After a few minutes, Jack said lightly, ‘I must tell you this, Renee, you’ll have a good laugh. I was on late duty one night about three weeks ago, and when I went back to the billets there was a cake of chocolate lying on my bed. The lad next to me said the girl in the shop had sent it over for me, so I ate it all – it wasn’t very big.’
In spite of her anger, Renee wanted to hear why this had proved so funny. ‘Was it meant for somebody else?’ Even if it had been, she thought, it wouldn’t be all that funny.
His mouth twisted to the side. ‘No, it was meant for me, right enough, but it was Ex-Lax, not chocolate. One of the lads had taken off the paper for a lark. But I bet you can imagine what happened to me after.’
Understanding now, Renee burst out laughing. Jack had eaten a whole cake of laxative chocolate, and she had no difficulty in guessing what had happened after that.
‘I was on the trot for about a day and a half, and the pains in my stomach . . . Oooh!’ He shuddered at the memory.
Her face sobered. ‘It wasn’t really funny, though. It was kind of cruel, really. Why did the girl do it?’
Jack lifted his shoulders. ‘Oh, I used to tease her a bit, and she meant it as a joke. She didn’t think I’d eat it. She was really upset when she found out what happened, and, of course, the rest of the lads didn’t let me forget about it for ages.’
When Renee saw him out, later, he shook hands and said gravely, ‘So remember, don’t accept chocolate from boyfriends, for you never know what it could lead to.’ He walked down the path, chuckling, and she smiled as she went in to relate the incident to her mother. In bed, she reflected that it had been good to be laughing with him again. She didn’t want to lose his friendship. After the war, he would come back, and who knew what could develop?
Chapter Nineteen
After breakfast one Sunday morning just before Christmas 1941, Anne said, ‘Fred’s bringing another sergeant with him this afternoon. He’s had a ‘‘Dear John’’ letter from his girl, and he’s feeling pretty low.’
Renee frowned. She hoped they weren’t expecting her to cheer up this disappointed Romeo. ‘And whose brilliant idea was it to ask him here?’
‘I felt sorry for him.’
When Fred came in, he was accompanied by a tall, dark-haired man, a good bit younger than himself, with high cheekbones and a chiselled nose. ‘Glynn, this is Mrs Gordon and her daughter, Renee. Ladies, I’d like you to meet Glynn Williams.’
‘How do you do?’ the other sergeant murmured shyly.
‘Sit down, Glynn.’ Anne motioned to the settee, where Renee was now sitting sedately having been sprawled out on it before they arrived.
As she shook hands with the stranger, the girl looked up into the most gorgeous blue eyes she’d ever seen – fathomless pools of sadness, gleaming now with . . . could it be admiration? Her heart leapt so madly that she couldn’t speak. Glynn also remained silent while Anne and Fred chatted to each other, until Renee pulled herself together and turned to him. ‘How do you like Aberdeen?’
‘It’s a beautiful city, so clean and sparkling.’
His lilting Welsh accent made her wish he would carry on speaking. She could listen to him for ever. ‘Are you regular army, too?’
‘No. I was in the Territorials before the war, but I like army life.’
‘What part of Wales do you come from?’
‘It’s a little place you’ll never have heard of, in Carmarthen. Porthcross, it is, between Llanelli and Llandeilo.’ Renee clapped her hands in delight. ‘Say that again, please.’
He wrinkled his brow. ‘Porthcross, between Llanelli and Llandeilo? Is that what you mean?’
‘Yes. It’s really lovely.’ She attempted to say the last two musical Welsh names, and he laughed at her mispronunciation.
‘No, it’s more like your Scottish ‘‘ch’’ sound in ‘‘loch’’. Not exactly, but it’s the nearest. Listen. Llanelli and Llandeilo.’ She tried again. ‘Chlanechly and Chlandylo.’
‘Not bad.’
‘Listen, Mum.’ Renee repeated the names with gusto, and Glynn nodded when she got it almost right.
Anne looked mystified. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s where Glynn belongs. A little place called Porthcross, between . . .’ She took a deep breath and repeated the names once more. ‘Chlanechly and Chlandylo. It’s like a stream running over stones, isn’t it? Really beautiful.’ She sat back, pleased that she had mastered the words.
Glynn was applauding her, and they all laughed, but she caught Fred giving her mother a meaningful wink. They were definitely trying to matchmake, but it was Glynn Williams they would have to work on. Renee Gordon was already hooked.
‘I still don’t know where any of these places are,’ she told him. ‘What’s the nearest big town?’
‘Llanelli’s a fair old size, but Swansea’s the nearest large city.’ His eyes held more than admiration now. Attraction, perhaps? They were completely at ease with each other now, and exchanged information about themselves until it was time to go through to the dining room, Anne and Fred having already attended to the dishing up and carrying in.
Flora and Kitty had been invited out to tea by a girl they’d made friends with at the skating rink, so only Hilda and Nora sat down with the Gordons and their two guests. Fred, of course, knew them already, and chatted to them companionably, but Glynn seemed uncomfortable in the presence of so many strangers.
At the end of the meal, Anne said, ‘Are you two going out tonight?’
It was Hilda who answered. ‘No, it’s snowing, so we’re going to have a quiet evening in. We’ll stay in our own room, though.’
‘Don’t let yourselves be cold,’ Anne told her. ‘Use the electric fire, that’s what it’s there for.’
‘We will, Mrs G., thanks.’ Hilda poked her room-mate.
‘Are you finished, Titch? Come on, then, upstairs – at the double.’
Fred and Glynn insisted on washing up, so Anne and Renee went to sit by the coal fire in the living room.
‘What do you think of him?’ Anne spoke in a soft whisper, in case he would overhear.
‘He’s gorgeous,’ Renee whispered back. ‘If you and Fred are trying to pair us off, I’m more than willing.’
Anne giggled. ‘He does look very nice, and you seemed to get on well. I’m going to ask him to come back with Fred on Tuesday night, so I hope you’ll stay in.’
‘Wild horses wouldn’t drag me out.’ Something that her grandmother had once said, ages ago, came into Renee’s mind. ‘You’ll know your Mr Right when he comes along.’ Granny, as usual, had known what she was speaking about. Renee did know that her Mr Right had come along. Mr Glynn Williams Right. She only hoped that he would recognise the fact, too. Although she was sure, beyond all doubt, that Glynn was the man who was meant for her, Renee told no one how she felt. She somehow believed that it would bring bad luck to talk about it.
Anne had no such qualms. As soon as they went into Maggie’s house the following Saturday, she said, ‘I think Renee’s smitten with Fred’s friend, Glynn Williams. Remember, I told you he was coming to tea last Sunday?’
The old lady’s eyes lit up. ‘A new romance, eh, Renee?’
‘He’s quite nice,’ the girl admitted, wishing that her mother wouldn’t interfere.
Anne laughed derisively. ‘Quite nice? The understatement of the year. You should have seen them, Mother, sitting looking at each other like dying ducks.’ Maggie had recognised that this Glynn meant something to Renee. The girl usually babbled on about her boyfriends, and her reluctance to discuss him was significant.
‘I invited him back on Tuesday along with Fred,’ Anne went on, insensitive to her daughter’s reserve. ‘He asked Renee to go out with him on Wednesday, and they went out on Thursday and Friday, as well.’ She looked archly at Renee, but the girl kept her head down.<
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‘Aye, it’s grand to be young,’ Maggie remarked. ‘An’
how’s yer ain romance comin’ on, Annie?’
‘There’s no romance between Fred and me,’ Anne said frostily.
‘Oh, I thought ye were goin’ steady wi’ him?’ Maggie’s expression was innocent enough, but her eyes held a message.
Anne laughed as she realised that her mother was really telling her to go easy on Renee. ‘We’re just good friends, Mother.’
Peter McIntosh came home before Anne and Renee left, his face grey but his manner quite cheerful. ‘How’s my two favourite lassies?’ he joked, laying the heavy shopping bags on the floor.
‘Just fine, Father.’ Anne studied him as he unpacked each item. ‘These bags must have been heavy for you?’
‘They’re nae aye so heavy,’ he wheezed, ‘but yer mother was needin’ a lot o’ extra things in for the New Year. Nae that we’ll ha’e crowds o’ folk comin’ in, jist a few of the neighbours, but ye ken what she’s like.’
‘I could go to the shops for you on Saturday afternoons,’ Renee offered. ‘I’d quite like to do it. You could tell me which are the best shops to go to,’ she added, hopefully.
He screwed up his face, then said, to the amazement of the three women, ‘Weel, I think I’ll tak’ ye up on that, lassie. I’m fair forfochen the day.’
In spite of her concern for him, Renee spluttered with laughter. ‘Forfochen? What on earth does that mean?’
Maggie smiled at her perplexed face. ‘He means he’s jist dead beat,’ she explained.
‘Exhausted,’ Anne put in, to make quite sure that Renee understood.
‘Oh.’ The girl’s face cleared. ‘OK. I’ll start next week.’
‘We’ll nae be needin’ muckle next week.’ The old man glanced fondly at his wife. ‘This woman’s made me get in such a lot the day, it’ll be weeks afore it’s a’ used up.’
‘Nothin’ o’ the kind,’ Maggie said drily.
When they rose to go, Peter went to the door with Anne, but Maggie put her hand out to detain Renee. ‘I’d like fine to meet this Glynn, lassie, if ye want to bring him sometime.’ Her smile was gently loving.
‘I don’t know yet if there’s anything in it, Granny, but I’ll take him to see you as soon as I’m sure.’
‘Aye. Awa’ ye go, then, or yer mother’ll be wonderin’
what we’re gettin’ up to.’
That night, Renee asked Glynn to take her to the ice rink.
‘I can’t skate,’ he protested.
‘It’s great fun, Glynn. Please?’
He gave in, and soon she was laughing at him each time he landed on his bottom on the ice. ‘Dry off on the radiators,’ she told him, as he was gingerly pulling his soaking trousers away from his skin. ‘And don’t worry about it. I was the same when I came here first with Sheila Daun, but it doesn’t take long to learn how to keep your feet.’
Sheepishly, he dragged himself along the rail, then stood to let the heat penetrate to his frozen buttocks, and by the end of their session, he had mastered the art of putting one foot past the other and still remaining upright, although he didn’t venture far from the rail.
On the way home, he kissed her for the first time, and Renee knew for certain that she had not been mistaken. This was the man for her. But, one swallow didn’t make a summer, as they said, and that one kiss was not sufficient to let her know if Glynn felt the same. He was probably still grieving for the girl he’d lost, so it was up to Renee to make him forget, and to make him love her.
Should she ask him to visit her grandmother now? She recalled John Smith – the sick-berth attendant who had objected to meeting the mothers of the girls he picked up – and was thankful that Glynn already knew her mother, so that was no problem. But would he want to meet others of her family? Would he think she was putting pressure on him to declare himself? It would be better to wait until she was sure of him, before she issued Granny’s invitation.
Glynn was on duty the next night, Sunday, so Renee spent the evening in her bedroom, to leave her mother alone with Fred Schaper. She could see that Fred was in love with Anne, but she couldn’t make up her mind if her mother was in love with him, and knowing how she felt herself when other people tried to hustle on her relationships, she didn’t make the mistake of interfering.
When she went downstairs at ten o’clock, she saw by Anne’s pink confusion that Fred must have kissed her, and was very happy for her. On Monday, she was so glad to see Glynn again that she ran into his arms when he met her outside Brown and Company’s office at five thirty. He looked surprised, but held her closely.
‘I missed you yesterday,’ she told him.
‘I thought about you all day.’ He kissed her slowly. ‘I was remembering that it was exactly a week ago since I met you.’ He held her away from him. ‘When Fred asked me to go with him, I didn’t feel like meeting strangers, but I didn’t want to offend him by refusing.’
‘Oh, Glynn, I’m glad you didn’t refuse.’ Renee wished that he would hold her tightly again.
‘I thought he was a sentimental old fool, going on about this woman he’d met through taking her daughter home one night, and I imagined some brassy young tart picking him up with the intention of getting a man for her equally brassy mother.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘How wrong can a man be?’
Renee was indignant at first. ‘That was a horrible thing to think, anyway.’
‘I wasn’t in a particularly generous mood. Eiddwen, my girlfriend, had just written to tell me that she was in love with an Australian, and I thought my life was finished, but I took one look at you last Sunday, and came alive again. I loved you from the first minute I saw you, Renee. Could you learn to care for me?’ His blue, blue eyes pleaded with her to say yes.
‘I’ll give it a try,’ Renee said flippantly, to tease him, then relented. This wonderful moment was not the time for levity. ‘Oh, Glynn, it was the same for me, love at first sight.’
‘Duw!’ Glynn crushed her to him again, but suddenly became aware of the amused glances of the people passing by. ‘Come on, my lovely. Let’s get the bus to your house.’ Renee took Glynn to visit her grandmother the following Saturday, Anne obligingly declining to accompany them, and when she proudly introduced him, Maggie shook hands gravely. Peter stood up and followed suit, then they sat down, Renee being fully aware that her grandparents were reserving judgement until they found out for themselves what kind of man Glynn was. She wasn’t in the least worried about it, because she was certain that they would soon come to like him very much. He told them that he had been in the Territorial Army, and that he had been employed by a firm which sold agricultural machinery.
‘Will ye be goin’ back to that after the war?’ Maggie asked.
‘The same sort of thing, I suppose,’ he said, ‘but not necessarily in Porthcross – that’s in South Wales,’ he added.
After ten minutes or so, Renee knew, although he hadn’t consciously tried to make an impression on her grandmother and grandfather, they had indeed been impressed by his natural manner, so she sat back and let them talk. When Peter went to the door with Glynn, Maggie again detained the girl for a moment. She gripped Renee’s hand and said, softly, ‘He’ll dae for ye, lassie, if ye’re sure in yer ain he’rt.’
‘Yes, Granny, I’m sure he’ll do for me. I’ve never been so sure of anything in my whole life.’
The old lady smiled, a beautiful, sweet smile that touched Renee as much as the words which followed. ‘Ah, weel, ye’ve got my blessin’, the pair o’ ye.’
‘Thank you, Granny. That means a lot to me.’ Renee turned away quickly, before her brimming eyes overflowed.
‘They’re good people,’ Glynn remarked, when they were walking hand in hand along the street, ‘although I’d a problem understanding what they were saying sometimes, especially your grandfather.’
Renee giggled. ‘I sometimes don’t understand him myself.’ She wished she could tell him Granny’s last few words, but was afraid he’d think she was rushing him. He’d said he loved her, and that was all she needed meantime.
Very shy with the land girls when he first met them, Glynn, like Fred, could now fend for himself in the crosstalk that went on round the dining table. Kitty, Flora and Hilda were the main culprits, and Nora felt obliged, at times, to stop them, often causing hilarity by the way she did so.
‘What about putting bets on who’ll be hitched first?’ Kitty asked her three friends one evening. ‘Renee and Glynn, versus Mrs G. and Fred.’
‘Oh, that’s a great idea. I’ll keep the book.’ Flora whipped a small notebook out of her trouser pocket, and dug her hand in again to find a pencil.
‘Don’t be silly, girls.’ Anne’s face was scarlet with embarrassment, as was Renee’s, but Fred and Glynn seemed to lap it up.
‘Half a crown on Renee and Glynn,’ squealed Hilda, ignoring her landlady.
Flora scribbled quickly. ‘What do you think, Kitty?’ Kitty pretended to weigh up the situation, looking from Fred to Glynn, then from Anne to Renee. ‘I’ll put my half dollar on Mrs G. and Fred,’ she said at last.
‘Nora?’ Flora’s pencil hovered. ‘What about you?’
The other girl considered, then said, reprovingly, ‘I think it’s gone far enough. It’s very bad manners, for one thing, and you shouldn’t be making bets in front of the runners, for another.’
Fred let out a loud guffaw and everyone joined in, much to Nora’s mortification – she couldn’t see what was funny – but Anne and Renee were both relieved when Flora slipped her pencil and notebook back into her pocket. For a fraction of a second, Glynn’s knee touched Renee’s under the table, but it happened so quickly that she couldn’t be sure if he’d really meant to do it, or if it had been accidental. Was he trying to tell her that he didn’t mind the girls speculating about a forthcoming marriage?
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