‘I’m not sure I can keep up with the demand.’
‘It’ll ease off soon,’ Winnie assured her, ‘once everyone has bought their summer togs. And Donald says you deserve a holiday bonus.’
Dena laughed. ‘That’s very kind of him, but a holiday would do me more good right now.’
‘Not possible girl, not yet. Not while there are punters to please,’ Winnie teased, then turning to a customer, ‘Hello, Mrs Dawson, your Lucy liked the frock, did she, and wants a pair of shorts now? Are you sure? She’s a bit well blessed in the backside department is your Lucy. How about one of these nice little play suits with the frilly skirt instead?’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Kenny arranged to see Alice again. This time they met up in the tea rooms at the Midland Hotel, where he bought her tea and scones. He was astonished at himself. He was almost turning into a gentleman. But then he was a desperate man, growing increasingly frustrated and deeply resentful. No matter how often he called, however many bunches of flowers or boxes of chocolates he bought for Dena, she absolutely refused to accept him back into her life. She just kept saying they were finished. Now she’d even stopped letting him into the bedsit.
Why didn’t she appreciate all he’d done for her? If Dena and her mother had fallen out again, whose fault was that? Certainly not his. He explained all of this, and more, to Alice and she was most sympathetic.
‘ I can’t seem to please her. I’ve even started me own business, got myself a little security firm going but still she holds herself aloof.’
Alice was really quite surprised by what a very thoughtful and attentive young man he was turning into. So polite and earnest, almost charming in his way, so that really she didn’t mind in the least when he rested one hand on her knee. It was nothing more than a friendly gesture and if it brought a hot flush to her cheeks, well what of it? She loved the way his fair hair fell softly over his brow, and the seductive pout of his lower lip. Such a charming boy!
‘Some girls don’t know when they are well off. And Dena has never been one to listen to advice. She has certainly never listened to me.’
‘But you are my last hope, Alice. You don’t mind my calling you that, do you, Alice? I’m pining away for love of her, and you’re the only one who can help.’ His light blue eyes beseeched her to understand as his hand again pressed a little more firmly upon the knee. The thigh above it was quite firm, he noticed, as he allowed his fingers to spread a little. ‘You’re a mature, handsome woman with a good deal of experience in life. No doubt men have always fallen at your feet, so you don’t need me to draw a picture. I bet you were a right little rock ‘n’ roller in your day. Fact is, I can’t hold on much longer, if you catch my drift? I’m desperate to have her.’
Alice found that her heart was racing, thought that she should perhaps upbraid him for having such a dirty mind, for saying such things to her. She should tell him how shocked she was that he should dare to touch her so intimately but the sensation of his fingers creeping up her thigh were making her feel quite giddy. Her cheeks were burning and there was a tightness in her chest, making her voice come out all breathy so that she thought she might be about to have one of her turns.
‘You shouldn’t speak so bluntly to a sad old widow woman. It isn’t quite fair to remind me of such long ago delights. You’re a very naughty boy.’
Kenny was startled by her reaction to his words, meant only as a bit of soft flannel to flatter her, and then gave a little smirk. ‘I’m sorry if I caused offence. What are you going to do, spank me?’
His eyes held hers for a long moment, and with such a challenge in them, such a delicious promise, that Alice thought she might faint clean away. Before she could speak he lifted her hand and kissed the blunt tipped, trembling fingers. Alice wished fervently that her hand was young and slender and gracious, instead of wrinkled and freckled with liver spots.
‘I think you’re the naughty one, teasing me like this,’ he said. ‘I should go now before I do something I shouldn’t.’
He got to his feet but Alice did not let go of his hand. ‘Can we meet again? Please? I promise that I’ll speak to Dena, then we could meet up here again next week, and I’ll tell you what she said. How would that be?’
He leaned close and pressed a light kiss on her papery cheek. ‘I would like that very much, Alice.’ Then he was gone and she was forced to reach into her bag for her smelling salts.
Alice arrived one morning at Winnie’s stall and interrupted Dena just as she was measuring out net curtaining for a customer. ‘I’m sure you won’t mind if I just have a private word with my daughter.’
‘Mother! I can’t. I’m busy . . .’
‘Winnie can take over for a minute, I’m sure.’ Alice grasped Dena’s arm and dragged her to one side, out of earshot of Winnie and her startled customer. ‘So what have you got against Kenny all of a sudden?’
Dena was lost for words. Astonished to see her mother here at the market in the first place, and embarrassed that she should be so rude to a customer, it quite slipped by her that Alice was now addressing ‘that Kenny Garside’ by his first name alone.
‘I’m not sure that is any of your business.’
‘I mean to make it my business. I’ve come to ask when you’re going to wed the father of your child and make a decent woman of yourself. It’s long past time you did. I’m ashamed that any daughter of mine could have such loose morals. Kenny may not be the brightest thing on two legs but he’s potty about you. And Belle is worth a bob or two so you could do worse than ally yourself with that family.’
‘That’s rich, coming from you. I thought you saw Belle as little less than the scum of the earth?’
‘Beggars can’t be choosers.’
‘And you consider those good reasons for marriage, do you? A boy who is besotted and obsessed, and a mother-in-law with a bit put by.’
‘He’s the father of your child and desperately in love with you.’
‘Then he’ll just have to get over it because I’m no longer in love with him. And what’s this all about anyway? Why have you suddenly taken up Kenny’s cause? I don’t remember you being so keen when we first started going out.’
‘You were a child then. You’re a mother now. An unmarried one, if you haven’t noticed.’
‘Oh, I’ve noticed all right. Folk I’ve known for years still walk past me in the street as if I’m a leper or something.’
‘And no wonder. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, living alone, unmarried, with a baby, behaving like a loose woman. It’s long past time you grew up.’
‘Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mother, but I won’t marry just to please them, or you. I’ll marry when I find the right man. Kenny is welcome to see Trudy any time, not that he has ever shown much interest in her, but him and me are finished. I’ve told him so a thousand times. It was all a big mistake.’
‘Big mistake? The only mistake is you being too obstinate to agree to make yourself respectable.’
Alice took a steadying breath, remembering her blood pressure, also recalling that her daughter didn’t take kindly to being bullied.
She clumsily patted Dena’s hand. ‘He’s potty about you, and the last I heard you were equally besotted with him. Whatever silly quarrel you two have had can surely be put right, for Trudy’s sake. You must put her welfare before your own. You know from personal experience how difficult it is for a child to grow up without a father. Look what agony it caused our poor Pete,’ and Alice dabbed at the corner of her eye with a hanky.
Dena was silent. This was a whole new aspect to her mother. Did she really care about Trudy, or was she simply having a bad moment over Pete? Dena still suffered these moments herself, even after all these years.
‘Mam, I’m sorry, but I can’t. I thought I loved him, but I was wrong. It was nothing but a silly infatuation. He was my first boy friend and through foolish ignorance and stupid rebellion, I let him go too far. I don’t see why I should pay for that
mistake all my life. We wouldn’t be happy. It wouldn’t work and despite the gossip I’m doing fine on my own, ta very much, and mean to stay that way. Sorry, but there it is.’
‘You’ll regret it,’ Alice snapped, as Dena went back to her customer offering profuse apologies.
‘I’ll just have to take that chance, won’t I?’
When Alice passed on Dena’s second rejection to Kenny, he was deeply upset, she could tell. They were in the Midland hotel as usual, Kenny smartly decked out in a sensible dark suit, with not a trace of Teddy Boy about it. It really looked quite expensive and very well tailored and this time it was Alice who rested a comforting hand on his knee.
‘I did my best, Kenny lad, but, like I say, she wouldn’t listen. Not that she ever did listen to me.’
‘And what about me then?’ he whined. ‘Nobody cares a toss about me. Not me mam, nor me own brother who does nothing but find fault with everything I do. And I can’t seem to look at another girl. They don’t turn me on in the slightest. How shall I ever find love again, if I can’t have Dena?’
‘Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place,’ Alice said, giving his strong muscular thigh a little friendly squeeze. ‘Perhaps you should consider a more mature woman, one who can appreciate you more.’
And as she slid her neatly gloved hand a little further along his thigh, Kenny experienced a most satisfactory jerk of energy. He’d been getting a bit worried as he’d seen no action in that department lately, which he blamed entirely on Dena. But unless he was very much mistaken, it was being offered to him now, on a plate.
‘I never realised what a temptress you were, Alice.’
‘Oh, there’s a great deal you don’t know about me.’
They took a room upstairs for the afternoon and by the time Kenny had peeled off Alice’s skirt and directoire knickers, unpinning each serviceable stocking from its suspender to roll it down over chubby pink knees, followed by her flannel petticoat and pink corset, he was so excited he could hardly contain himself. Old she may be, but she was still a fine, handsome woman with a statuesque body. And the whole notion of bedding Dena’s mother appealed to him so much, it increased the sense of excitement he felt.
Wouldn’t it serve her right for rejecting him?
‘Oh, my, I’ve never been one for – for this sort of thing,’ Alice gasped, visibly trembling as he suckled one wrinkled breast.
‘I can’t believe that, Alice, not for a moment. Still, it’s never too late to learn,’ Kenny said, not troubling to fondle her as he turned her over so that he could straddle her more easily. ‘Let me show you a little trick. Lift up a bit, bend your knees. That’s my girl.’ Then after finding his way in with the minimum of fuss, he shoved himself hard into her. Alice gave a most satisfactory squeak, though whether out of pleasure or pain he wasn’t sure and really didn’t care. Kenny just hung on to her hips and hammered into her as hard as he could. Like he’d always said, the more mature woman was so much less bother.
But that didn’t stop him wanting the daughter as well.
Work didn’t ease up. If anything, Dena became busier. She had by now bought her own sewing machine and was kept working at it throughout the summer, and as autumn approached girls were looking for pencil skirts and little party dresses with neat high necklines, deep shawl collars or a more daring off-the-shoulder style. The fabric for these was glamorous and also more expensive, silk and brocade, tulle or chiffon, although Dena did make some simpler styles in brightly coloured abstract prints.
She finally got to make a line of circular skirts out of felt in all different jewel colours with a pair of cherries appliquéd just above the hem on each. Her young customers teamed these with scoop-neck blouses, wore their cardigans back to front, or with tight polo necks in black or white.
Dena suggested to Winnie that they might consider stocking some of these too on the stall, but the older woman was doubtful.
‘What with the skirts and the Capri pants, and the petticoats you’re making, not forgetting that new line of shirtwaister dresses, where would we put the darned things? We’re running out of space.’
This had occurred to Dena too and she began to give the matter a great deal of thought. She was seventeen, nearly eighteen, surely far too young to go into business on her own. Or was she? Carl Garside had started his stall when he was just nineteen, and look how well he was doing.
And there were other things she could sell if she had her own stall, bucket bags and raffia straw baskets, scarves, gloves, crocheted berets and hats, even popper beads and big white ear-rings, flatties and brightly coloured socks. Most of all, of course, she loved the sewing, even though it meant sitting up night after night which left her exhausted the next day, so there would be lots of lovely skirts and dresses to sell. Dena got excited just thinking about it.
Yet she had no money to set herself up with a market stall, let alone stock it. And she had only one pair of hands. How could she serve on the stall and make all the stock for it? It simply wasn’t possible. This was all pie in the sky, nothing but dreams.
Of course it would be so much easier if Kenny would stay away and stop interrupting and pestering her. He simply ignored every word she said, wouldn’t take no for an answer. And on top of everything, Trudy was teething so when Dena wasn’t sewing or arguing with Kenny at the door, desperately trying not to let him in, she was nursing a screaming infant half the night. It was all getting to be too much.
Gwen had got herself a boy friend, a male nurse who worked at the same hospital and was urging her to make up a foursome. He’d offered to bring a friend for Dena, as a blind date, and she was sorely tempted.
It would be a relief to get out and enjoy herself, to just be a young girl, a teenager again. At first, following Carl’s attack on her for leaving Trudy with Barry, Dena had stayed in for weeks on end, filled with guilt and remorse. Perhaps he was right, she thought, and she was behaving irresponsibly.
And she’d been nervous of running into Kenny. Everywhere she went he seemed to turn up like the proverbial bad penny, asking her to dance, following her home, even trailing after her when she walked Trudy in the park.
It disturbed her deeply and on more than one occasion Dena had told him off, even resorted to shouting at him to leave her alone. But she hated to be squabbling with him all the time, refused to stay home behind locked doors which would turn her into a recluse.
She wanted to be a good mother, not repeat Alice’s selfish mistakes. Yet surely it would do no harm to go out for the occasional evening? Staying in all the time was so depressing, no matter how much she loved Trudy, and enjoyed her work. Anyway, Carl had no say over what she did.
Dena decided that one night a week, Fridays perhaps, would be hers to enjoy, an evening in which she could be a young girl again, and Trudy would be quite safe with Barry.
And so she accepted Gwen’s offer of a blind date and it all worked rather well. She didn’t always care much for the young men she chose but that didn’t bother Dena in the least. She was having a great time. They would go dancing, or to the pictures, but then one evening when they were at the Plaza dance hall and Dena was on her way back from the powder room, she ran into Carl.
He blocked her way so that she was forced to stop and her heart did a funny sort of somersault. Not having seen him for weeks she’d forgotten how tall he was, how powerful, and how incredibly good looking. His hair was tousled, as always, and his mouth set in its usual grim, condemning line. Dena was instantly on the defensive, preparing herself for another lecture.
‘I hear you’re doing rather well for yourself.’ He ran a considering glance over the dress she was wearing. It was navy and white tailored with a pencil skirt, double breasted and with a big white collar and three-quarter sleeves.
‘I’m coping, thanks.’ She certainly wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how hard she was working, or how very tired she was. She lifted her chin and looked him straight into his eyes. ‘What of it?’
He held up his hands. ‘OK, OK. It’s not about Trudy. I just want to talk to you.’
There was something dark and brooding in his eyes and Dena found herself agreeing, quite against her better judgement. He took her to a quiet part of the foyer out of the public gaze before saying his piece.
‘I want to ask you to leave my little brother alone. Right? Understand? You made your decision when you left him standing at the altar, left the entire family looking like a complete laughing stock, so stay out of his life. Let him go!’
‘What?’ Dena’s mouth dropped open in shock. ‘You’ve got this the wrong way round. Kenny is the one who won’t let go. He’s the one who keeps turning up in my life, day after day, like a bad penny, despite my telling him that it’s all over between us. I’m certainly not encouraging him. Quite the reverse. Nor can you wonder at my actions on that unforgettable day. At least my daughter is alive and well, which is more than she would have been if I’d listened to your precious brother.’
‘What are you saying?’ He glared at her, bemused, his tone less certain.
‘So Kenny hasn’t told you about his ‘friend’?’
‘What friend?’
‘Maureen somebody or other. Or Mo, as she likes to be called. He took me to see her days before the wedding because her talent, apparently, is to treat unborn babies like tadpoles and flush them down the sink.’ Dena stuck her face up so close to his she could see every pore in the smooth olive skin, study the fine shape of his Roman nose, the black curling lashes and her own face reflected in those deep blue eyes. It was not a little disturbing but she held her nerve. ‘I don’t suppose little brother bothered to mention any of that, did he?’ Then she walked away, chin held high.
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