Graham beamed at her. ‘Indeed we are, Bella. We’re going to a dinner dance at the Queen’s Hotel.’
With these words and a final swish of her long dress, they left. Bella, who knew all the story of Graham’s marital troubles, gazed at her cards and snorted. ‘You wouldn’t think he had a wife, would you? Gallivanting with Hattie to dinner dances. It’s no’ right.’
Granny glared at her. ‘Just you mind your cards, Bella, or else I might win.’
This threat was enough to make Bella study her hand with intensity. If there was one thing she loved more than her continued ill health, it was to win at cards and scoop all the pennies into her apron pocket.
‘Anyway,’ said Granny, ‘I think Graham behaved like a true gentleman – giving up living here and going to look after his injured wife, at least while she needed him. He should have told Hattie but, there again, maybe he didn’t want to hurt her feelings or promise her something that might not materialise.’
Bella gave her another sour look but then snapped back to attention when Alice unexpectedly won the game.
As the cards were being dealt out again, Bella gave me a pseudo-innocent look. ‘And when will we hear wedding bells for you, Ann. Lily will be leaving in the summer for her art college and that means you’ll be biding on your own if you don’t pull out all the stops to get another man.’
Before I could answer and much to my amazement, Lily said, ‘Don’t be so rude to Ann! She’ll get a great man one of these days. He’ll be good-looking and rich and he’ll fall head over heels in love with her.’
Granny laughed and the tension was broken but trust Bella to hit the nail on the head with her statement. Lily might make it sound like there were loads of eligible fellows hanging around me but that was just a fantasy in her ever-fertile imagination.
The truth was much bleaker – in the real world, the only man I ever met on a regular basis was Joe.
Afterwards, when Bella went home with the majority of pennies in her pocket, Alice said, ‘It’s good that Bella’s not walking around with her stick any more, Nan.’
Granny laughed. ‘Aye, we never got to the bottom of that wee incident, did we? We think the reason she kept quiet about it was because she’d had too much to drink from her medicine bottle.’
We all laughed.
There was some good news around in the shape of Danny’s shop. He was steadily building up his trade and I made a mental promise to go and see Maddie soon as I hadn’t seen her in over a week. She didn’t like coming out on to the snowy pavements and I knew they still hadn’t found another house.
Minnie and her son Peter were two other people I hardly saw during those winter days. They had managed to get another house in Albert Street and I promised myself I would go and see them as soon as this awful snow finished. But working the longer hours in the shop left me with little time for socialising. In fact, there were some nights I was in bed and asleep before Lily. When this happened, she would remark, gazing at me with her youthful but solemn eyes, ‘You are getting older, Ann, aren’t you?’
I would laugh and pretend to throw my pillow at her but she was right. I was certainly not getting any younger. I tried hard not to think of the time when she would be gone. This house would be so silent and empty and I didn’t think I could bear it. But did I have a choice? No, I didn’t.
The winter seemed to go on forever as we went about muffled up against the snow showers. We were all longing for spring and the sun and Maddie was longing for June and the birth of her baby. It was as if we were all in a world of waiting – a sort of limbo – and we were just putting in the time until the perfect day arrived.
But spring did arrive in May and we were all grateful to feel the warmth of the sun again on our faces. The roads and pavements became black once more as the snow slowly melted.
Lily was doing her final exams at Rockwell and she concentrated on her homework every night. This gave me an excuse to visit Danny and Maddie and on one of these visits they took me to see a house they were interested in. It wasn’t too far from the Pringles’ house but still far enough away for them to lead their own lives. I had the feeling that Danny was longing for a place of his own although he hadn’t said anything.
The house lay basking in the evening sunshine, like a fat contented cat, I thought. Long golden rays spread over the large garden and turned the west-facing windows into molten gold. It was an enchanting house and I liked it straight away. But I remained silent because it wasn’t me who would be staying in it.
Danny had been given the key from Mr Pringle who was acting as executor for an old lady who had recently died. Her only son lived in England and he had given the entire sale over to Mr Pringle. The only stipulation he had made was on the price. He knew what it was worth and he wanted the market price for it.
We wandered through the empty rooms. Dust rose as we walked over the bare wooden floors and mingled with the golden beams of sunlight. The living room window overlooked the river but because it lay on higher ground than the Pringles’ house, the entire panorama was stunning.
Maddie and Danny loved it. I could tell by their faces.
Maddie said, ‘Can we afford it, Danny? Also it’ll take more to furnish it. The flat was so small we didn’t need an awful lot of furniture.’
That was true and I couldn’t visualise their small amount of furniture filling this empty space.
‘Your dad will arrange a mortgage for us, Maddie, and we’ll just have to take our time with the furnishings. As long as we get this room and the bedrooms done then we can do the decorating slowly.’
Maddie nodded. I could see from her face that she was already planning colour schemes and room layouts.
Later, we walked through the sunlit street and I went straight back to Roseangle. The sale of the flat was almost complete but I had to get Maddie and Danny’s belongings packed up for when the removal men arrived.
I too would be without furniture when everything was removed but I had my own plans on how I would like to furnish our flat. Our flat – I liked the sound of that. Lily and I were having great fun looking at curtains and furniture and she had a good eye for colour. I would take her advice when it came to furnishings.
Hattie was only working two days a week now with Mrs Pringle but she was still glowing with happiness. Graham went back to Clydebank to put his divorce plans into action. He was saying goodbye to his old life and he was looking forward to a future with Hattie.
With the coming of the sun, I thought our lives would be smooth and our troubles were surely behind us. Maddie’s delivery date wasn’t that far away. Another six weeks to go and she was praying for the day to arrive to get it all over with and regain her figure. She was certainly much bigger this time around and she didn’t so much walk as waddle. It was getting her down.
Mr Pringle was making the arrangements for Joy and Lily’s accommodation in Glasgow and they were enrolling in the art college in September. With these comforting thoughts, I was happy to go to the shop and get on with all the chores for Granny and myself.
As it was, I should have known never to trust in comforting thoughts. They had a strange habit of turning against me like some jinx. One Sunday, Danny arrived at Granny’s door and asked me to go to Lochee with him. My heart sank at this request. What was wrong now?
Danny said he didn’t know. Patty had arrived that morning with the message. When we arrived, I was surprised to see Kit and George sitting beside a very quiet Maggie and Mick. For a moment, I thought Kathleen had come home but there was no sign of her or Kitty. I couldn’t think what had happened and suddenly felt so afraid.
‘What’s the matter, Kit?’ I asked, my voice sounding strange even to my own ears.
Maggie wasn’t looking at anyone. She seemed to find the toe of her slipper a fascinating thing to look at and that surprised me even more – especially after all her recent screeching about Kathleen.
Kit looked embarrassed. She glanced at Maggie and said, ‘Sammy has got
Jean Martin in trouble – she’s expecting.’
Danny gasped. ‘But she’s only fifteen.’
Maggie looked even more uncomfortable while her husband gazed at the wall. It was the quietest I had ever seen him.
Then Maggie spoke. It was like bullets hitting a brick wall. ‘Wait till I get my hands on him. I’ll knock him from here to China.’
Danny and I looked at one another. We didn’t understand what she meant. When she got her hands on him? Surely he was in the house.
Kit explained, once again glancing at the furious, red-faced Maggie. ‘Sammy has gone away and we don’t know where he is.’
‘He’s joined up in the army, I reckon,’ mumbled Mick while Maggie glared at him.
Danny asked, ‘What’s going to happen to Jean?’
‘Her parents want Sammy to marry her but, as he’s already married, that’s not possible – unless Kathleen gets a divorce which we hope she will,’ said George.
Maggie opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it. Instead, she stood up and Mick followed her to the door. However, when she reached it, she couldn’t help herself. She was so incensed. ‘If your Kathleen had been a proper wife to Sammy then this would never have happened.’
Kit wasn’t going to let this pass. ‘Maggie, your Sammy has been strutting around all the young lassies here since the minute he got back from the war. This has nothing to do with Kathleen but I’ll tell you this – she made the right decision when she made up her mind to clear off from all this bother and trouble and all because your Sammy can’t keep his trousers on.’
After they left, Danny and I stayed on for a few more minutes. There hadn’t been any fresh news from Kathleen and all the conversation seemed to go out the door along with the Malloys so we left.
On the way home, Danny said, ‘Can things get any worse at Lochee, I wonder?’
Quite honestly, I couldn’t answer him truthfully. It was a tangled mess and now Sammy was missing, Kathleen and Kitty were gone and poor fifteen-year-old Jean was in the family way. I wondered if this was Sammy’s secret that Kathleen had mentioned to me.
I said, ‘I think Kathleen knew about this pregnancy, Danny. She told me on the night she left that Sammy had a secret and that the Malloys wouldn’t bother her mum and dad again.’
‘It’s terrible that he’s got a fifteen-year-old girl in trouble.’
I couldn’t agree more, especially when I saw his worried face.
However, he cheered up slightly by the time we reached our stop. ‘We’ve bought the house, Ann. Hopefully we’ll get it into shape in time for the baby’s arrival.’
I smiled. Maddie didn’t have long to go now which was just as well because she was getting bigger every day – like a barrel on legs, she said, and it was true.
Danny was worried about Daniel. ‘I just hope he’s not jealous of the new baby. I couldn’t bear him being upset again – especially after the trouble we had when I came back from the army.’
I tried to reassure him. ‘Och, he’ll be fine, Danny. You’ve all got over your problems now.’ Yet, as I spoke, I too hoped everything would go well.
I was about to leave when he called after me. ‘I forgot to say that Peter has been made manager of Lipton’s in the Overgate and Minnie is expecting again.’
That was wonderful news and I made a mental note of either writing to them or maybe visiting them to say congratulations. When I had a spare moment – whenever that might be.
19
‘Twins!’ I didn’t realise my voice sounded so loud until three women at the next table stopped drinking their tea and gazed at me. The woman at the table on our right also looked wide-eyed, her hand frozen halfway to the three-tiered cake stand. ‘You’re going to have twins, Maddie?’ I said, a good bit quieter this time.
Maddie sat across from me and she nodded. I wasn’t sure if she was pleased or merely shell-shocked.
‘How can it be twins at this late date, Maddie? Why didn’t the doctor tell you earlier?’
She sighed and slowly buttered her scone. ‘Well, he did suspect it might be twins but he couldn’t detect two heartbeats – at least not until a few days ago.’
We were sitting in Draffen’s coffee lounge after spending a long morning looking for curtain material for the windows of the new house. Everything was still in short supply and it had been a frustrating few hours. Afterwards, Maddie and I were grateful to sit down and have a cup of tea but then she dropped this bombshell.
‘I still have all Daniel’s baby things and there should be enough for two babies but I’ll have to sell my pram and get a twin one. Of course, with everything in such short supply, I don’t think I’ll get one before the birth. Seemingly there’s a long waiting list for prams and most new mothers order theirs during the first few months of their pregnancy. I thought my old pram was ideal but it doesn’t look like it now.’
Her face was flushed with worry so I took her hand and said that things would work out and they always did – Ann the oracle at work again.
‘And there’s the house to get ready,’ she said, looking at me with worried eyes. ‘I don’t honestly think there’s going to be time to get everything ready.’
‘Look, Maddie, don’t worry about prams and houses. At least you’ve got Danny here this time to help you with everything. It’s not like the last time with Daniel, is it?’
Suddenly she smiled and she looked more like the old Maddie I knew. ‘Of course it’s not. Even if I have to push one baby in the pram and carry the other one like an Indian papoose, what’s the problem?’
‘I can help you and Danny with the house if you like – in the evenings.’
She accepted this offer of help with a grateful smile. ‘I doubt if I can be of any help in the house, Ann. I could maybe sew the curtains but even then I’m not comfortable sitting in a chair. I just feel so huge.’
So we all mucked in. Mr Pringle was a big help and every evening, during the long hours of daylight in early June, he joined Danny, Lily and me in getting the house cleaned and ready for Daniel and the new babies.
Maddie didn’t want to remove everything from the flat. She said, ‘It would mean leaving you with nothing, Ann.’ So a compromise was agreed. The bed settee, a table and two chairs were to be left behind along with some essentials like crockery and pots. I assured her this was all I needed until I could manage to buy my own things for the flat.
As Danny often said, once the rationing was over, it would become a golden time for the shoppers. Well, that was as maybe but, at the moment, it was still a land of queues and rationing and shortages.
One night, after I was finished in the house, Danny walked back with me to Roseangle. It was a sunny evening but very chilly with the wind blowing cold against our faces as we quickly walked along the pavement.
Danny said, ‘Heavens, this wind feels icy – almost as if we’ll get some more snow.’
‘Oh, I hope not, Danny – not after the winter we’ve just had.’
There was obviously something on his mind but we walked in silence until we reached my house.
‘Come up for a cup of tea,’ I said. ‘Lily will still be at Granny’s, keeping her company.’
He said sadly, ‘Granny still misses Grandad, doesn’t she?’
I nodded.
‘That’s one of the things I regret – not being here when he died.’
But he laughed when he saw the half-furnished flat. ‘Och, you’re worse than us, Ann. I think we’ve got a couple more chairs than you.’ He looked out of the window. ‘Did you know that Sammy Malloy has joined the army like his father said?’
I came out of the small scullery. ‘No, I didn’t.’
Danny sat on one of the two chairs and, when he spoke, he sounded pensive. ‘The one thing Sammy was good at was being a soldier so maybe this will be the making of him. But Jean Martin will not think so.’
There was nothing I could say. I didn’t know the girl but I sympathised with her predicament. Although she
would be sixteen when the baby was born and lots of girls of this age were also pregnant, it was still an undesirable state of affairs.
‘Any more word from Kathleen?’ I asked, setting the cups down on the window sill.
His face brightened up a bit. ‘Aye, she writes to Kit every week and they’re getting on fine, her and Chris. Kitty is still enjoying her new school. She was saying that London is one vast bomb site but buildings are being rebuilt slowly.’ He sipped his tea. ‘It’s strange how everything has worked out – lots of lives turned upside down and folk living in places they could never have dreamed of before the war.’
I agreed. ‘Kathleen said we should all take our happiness when we find it,’ I told him, trying to keep the sadness from my voice.
Not very successfully it seemed as Danny asked, ‘Have you had any more word from Greg?’
‘No.’
Perhaps the shortness of my answer alerted him to my hidden feelings because he gave me a quick sharp glance and turned to look out of the window.
‘I’m worried about Maddie, Ann – the fact that she’s having twins. I hope it all goes well.’ His forehead creased in a worried frown and there was a slight tremor in his hands.
‘Och, Maddie will be fine, Danny. Lots of women have twins or even triplets. I was reading the paper the other day and saw that one woman had one set of twins and one set of triplets and she looked great. She had her picture in the paper with the two toddlers and the three babies and she was positively beaming.’
Danny laughed. ‘So what you’re trying to tell me is to count my blessings? It could have been three instead of two.’
‘Or maybe four.’ I rolled my eyes in mock horror and we both laughed.
He set off for home still chuckling but, before he left, he said, ‘You’re a great help in times of worry, Ann. You always put everything into perspective.’
I still felt the glow from this compliment. Lily arrived home and soon we were snuggled up in our bed settee with our hot-water bottles against the cold night air.
The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow Page 27
