The Would-Be Wife

by Annie Wilkinson

  ‘How do you know? Have you been everywhere else in the British Isles?’

  ‘No, I read it in a travel book when we were steaming back from the fishing grounds,’ he grinned. ‘Anyhow, I’ve looked up to Morecambe Bay from Fleetwood many a time, and it don’t look bad. I’ll miss a trip, and go to see my mother if you’ll come with me. She’ll make you welcome.’

  ‘What about your motorbike?’

  ‘Sod the bike. I’d rather you came.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Lynn wavered. ‘I’m not divorced yet, and there’s Simon.’

  ‘Bring him. I’ve told you, she’ll give you both a right gradely Lancashire welcome.’

  ‘What about your stepfather?’

  ‘He’ll make you welcome, as well. We could have a week there, maybe a fortnight.’

  ‘Well, I don’t know about a week – and a fortnight’s out of the question. I might be able to do Saturday to Tuesday if I get a long weekend, but . . .’ She hesitated for a moment, and then suddenly made her mind up. ‘All right, I will. I’ll come. I’ll find out when I can have some leave, and I’ll come – just to see if it’s better than Cornwall. I’ve been there. It’s magic.’

  ‘It is, better than anywhere. It’s there in black and white – in a book.’

  ‘I’m holding you responsible if I use my days off, and it’s not.’

  They paused for a moment, and turned back, to see Brenda and Anthony in a passionate embrace, with the night sky and the silver-streaked waters of the Humber as a romantic backdrop.

  ‘Aaah, look at that! I’n’t it sweet?’ Lynn mocked.

  Alec laughed, and curling his tongue back with his fingers he sent an ear-splitting whistle in their direction. The lovers waved and as they walked towards them Alec held Lynn in a tight embrace and kissed her.

  ‘How’s your divorce going, Lynn?’ Brenda laughed, as they drew near.

  Lynn felt Alec’s eyes rivetted on her. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I haven’t heard anything since I got a copy of the petition. He must have got his at the same time, but I haven’t heard anything yet.’

  ‘You can get married a lot quicker than you can get divorced, by the look of it,’ Brenda said, with an air of suppressed excitement and a surreptitious glance in Anthony’s direction.

  ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘That only takes three weeks. Shall we tell them?’

  ‘I haven’t told my mam, yet.’

  ‘I haven’t told mine, being as we’ve only just decided.’

  ‘I can guess. You’ve asked her to marry you,’ Lynn said.

  ‘Well . . .’ Brenda hesitated, and then burst out with it.

  ‘We’re putting the banns up tomorrow, and we’re getting married after his next trip.’

  ‘I’m making an honest woman of her.’

  ‘I was an honest woman before!’

  ‘Well in three weeks’ time you’ll be an honest married woman, then.’

  ‘We could have had a double wedding if you’d got your divorce in time,’ Brenda said.

  Lynn shook her head. ‘You’d have to wait a lot longer than the next trip,’ she said. ‘I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get the decree nisi, and you can’t apply for the decree absolute until six weeks after that. I don’t know how long it takes to come through after you’ve applied.’

  ‘Oooh no! We can’t wait that long, can we, Anthony?’ Brenda laughed.

  ‘No, we can’t.’

  ‘And have you thought about my dad? His ship doesn’t get in until the day you sail, Anthony. If the timing’s as bad after the next trip, he’ll miss the wedding. So what’s the rush?’ Lynn teased, looking pointedly at Brenda’s waistline.

  ‘Don’t worry, I shan’t be going into labour halfway through the ceremony,’ Brenda laughed. ‘Not like that lass who just managed to say “I do” before she got rushed off in an ambulance! But we want to tie the knot as soon as we can, don’t we, Anthony? Maybe your dad can miss a trip, make sure he’s at home.’

  ‘I doubt if he’ll be able to do that. We’ll just have to trust to luck, that’s all,’ said Anthony.

  ‘Yeah, it’ll be all right,’ Brenda nodded. ‘And it’s not as if he’s got to give anybody away, is it?’

  ‘Well, no, but he might like to be at his only son’s wedding,’ Lynn protested, a little miffed at seeing her father’s interests swept aside.

  ‘I hope the Arctic Fox comes in with a better catch than the Raven. Silly buggers, calling a ship after a bird! They ought to know birds are unlucky,’ said Anthony – changing the subject rather than oppose Brenda, Lynn thought.

  ‘Tempting Providence, my mother would say,’ she murmured.

  Brenda laughed ‘That’s just a daft superstition.’

  ‘I know it is,’ Lynn agreed, and had a flash of inspiration. Brenda was young, no nonsense, and not from Hessle Road. Here was a golden opportunity to unload that wedding dress on somebody who wasn’t ruled by signs and omens.

  ‘We’re about the same size, you and me, Brenda,’ she said. ‘You can have my wedding dress if you want it. It cost my dad a fortune, and there isn’t a mark on it. It’s beautiful.’

  Chapter 15

  ‘Does it have to be in three weeks? And what about your dad? What if he doesn’t land at the same time as you? Can’t you give us a bit more time to get everything organised?’ Nina demanded, early the following morning.

  ‘We’ve already been to see the vicar and put the banns up, and my mother’s got everything else in hand,’ Brenda said.

  ‘There won’t be much for you to do.’

  Nina pulled a wry face. ‘Well, thank goodness it’s a son getting married this time, so we don’t have to do all the paying.’

  ‘Talking of paying,’ Lynn said, ‘I can save you quite a bit, Brenda. Come upstairs.’

  When she saw the dress, Brenda’s expression alternated between admiration and dismay. ‘It’s gorgeous, she said. ‘It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been looking at wedding dresses in Hammonds ever since we started to get serious. It’s the nicest one I’ve seen in my life, but so many pearls!’

  ‘But you’re not superstitious, Brenda! Try it on,’ Lynn urged.

  Brenda stripped to her underwear and Lynn helped her on with the dress and then pulled back the bedroom curtains. The folds of the skirt shimmered and the pearl-encrusted bodice gleamed in the sunlight. The silk rustled as Brenda twirled in front of the mirror with shining eyes, examining her reflection from every angle.

  ‘It fits you all right,’ Lynn said.

  ‘Well, it’s lovely,’ Brenda kept repeating. ‘Really gorgeous.’

  ‘It really does something for you. It suits the colour of your hair. It looks better on you than it did on me.’

  Brenda hesitated for a second, then shook her head. ‘It really is gorgeous, but ooh, no. I couldn’t have pearls. Not on my wedding day. And Anthony’s already seen it, obviously, so that’s unlucky, as well.’

  ‘I thought you weren’t superstitious. You’re getting as bad as the fishermen.’

  ‘I know, but I’m not so un-superstitious I want to wear so many pearls on my wedding day, when I think about the sort of things that sometimes happen at sea.’

  ‘Ah, well,’ Lynn sighed, helping her off with it.

  With a last, lingering look at those glistening sequins and pearls and a ‘Thanks anyway, Lynn,’ Brenda bit her lip and withdrew.

  Lynn left the dress on the bed and followed her downstairs, feeling curiously relieved. Her mother and Anthony looked at them expectantly.

  ‘Did it fit?’ Nina asked.

  ‘Like a glove,’ said Brenda.

  ‘Do you like it?’

  ‘Aye, I like it, and I’d have liked to save my dad a bit of money, but it’s not for me,’ Brenda said, with a slight shudder. ‘And you didn’t have much luck after wearing it, did you, Lynn?’

  Lynn’s mother spoke for her. ‘No, she didn’t.’

  Anthony put his arm round
Brenda and gave her a squeeze. ‘Now who’s superstitious?’

  ‘Well, I’m getting into seafaring mode now, and it’s no use tempting fate, is it?’

  He gave her another squeeze, and a quick kiss. ‘I’m glad,’ he grinned. ‘I’d rather buy you a new one.’

  ‘With whose money?’ Nina wanted to know.

  ‘No, we’ll do it right,’ Brenda said. ‘My dad’ll buy it. I’ve tramped all over Hull, and I haven’t seen one I really like, so I’m going to Leeds. I’ve heard they’ve got some beautiful wedding dresses in Schofields. Come with me, Lynn, and we can get Simon’s pageboy outfit at the same time.’

  Lynn’s heart sank. She would have preferred to spend her day off in some obscure corner with Alec rather than ride the rails and tramp round shops, but this was a bride to be, and the girl who was going to be her sister-in-law at that.

  ‘All right,’ she said, with all the good grace she could muster.

  ‘I’ll go and get the money off him, then. Meet you in the station, for the next Leeds train,’ Brenda grinned.

  ‘Is she pregnant?’ her mother asked, when they’d gone.

  ‘Not as far as I know.’

  ‘What’s the rush, then?’

  Lynn laughed. ‘Head over heels in love, maybe. I dare say some people are, when they decide to get married.’

  ‘Hmm,’ her mother said, and after a pause asked, ‘Why don’t you have another go at your marriage, Lynn? Give it another chance? When I’m on my own with Simon, he talks about Graham non-stop; his daddy’s got this, his daddy’s got that. He wants to go and live with his daddy.’

  ‘He never says that to me,’ Lynn said. ‘All he says is he wants to live in the house with the swing in the garden. So all right, I’ll get him a swing for your garden, and that’ll settle that.’

  ‘And Graham’s told me he’s up for another promotion – he’ll be earning good money,’ Nina said, with the pound signs shining in her eyes. ‘You could be made for life.’

  ‘With a bloke who shifts another woman into my bed after I’ve been gone two minutes? And brazens it out when I confront him with it? That’s not my idea of being made for life.’

  ‘If you’d taken a bit more notice of him, he might never have strayed, but you’re too wrapped up in that job of yours. Anyway, he’s changed. He’s learned his lesson. He’ll never go off the rails again, after all this upsetment.’

  So, Graham was working on her mother, as well as on Simon, Lynn thought. ‘How do you know what he’ll do?’ she flared. ‘What sort of crap has he been telling you, while I’m not here?’

  Nina frowned. ‘He’s packed that Mandy up. He never wanted her in the first place; it was her that did all the running. He wants you back, is what he’s been telling me, and you won’t even give him the time of day. I feel sorry for him. I don’t think anybody’s ever regretted anything more than Graham regrets the Mandy episode. And I’ll tell you this as well, while I’m at it. I don’t like being snapped at like that in my own home.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Yeah, you should be. I’ve run my blood to water for you, more than the other two put together.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Lynn repeated.

  ‘Two grown women in a house – it never works,’ Nina muttered.

  Lynn bit her comments back, and seethed inwardly. If only she’d passed her midwifery exams. If only she’d never started midwifery in the first place, but had gone for a decent job in general nursing, she might have been able to afford to rent a house of her own. Even then, she could only pay the rent by going to work and earning the money, and to do that she needed her mother’s help. Whichever way she tried to work it out, it always came back to that. There was no escape. She felt a headache coming on and went to the kitchen cupboard to extract four tablets from the aspirin bottle. Since she had no option but to go to Leeds with Brenda, the last thing she needed was a banging headache.

  ‘Simon, keep hold of my hand!’ Lynn warned, before they got off the train. ‘Leeds is a big place. If we lose you here, we might never find you again.’

  She kept a tight grip on him and Brenda kept a tight grip on her bag as she steered them up the Headrow among the throng of shoppers, making a beeline for Schofields. The store was packed, with people milling around in all directions. They found the lift, and waited. The doors opened, and there stood a girl with luminous green eyelids, a dark, Mary Quant bob, and a man – presumably her own.

  Mandy! Though taken aback, Lynn looked her straight in the eye and had just enough presence of mind to ask the question she’d rehearsed for weeks, the question she’d fantasised about asking if she ever crossed her path again.

  ‘Have you got the time, by any chance, Mandy?’

  The effect was as pleasing as Lynn had imagined in her most satisfying daydreams. Mandy was stunned, almost out for the count.

  ‘I haven’t got a watch!’ she gasped.

  ‘Oh, dear! Better get your old one mended, then . . .’

  Mandy flushed and manoeuvred her escort away.

  Triumphant, Lynn let go of Simon’s hand, and took half a step after them, keeping her foot in the lift doors to stop them closing. ‘. . . or buy a new one while you’re here!’ she called after her. ‘And don’t forget to send Graham the bill.’

  For a split second Lynn was torn between travelling up to Bridal in the lift with Brenda and Simon, and chasing after Mandy to ask for an introduction to her husband – only fair, she would argue, since Mandy knew hers so very well. Glancing down she saw the alarm on Simon’s face and got in the lift. ‘Who was that? Who’s Graham?’ she fancied she heard Mandy’s escort ask before the doors closed.

  ‘I thought we were going to lose you, Mum!’ Simon protested.

  Brenda was looking at her with some concern as they travelled upwards, as if she half expected her to burst into tears. Instead, Lynn gave her a beaming smile, elated at the result of her unexpected encounter with Mandy. Coming to Leeds hadn’t been a waste of a day after all.

  The dress Brenda chose was a sleek Empire line – a straight, long-sleeved affair in pure white satin, as different from Lynn’s silk and pearls as possible, with cleaner lines, fewer embellishments, and a much lower price-tag. It was elegant, new, and looked well with the coronet of silk roses and the veil the assistant suggested. Since no alterations were necessary she wrapped it carefully in lavish amounts of tissue paper and handed it to Brenda in a carrier.

  Simon tugged at Lynn’s sleeve. ‘Can we go home now?’

  ‘Not yet; we’ve got to get a pageboy outfit for you.’

  ‘I don’t want a pageboy outfit. I want to go home. My dad’s coming for me.’

  After Brenda had rejected the second pageboy outfit he tried on, Simon grew rebellious, wriggling and pulling away from them, making it impossible to dress him, and acting generally like a little ruffian.

  ‘When are we going home?’ he demanded. ‘I want to go home!’

  Lynn gave up and handed the rejected outfits to the assistant.

  ‘It’s two o’clock already. I want a bite to eat and a cup of tea. Then we’ll go home,’ she said, and promised Brenda: ‘We’ll get something for him in Hammonds.’

  In the crowded café they managed to get a table just as some other people were leaving, and dumped their bags on the seats. Leaving Brenda and Simon to hold the table Lynn went to join the queue, but found her path blocked.

  ‘Who are you, and who’s Graham?’ the man in front of her demanded.

  Lynn saw Mandy sitting among her parcels at a nearby table. ‘What’s more to the point is, who are you?’ she countered. ‘Are you that woman’s husband, or somebody else’s she’s just borrowing for a while?’

  ‘I’m her husband!’

  ‘Congratulations. Now, maybe you’ll let me get past.’

  Seeing that they were attracting some attention from the people at nearby tables he gave way, and Lynn continued towards the line of people waiting at the counter, glancing at Mandy on her way p
ast. Rabbit in the headlights was an apt description for the look on her face. Lynn couldn’t suppress a chuckle.

  The husband stayed close behind her. ‘You haven’t answered my question,’ he said.

  She turned to face him, unable to wipe the smile off her face. ‘I’ve given you enough clues, but if you can’t figure it out for yourself let Mandy tell you. She knows.’

  ‘She doesn’t. She’s never seen you in her life before.’

  ‘All right,’ Lynn shrugged, and joined the queue.

  ‘You’re a nutcase,’ he said, and stared after her for a moment or two before returning to Mandy and her many parcels – glamour wear lavished on her by the doting idiot by her side, Lynn imagined. No wonder she didn’t want to be named as co-respondent; she must have done her sums and decided she was better off with her blockhead of a husband.

  Lynn made her choice of sandwiches and crisps, ignoring them both. By the time she’d waited for tea and orange juice and was taking everything back to her table, they were gone.

  Brenda had heard some of the exchange. ‘You should have told him straight,’ she said, lifting plates of sandwiches off the tray. ‘It would have served her right.’

  ‘I did the best I could without a hammer and chisel,’ Lynn shrugged, ‘but he doesn’t want to believe it, does he? So he won’t. He called me a nutcase, and I’m calling him an idiot. No wonder she despises him.’

  ‘How do you know she despises him?’

  ‘Well, she went running after somebody else’s husband, didn’t she? Anyway, the code stopped me spelling it out for him.’

  ‘What code?’

  Lynn sat down. ‘You know the one. The code that kept you and everybody else from telling Connie about Gordon and his best mate’s wife and the barmaid at the Good Fellowship, and stopped all Graham’s workmates and pals from telling me about Mandy. I thought I had a friend in Kevin Walsh’s wife, but she left me in the dark as well.’

  ‘Oh, that code,’ Brenda said, through a mouthful of bread and ham salad. ‘The tom cats’ omertà.’

  ‘That’s it. Anyway, I couldn’t say anything that might have started a fight in a posh shop like Schofields, could I?’