Goodnight Sweetheart

by Annie Groves

  Molly was quiet for the rest of the evening. Now even Anne disapproved of her. It was very easy for others to talk about what she should do, Molly decided miserably, especially when they weren’t the ones who were in love with Eddie.

  It was still light when Molly got home just over an hour later, but that didn’t seem to be stopping Alf Davies from marching purposefully down the cul-de-sac.

  ‘Blackout in half an hour,’ he told her, checking to see that she was carrying her gas mask. ‘Just bin down the allotments to see that old fool Bert.’

  ‘He won’t really have to have Rover put down, will he?’ Molly asked anxiously.

  ‘Rules is rules and no dogs are allowed in air-raid shelters. I’ve told him that. And what if he were to get bombed and his bloomin’ dog left to roam all over everywhere, causing a nuisance?’

  ‘But Rover is all he’s got,’ Molly protested.

  Ignoring her comment, Alf looked at his watch. ‘Time I was on me way. I want to check the whole of the cul-de-sac at blackout time, and then I’ve got them streets behind to do, an’ all.’

  By rights she ought to go home. She was only a few doors away now and, as Alf had just pointed out to her, it was almost blackout time, but ever since they had heard the news about the Athenia, all Molly had been able to think about was Eddie, and she was guiltily aware that she should not be thinking about him – leastways not in the way that she was.

  The Saturday night they had danced and laughed together might as well have been a lifetime ago, so many terrible things had happened since then. She and June had lost their jobs, and whilst it was all very well for June to talk nonchalantly about them getting other work, Molly liked the girls they had already worked with and the friendly familiarity of Hardings. June enjoyed confrontations but she didn’t, and it made her feel sick and shaky to remember what had happened. And what if Miss Jenner or Mr Harding did report them to the police? The country was at war and everyone was being exhorted to do their bit, with severe punishments threatened for those who did not abide by all the new rules the Government had brought in.

  And if all that wasn’t bad enough, she kept imagining Eddie on his ship and those awful German U-boats. She felt so worried and upset that even the thought of old Bert and his dog was enough to fill her eyes with tears.

  She glanced disinterestedly at a man turning into the cul-de-sac. He was walking with that slight roll of seagoing men, and …

  Her eyes widened and she stiffened in disbelief. It was Eddie.

  SEVEN

  ‘Molly!’

  ‘Eddie!’ She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and discovered that she was doing both as he started to run towards her.

  ‘I can’t believe it’s you,’ she told him. ‘How can you be here? I thought—’

  ‘We had orders from the Admiralty, telling us to turn back,’ he answered excitedly.

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ Molly repeated. ‘I was just thinking about you and …’

  ‘Was you?’

  His voice had deepened and suddenly he was standing much closer to her whilst the dusk wrapped its own protective and concealing blackout around them.

  ‘By, Molly, but I like to think of you thinkin’ of me.’

  ‘I meant just as a friend and neighbour,’ Molly told him hastily, flushing guiltily as she did so, agitatedly twisting Johnny’s ring with her fingers.

  ‘I didn’t kiss yer when I said goodbye like you was just a friend and neighbour to me, Molly,’ Eddie told her thickly. ‘I kissed yer like you was my girl. And I want yer to be my girl, Molly.’

  ‘But I’m engaged to Johnny,’ Molly told him miserably.

  ‘But you don’t love him, do you?’ Eddie probed.

  Molly shook her head, and then murmured a small apprehensive protest as Eddie drew her deeper into the shadows and into his arms.

  ‘Aw, come on, Molly love, don’t cry,’ he begged her.

  ‘I can’t help it,’ Molly told him. ‘Everything’s so awful. Our June says that I can’t not be engaged to Johnny on account of him going off to fight, me and her have lost our jobs, and the Athenia’s been sunk and it could have been you, and poor Bert will have to have Rover put down, and even Anne, me friend at WVS, has taken the huff with me.’

  As she sobbed out all of this, Eddie held her closer, stroking her hair and murmuring comforting words into her ear.

  ‘Oh, Eddie, why did this have to happen to us after I’d got engaged to Johnny?’

  ‘I don’t know, lass. Mebbe it teks sommat like a war to make us see what’s bin under our noses.’

  ‘What are we going to do?’

  ‘Well, I reckon that Johnny is bound to get some leave before he’s sent into action. When he does,’ he squeezed her hand gently, ‘I reckon that would be the time to tell him what’s happened.’

  ‘Tell him about you and me, you mean? Do you think I should?’

  Eddie nodded.

  ‘But what would people say?’ she asked. ‘I’d feel so …’

  And then he kissed her, and Molly recognised that nothing else and no one else mattered more right now than her love for Eddie.

  Being kissed by Eddie was every bit as wonderful the second time as it had been the first, she discovered dizzily. So wonderful, in fact, that she didn’t want him to stop – not ever.

  But he did, his voice unfamiliarly gruff and husky as he told her, ‘You’ve got to be my girl after kissing me like that, Molly, even if we are going to have to keep it to ourselves until you’ve told Johnny.’

  Suddenly Molly knew she had no choice. It was Eddie she wanted, not Johnny.

  ‘How long will you be home for?’ she asked him.

  ‘I don’t know yet. But like as not it won’t be for very long.’

  Molly’s heart sank at the words but she berated herself hurriedly. This time together was an unexpected blessing and she would cherish every second of it.

  It was almost dark now, and Eddie bent his head and kissed her again, a quick, hard, very grown-up kiss that left her tingling from head to foot as they looked at one another through the darkness.

  ‘Come on, before I do sommat as I shouldn’t,’ Eddie told her gruffly, releasing her and turning her firmly in the direction of their homes.

  ‘It seems really funny, not seeing any light anywhere,’ Molly commented, smothering a soft laugh as Eddie accidentally stepped off the pavement and into the gutter because they couldn’t see where they were going. Her laughter turned to a protest of her own as she bumped into a privet hedge.

  ‘If them in charge don’t watch out, this blackout’s going to be causing a fair few accidents,’ Eddie prophesied as they reached number 78.

  ‘What are you doin’ tomorrow?’ he asked.

  ‘June was talking about us going to look for new jobs.’ She had already told him about the earlier incident at Hardings.

  ‘I’ll pop round in the morning then, just to come and show me face, like. Leastways, that’s what I’ll tell your June. Go on,’ he gave her a small tender push, ‘you get yourself inside. I’ll stay here and watch to mek sure you’re all right. And, Molly.’ She turned to look up at him. ‘Don’t wear Johnny’s ring any more.’

  She looked helplessly at him, desperately tempted to run back to him for one more kiss. She didn’t tell him that the ring had been off her finger and in her pocket before they’d even finished kissing.

  * * *

  ‘Watch that light you’re letting out. You’ll have Alf Davies down on us,’ June commented critically when Molly opened the back door. ‘You’re late. I thought you said you would be back before dark,’ she added.

  ‘I got a bit delayed,’ Molly told her, bending down and pretending to brush some fluff off her skirt so that she could hide her telltale guilty flush from her sister.

  ‘What’s to do with you this morning? You’re like a cat on hot bricks,’ June complained as Molly glanced towards the back door for the umpteenth time.

  ‘As soon as I’ve finished
writing this letter to my Frank I thought we’d go down into town and get it posted and then go and ’ave a word at Napiers – see if they’re still taking folk on.’

  Molly’s heart sank as she listened to her sister. What excuse could she give for not wanting to go out that wouldn’t betray her? Eddie had said he would come round this morning. But it was half-past ten already and Molly was beginning to wonder if, in the cold light of day, he was having second thoughts about what he had said to her last night or – her heart thudded into her chest wall at the thought – could he now be thinking of her as a girl who was not only ‘fast’ but who was also guilty of betraying another man?

  Desperate to find something to do that wouldn’t further alert June’s suspicions, she picked up the old blue cardigan she had brought downstairs earlier.

  ‘What are you going to do with that?’ June asked her.

  ‘I thought I’d unpick it and use the wool to knit something for Sally’s baby,’ Molly explained.

  ‘Aye, well, when you go and see her why don’t you ask her if you can borrow that frock her bridesmaid wore last year? I can’t see how we’re able to afford to buy you a new one, not now we haven’t got jobs, and even if we could I don’t know where we’d get any fabric.’

  ‘Yes, I’ll do that,’ Molly agreed, too relieved at having successfully distracted her sister to protest that she didn’t particularly want to wear the bright pink, shiny, mock-taffeta frock Sally’s bridesmaid had worn. She’d look like the Sugar Plum Fairy. She could remember how, at the time, Sally had complained bitterly that she hated it, but that Ronnie’s sister had insisted that it was what she was going to wear.

  ‘Yoo-hoo …’

  The cardigan slipped from Molly’s fingers as she turned towards the back door, tense with hope, uncertainty and self-consciousness that Eddie would be with his aunt.

  ‘You’ll never guess what,’ Elsie beamed as she bustled into the kitchen. ‘Our Eddie’s home.’

  ‘Aw, Auntie Elsie,’ Eddie protested with a grin as he followed her into the kitchen, and then looked at Molly.

  Oblivious to anything and anyone else, she looked back at him, whilst her heart threw itself at her ribcage with much the same force as she wanted to throw herself into his arms.

  ‘Oh … not that I wasn’t sorry to ’ear your bad news about your jobs, of course. A right shame, that is,’ she could hear Elsie saying. ‘I couldn’t believe it when our Eddie walked in last night. Already in bed, we was, on account of me spending all day mekkin’ piccalilli and bottlin’ soft fruit. Our Jim managed to get me a whole box of Kilner jars, and I thought sooner than waste ’em and leave ’em empty, I might as well fill ’em wi’ sommat, especially since …’

  ‘… there’s a war on,’ Eddie chanted in time with his aunt, and then laughed.

  ‘I’ve already told you, Auntie, you want ter be careful wi’ them jars, wi’ our Jim bringing them home for yer.’ He winked. ‘Checked ’em for cracks, did you, in case they got broke when they fell off that goods wagon?’

  ‘That’s enough of that, our Eddie,’ Elsie began, and then laughed herself when she saw that he was teasing her.

  Teasing her and making them all laugh, and somehow at the same time managing to close the distance so that he was standing right up next to Molly and was able to give her hand a reassuring little squeeze under the oilcloth cover on the table.

  She dared not look up at him because if she did she knew she would give herself away.

  ‘Aye, well, you don’t need to go feeling sorry for us, Elsie. Me and Molly’ll soon have new jobs – better jobs, an’ all, than working at Hardings,’ June prophesied. ‘I’ve heard as how they’re taking on at Napiers to make armaments—’

  ‘You’re never thinkin’ of going working there?’ Elsie protested immediately, while Eddie also frowned.

  ‘Why not?’ June demanded as she licked the envelope she had just put her letter into and sealed it. ‘It’s good pay and—’

  ‘It’s too dangerous,’ Eddie said tersely. ‘And besides, mekkin’ shells and that is men’s work.’

  ‘Huh, and how are men going to do it when they’re all being called up?’ June challenged, tossing her head.

  ‘Aye, well, I have heard as how they’re tekkin’ women on down there,’ Elsie agreed. ‘But I wouldn’t want any daughter of mine working there. I’ve heard as ’ow only last week one poor lad had his arm blown off, and there’s tales of lads gettin’ all sorts of skin rashes and the like …’

  ‘Any news yet, June, as to when your Frank is likely to get leave?’ Eddie broke in diplomatically, and Molly sent him a look of grateful relief.

  ‘No. He’s not in the merchant navy with leave every other week,’ June sniffed crossly.

  ‘Aye, well, I wouldn’t be here neither if we hadn’t been sent orders to turn back,’ Eddie answered, knowing June of old and that her concern for Frank was making her tetchy.

  ‘So you’re home now until the war’s over, are you?’ June demanded jealously.

  ‘Of course he isn’t, June,’ Elsie objected, ‘but he’s not allowed to say what’s happening, are you, Eddie, on account of loose talk costing lives?’

  Eddie shrugged. ‘I doubt that June would go blabbin’ to anyone, Auntie, not with her Frank in the army. Sent him over to France now, have they then, June?’ he probed.

  ‘He’s still in Clacton, doing his training,’ June informed him loftily.

  ‘Lucky Frank. In the merchant navy we does our training on the ship, and if a U-boat gets yer in its sights before you’re ready, it’s just too bad,’ Eddie drawled meaningfully.

  Molly could see that an angry red flush was spreading across June’s face. It was obvious to her that her sister did not like the fact that Eddie was refusing to let her have the last word.

  ‘The Admiralty gave instructions for us to turn back on account of them deciding that merchant navy vessels are to travel in convoy and be protected by warships from now on,’ Eddie continued in a milder tone. ‘How do you fancy goin’ to the pictures tonight, Molly?’ he added casually.

  ‘She can’t,’ June answered sharply before Molly could speak. ‘None of the picture houses or the dance halls are opening, on account of the blackout. And, besides, she’s an engaged woman.’

  ‘Aye, and we know whose idea that was,’ Eddie began angrily.

  Molly looked at him imploringly and shook her head.

  ‘And what exactly do you mean by that?’ June started to demand, only to frown as someone began banging on the front door.

  ‘Who the hell is that?’ June protested, adding, ‘You go and see, will yer, our Molly?’

  Molly could make out the outline of a man through the frosted glass. Uncertainly she opened the door, her mouth opening in a startled ‘Oh’ of surprise when she saw Mr Harding standing outside.

  ‘Oh, Molly … may I come in?’

  ‘Who is it?’ June called out.

  ‘It’s … it’s Mr Harding, from the factory,’ Molly called back shakily.

  She could hear sounds of movement from the kitchen and then June demanded sharply, ‘Give over having me on and messing about, our Molly,’ followed by silence as her sister came to stand beside her, and she realised that Molly had been speaking the truth.

  ‘I’ve come to have a word with you both,’ Mr Harding announced. ‘Is there somewhere …?’

  ‘You’d best come into the front room,’ June told him, giving Molly a loaded look as she opened the door.

  The front room smelled of polish, and the worn leather sofa creaked slightly when Mr Harding sat down on it.

  ‘I’ve come to talk to you about yesterday,’ Mr Harding began, having already refused June’s offer of a cup of tea.

  ‘It weren’t us as were to blame,’ June told him swiftly. ‘We didn’t touch them uniforms.’

  ‘No. I know that, June. The other girls have explained everything. I’ve had a word with Hannah’s doctor and he feels that the shock of hearing we are at war has a
ffected Hannah’s brain and that was why she did what she did. But I’m not here to talk about poor Hannah. I’d like you both to come back to work. Hardings can’t afford to lose girls as skilled as you two.’ He smiled warmly at them both. ‘And, of course, there’ll be no question of any wages being lost, not even for today.’

  ‘I’m not going back to work under that Jenner woman,’ June announced flatly.

  ‘Miss Jenner is no longer with us. She has handed in her notice to join the ATS,’ Mr Harding informed them, adding, ‘I won’t keep you any longer. And I hope to see you both back at your machines tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Who was that then?’ Elsie asked curiously whilst Molly looked delightedly at June, then explained, ‘It was Mr Harding from the factory. He’s offered us our jobs back and said as how he knows what really happened. And he said that Miss Jenner has left to join the ATS.’ Molly beamed.

  ‘Well, that’s all right then. All’s well that ends well, eh?’ Elsie said mundanely.

  ‘It might be for him, but I dunno as I want to go back to Hardings,’ June announced. ‘Four pounds a week I’ve heard they’re getting down at Napiers. That’s nearly twice as much as we get at the factory.’

  ‘Oh, June, you don’t mean that, do you?’ Molly protested. She liked working at Hardings and she liked the girls they worked with.

  ‘If June wants to work at Napiers, then that’s up to her, but there’s nothing to stop you going back to Hardings if you want to, Molly,’ Eddie said firmly.

  ‘And what gives you the right to start telling our Molly what she can and can’t do, Eddie Granger?’ June demanded.

  ‘I’m not telling her to do anything – you’re the one doing that, June,’ Eddie retorted. ‘I’m just saying that Molly doesn’t have to leave Hardings if she doesn’t want to just because you do.’