Try a Little Tenderness (33 page)

‘That’s the most sensible thing I’ve heard since I got out of bed, Molly.’ Amy’s face was beaming when she looked at Mary. ‘I’ll knock for yer at eight, girl, okay?’

‘That’s fine, sunshine, and bring yer dictionary with yer, just in case.’

Laura could sense Cynthia’s excitement as they linked arms. And the smile that had been missing for weeks, was back on her face. ‘You seem in a happy frame of mind. Has something nice happened?’

‘I saw them last night, both of them.’

Laura stopped in her tracks. ‘Go ’way! Are yer pulling me leg?’

Cynthia tugged on her arm. ‘Keep walking in case me dad comes out. He was getting ready to go to the pub when I left.’

When they were well away from their street, Laura could contain her excitement no longer. ‘Go on, Cyn, tell us what happened. Did they see yer?’

‘I’d been giving it a lot of thought over the weeks while I’ve been keeping an eye on the pub they took us to. And I began to realise they must have been giving it a wide berth in case I turned up and caused trouble. So last night, I walked back in the direction they were coming from when we met them. I stood in a shop doorway for ages, and it was freezing cold. I was almost giving it up as a bad job when the pair of them came swaggering along on the opposite side of the road.’

‘Oo, er, I don’t know how yer had the nerve,’ Laura said. ‘I’d have been shaking in me shoes in case they saw me.’

‘Yes, but it didn’t happen to you, did it?’ Cynthia came to a stop and faced her friend. ‘Yer have no idea what I went through, Laura, ’cos I didn’t tell yer the half of it. On top of the pain I had, and the raging torment in me mind and the terrible nightmares every single night, I had an even bigger worry that I bet you never even thought of. What if one of them had made me pregnant? For three solid weeks I was out of me mind with fear. I even thought about running away from home, ’cos I couldn’t have faced me parents. But I was lucky, and when me period came on, I thanked God from the bottom of my heart.’

Cynthia sighed as she linked arms with Laura and began to walk. She couldn’t expect her friend to understand the horror and torment, no one would unless they went through it themselves. ‘Anyway, that’s why I’ve been so determined to find them. And now I know which pub they go to, I’ll make it me business to find out where they live. And then I’ll make them pay heavily for what they did to me.’

‘Yer mean to say that yer followed them?’ Laura’s tummy was churning over as she thought of the risk her friend had taken. ‘It’s a wonder they didn’t spot yer.’

‘They wouldn’t have recognised me. I had me old clothes on and a scarf pulled low over me forehead. Anyway, if they had spotted me, they’d have been the ones to get a fright. But I don’t only want to give them a fright, I want to ruin their lives for them. And I swear, Laura, that’s what I’ll do. More so, after what I saw last night.’

‘Why, what happened after yer followed them?’

‘I crossed the road and followed them from behind. When they turned into a pub, I was in two minds whether to wait for them or go home, ’cos I was frozen. I decided to stick it out for a little while, and I was glad I did. They weren’t in the pub long, and when they came out they were with two women. Or girls, I should say – they looked about eighteen or so. Jeff and Larry were full of the joys, laughing and joking, and I felt like walking up to them and scratching
their eyes out. But I thought, no, I’ll bide me time and do the job properly. So I followed them, keeping well into the wall. And guess where they went – down an entry.’

Laura sucked in her breath. ‘They want a damn good hiding, they do. Someone should sort them out.’

‘Oh, I intend to, believe me. Now I know the pub they go to, and roughly what time they get there, I’ll be waiting for them on Thursday. I won’t go as early, ’cos it’s too cold to hang around, but I’ll be there.’

‘I still don’t see what yer can do to pay them back.’ Laura shivered and moved in closer to her friend. ‘I mean, we don’t know any fellers that would knock the living daylights out of them.’

‘I’ve got a plan in me head, but I’m not telling yer about it in case it doesn’t come off. When the time comes, I might get cold feet. I can’t see it, not the way I feel, but I’d rather say nowt until I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.’

‘I’ll be glad when it’s all over and yer get back to normal.’ Laura squeezed her arm. ‘Yer haven’t been the same girl since the night it happened.’

‘I’m seeking retribution, Laura, and if I get that I might be able to get on with me life. I don’t like being miserable, but what happened that night is in me mind all the time, like a nightmare repeating itself over and over again. The only way to rid meself of it, is by paying them back in some way.’

‘I wish I could help yer, Cyn, but I’m not as brave as you. I’m a coward and would run a mile if I set eyes on them.’

‘This is my fight, Laura, and one way or another, I’ll win it.’ Cynthia was well aware that getting even with Larry and Jeff had become an obsession with her, but she couldn’t help it. For what they put her through that night, down a dark entry with no one to call to for help, they deserved to be punished. She gave a deep sigh. ‘Anyway, kid, how are yer getting on with this Gary feller?’

Laura pretended to have a coughing fit, giving herself
time to think of an answer. When her friend was feeling better, she’d want to come to the dance with her, and that was out of the question. But she couldn’t tell her that. ‘We get on fine together. He’s a nice bloke, Cynthia, and not half handsome. He’s taught me all the dances, even the tango.’

‘Has he asked yer for a date, yet?’

‘He’s hinted that we should go to the pictures one Thursday, instead of meeting at the dance hall, but I’ve been too keen to learn how to dance. Perhaps after Christmas we’ll go out together.’

‘Is there romance in the air, kid?’

Laura laughed it off. ‘Ask me again when I’ve had me first kiss off him.’

‘My God, you’re slow, aren’t yer? All these weeks and he’s never even kissed yer?’

‘He’s not like the boys we used to knock around with, they were only kids. Gary’s not the type to kiss a girl when he’s only just met her, he’s more of a gentleman. And I won’t let him bring me home because I have to leave the dance at half ten to be home by eleven, and it wouldn’t be fair on him. But it’ll be different when we go out on a date and we’re on our own.’ Laura tittered. ‘I only hope he’s not a sloppy kisser or I’ll go right off him.’

‘Ay, don’t be so big-headed,’ Cynthia said. ‘He might go off you!’

‘No, he really likes me, Cyn, honest. He dances every dance with me, holds me hand and calls me “babe”.’

‘I’ll have to meet this he-man, and see if I approve.’

‘Oh, yer will meet him sometime, Cyn, that’s for sure.’ Laura crossed her fingers. ‘In a couple of weeks, eh?’

‘I’m glad we’ve got the pleasure of yer company again, sweetheart, ’cos we’ve missed yer.’ Martha Porter waited until Jenny had slipped her coat off, then took it from her to hang up. ‘But why aren’t yer going to sit with the old lady?
I asked our Janet, but she didn’t seem to know. Did the old girl get fed up with yer?’

Jenny laughed as she took a seat at the table, opposite Bill. ‘No, it was me mam that said it was too much for her, four of us there every night. So me and Janet are going one night, and the lads the next.’

No one was more pleased to see Jenny than Bill. ‘About time, too! The six matches yer owe me from the last game of cards has gone up to ten. I’m charging yer interest ’cos yer’ve owed it for so long.’

‘Some hope you’ve got, Bill Porter!’ Jenny winked at her friend. ‘I didn’t know yer brother was a moneylender, Jan.’

‘He’s tight enough to be one,’ Janet said. ‘He wouldn’t give yer the skin off his rice pudding unless yer paid him for it.’

‘Now, now, that’s enough.’ Her father laid his newspaper down. ‘I’m not having two women ganging up on me own son without coming to his aid. What about the time you had the measles, Janet, and yer wouldn’t even give him a spot? He cried his eyes out, but yer wouldn’t budge. Not one spot would yer part with, even though yer were covered in them.’

‘She was generous enough with her colds, though, wasn’t she, Dad?’ Bill was feeling happier than he’d felt for weeks. It was so good to see Jenny’s pretty smiling face sitting opposite to him. ‘Remember that time she sneezed all over me, and I had a runny nose for weeks after?’

Martha joined in now. ‘That was because yer were bending over her, trying to pinch one of her jelly babies. It served yer right, that did.’

Jenny wagged her head from side to side, her eyes sparkling. ‘We never have no rows like this when we’re sitting with Auntie Lizzie, do we, Jan? All we do is act daft and laugh and joke the whole time.’

Janet giggled. ‘Mick and John act daft, we just sit and laugh at them.’

‘Yeah,’ Jenny agreed, ‘I wonder how they’re getting on?’

‘Never mind about them.’ The last thing Bill wanted to do was talk about the two lads he saw as rivals for Jenny’s affection. ‘All ye’re doing is changing the subject, hoping I’ll forget about the matchsticks yer owe me. And the number has gone up to eleven, by the way.’

‘I’ve only got ten with me. I couldn’t take any more because the box was nearly empty, and I couldn’t leave me mam short or we’d have got no breakfast.’

‘Then yer’d better have a winning streak tonight, or yer’ll be in debt to me for the rest of yer life.’ What a lovely thought, Bill told himself. A whole lifetime of Jenny being in his debt. ‘Get the cards out, Janet, there’s a good sister, and we’ll start.’

‘Mr Porter, before we start, can I ask yer to forget ye’re a man, and be on my side for a change? I need all the help I can get to make sure yer son doesn’t cheat. If we’ve all got our eyes on him he’d have a job to hide cards on his knee, covered by the tablecloth. He thinks I haven’t seen him, but I have, loads of times.’

Vincent roared with laughter. ‘Okay, I’ll join the girls. In fact, so I look the part, I’ll borrow Martha’s pinny.’

Bill wagged a finger at Jenny. ‘You are one big fibber, Jenny Nightingale. I never hide cards on me knee.’ A smile lit up his face. ‘I slip them down the side of me shoe.’

By the end of the night, when it was time for her to leave, Jenny had paid the matchsticks back that she owed, and was three in hand. She was over the moon, and holding the matchsticks in an open palm, she held them under Bill’s nose. ‘How about that, then, old clever clogs?’

‘Sheer fluke, that’s what it was.’ Bill gathered the cards in and slid them back in the packet. ‘And the help yer got from me dad did yer no harm. I saw him pass yer the six of diamonds in that last game.’ He put the cards in the drawer of the sideboard. ‘I’ll walk yer home, even though yer cheated and cleared me out.’

‘There’s no need, Bill, I can be home in five minutes if I run all the way.’

Bill wasn’t about to let that happen. ‘I’ll run all the way with yer, so I should be back home in ten minutes.’

‘It’s no good arguing with him, Jenny, he’ll have his own way if it kills him,’ Janet said. ‘I’ll see yer out and go straight up to bed. I’m up earlier than you, ’cos I don’t have a cushy job sitting on me backside all day.’

When the youngsters had left, Martha and Vincent exchanged amused smiles. ‘Isn’t it funny that our Bill goes out every single night when Jenny’s not here?’ Martha took the poker from the brass companion set and lifted the coals in the fire, hoping the draught would inject a bit of life back into it. ‘Anyone would think he fancied her.’

‘I don’t only think it, love, I know it! It’s sticking out a mile, the way he looks at her.’ Vincent chuckled. ‘The only one who can’t see the cow eyes he makes when he looks at her, is Jenny herself. But yer can understand the lad, ’cos she’s a right bonny lass.’

‘She’ll be bonnier still, in another year or so. Our Bill will have a run for his money, believe me.’ Martha hung the poker back in the companion set. For all the good she’d done she might as well not have bothered. The fire was on its last legs and wouldn’t be coaxed. ‘Our Janet’s a pretty girl, too, but we don’t notice because we see her every day. She hasn’t got Jenny’s humour, but there’s plenty of time for her to come out of her shell, she’s still only a kid.’

Vincent reached for his cigarette packet with one hand, and smacked his wife’s bottom with the other. ‘The next year or so could be very interesting, love. I’m looking forward to it.’

Mick put the dominoes back in the box and grinned at John. ‘That’s a tanner yer owe me, pal. But I’ll wait until yer get yer wages on Saturday.’

‘Yer can wait until the cows come home, mate, ’cos we
weren’t playing for money, it was only pretend.’

‘We’ll have no fighting, now, lads,’ Lizzie said. ‘John’s right, it was only pretend. Playing for money is gambling, and I don’t hold with it.’

‘Don’t take anything we say seriously, Auntie Lizzie, we’re always having each other on.’ Mick swivelled in his chair and placed the domino box on the sideboard. When he turned back, he asked the question he’d been dying to ask for weeks. ‘Did yer never think of getting married, Auntie Lizzie? I bet yer had plenty of chances, ’cos I can see yer must have been very pretty when yer were younger.’

John glared at his friend. ‘What d’yer mean, when she was younger? That’s a back-handed compliment if ever I heard one. Auntie Lizzie is still pretty.’

‘Of course she is! Just like Janet is very pretty, but yer don’t seem to see that! She hasn’t half got her eye on you, pal, so yer’d better watch out.’

‘Say that once more, mate, and yer’ll be missing two of yer front teeth. If yer’d wear yer glasses, yer’d see it’s you she’s got her eye on, not me.’

‘I didn’t know yer wore glasses, Mick,’ Lizzie said. ‘I’ve never seen yer in them.’

The two boys looked at each other and burst out laughing. ‘I don’t wear glasses, Auntie Lizzie, that’s John’s idea of a joke. The same as when he says he’s going to separate me from me two front teeth. It’s just wishful thinking on his part.’ Mick’s eyes were tender as he looked at the old lady. ‘Now to me question. Did yer never think of getting married?’

‘Oh, yes! I had quite a few boyfriends when I was a girl, but there was only one lad I ever loved enough to marry. He joined the Army in 1914, and before he went away we got engaged. We wrote to each other every day, and he got a week’s leave before he was sent overseas. We were going to get married when he came home, and I started buying things for me bottom drawer. But I never saw him again;
he was killed in action in 1916.’