MB09 - You Stole My Heart Away

by Joan Jonker

  Nellie nodded after a short deliberation. ‘That’s just what I thought meself, Victoria, and Molly is always telling me that great minds think alike.’ She pushed herself up, squared her back, stood her bosom to attention, and gave her head three quick shakes, waking her sleeping chins. Walking to the window, which looked out on the yard, she rapped on the pane and wagged a finger, asking Doreen and Jill to come back into the house.

  Molly had been sitting at the table through all this, leaning on her elbows and telling herself they’d miss the butcher’s the way things were going. Still, Nellie was enjoying herself so why worry? She smiled when she remembered the old saying that you die if you worry, you die if you don’t, so why worry at all?

  ‘What is it, Auntie Nellie?’ Jill asked. ‘Is it anything to do with the wedding?’

  Doreen chipped in, her face aglow with excitement. ‘Ay, it’s not half going to be some wedding from the sound of things. Phoebe and your Paul are really going to make it the wedding of the year.’

  ‘With Uncle Corker’s help,’ Jill reminded her. ‘They both said he’s going the whole hog on it, no expense spared.’

  ‘Don’t you two start!’ Nellie glared at the sisters. ‘I’ve had me leg pulled enough for one day. And just because ye’re married to our Steve, Jill Bennett, doesn’t mean I can’t clock yer one.’

  ‘Jill McDonough, she is now, Nellie, seeing as she married into yer family,’ Molly said. ‘And if I were you I wouldn’t dream of clocking her one, because I wouldn’t take kindly to it. In fact I’d be forced to clock yer one back.’

  ‘No yer wouldn’t, girl, not when I tell yer I’ve made up me mind that I don’t want no one else for me best friend, I want to stay best mates with you. I know yer haven’t got big breasts, but mine are big enough for both of us.’

  ‘Oh, that’s taken a load off my mind, sunshine. For a while there I thought yer were going to drop me as yer best mate. And while at first I didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry, I finally told meself I’ve put up with yer for half of me lifetime, so I may as well stay the course to the bitter end, even if it’s only out of curiosity.’

  ‘I knew it would end up like this, girl, ’cos yer’d miss me too much. I mean, like, what would yer do at half past ten every morning if I didn’t call to yours?’

  ‘Sit with me feet up on the couch, sunshine, with a cup and saucer in me hand and four biscuits on the saucer.’ Molly grinned at Nellie’s expression. ‘Yes, sunshine, with you not expected I could take life easy, eat your share of the biscuits, and I wouldn’t call the King me aunt!’

  ‘The King couldn’t be yer aunt, girl, ’cos he’s a man.’

  ‘Oh, of course he is, sunshine, aren’t I silly. That’s a very useful piece of information, Nellie, and I’ll bear it in mind.’

  Molly turned to her two daughters. ‘Now me and Nellie have got our relationship sorted out, can we go back to what yer were saying about the wedding?’

  The sisters exchanged glances. ‘You go first, Doreen,’ Jill said, ‘but leave me a little bit to tell them, ’cos I’m as excited as you.’

  ‘Let me take the baby off yer, sunshine, give you a little break, and me a chance to cuddle me granddaughter.’

  Not to be outdone, Nellie held her arms out for Bobby. ‘Come on, lad, come to yer grandma McDonough.’

  The two children were delighted and shrieked with excitement. ‘Oh, we’ll not be able to hear ourselves think,’ Molly said, hugging little Moll close. ‘I suggest giving her a dummy for a while to keep her quiet, while you bring us up to date on what yer know about the wedding plans.’

  ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ Doreen told her. ‘They’re both due for a bottle, so that will keep them quiet. The bottles are made up already, ’cos we were going to feed them before we went out to the shops.’

  ‘Won’t they be cold by now?’ Molly asked. ‘Yer don’t want them getting colds in their tummies.’

  Doreen put her hands on the table, but before pushing herself up she grinned at her mother. ‘Mam, I remember yer once told me to “Go and teach yer grandma how to milk ducks.” Well, you saying that Bobby would get a cold in his tummy brought it to mind. I do know how to look after my baby, Mam. I’m a wife and mother now, not the selfish, mouthy tearaway I was years ago.’

  Nellie pursed her lips and nodded her head. ‘That’s telling her, girl! My mate forgets you and Jill have yer own families now, and ye’re both doing a good job.’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten, sunshine, it’s just that I haven’t the heart to cut the strings that bind. And I don’t think I ever will, so ye’re going to have to put up with me meddling in your lives.’

  Doreen leaned across the table and kissed her. ‘Mam, the day you stop meddling in my life will be a very sad day for me.’

  Jill was quick to agree. ‘And me! Yer can interfere as much as yer like, Mam, because I know you only want what’s best for us.’ She had always been the most gentle of Molly’s three daughters, and she still was. And now her pretty face shone with the love she felt for her mother. ‘Like now, you are right about the babies’ bottles being cold. We need to stand them in pans of hot water to warm them up.’

  ‘I’ll do it, Jill, you stay there,’ Doreen said before looking at Nellie, who had been listening with interest. ‘I suppose yer know it’s your fault that the babies’ feed has gone cold, don’t yer? If yer hadn’t spent so much time making up yer mind about who to have for a best mate, they would have been fed by now, and we’d be discussing the news about the wedding.’

  Nellie’s shoulders were squared before she faced Molly. ‘Are you going to sit there and let yer daughter talk to me like that?’

  ‘Well, I’m not going to stand and let her talk to yer like that, Nellie. And neither am I going to say she shouldn’t have said what she did, because it’s the truth! No one could get a word in edgeways ’cos yer didn’t even stop for breath.’

  ‘Oh, I must have stopped for breath, girl, otherwise I wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale. I’d be flat out on the floor, making the place look untidy.’

  Doreen slipped out to stand the bottles in a pan of water on the stove, and she chuckled when she heard her mam say, ‘Not another tale, sunshine, for heaven’s sake! Where do yer get them all from? It wouldn’t be so bad if yer were a donkey, we could cut yer tale off.’

  Nellie appealed to Victoria, who was rocking gently as she listened to the exchanges. ‘Now was that a nice thing to say about a mate, Victoria? I’m cut to the quick, I really am.’

  ‘I’ll not get involved, Nellie, but I have to say I am enjoying listening to the various conversations,’ Victoria told her. ‘It is the spice of life for me, seeing as I seldom go over the threshold these days.’

  Doreen came in carrying a feeding bottle in each hand. ‘These are just the right temperature, so we should have about twenty minutes of peace.’ She passed one over to Jill, then asked Nellie, ‘D’yer want to feed Bobby, Auntie Nellie?’

  The little woman looked horrified. ‘Not on yer life, girl! He’s a handful now, and I don’t want to be deactive when we’re discussing my son’s wedding.’

  Molly bit back a chuckle before asking, ‘What don’t yer want to be while we’re talking? I didn’t quite catch it.’

  ‘Deactive, girl, deactive! Sometimes I think yer’ve either got cloth ears, or yer don’t listen proper.’

  ‘Nellie, it isn’t that I don’t listen, or that there’s anything wrong with my hearing. The problem I have is the way yer’ve changed the English dictionary. Or changed the words in the dictionary to suit yerself.’

  Indignant, Nellie balled a fist. ‘I haven’t changed no words to suit meself, so don’t be telling fibs.’

  ‘All right, I give in, but only because if I don’t Jack and Ruthie won’t be getting a meal when they come home after a hard day’s work. Hopefully the news of the wedding won’t take too long, and we’ll make it to the shops before they put the bolts on the doors! And now, while Bobby and Moll are quiet,
there’ll be no distractions.’

  The table wobbled as Nellie shuffled her bottom to a more comfortable position. ‘I know about the wedding, girl, so I can tell yer what yer want to know.’

  Doreen exchanged glances with her sister, who raised her brow in surprise. ‘So yer knew Phoebe was having four maids of honour and two bridesmaids, did yer, Auntie Nellie?’

  Nellie nearly fell off the chair. Speaking in a croaky voice, she said, ‘How many bridesmaids?’ And without giving Doreen a chance to answer, Nellie jerked her head at her daughter-in-law. ‘If this isn’t a leg-pull, and I’ll throttle yer if it is, then how come you know about it and I don’t? After all, I’m only the mother of the bridegroom.’

  ‘Paul came up to our house last night, Auntie Nellie.’ Jill moved the baby over to her other arm for comfort. ‘He asked if I would honour him and Phoebe by being a maid of honour, along with Lily, Doreen and Rosie. He’d already been to see Lily, and from ours he was coming down here to ask Doreen.’ Jill’s smile for her mother-in-law was an affectionate one, for she was really fond of her. ‘I said at first that Phoebe wouldn’t want so many of us because of the expense, but I thought it was really nice of them to ask. Anyway, Steve was delighted and he talked me into it. Not that I needed much coaxing because I’m thrilled to bits. It was the money that put me off at first, if I’m truthful, but Paul said Uncle Corker insists on buying the dresses. According to Paul, he intends Phoebe to have a wedding day she’ll remember for the rest of her life. He also said it wouldn’t be a proper wedding without the Bennett girls, all three of us. Not to mention Lily, Rosie and Dorothy, of course.’

  Molly gasped. ‘All of yer? It’ll cost Corker a fortune!’

  ‘I offered to make our dresses, Mam,’ Doreen said, ‘’cos I was thinking of what a lot of money it would cost to buy six bridesmaids’ dresses, but Paul insisted.’

  Nellie’s narrowed eyes went round the table. ‘Pardon me for breathing, like, but how come you know all this when I haven’t been told? Just wait until I get me hands on our Paul, I’ll bleeding pulverize him. I’m only his mother, like, but he hasn’t told me nothing. It comes to something when I have to hear his plans from somebody else.’

  ‘Ay, hold yer horses, sunshine, don’t be getting yerself all het up until yer’ve heard everything,’ Molly said. ‘Paul only told the girls last night, and where were you last night? Sitting in our house until half past ten.’ She saw Nellie’s mouth open, and was quick to put a hand over it. ‘Before yer say he could have told yer this morning before he went to work, remember the alarm didn’t go off, and Paul and George went out without breakfast because they were afraid of being late for work.’ She gave a sharp nod. ‘So think on, sunshine, before yer shout yer mouth off.’

  Nellie’s manner changed completely after a few thoughts ran through her mind. ‘Yeah, ye’re right, girl, it’s not worth getting meself in a lather over. The best thing you and me can do is get all dolled up for this wedding, and put everyone else in the shade.’

  ‘Ay, sunshine, I’m too old, and too skint, to try and outshine a bride with six bridesmaids! I’ll settle for a nice dress and hat that don’t cost the earth.’

  ‘Blimey, girl, ye’re not going to have that long face on yer all the time, are yer? Right up to the wedding?’

  ‘I haven’t got a long face on me, I’m just being practical, which is something you don’t know the meaning of.’

  ‘Listen to me, girl, and if yer don’t believe me, then take a good look in the mirror. Right now yer’ve got a face on yer like a wet week. But don’t look in this mirror, wait until yer get home. I don’t see why Doreen should have seven years’ bad luck and glass all over the floor, when she hasn’t done anything to deserve it.’

  ‘Nellie, I’m pulling yer leg, sunshine! I thought yer’d have twigged it, seeing as yer know me so well. Of course I’m going to titivate meself up for yer son’s wedding! I wouldn’t let the side down. You and me will be dolled up to the nines, there’ll be no flies on us! A few bluebottles, perhaps, but no flies.’

  Nellie’s smile was growing wider and wider, and her eyes were shining. ‘Ooh, yer’ve got me going now, girl, I can’t wait. Shall we go into town tomorrow and look for our wedding hats?’ The chair Nellie was sitting on was groaning with the strain. If it was able to speak it would have given its notice in.

  The retort on Molly’s lips stayed there, for she couldn’t bring herself to take that look of eagerness off the chubby face. Nellie was almost like a child at times, but it was too late now to try to make her grow up. And anyway, she was probably better off than any of them. She didn’t worry about housework or cooking, and now Lily wasn’t at home to do the washing and ironing, it was done in a haphazard way when Nellie felt like it.

  Molly nodded. ‘We’ll only go to look around, Nellie, don’t forget. I won’t have any money to spend, so get that into yer head now, save any argument tomorrow.’

  Nothing could quell Nellie’s delight. ‘Ay, I’ve had another idea, girl, what yer will like.’ The poor chair was put through another bout of agony from Nellie’s bottom as she twisted this way and that. ‘We could call into the market and see Sadie and Mary Ann. Isn’t that a good idea? And wait until they hear about our Paul getting married with six bridesmaids. That’ll be a big surprise to them.’

  Molly chuckled. ‘Don’t yer think yer should mention that the six bridesmaids are Phoebe’s? I mean, sunshine, it’s her big day, yer can’t keep leaving her out of the wedding plans. Tell Sadie and Mary Ann what yer want about the wedding, true or untrue, but bring Phoebe’s name into it for heaven’s sake, ’cos she’s the main one on the day. The one all eyes will be on. And I bet she’ll look like a million dollars.’

  Nellie’s eyes rolled. She wasn’t going to let that pass without a comment. ‘And my Paul will look like Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind. Tall, dark and handsome.’

  ‘Well, that’s what Paul is, sunshine. Tall, dark and very, very handsome.’

  That pleased the little woman very much, and to groans and creaks from the chair, she began to swing her legs. There was only one blot on Nellie’s horizon now, and that was the absence of tea and biscuits. ‘Doreen, I’ll take Bobby off yer now, to give yer a break. He’s a ton weight these days, yer arms must be tired.’

  Doreen wasn’t going to argue, for her son wouldn’t keep still for a second. ‘With pleasure, Auntie Nellie, he does tire me out.’ She handed the baby over. ‘He’ll be going down for his nap soon, and it’ll give me a breather.’

  Nellie sat Bobby on her knee, then moved her head quickly when he made a grab for her nose. ‘Now you behave yerself, lad, be a good boy for yer grandma Nellie. And when yer mam has made me and Grandma Molly a pot of tea, I’ll give yer half of one of me biscuits.’

  Molly gasped. ‘Have yer no shame, Nellie McDonough! Yer put me to the blush, yer really do! It’s manners to wait until ye’re asked if you’d like a cup of tea, yer don’t take it for granted that people are going to wait on yer.’

  ‘But I’m thirsty, girl, ’cos we didn’t have a drink in Hilda’s, and me mouth is as dry as sawdust. Your Doreen doesn’t mind, I’m like one of the family.’

  ‘Not only do I not mind, Auntie Nellie, I’d be delighted, because I’m dying of thirst meself. And Aunt Vicky must be wanting a cuppa, so it’s tea and biscuits all round.’

  Jill pushed her sister back in the chair. ‘I’ll see to it, you relax while yer’ve got the chance. Bobby’s enjoying himself with Auntie Nellie. And Moll’s quite content with me mam. I know where everything is, and refreshments will be on the table in ten minutes.’

  During that ten minutes, little Moll had dropped off to sleep in Molly’s arms, and Bobby was having trouble keeping his eyes open. ‘I’ll take Bobby now, Auntie Nellie, and I’ll put him in his pram,’ Doreen said. ‘And Moll can go down on the couch, Mam, and they’ll both sleep for an hour.’

  With the children settled, the grown-ups sat back to enjoy their tea and biscuits. ‘W
hat are yer having for dinner tonight, Mam?’ Jill asked. ‘Anything exciting?’

  ‘Everything has gone to pot this morning, what with staying longer round at Rita’s and Hilda’s. So it’s going to be an easy meal, and I quite fancy bacon, egg, soft tomatoes if the greengrocer’s got any, and fried bread. Cheap and easy, and a favourite with Jack and Ruthie.’

  Nellie’s head was nodding. ‘Sounds good to me, girl, so I’ll have the same. As yer say, it’s quick and easy, and tasty into the bargain.’

  Victoria leaned forward in her chair. ‘I rather fancy the same myself, Doreen, what do you think?’

  Doreen nodded. ‘It’s fine by me ’cos Phil is very partial to bacon and eggs. So that’s us sorted as well.’

  ‘It’s Steve’s favourite,’ Jill said, ‘so it looks as though the whole family are sorted out.’

  They talked about things in general for a while, then Molly said it was time to leave. ‘We’ll just catch the shops before they close for dinner if we put a move on. I don’t like shopping in the afternoon. So finish yer tea, Nellie, and we’ll be off.’

  Replenished now, Nellie was quite happy to be on their way. So after hugs and kisses, and a peep at the sleeping babies, the two mates set off for the shops.

  ‘Ay, I’ve enjoyed meself, girl,’ Nellie said, looking up at Molly. ‘It’s been a nice morning, don’t yer think?’

  ‘It’s been a long one, sunshine, interesting and funny in parts. And to think the day started for you when the alarm didn’t go off. It’s a funny old world.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  The mirror over the mantelpiece in the McDonough house was far too high up for Nellie to see herself in. She jumped up and down in an effort to see her reflection, but all she could see was the top of her head. She did think about standing on a chair, but she dismissed that idea very quickly, ’cos it was only a couple of weeks since she’d had trouble with a chair and she didn’t fancy going through that again. She wasn’t a vain woman, and usually she didn’t really care what she looked like, but today was different. She was going to take her mate’s suggestion and make a fuss of her husband when he came in from work, to make up for forgetting to switch the alarm clock on for this morning. He’d been in a right temper over it, for he’d had no time for breakfast and would be late for work.