile.

‘You’re none of you in uniform, then?’ Katie couldn’t stop herself from asking, and she knew from the frown that Mick was giving her that her voice sounded slightly accusatory.