‘Ma and Pa and dear little Joy are lapping it up,’ Rilla sneered. ‘But me, I guess I’ve got a suspicious nature.’
‘You’ve made that very clear,’ Laura snapped.
Rilla was obviously annoyed. ‘Yeah but I look at Sarah and Joe always so correct and good and I think, you’re not all you seem. I know something about them.’
‘What?’
‘Terry, who’s staying with you, he fancied Sarah when they were young, God knows why. They were engaged but he was taken prisoner of war and while he was away Joe moved in and Sarah sent Terry a “Dear John” letter. That’s why Terry came out to Canada. So you see, Sarah and Joe are not so good after all.’
Laura was white with temper and she grabbed Rilla’s arm and pulled her to a quiet corner. ‘Listen,’ she said. ‘You’ve got the wrong end of the stick and I don’t suppose it’s the first time. It was a casual thing with Sarah and Terry, just a few dates before he was taken prisoner. It was Sarah and Joe that really fell for each other but Terry was writing to Sarah and she was writing back so everyone thought they were engaged. My mother told me about it.’
‘But Joe still moved in while his brother’s back was turned,’ Rilla said.
‘No, he didn’t,’ Laura said hotly. ‘He wouldn’t. My mum said they would have been married early in the war but Sarah and Joe waited all those years until Terry came home and they could sort it out with him. It turned out that he didn’t really want to get married either. He wanted to go to Canada with a fellow he met in the prison camp.’
‘Sounds a bit iffy to me,’ Rilla said, unconvinced. ‘People are not like that.’
‘Joe and Sarah are but I wouldn’t expect you to understand that,’ Laura said but Rilla failed to rise to the challenge.
‘Terry came over with a fellow from the camp, did he?’ she said thoughtfully. ‘I’ve often wondered about him. Why he never married.’ She laughed. ‘Now I’ve seen Sarah I know it wasn’t because he was still carrying a torch for her.’
Laura felt that she could stand no more of her cousin and with an abrupt, ‘See you,’ she turned and stalked away. She was storming through a side room when her elbow was gripped and she turned to see her Uncle Terry laughing down at her. ‘Hi. Why the thunderclouds?’ he said.
‘It’s that Rilla. She’s got a tongue like a viper,’ Laura exploded. ‘She says Sarah and Joe—’ She stopped, suddenly realising that Terry was involved too.
‘Go on. What about Sarah and Joe?’ Terry asked.
Laura said recklessly, ‘If you want to know, she said Joe did the dirty on you with Sarah while you were a prisoner and she wouldn’t believe me when I told her she was wrong.’
‘You knew all about it then?’
‘Mum told me when you were coming to stay with us so I wouldn’t put my foot in it with you.’ She smiled ruefully. ‘It’s a habit I have.’
‘Let’s sit down here,’ Terry suggested, ‘and you can tell me what Anne said.’
‘She said that you and Sarah were just friends before you were taken prisoner but on your last leave you took Sarah’s photo back with you and everyone linked you together. Mum said she was Sarah’s best friend and she should have known she was really in love with Joe but they didn’t tell anyone. Only your mother guessed and she told Sarah not to hurt you.’
Laura stopped because Terry was sitting with his head bent and his hand over his eyes, but he said huskily, ‘It’s all right, kid. Just thinking about my mum. Go on.’
‘Mum said Maureen knew but she never said anything and the rest of the family only knew when you came home and you wanted to go to Canada with your friend.’
‘Your mum seems to have explained it very well,’ Terry said. ‘You know, when I was young, everything was a laugh with me, even with Sarah. I liked her, I even fancied her, but it was kid’s stuff. Getting engaged or married was something far in the future and we thought we had all the time in the world to sort ourselves out. It all changed with the war, although I didn’t change much at first. It was all a big laugh proposing and Sarah told me to get up and stop being daft.’
‘Sarah didn’t take it seriously then either?’ Laura said.
‘Lord, no. It was her mum really who gave me the photo when I went in to say goodbye to her. She was a smashing woman, Mrs Redmond.’
‘She still is. She’s my nana,’ Laura said. ‘She would have been here today if she hadn’t broken her ankle.’
‘Of course. I must go and see her before we go back,’ Terry said. He grinned. ‘I fancied her for a mother-in-law.’
‘So you didn’t fall out with Sarah and Joe when you came home?’
‘No. It was funny really. I thought I should marry Sarah because she’d waited so long but I really wanted to go to Canada with my mate Frank. Sarah and I soon sorted it out. I went to Canada and Sarah married Joe and it suited all of us. I tell you though, kid, I respect them for keeping quiet like they did.’
‘Mum said that everyone was surprised and yet not surprised in a way because Sarah and Joe seemed so right together. Your dad was upset at first about Sarah but Maureen told him your mum knew before she died and gave them her blessing so he was happy about it then. He was very fond of Sarah.’
‘Mo,’ Terry said sadly. ‘She held up the house for all of us. I can’t bear to see the way she is.’
‘But she accepts it,’ Laura said. ‘She sees it as another way of helping those poor refugees by offering up her pain for them.’
Terry hugged her. ‘I thought you said you were tactless but you’ve said all the right things to me and none better than that.’ He kissed her and pulled her to her feet. ‘Come on, kid. We’ll get a drink and find Maureen.’
As they walked out of the room, they came face to face with Rilla and Terry said cheerfully, ‘I believe you’ve been discussing ancient history with Laura. It’s like she told you. It was a misunderstanding that was easily cleared up and Joe and Sarah behaved very honourably.’ He nodded to Rilla and they walked on. ‘I couldn’t resist that,’ he said with a laugh. ‘Hope I haven’t dropped you in it, kid.’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll see as little of her as possible from now on,’ Laura said.
In spite of her determination to avoid Rilla, she found that she was engaged to take her round the clubs with Gerry one evening. ‘Can’t Margaret go with you?’ she asked Gerry but he said she had an evening clinic.
‘Anyway, she’s our relation, worse luck,’ he said.
‘I don’t know how she managed this. You’re too soft, Gerry.’
‘She’s a strong-minded woman,’ Gerry grinned. ‘Believes in equality, Burns her bra, all that sort of thing. Something like you.’
‘Me?’ Laura exclaimed. ‘I don’t believe in all that.’ She laughed. ‘I agree with Grandma. She used to say the man wasn’t born who was her equal, or like Miss Jenkyns in Cranford who felt the same.’
‘I’ll take your word for that,’ Gerry said with a grin. ‘But you’ll come, won’t you, Lol? I can’t get out of it and I couldn’t cope with her on my own.’
Laura agreed cheerfully. She felt much happier since talking to Terry and felt that in him she had made a friend.
When Joy found out about the visit to the clubs she demanded to be included, and as it annoyed Rilla, Laura readily agreed. In the course of the tour round pubs and clubs, Gerry met many musicians he knew who willingly chatted up the Canadian girls and gave them their autographs. After the clubs closed, Gerry took them to a cafe in Dale Street where many of the groups went for a meal and there they met Peter Taylor, now lead singer with a famous group.
‘We formed a group called the Merrymen,’ Peter told the girls. ‘We had some good laughs, didn’t we, Gerry?’
‘Yeah, those rehearsals in your cellar,’ Gerry laughed. ‘Good job the house was solid.’
Peter introduced them to a friend of his. ‘Phil Casey, the quiet man,’ he said.
The Canadians lost interest in Phil when they heard that he was only a bank clerk, but Laura was an
xious to disassociate herself from them and stood aside from the group to talk to him.
‘I’m sorry, we’ve interrupted your meal,’ she said to him. ‘I feel ashamed. They’re so pushy but being relations we’ve got to stick with them.’
‘They’re all right. Just young and new to this scene,’ he said quietly. ‘Don’t worry. Any more of that curry and we’d have flames coming out of our mouths.’
Gerry had unwisely told Rilla that Peter’s parents lived in the house in Magdalen Street where the Fitzgeralds had lived and that was where the Merrymen had practised.
‘Do you still live there?’ Rilla demanded.
Peter said easily, ‘No. I’m living in sin in Princes Park but my parents are still there.’
‘And you’re still in touch with them?’ Joy asked.
He said that he was and the girls immediately began to press him to arrange for them to be shown round the house. ‘My dad and Terry are never done talking about it,’ Rilla declared. ‘Gee, we can’t come to Liverpool and not go over it. This meeting was fate.’
Laura was cringing with embarrassment and she muttered to Phil, ‘Oh, why didn’t Gerry keep his mouth shut? He knows what they’re like.’
‘No harm done,’ Phil said. ‘Peter won’t mind and his parents might enjoy showing someone from your family round the house, especially relations from Canada.’ He smiled at her. ‘Don’t worry so much.’
Peter promised to arrange the visit and his parents extended the offer to all the visitors from Canada. Terry, Stephen, Margaret and the two girls were shown round the house and given tea by Peter’s mother and they returned full of praise for the Taylor family.
‘They’ve hardly made any changes,’ Terry said. ‘And they told us that the basement that Dad fixed up as an air-raid shelter was used by Peter and his group to practise down there and it was so solid that they hardly heard them.’
‘We made some noise too,’ Gerry said with a grin. ‘They were very good to us, Pete’s mum and dad. Mrs Taylor used to bring us coffee and sandwiches and Mr Taylor drove us about in his van to gigs until Peter got his licence.’
Laura said nothing. She thought of Phil Casey’s comments and decided that he was right. She worried too much.
One evening Terry came out to the garden where Laura was weeding, carrying drinks for both of them. They had become very friendly since the wedding and Laura felt that she would miss him – the visitors were due to leave within a week – although she would be pleased to see Rilla and Joy go.
‘Come and sit down and have a break,’ Terry said and they sat together on the garden bench. ‘I’m glad I came home,’ he told her. ‘It’s been great to see my brothers and sisters and get to know the younger generation, especially you, Lol.’
‘Thanks,’ Laura said gruffly. ‘I’m glad to know you. You were just names to me before.’
‘I’ll have a lot to think about when I get back but I love Canada. God’s own country, as far as I’m concerned.’ Terry said reflectively. ‘I was glad to see Maureen particularly and now I’ve seen more of her I agree with you. She’s accepted the illness and she’s very happy where she is. Her religion always meant a lot to her – too much, I sometimes thought.’
Laura looked at him in surprise and he said, ‘I used to think it ruined her life but I don’t know. She was in love with a fellow for years and he was with her but he’d been tricked into a marriage when he was young, so as far as they were concerned he was a married man and out of bounds.’
‘But if he was tricked into marriage?’
‘They didn’t see it like that,’ Terry said. ‘To them he’d made a solemn vow before God, till death us do part.’
‘So they parted?’ Laura said.
‘Oh no. They tried to but they cared too much for each other. They saw each other but they never lived together. It’d be hard for your generation to believe, I know. They were truly in love all those years but they never, er, it was never consummated, as they say.’
‘What happened?’ Laura asked.
‘He died. His wife was living with another woman and never even came to the funeral. And Mo ruined her life for a marriage like that,’ he said bitterly.
They were both silent for a while, until Laura said quietly, ‘It would be the only way for Maureen though. She’s very strong where her principles are concerned, and if the man was the same, they wouldn’t have been happy living any other way.’
‘I can see that now,’ Terry said. ‘But it seems such a waste. They were really and truly in love. Like Sarah and Joe. We made the right decision there after the war.’ He smiled. ‘I suppose Rilla told you I was a queer.’
Laura’s head jerked back involuntarily and Terry said, ‘I can see she has but it’s not true, kid. Frank was a good friend to me in the camp and I don’t think I’d have got through without him. I was wet behind the ears and he’d knocked about the world and knew the ropes.’
‘I didn’t believe her,’ Laura protested.
Terry nodded and went on, ‘He’d lived in Canada and wanted to go back after the war. We often talked about it and I wanted to go there too but I didn’t know how Sarah would take the idea. I still thought she might want to get married, you see.’
‘But didn’t you write to each other?’ Laura asked. ‘Couldn’t you have sorted it out by letter?’
‘It wasn’t as simple as that. We were only allowed one small letter and we had to crowd a lot into it. And then it went through several hands before Sarah got it. Try baring your soul on a postcard.’ He laughed. ‘Of course at first some of my letters went to Mum with just messages for Sarah and when she wrote to me it all had to be family news and everything in the garden was lovely. Keeping my spirits up, she thought, I suppose.’
‘But you sorted it out to suit everyone in the end,’ Laura said. Terry nodded and they sat in companionable silence until he said abruptly, ‘I’ll tell you something, kid, that I’ve never told anyone else. I suppose people think it’s strange that I never married.’
‘I don’t,’ Laura said. ‘I don’t think everyone who doesn’t marry is a queer.’
Terry grinned. ‘Well said, kid. I’ve never married because of Maureen and Chris and Sarah and Joe really. They showed me what it can be like when two people really love each other and I’m not going to settle for less. I’ve never met anyone I feel like that about and who feels the same about me and until I do I’ll stay single.’
The light was fading and as they sat together in the dusk confidences seem to come easily and Laura said softly, ‘I feel the same as you. Even if we never meet the right one, I don’t think we should marry anyone just to be married.’
‘No. I want a wife and family as much as any man and you’d make a good wife for the right man. Nothing like a happy marriage,’ Terry said, ‘but a bad one can be hell on earth. Better stay single all our lives than that, kid, and perhaps drag children down with us.’
With the darkness a chill breeze had sprung up and they stood up stiffly and collected Laura’s tools. ‘I stopped the weeding all right, kid,’ Terry said and Laura smiled.
She remained in the same dreamy state for the rest of the evening although visitors came and went and when she was finally alone in her bedroom she was able to think over her conversation with Terry. I didn’t even know I felt like that about marriage until we talked, she thought wonderingly, but it’s true.
Another thought struck her. Terry had talked about Sarah and Joe’s happy marriage and Maureen’s love affair but he had said nothing about her parents’ marriage. Could it be that he saw theirs as one of the bad marriages? Her common sense told her that unless her parents were keeping up a false front for the sake of their children their marriage could not be described as hell on earth. But it was a mistake and they should never have married, she decided.
Chapter Eighteen
Eileen, Martin and their sons went back to Dublin at the end of the week and a few days later the Canadian relatives left. Anne was upset to see
her family go and Laura parted from Terry with regret. She promised to write to him but she flatly refused to correspond with Rilla.
‘I can’t see the point,’ she said bluntly. ‘It’s not as if we have anything in common.’
‘But you could send me news about what’s happening in the Liverpool clubs. Tell me about all the groups,’ Rilla said.
‘And then she could brag to all her friends,’ Joy said slyly.
Rilla turned on her but before she could speak Anne said hastily, ‘Laura’s not much of a letter writer but Julie’ll write to you, won’t you, Julie?’
Julie looked startled but she agreed and Joy said indignantly, ‘Julie should write to me. We’re the same age.’
Gerry had come in to say goodbye to the visitors and Rilla grabbed his arm. ‘You’ll write to me, won’t you, Gerry? Tell me all about all those friends of yours we met. If you give me Peter Taylor’s address I’ll write to him too.’
‘He’s, erm, he’s moving,’ Gerry said but Rilla was undeterred.
‘I’ll write to his mother’s house then,’ she declared. ‘She can send it on.’
Her parents had heard the last few words and Stephen said mildly, ‘Don’t be pestering people to write to you, Rilla.’
Her mother added, ‘You know it always ends in tears.’
Rilla immediately threw such a tantrum that they were all relieved when Tony arrived. Joe had driven them over to Anne’s house and soon the Canadian relations were all packed into the two cars with their luggage and driven off to the airport by Joe and Tony.
‘Strewth, what a performance,’ Gerry said as they all went back into the house after waving them off. ‘Do you think that girl’s a ha’penny short of a bob? She doesn’t behave like a girl of twenty.’
‘No, she’s just thick-skinned and fond of her own way,’ Laura said contemptuously.
‘You might have promised to write to her, Laura,’ her mother said reproachfully. ‘She is family, after all.’
‘And now Gerry’s got let in for it,’ John said.
‘And me with Joy,’ Julie added.
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