Across the Mersey Read online

  ‘It’s every bit as dangerous as joining up,’ she felt obliged to say.

  ‘I dare say it is,’ the other girl agreed but she didn’t meet Grace’s gaze, and Grace noticed how, as soon as their patient was back up on her feet and the bandages and splint had been returned to their correct places, Alice didn’t linger to chat, going instead to join some of the other girls.

  ‘Campion, I’d like a word.’

  Grace looked apprehensively at Sister Harris. Was she too going to quiz her about her Luke’s plans?

  However, when Sister Harris had drawn her into a quiet corner of the hall what she did have to say was so surprising that it drove all thoughts of Alice’s comments out of Grace’s head.

  ‘You’ll have heard the news about Russia, no doubt,’ Sister Harris began, barely waiting for Grace to nod before continuing. ‘No one wants war but since it looks like we’re going to have it, it makes sense to be prepared. Captain Allen tells me that you work in Lewis’s?’

  ‘Yes, Sister.’ Captain Allen was the retired army captain in charge of their St John Ambulance Brigade unit.

  ‘Have you ever thought of enrolling to train as a full-time nurse?’

  Hearing Sister Harris saying those words, and so matter-of-factly, was such a shock that Grace couldn’t speak. But then she managed to overcome her feelings to say as calmly as she could, ‘I did think I’d like to do nursing when I was growing up but …’ She hesitated, unwilling to say to someone who plainly had come from a family that had been able to afford her training that she hadn’t wanted to burden her parents with that kind of cost.

  ‘Well, maybe now is the time to think of it again,’ Sister Harris told her firmly, without waiting for a full explanation. ‘You’re an excellent first aider, quick to learn and good at doing what you should when you have learned. The nursing profession needs girls like you, Campion, especially now. I happen to know that the Government is very keen to get new nurses trained up, and in fact we have been asked to put forward the names of young women who we think might be suitable candidates for such training.’

  Was Sister Harris actually saying that she felt she was good enough for her to recommend? Grace could hardly believe it. Her chest felt tight as her heart swelled with pride and delight.

  ‘So I’ll put forward your name, shall I? It will mean a lot of hard work but I’m sure we all want to do our duty and give what assistance we can to the Government.’

  ‘Well, I …’ Now Grace could feel her heart lurching sickening downwards as her excitement came up hard against the reality of her situation. She could see that Sister Harris was looking irritated and impatient. Flustered and embarrassed she burst out, ‘I’d love to, really I would, Sister, but it’s my family.’

  ‘You mean that your parents wouldn’t give their permission?’ Sister was frowning now. ‘I find that very hard to believe under the present circumstances, Campion – not to say positively unpatriotic.’

  Horrified, Grace blurted, ‘Oh, no, I mean … well, the truth is, Sister, that …’ Her voice dropped and she looked over her shoulder, checking she wouldn’t be overheard. ‘Mum and Dad have four of us at home, and my sisters are still at school, so …’ Grace bit her lip, floundering, not wanting to say that it was out of the question for her to expect her parents to go without her financial contribution to the household, never mind find the money required to buy the uniform and the books she would need before entering the Probationary Training School, but to her relief Sister Harris immediately realised what she was trying to say and the sternness faded from her expression.

  ‘Ah, I see, Campion. Well, my dear, it’s there for you to think about and I would be delighted to recommend you. If you should see a way to undertaking the training the cost would be around twenty pounds for your uniform and your books, you’d be paid eighteen shillings a week during your first year, and of course you’d be living in.’ She patted Grace on the arm. ‘My advice to you is to have a word with your parents and tell them what I’ve told you. It would be a pity if the nursing service were to lose the opportunity to acquire a girl like you.’

  Her praise left Grace feeling slightly dizzy.

  Ten minutes later, when Grace stepped out of the church hall, she was surprised to see Luke waiting for her.

  ‘I thought you were going to an ARP meeting tonight with Dad,’ she said.

  ‘I was – I did – but I thought I’d come this way and walk back with you.’

  Smiling at him, Grace tucked her arm through his. They were close in age and close emotionally as well, and she sensed immediately that he had something on his mind but she also knew him well enough to wait to let him tell her in his own time what it was. It was no mere impulse that had brought him round this way to walk home with her.

  ‘There were a lot of them that was there tonight saying that their lads had had letters and that, telling them to report to their units …’

  Grace gave a small shiver. She didn’t need Luke to explain to her what that meant – not after what her father had told her earlier. The whole country must surely know now that although no official declaration of war had been made, things were moving towards that with increasing speed.

  They were walking only slowly and Luke was dragging his feet a bit, scowling and scuffing the side of his shoe in a way that she knew would have drawn a rebuke from their mother. Something was definitely wrong.

  ‘They were painting out the name of Edge Hill Station when I cycled past it earlier on me way home from work. Mr Smethwick that’s in charge of the ARP unit said that the Government has given orders that anything that might identify a place to the Germans had to be got rid of.’

  Abruptly Grace stopped walking. ‘It’s going to happen, isn’t it?’ she asked in a hushed voice. ‘We are going to be at war with the Germans.’ She gave a little shiver, then told him sadly, ‘There were some kiddies in Lewis’s at dinnertime, brought in by their teacher. They’d been to choose gas masks for themselves, ready to be evacuated. I heard the teacher saying that the school had thought if they were getting them from Lewis’s it would be a bit of a treat and it wouldn’t scare them so much. Thank goodness the twins are old enough not to have to go. I reckon it would break Mum’s heart if they did.’

  ‘I can’t say anything at home but I fair hate listening to other chaps talking about how they’ll do their bit for the country, Grace, whilst thanks to Dad all I’m going to be doing is skulking here at home like a ruddy coward.’

  ‘Luke, that’s not true,’ she protested, genuinely shocked. ‘Of course you’ll be doing your bit. And, anyway, as for Charlie, he said himself that the only reason he’s joined the TA is because it means he can stay at home and show off to pretty girls in his car.’

  Luke squeezed her arm and then told her with elder brother directness, ‘If I was you I’d think twice about going to that Tennis Club dance with Bella, Grace.’

  ‘I can’t not go now,’ she protested. ‘Not when I’ve said that I will. Besides, I think it will be fun.’

  ‘Well, all I can say is that you’ll need to watch out. If you ask me Bella’s up to something. She might act like she’s all sugar and spice but you and me know what she’s really like. Remember how she always managed to get you blamed for things she’d done when we were kids?’

  Reluctantly Grace nodded. ‘But that was years ago,’ she told him, ‘and I dare say she only did it because Auntie Vi can get so cross.’

  ‘A leopard doesn’t change its spots,’ Luke insisted.

  Grace looked up at her elder brother, her heart filling with pride. Luke might tease her sometimes and pretend that having three younger sisters was a nuisance but Grace knew how protective of them all he was.

  ‘You’re the best brother in the world, do you know that?’ she told him, hugging his arm.

  ‘You won’t be saying that when everyone’s calling me a coward for not joining up. If Dad has his way I won’t even get to do my six months’ training. He’ll have me straight in the Sal
vage Corps and on reserved occupation duties,’ Luke told her angrily.

  ‘That’s because he wants to keep you safe. Dad lost his older brother in the last war,’ Grace reminded him.

  ‘But that should be my decision, Grace, not Dad’s,’ said Luke fiercely. ‘And, anyway, it will be a different war this time. Everyone says so.’

  They had drawn level with a lorry being unloaded opposite a small school. Grace glanced semi-curiously at the activity and then froze before turning to look beseechingly at Luke, hoping he would tell her that she had mistaken what she had just seen, but instead he told her grimly, ‘They’re unloading cardboard coffins. They were telling us at the ARP class tonight that the Government has given orders that emergency mortuaries are to be set up and stocked with them, just in case.’

  ‘Here’s that cousin of yours.’

  Susan’s whisper, accompanied by a sharp nudge in the ribs, had Grace straightening from picking up a stray thread from the carpet and turning to see Bella coming towards her. She was wearing a pretty pale blue linen summer dress and jacket, and a neat little hat trimmed with white flower petals.

  ‘Oh, there you are, Grace, good,’ Bella announced, immediately sitting down on one of the chaises, and then crossing one slim leg over the other. ‘Oh, no, just look at that dirty smudge on my sandals.’ She bent down and kicked off her sandal. ‘Take it somewhere and clean it off for me, will you, Grace? I’m meeting Alan in ten minutes and I don’t want him seeing me looking all grubby.’

  Grace was just about to pick up the sandal when Susan said in a loud voice, whilst grimacing warningly at her, ‘Grace, don’t forget that the manageress said you were to go and pack up that frock for Mrs Lynsey ready for tonight’s post, will you?’

  Grace, who knew perfectly well that she had no such task and that Susan had made it up because she did not approve of her cousin expecting her to clean her shoes, hesitated.

  Bella said irritably, ‘Hurry up, do, Grace. I haven’t got all day.’

  ‘We don’t clean shoes here, love,’ Susan informed her, obviously unable to hold back her irritation any longer. ‘You want to tek them sandals down to the shoe department if they need cleaning, although if you was to ask me a bit of spit on your hanky would do the job just as well.’

  In different circumstances the look of outrage on Bella’s face would have made Grace laugh aloud, but Bella had a spiteful side to her and Grace felt alarmed on Susan’s behalf when she saw the narrow-eyed glare Bella was giving her friend.

  ‘It doesn’t show, Bella, and I don’t think for one minute that Alan will notice it, not when he’s got you to look at,’ Grace flattered her.

  Bella preened and tossed her head. ‘I’m sure you’re right, Grace, but of course one wants to look one’s best. Actually, that’s why I’m here. I just wanted to have a word with you about Saturday night.’

  ‘If it’s been cancelled because of what’s happening—’ Grace began, trying not to sound disappointed.

  ‘Cancelled? Of course it hasn’t! It’s the big dance of the season. How could it possibly be cancelled? No, what I’ve come in for is to tell you that I want you to make sure that you keep this cousin of Alan’s occupied so that me and Alan get a bit of time to ourselves. Alan’s told me that there’s something very important that he wants to tell me.’ Bella looked smug and triumphant. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what that’s likely to be.’

  She looked down at her left hand meaningfully, and then jumped up from her seat exclaiming, ‘Oh, is that the time? Alan will wonder where on earth I am. It’s lucky that my boss was called away after lunch otherwise I might not have been able to sneak out when Alan rang to say he wanted to see me. I only just had time to ring Mummy and tell her that I’ll be bringing Alan home to tea with me. Now remember, Grace, I don’t want you showing me up, so for heaven’s sake wear something decent. Oh, yes, and Mummy said to tell you that it makes much more sense for you to go home instead of staying overnight.’

  As soon as Bella had left the salon, Susan told Grace firmly, ‘You’ve got to borrow that green dress, and put that ruddy madam of a cousin of yours in her place. Snotty piece.’

  ‘Susan …’ Grace protested weakly.

  ‘Well, she is and you know it. If I was you I’d refuse to go to her ruddy Tennis Club dance.’

  Grace sighed. The truth was that now, after seeing Bella, her initial excitement had quite gone and she was wishing that she could get out of going, whilst knowing that she could not. If she tried, then Auntie Vi would get on to her own mother and that just wouldn’t be fair.

  ‘Who’s this Alan she was going on about, then?’ Susan asked.

  ‘His name is Alan Parker,’ Grace explained. ‘He’s the son of a councillor that Uncle Edwin has got friendly with.’

  ‘A councillor, eh? There’s posh then.’ Susan pulled an unkind face. ‘Your Bella is obviously expectin’ to get a proposal and a ring out of him come Saturday, and I reckon that she won’t be too fussy about how she gets them.’

  ‘A lot of couples are getting engaged on account of what’s happening with Germany,’ Grace pointed out, trying not to show how uncomfortable Susan’s assessment of her cousin was making her feel.

  Susan was the closest to her age amongst those working in the Gown Salon. Grace liked her and had welcomed Susan’s overtures of friendship when she had first come to work there. She had quickly discovered that Susan was intensely loyal to those she cared about, but she was also extremely forthright and could be blunt to the point of unkindness.

  ‘Mebbe so,’ Susan allowed. ‘But I reckon that if that cousin of yours gets engaged it will be because it suits her and not because her chap is going off to war. She’s that kind. And if you can’t see that then that’s because you’re too soft-natured for your own good.’

  ‘I know what you’re saying,’ Grace admitted. ‘But there is another side to Bella. Look how kind she’s been, inviting me to this dance.’

  ‘Kind? Huh, not her. She’ll have some reason for doing it that suits her, you wait and see,’ Susan prophesied darkly. ‘Anyway, after the way she’s just bin looking down her nose at us, I reckon there’s all the more reason for you to borrow that green silk frock. Show her a thing of two, that would. It’s obvious she reckons she’s the bee’s knees. Well, put you in that frock and it won’t be the only thing around wot’s green, I can tell you that. She’ll be choking on her jealousy.’

  ‘Susan!’ Grace felt bound to protest.

  ‘It’s the truth. Twice as pretty as her, you are, or at least you could be. Only you can’t see it.’

  Bella smiled smugly as she surveyed her own reflection in the mirror of Lewis’s powder room. She had just finished reapplying her new ‘Paris Pink’ lipstick, her skin was creamily flawless, thanks to a fluff of Yardley face powder, and she had dabbed plenty of Ma Griffe scent on her wrists and her handkerchief before leaving home.

  No one seeing both her and Grace in the Gown Salon five minutes ago would ever have guessed that they were cousins. Grace looked so drab and plain in her white blouse and black skirt, and with her hair tied back and only the merest hint of lipstick. Bella knew her cousin would be the perfect foil for her own beauty on Saturday night. There was nothing like a plain friend to make a girl look even better and so encourage her chap to recognise how lucky he was. Bella looked down at her left hand, her smile widening. She could see Alan’s ring on her finger already. In fact she had as good as picked it out from the rings on display in the window of Wallasey’s most exclusive jewellers. Not one but three bright shiny diamonds of a satisfyingly impressive size.

  Mrs Alan Parker!

  ‘Mr and Mrs Edwin Firth request the pleasure of your company at the Marriage of their Daughter Miss Isabella Firth with Mr Alan Parker.’

  Bella exhaled happily. Alan was everything she wanted in a husband. His father was an important and very well-to-do local businessman; his mother was the chairwoman of all the most important Wallasey women’s committee
s. They had no daughter of their own so naturally, she, their daughter-in-law, would be adored and spoiled. Alan’s parents would buy them a smart detached house not far from their own, and she would live the life of a new young wife whose husband had the time and the money to indulge her every whim.

  She was so glad now that she had held back last year when the son of the most well-to-do man where they had lived before moving to Kingsway had started dropping hints that he wanted to propose to her. David had been all very well in his way, but his family’s position could not compare with that of Alan’s.

  Not that it had all been plain sailing exactly. There had been the small matter of the girl Alan had already been seeing when they had first met – an ‘accidentally on purpose’ bumping into him as she left the tennis court – but Bella had soon seen off Trixie Mayhew, who had gone all pale-faced and quiet when Bella had taken her to one side to confide in her that she felt Trixie ought to know that Alan had told her how attracted he was to her but that he felt he couldn’t ask her out because he was already seeing Trixie. Naturally Bella had known that Trixie was the kind of girl who wouldn’t want to stand in the way of the man she loved’s longing for someone else. And of course when Alan had turned to her for comfort when Trixie had told him that she didn’t want to see him any more, and had refused to say why, Bella had been more than ready to give him that comfort.

  Bella knew that it would shock girls like Trixie and her cousin Grace to learn how determined she was to make sure that Alan proposed to her. But that, of course, was why girls like them ended up with the husbands they did, whilst girls like her got the pick of the crop. And now if she had judged the situation correctly, and she was sure that she had, Alan had taken the hints she had been dropping and was about to propose. And not before time! She had been beginning to get a bit impatient. After all, they had spent the whole summer as a couple, and she had made it clear what she wanted and expected, losing no opportunity to make him aware of how fortunate he was to have a girl like her and what a perfect wife she would be.