Fur Coat, No Knickers
Page 17
‘I was very sorry to hear about Sam and Hetty, Grace.’ Nobby was addressing Grace now, his face sombre. ‘I didn’t know or I wouldn’t have intruded on you all. I know I met them only for a few hours, but I took to them straight away. They were nice people. It must’ve been very difficult for you all.’
As always, at the mention of her parents, Grace’s throat tightened, a rush of emotion threatening to overwhelm her. Polly too began to weep silently and Aggie cleared her throat furiously to hide her feelings.
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t’ve come. Look, I’ll be on me way an’—’
‘No… Oh, no, don’t go, lad.’ Aggie was the first to protest.
Then Grace added her voice: ‘Nan’s right, Nobby, don’t go, please. You’re the first person who’s made us laugh and forget it all since it happened.’ Which was an insult to Stanley and Danny, but Grace was finding it increasingly difficult to care about Stanley’s feelings, and her silent betrayal of the man she had once loved was deeply disturbing to her.
‘Well… If you’re sure I’m not putting you out.’
‘Don’t be silly…’
‘…Of course you’re not putting us out…’
‘…Oh, don’t go, Nobby, please.’
All three women seemed to speak at the same time, causing them all to laugh with relief.
Nobby looked at the women facing him, and the hopeful, anxious faces told their own story. It was only his second time meeting them, but he felt, as he had that first night, as if he’d known the Donnelly family all of his life.
Slapping her knees triumphantly, Aggie bawled happily, ‘Right then, that’s settled.’ Heaving herself from the armchair, she looked down at the young man. ‘You’re staying for dinner, and supper an’ all if you’ve got time. I’ve managed to get a couple of pieces of liver and a few bits of streaky bacon. It ain’t much, but mixed up with some onions and mashed potatoes, it’ll go down a treat.’
Happily bustling from the room Aggie strode down to the kitchen, her step lighter than it had been in ages. She took a small parcel wrapped in brown paper from the larder and unwrapped the precious liver and bacon, her nose wrinkling suspiciously. Rene had brought it by early this morning, tapping her nose and winking, ‘Ask me no questions, an’ I’ll tell you no lies. That’ll be a bob, please, Aggie.’
Aggie had paid up gratefully, thinking it would save her legs queueing for her weekly rations from the butcher in Well Street. Now she wasn’t so sure. The bacon was mostly fat, and the liver appeared to be a funny colour. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen the ginger tom outside Benji’s for a while! Chuckling at her own joke, Aggie looked through the open door down the hallway, from where she could hear clearly Nobby’s deep voice. Then she heard Polly laughing, the clear, tinkling laugh Aggie had almost forgotten, coupled with the softer laughter of Grace. Oh, wouldn’t it be lovely if he could stay a few days! Nobby Clark was better than all the tonics and tranquillizers handed out by harassed doctors in these trying times. If only her Gracie had picked someone like Nobby instead of Stanley Slater…!
Aggie gazed into space, her expression thoughtful. Things weren’t right between Grace and Stanley. She hadn’t noticed it when Stanley had first arrived home. They’d all been overjoyed at seeing him turn up unexpectedly on the doorstep, herself included. But once the euphoria had subsided there had been a marked difference in the way Grace had acted towards her fiancé. And the morning he’d left it had seemed as if Gracie couldn’t wait to get away from him. When she’d asked her granddaughter if there was anything wrong, Grace had laughed it off, claiming everything was fine. But Aggie sensed something different. Any further doubt had been dispelled the minute Grace had walked in the sitting room and seen their visitor. The way Grace’s face had lit up on seeing Nobby told its own story. A worried frown crossed over the fat face. If what she suspected was true, then there was bound to be trouble. Nobby Clark wasn’t the kind of man to take no for an answer, and if he was after Grace he wasn’t going to be put off by an absent fiancé.
As Aggie placed the liver and bacon into a pan of sizzling fat, her face took on a determined expression. Well! If that’s the way things were shaping up, she certainly wasn’t going to put her oar in. She had never thought Stanley good enough for her Gracie, but Nobby Clark… Now there was a man worthy of any woman, and he couldn’t find better than her Gracie. Humming under her breath, Aggie turned her concentration to the dinner.
* * *
Once again Grace found herself standing outside the house with Nobby Clark, but this time there was no reassuring light from the hallway to protect her. Even as she said softly, ‘Thanks for a lovely evening, Nobby. You’ve really cheered us all up,’ the words seemed to echo those she’d spoken to him over a year ago.
That evening, too, had seen the family strained, and it had been Nobby who had brought them all back together with his unflagging humour and charismatic charm. As on that occasion, tonight Nobby had taken them to the pub for a few hours, and for Aggie, who hadn’t been out for a drink since the start of the Blitz, it had been a much-needed outing. Even Polly had left the security of the basement to venture out on the streets, such was the overpowering personality of the man by their side. Now, at eleven o’clock, both Aggie and Polly had settled down for the night in the basement, with Grace saying she’d wait up for Vi and Beryl. Not that anyone was concerned about Beryl’s whereabouts, but Grace liked to know Vi was home safe, that is when she deigned to come home at all – though to be fair to her sister, Vi did normally phone if she intended staying out all night. Plus tonight it gave Grace the perfect excuse to spend some extra time alone with Nobby. Sitting side by side on the top step, Grace wrapped up in her grey winter coat, and Nobby looking like an advertisement for the RAF in his thick navy coat and peaked cap, they looked the perfect couple. With only the stars for illumination in the blackout, Grace could feel Nobby’s presence enveloping her like a shroud, wrapping her up in a cocoon of security. It was a wonderful feeling, and one she was wishing would go on for ever.
‘There! I told you there wouldn’t be any raid tonight. The weather’s too bad for flying.’
Nobby smiled into the darkness, his breath coming out in puffs of cold air in front of Grace’s face. They could barely see each other, but they felt the heat from their bodies mingling. The intimacy generated from such close proximity was causing Grace some uneasiness, but she made no move to leave Nobby’s side.
The young couple had been chatting amicably for nearly half an hour, when Nobby, the tone of his voice changing, said somberly, ‘You know, one of the worse sayings in the world – to me that is – is “I know how you feel”, when usually the person saying it hasn’t got a clue. But I do know how you’re feeling, Gracie. That’s the reason I’ve come home. I didn’t say anything to the others, but my mum and dad were killed in much the same way as yours were. They were in the shelter in the garden when it took a direct hit. There were six of them in it when the bomb dropped – Mum and Dad and four of our neighbours. Some of our other neighbours told me that when the fire brigade and the wardens turned up they said there was no hope of anyone being left alive and so no point in trying to get them out. A couple of the neighbours tried to shift the rubble off the shelter, then another raid started and they had to leave it. When they came back out the same spot had been bombed again. There was absolutely nothing left of the garden, or the house, and half the street had copped it as well.’
Her heart full, Grace leant closer.
‘Oh, Nobby, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. Why didn’t you say something?’
In the darkness Nobby shrugged, his body now slumped in dejection, the grief he had hidden so well all day now welling up inside him.
‘What’d be the point? You all had enough on your plate without me telling you me own problems.’
The feelings Grace had been fighting all evening now came dangerously close to bubbling to the surface. Touching his arm gently she murmured, ‘Nobby!’
The magic of the moment was rudely shattered by the sound of high-pitched giggling and the clicking of high heels unsteadily approaching them.
‘That you, Grace?’ Violet’s voice pierced the night, high with drunken gaiety.
Startled and suddenly flustered, Grace tried to pull away from Nobby’s embrace but he held her firm. Clearing her throat she stuttered wildly, ‘Yes, it’s me. Look, Vi… Look who’s come to visit us.’ Grace could hear her voice rising and cursed herself for acting like a schoolgirl caught out in some playground misdemeanour.
Vi tottered closer, her eyes squinting into the gloom, trying to make out the shadowy figure with her sister.
‘That you, Stan? I thought you’d gone back overseas. You can’t have got another leave already… Ooh…!’
‘Hello, Vi. Grace has been telling me about your new job. Bet it’s a change from serving behind a counter in Mason’s.’
Staggering up the steps, Vi plopped down on the cold stone step beside the uniformed figure.
‘Well, well, look who it is. Nobby Clark. The Brylcreem boy himself. If you’ve come looking for your friend Stanley, you’re too late. The dashing hero’s already departed to fight the dreaded Hun… Unless it was someone else you came to see!’
Grace stirred anxiously. Violet sober was a handful. Violet drunk was impossible.
Angry at Violet, and more so at herself, Grace said angrily, ‘Get yourself in the house, Vi. You’re drunk… And where’s Beryl? I thought I heard the two of you staggering up the road, unless she’s passed out in the gutter. It wouldn’t be the first time.’
Vi rolled her eyes mockingly. ‘Ooh! Aren’t we the miss prim and proper.’ Clutching at the heavy overcoat of the silent man, Vi giggled. ‘She’s talking about our new sister-in-law, Nobby. A bit on the rough side, is Beryl, but she knows how to have a good time.’ She waved her arm drunkenly, gesturing into the darkness. ‘She was behind me a minute ago.’ Then she lowered her voice dramatically, whispering, ‘She’s with a friend, a very nice soldier, but don’t tell Grace, she wouldn’t approve. Our Gracie hasn’t got any vices, Nobby. I keep telling her, we could all be blown to bits any minute, but she won’t take any notice. Good old Gracie. Always the model of respectability, always the golden girl, everyone’s favourite…’ Vi’s voice trailed off, suddenly weary.
The change in her sister’s tone wasn’t lost on Grace. Disengaging herself from Nobby’s grasp, she got to her feet. Holding out her hand she said, softer now, ‘Come on, Vi. I’ll help you in. You can—’
Vi’s arm shot out, brushing away the helping hand roughly.
‘I don’t need any help, thank you.’ Getting unsteadily to her feet, Vi peered down at the shrouded figure of the well-built man and said sneeringly, ‘Well, you won’t be able to turn your nose up at me and Beryl any more, Grace. Because from where I’m standing, you aren’t any better than either of us.’
Mortified, Grace watched her sister stagger into the house, then leant against the stone pillar, her head drooping on to her chin. Vi was right. These past few months Grace had constantly remonstrated with Vi for her gadding about, and here was she, an engaged woman, falling into the arms of the first man to come along.
She heard Nobby scramble to his feet and instinctively shrank back from his touch. But Nobby wasn’t a man to be put off lightly.
Laughing softly he took her arms. ‘Don’t take any notice of her, Grace. There’s no comparison between the pair of you. She knows that as well as you do. She’s just trying to justify herself. Though why she thinks she has to, I don’t know. She’s a grown woman who can do as she wants, and if she feels guilty about how she behaves, well, that’s her problem, not yours.’
Grace moved uneasily. ‘You’d better go, Nobby. I’m sorry if I’ve given you the wrong impression, but…’
The grip on her arms tightened. Then Nobby, no trace of amusement in his voice, growled, ‘I didn’t get the wrong impression, Grace. The first time I saw you with Stan I knew he wasn’t right for you. And now you know it as well, so don’t come that old cobblers with me.’ When Grace’s head dropped further down her chin, Nobby relented and relaxed his grip. Gently, he lifted Grace’s chin with his finger, and whispered tenderly, ‘You and me, we’re right for each other, Grace. I’ve fallen for you, and I think you feel the same way. I’ll go now, but I ain’t giving up.’
When there was no reaction, Nobby’s eyes narrowed and he stepped back. Pulling his peaked hat down over his eyes, he turned up the collar of his heavy overcoat, and said tersely, ‘I’ve got four days’ leave and I promised Aggie I’d call in tomorrow, an’ I ain’t gonna disappoint her. Whether you’re in or not is up to you. Goodnight, Gracie.’
Then, like that night over a year ago, he gave a cheery wave and vanished into the night.
Chapter Sixteen
‘Nan, I’m off out now. Do you want me to pick up anything?’
Grace was in the hallway bundling herself up in her winter coat, hat and gloves in preparation for braving the February wind.
Aggie, standing in the doorway of the library, a duster in one hand and a tin of polish in the other, laughed.
‘Yeah. I’ll have two pounds of best steak, no fat, a pound of bacon, two dozen eggs, a couple of pounds of butter and sugar… Oh, and don’t forget me tea. You’d best get me a couple of packets, I don’t want to run out…!’
Grace grinned happily.
‘So, it’s the usual, then?’
‘Where you gonna try today, love?
‘Oh, I thought I might ask around Liverpool Street. There are plenty of offices there, trouble is, there are lots of women like me in the same boat. Bombed out of one office and looking for similar employment.’
Aggie nodded vigorously. ‘Well, ain’t that what I keep telling you? You’re wasting your time trying to get the same sort of job you had before. All you’re doing is wasting shoe leather.’ Pausing for breath, Aggie looked anxiously at her granddaughter. She hated to see Grace looking so worried, and the last thing she wanted was to add to Grace’s problems, but the bald truth was that they needed another wage coming in. They had been living on the small life insurances paid out after Sam and Hetty’s deaths, but that was nearly gone. And with Polly still too scared to venture far from home, and that lazy cow upstairs keeping all of Danny’s army pay, they were in desperate need of funds. If it wasn’t for Vi tipping up a regular amount of housekeeping, Aggie didn’t know what they would have done.
A nagging unease rippled through Aggie’s large frame, but was quickly squashed. So what if Vi had a job working in a nightclub? It was all perfectly decent and above board. All right, so she had gone off at the girl at first, but, as Vi had explained, she was only checking in the coats of the customers, and some of them were generous with tips, so where was the harm!
Aggie had refused to take any of Vi’s money at first, but that stubborn pride had soon vanished. Now she lived in dread of Vi moving out and getting a flat somewhere away from the East End, though her granddaughter had so far shown no sign of wanting to leave – as long as she was left in peace to do as she pleased.
‘You’re probably right, Nan, but I have to try. If I’ve no luck today… well, then I’ll have to think of something else. Maybe I could get set on in a factory. There’s plenty of warwork going.’ A mischievous smile lit up her face. ‘And if I really get desperate, I can always take Benji up on his offer!’ The elderly Jew in the corner shop had offered Grace a job weeks ago, an offer Grace had hastily refused, much to Aggie’s annoyance.
‘And what’s wrong with that?’ Aggie now demanded indignantly. ‘You’d be near home with no bus or train fares to find, no hours spent trying to get to work, not knowing if the place’ll still be standing when you get there. Oh, no, me girl…’ She shook her grey head vigorously. ‘I’d take the job meself if it was offered, and so would half the women in the street, but old Benji only offered the job to you ’cos he’s always had a soft spot for you.’
Grace’s eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘Really! I’ve never noticed. I only go in there once in a blue moon, so I can’t see how he can have a soft spot for me. Anyway, I’m off… Oh, I nearly forgot the ration books. Won’t get much without those, will I?’
Aggie bustled into the kitchen to fetch the books, which Grace took and quickly left the house before her nan could say any more about her prospects of finding work. That is, the work she was used to. On the spur of the moment Grace changed direction and walked towards the end of the street where the small shop was situated on the corner. If anything it looked grimier than ever. If she ever did take a job here, the first thing she’d do would be to get a large bucket of water and soap flakes and give it a good clean. Never mind that the almost nightly bombing created clouds of smoke, dust and fumes, it was no excuse to be dirty. It was different for those people with their water supply cut off, but their street had been lucky so far. The water had only been off for a day at a time.
Shaking her head, Grace set off to wait on the corner of Well Street for the number six bus. While she waited she thought of the letters that lay in her bottom drawer at home, and experienced a moment’s panic. What if someone should find them…? Then she relaxed. Who was going to go to the trouble of searching her room? Laughing at herself she plunged her mittened hands further into the deep pockets of her coat, then she looked searchingly up the road for any sign of her bus. But the road was empty.
Grace stamped her feet then began pacing up and down, her thoughts whirling around her head. She had received two letters from Stanley in the past month, and three from Nobby in the space of two weeks. It was fortunate for her she was an early riser, else someone else might have picked up the letters for their Gracie from the mat and seen the strange handwriting.