by Annie Groves
‘Well, at least your dress is nearly finished.’
‘Aye, but I’ll still have to see the vicar, and our dad will have to have a suit, and then there’s the wedding breakfast.’
‘What about Frank’s mam?’ Molly began.
‘Frank says that he’s written to her and told her. I think I’m going to have to sit down,’ she added faintly. ‘I’ve come over all of a shake. Oh, and he said as how your Johnny will be coming home as well and that he’s asked him to be his best man.’
Molly’s smile faltered.
‘Looks like there’s a letter here for you from Johnny, an’ all,’ June told her, handing her an envelope. Molly hadn’t seen Johnny’s sisters since the night she had seen Eddie off on his ship, and there had been no hint in the two letters she had received from Johnny since then of them saying anything to him.
She was dreading having to tell Johnny that she wanted to end their engagement, but at the same time she was longing to be able to do so. She couldn’t help wishing, though, that Frank had not asked him to be his best man, especially with her being June’s bridesmaid. It was going to be very awkward.
‘Oh, Molly, I was beginning to think Frank’d never get leave.’
June’s face was glowing with happiness, and Molly had to force herself to put her own feelings to one side, for her sister’s sake.
‘Molly, we’ve heard today that my brother is to have leave from the RAF over Christmas,’ Anne announced excitedly as the two girls met up at their now regular meeting point of the Picton Clock. There was an air-raid shelter reasonably close to the clock so they had agreed it made sense to meet there ‘just in case’.
‘Frank and Johnny are to get leave as well,’ Molly told her more circumspectly. Although Anne seemed to have forgotten her own heated words, Molly was very mindful of Anne’s disapproval of her desire to end her engagement, as well as troubled by her own deceit. But what else could she do? She could not confide in Anne, knowing how she felt. And, anyway, it was only right that she told Johnny first that she wanted to end their engagement.
Once she had, she would then have to tell Anne, but if she then chose to turn her back on Molly, then Molly would just have to accept it. The love she and Eddie had for one another was too precious and dear for her to give up – much as she would hate to lose Anne’s friendship.
‘And Frank has written to tell our June to go ahead with their wedding plans.’
Arm in arm, the two girls headed for the school building where the WVS held its meetings.
‘It’s dreadful news about the Royal Oak, isn’t it?’ Anne said quietly, once they were inside. ‘So many lives lost, and at Scapa Flow, where they thought it was impossible for any U-boats to get. I’m so glad my brother isn’t in the navy.’
Molly started to tremble, choking back the anxious words she knew would betray her. It hurt so much, not being able to say how she felt about Eddie and to share her fear for him, but it had upset her to have Anne criticise her so sharply. It was obvious from her manner since then that she assumed that Molly was sticking by her engagement, as she had urged her to do. Anne didn’t realise how it felt to be in love, otherwise she would have been more understanding, Molly comforted herself.
The news of the torpedoing of the Royal Oak had thrown everyone into a sombre mood that wasn’t lightened when Mrs Wesley, the head of their group, announced that she had received a number of complaints from her fellow WVS members in the area to which the Edge Hill and Wavertree children had been evacuated.
‘It seems some of those who were kind enough to take in the children are reporting a very serious lack of good manners indeed. And I’m afraid we have also had reports of a boy of seven who has, on several occasions, lost control of himself and wet his bed. Naturally he has been punished, and severely, but of course such shameful behaviour reflects on us all.’
Molly bit on her bottom lip as she listened to her. A small rebellious voice inside her was telling her that a young boy, separated from his mother and his home, and handed over to strangers, might be so upset and afraid that certain accidents might happen. She felt more pity and compassion for the child than the righteous anger their superior obviously thought they should feel.
‘There are also reports of children stealing, and refusing to do as they are told,’ Mrs Wesley continued sternly. ‘It is a shameful thing indeed when good people take these children in out of the kindness of their hearts and that kindness is abused.’
‘But surely the Government is paying them to house the evacuees,’ a young blonde-haired woman spoke up firmly, much to Molly’s admiration.
‘Well, yes, that is true, but it does not excuse such behaviour. I have been in touch with the mother of the boy concerned and informed her that he will be returned to her. Now, how are we doing with our knitting for our soldiers programme …?’
Molly had discovered in the weeks since she had joined the WVS that their leader was considered by some of the younger members to be a little too set in her ways and old-fashioned. Molly shared those views, and could see in Anne’s eyes that she did too, as did the smart blonde girl who had spoken up.
‘Poor little chap,’ Anne whispered to Molly. ‘I can’t see that beating him would do any good. It will only frighten him all the more.’
‘Now, I want volunteers who are willing to learn to drive. The Government has informed us that it wishes us to ensure that as many of our members as possible are able to drive, and Mrs Noakes’s husband has kindly offered to teach those who want to learn.’
Anne was nudging Molly. ‘Come on! Remember we signed up to do it when we first started?’
The thought of being in charge of a motor car still terrified Molly, but she thought it would be useful to learn, and might prove a welcome distraction from the turmoil of her emotions.
At the end of the evening, when the volunteers were asked to line up, Molly was pleased to see that the smart blonde woman was also volunteering, along with several of the other younger members of the group.
‘Oh, Molly, thank you. He’s growing so fast, he’s out of nearly everything I had already,’ Sally Walker said as Molly handed her the little matinée jacket and romper suit she had knitted up from her own old cardigan. ‘I’ve got the frock from our Dawn for you. It’s upstairs in the spare room. Come on, I’ll take you up.
‘I had a telegram this morning from Ronnie,’ Sally continued. ‘He’s bin given a week’s leave and he’s on his way home. I can’t wait to see him, and neither can this little lad, can you?’ She smiled tearfully. ‘He hasn’t met his dad yet, have you?’
The pink dress was laid out carefully on the bed in the immaculately tidy room. It was obvious that Sally had done her best to display it nicely but Molly’s heart still sank when she saw it. The bright pink colour was even more brash than she had remembered, the fabric shiny and stiff.
‘It’s very kind of you to lend it to me,’ Molly began, trying not to reveal what she was really thinking, but Sally was no fool.
‘I’m right sorry it isn’t better, Molly love, especially after what you’ve done for me. That Dawn never had no taste, and I did everything I could to get her to choose sommat else, but she weren’t having none of it. And I reckon it will be too big for you, an’ all.’
‘I can make a new sash for it,’ Molly assured her. What did it matter what she wore, after all? It was June’s day, not hers. And who knew, perhaps one look at her in it would be enough to make Johnny break off their engagement. She cheered herself momentarily with that thought.
‘So your June’s set the date then?’ Sally asked as they went back downstairs, Molly carrying the dress and Sally the baby.
‘Yes, the Saturday before Christmas.’
‘What about the wedding breakfast? Where is she having that?’
‘She says she’s not having much of a do on account of the war and everything. The vicar has said she can use the church hall, and Elsie from next door has said she’ll help us with everything,’ sai
d Molly.
‘Aye, I reckon the whole cul-de-sac will lend a hand, Molly. Frank’s mam was round here this morning. I reckon she’s a bit put out that they aren’t having sommat a bit posher. Frank’s the apple of her eye and no mistake.’
Molly didn’t say anything. She liked Sally, but she didn’t want to fuel any gossip about Frank’s mother’s disapproval of the fact that Frank was marrying June.
* * *
‘There!’ Molly announced, through a mouthful of pins, as she finished pinning the hem of June’s wedding dress, and sat back on her heels to ease her aching back and survey her handiwork. ‘You can take it off now. I’ve only got to hem it.’
It was gone six o’clock and she had been working on the dress since they had cleared away the remains of their Sunday dinner.
As soon as June had stepped out of the dress Molly put it on a hanger and wrapped it carefully in its protective sheet.
‘Elsie said she’d come round this evening so we can sort out what we’re going to ’ave for the buffet,’ said June. ‘I’ve had a word with me friend up at the baker’s, and she’s promised to let us have some baps.’
‘Oh, I nearly forgot,’ Molly broke in, ‘I was telling Anne about the wedding and she said to tell you that there’s a butcher up on Edge Road who makes his own potted meat, and she reckons she can get you some, if you want.’
It was getting harder by the day to buy food, unless you were prepared to pay black-market prices, or knew someone who knew someone. June was understandably concerned at what the situation would be, come the wedding.
‘Dad’s had a word with Auntie Violet and she’s promised us a nice piece of ham and some of her home-made sausages. If you want, you can tell that Anne she’s invited, seeing as how she’s helpin’ with the food,’ said June.
‘I thought we’d go down to the hall the week before and give it a good clean out – scrub the floor, and that, and the vicar says we can have the Christmas decorations up if we want to make it look a bit festive,’ June told Molly, adding, ‘Oh, and guess what I’ve heard. I saw that Sandra, and she told me that Daisy Cartwright has had to bring her two kiddies back from Wales on account of her Davie wettin’ the bed.’
Molly stiffened. Was their neighbour’s little boy the child the WVS supervisor had been talking about so unkindly?
‘Yoo-hoo.’
Molly hurried downstairs to welcome their neighbour and then came to a full stop when she saw Eddie standing behind his aunt. She blinked once to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, and then a second time to blink away her happy tears.
The temptation to run to him almost overwhelmed her. She heard June come downstairs and into the kitchen, but she couldn’t stop looking at Eddie, greedily absorbing the reality of him. She could hear June and Elsie talking, but she was oblivious to what they were saying, oblivious to everything and everyone but Eddie.
‘I’ve brought you a bit of summat back wi’ me, like I promised,’ she heard him telling her as he offered her a big flat parcel.
‘What’s going on here? You buying our Molly presents, Eddie?’ June asked sharply, but Molly wasn’t listening to her.
Very carefully she opened the brown-paper-wrapped package. Inside it was sky-blue silk taffeta of the most beautiful shade she had ever seen.
‘It was me Auntie Elsie as put the idea into me head,’ Eddie told her gruffly. ‘She said as how you were having to wear Sally’s sister-in-law’s bridesmaid’s dress, and that you didn’t much like the colour. I thought this would match your eyes.’
‘Oh, Eddie.’ Right there in front of his Auntie Elsie and her sister she whispered his name in such a way that she knew she must have given herself away.
‘I would have bin back wi’ it before now, only we came up against Jerry’s torpedoes in the Atlantic. Did for another ship, they did, right in front of us. Poor sods on board never had a chance.’ Eddie shook his head, his eyes clouding over at the memory.
White-faced, Molly looked at him, everything she was feeling revealed in her expression.
‘How about me and you going to the pictures tomorrow night?’ Eddie asked her thickly.
‘Yes,’ Molly agreed quickly, at exactly the same time as June said a firm, ‘No.’
‘Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on,’ June warned Molly after Elsie and Eddie had gone, and they were alone together in their bedroom, getting ready for bed in the angry silence they had shared since Elsie had almost dragged her nephew out of number 78’s kitchen. ‘I’m not daft, you know, and I wasn’t born yesterday. I’ve got two eyes in me head, our Molly, and I could see how you was looking at Eddie, so don’t you go thinking I couldn’t.’ June gave up any pretence of brushing her hair, throwing her hairbrush down on the bed and starting to pace the linoleum-covered floor.
‘Have you no shame? Looking at him like you wanted … and you engaged to someone else as well. I don’t know what’s got into you. And him bringing you that silk and saying it were the same colour as your eyes. Cheek of it, when he knows you’re engaged. As for you going to the cinema with him, you’re going nowhere with him, my girl.’
Molly had heard enough. She stood up to confront her sister. ‘Who says I’m not? You can’t tell me what to do, June. I love Eddie and he loves me, and just as soon as Johnny comes home I’m going to tell him that I don’t want to be engaged to him any more.’
For a moment there was silence and then June exhaled and said angrily, ‘You can’t do that.’
‘Yes, I can, and you can’t stop me,’ Molly retorted, repeating emotionally, ‘Me and Eddie love each other. You heard what he said about that other ship being torpedoed. That could have been him.’ Tears filled her eyes. ‘Who knows how long we might have together and I’m not going to give up a second of it.’
‘But what about Johnny?’
‘I never wanted to be engaged to Johnny in the first place. It was always you who wanted it. This is my life and I’m going to live it my way!’
‘Well!’ June exclaimed, her mouth tightening as she turned her back on Molly and sat down on her bed.
She hated falling out with her sister, Molly admitted wretchedly, half an hour later, in the darkness of the bedroom she shared with June, her pillow already damp with her silent tears. But she was not going to give Eddie up. She was not! And she was going to the pictures with him tomorrow night, no matter what June said to try to stop her.
NINE
Only June didn’t say anything at all – not when they got up, not over breakfast, not one single word.
When their father asked what was going on, June told him bitterly, ‘You’d better ask her that question, Dad. Seeing as she’s the one who’s to blame.’
‘I don’t want to be engaged to Johnny any more, Dad,’ Molly admitted.
‘Well, I did say I thought you was too young.’
‘She hasn’t told you everything, Dad. She’s only got it into her head that she’s in love with Eddie from next door.’
Molly bowed her head.
‘Eddie’s a decent lad,’ her father pronounced, ‘but it’s bound to cause trouble if you go breaking your engagement with Johnny to tek up wi’ him, lass.’
‘That’s exactly what I told her,’ June announced triumphantly.
‘It’s all right for you,’ Molly stormed back, losing her temper. ‘You’re the one who made me get engaged to Johnny, even when I didn’t want to, just to suit your own ends, and it’s yourself you’re thinking about now, not me.’
June’s face burned a dull shade of angry red. ‘I suppose you’ve gone and told Eddie that, an’ all, have you? That it were me as wanted you to get engaged?’
‘What if I have? It’s the truth.’
‘Lassies, lassies,’ their father protested unhappily, but neither of them paid any attention. Hostility and anger had suddenly replaced sisterly love and loyalty.
‘I’m going to work,’ June announced, standing up and ignoring Molly.
‘I’m sorry, Dad,’ Mo
lly muttered before going to get her own coat and trailing after her sister.
‘’Ere, Molly, there’s someone outside asking ter see yer,’ Ruby announced, bursting into the room excitedly ten minutes after the dinner bell had rung. ‘Said his name were Eddie.’
Immediately Molly’s face went bright pink whilst June glared furiously at her.
Ignoring her sister, Molly ran to the door and down the stairs.
Eddie was standing outside, watching the door anxiously. The moment he saw her he put out the cigarette he had been smoking and hurried over to her.
‘I’ve just come to tell you that I’ve had word that we’re sailing today.’
‘Oh, Eddie …’ Her elation was instantly replaced by a dull dread.
‘I didn’t want ter go wi’out saying goodbye proper, like,’ he told her, ‘although I’ve told me Auntie Elsie to tell you that I’d gone.’
Molly looked at him with helpless yearning, longing to beg him to stay with her, but knowing that she couldn’t. She was acutely conscious of the fact that the factory windows overlooked the small yard, and that no doubt if she were to turn round and look up, she would see the curious faces of her workmates looking down at her.
‘Might be gone a bit longer this time,’ he warned her, ‘but wi’ a bit o’ luck I’ll be home by Christmas.’
‘Christmas!’ Molly protested. ‘That’s weeks away!’
‘I want you to wear this for me.’ He reached into his pocket and brought out a fine chain supporting a small locket in the shape of a heart.
‘Oh, Eddie …’ Suddenly it didn’t matter any more who could see them. This moment and Eddie were far too important.
‘There’s nothing I’d like more than to give yer a proper ring, Molly, but that’ll have to wait until …’ They looked at one another, each knowing what the other was thinking.
