The Dressmaker's Daughter
Page 44
One by one the hangers-on left, and Alice, Maxine and Herbert drifted back to number 48. Just after midnight Billy Witts announced he ought to leave, too. Henzey duly fetched her best hat and coat from the hall, and gave Jesse and her mother a goodnight kiss.
‘It’s been a happy day for me, seeing you two married,’ Henzey confessed. ‘I know you’ll be happy.’
Lizzie wrapped her arms around her. ‘Thanks, my flower. You don’t know how much that means to both of us.’ A pang of guilt struck her that she’d said nothing to her about the child in her belly.
‘Goodnight, Mom. Goodnight, Jesse.’ Henzey took Billy’s hand. Billy raised his free arm in a gesture of goodnight, and they left the newly-weds to their first night together.
As Henzey and Billy walked across the street, Lizzie watched them from the front room window of the dairy house. They stood by his car holding each other in a clinch for about five minutes, pecking at each other’s lips occasionally, looking into each other’s eyes and laughing. Unless she gets rid of him and goes to bed soon she won’t be up for work in the morning, she thought.
‘Are you coming to bed, Lizzie, or are you gunna stand ganning on them pair all night?’ Jesse called from the bedroom, after settling his mother for the night.
Lizzie dragged herself away from the chink in the curtains and went upstairs. ‘I just wanted to make sure Billy hadn’t gone in the house with her at this time of night.’ She kicked off her new shoes with relief and slumped onto their new bed. ‘If they do, I’ll know they’re up to no good. I just don’t trust that Billy, Jesse.’
Jesse peeped through the curtains. He saw Henzey and Billy going into the entry boisterously, holding hands. He turned away, and said nothing of it to Lizzie, to save her worrying. He shifted his braces from his shoulders and they hung down at his sides. ‘Billy’s all right, don’t malign the chap,’ he said. ‘You can’t be Henzey’s guardian angel every hour of the day and night. And anyway, let her have her fun – you’ve had yours.’
‘And look where it’s got me. Pregnant and nearly forty.’ She hitched her dress up and unfastened her suspenders.
‘What d’you mean, Lizzie? You only married the most eligible bachelor on Kates Hill,’ he laughed. ‘Even the doctor said so. Anyway, Billy’s gone now, so stop your werriting.’
‘You know how I am about her, Jesse. I don’t want her to get into trouble.’
He chuckled. ‘Like you, you mean?’ She hit him playfully. ‘Lizzie, be ruled by me.’ He was removing his rear collar stud. ‘She won’t get into trouble. She’s got a sight more sense than you give her credit for. You’ve got to let go of her sometime. God knows how you’ll be when the other two are her age.’
She slid her stockings down her legs and hung them over the bedrail, pondering his words. Jesse detached his collar, took off his shirt and unbuttoned his trousers.
‘Unfasten my frock, Jesse, will you?’
She stood up, turned her back towards him and his fingers nimbly undid the fastenings. As her dress fell to the floor around her, he kissed the back of her neck and she shivered at the sensation. She turned her face to him and smiled saucily, like the young girl he remembered.
‘Hurry up into bed, Jesse, and warm it up. It is our first night, you know.’
‘Race you there,’ he said.
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About the Author
Nancy Carson lives in Staffordshire and is a keen student of local history. All her novels are based around real events, and focus on the lives and loves of the people of the Black Country.
www.nancy-carson.com
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