In a League of Their Own

by Millie Gray

  To Gordon Booth in acknowledgment of all his help and encouragement

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This story tells of one family’s life in Leith and the Hebrides in the 1950s. Although it echoes some of the writer’s experiences and personal feelings, the characters portrayed in the book are wholly fictitious and bear no relation to any persons, living or dead. Many of the street names, localities and other details from that period in Leith’s history have been preserved however.

  CONTENTS

  Title

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  1 A Merry Dance

  2 A Child is Born

  3 Police Priorities

  4 Silver Service

  5 Wedding Plans and Pimpernel Pete

  6 Housing Affairs

  7 Cup Fever and Cold Feet

  8 Mixed Blessings

  9 An Island Break

  10 A Trio of Mishaps

  11 Storm and Stress

  12 Brotherly Love

  13 Breakers Ahead

  14 Going Full Circle

  15 An Island Interlude

  16 Grand Finale

  By the Same Author

  Copyright

  1

  A MERRY DANCE

  In sheer frustration at Alice’s inability to perfect the rhythm and steps of the Charleston, Carrie emphasised once again to her younger sister, “No, no, Alice! Let the music guide you. See? Like this.” And Carrie continued to sing and dance in time to the music. “Dah, dah! Dah-dah, dah-dah, ah, ah.” Unfortunately, the only response from Alice to this advice was a half-hearted flick of her right leg followed by a clumsy twirl of her long beaded necklace. Carrie skipped across the room and brusquely switched off the record player. “No, no!” she remonstrated. “When you do the high kick – and that was meant to be a high kick you were attempting – then it’s a half-flick first followed through with the full kick.”

  A crestfallen Alice whimpered, “I am trying, Carrie.”

  “You most certainly are very trying,” was the sarcastic retort from Carrie who still couldn’t understand why Alice was not, like herself, one of nature’s natural movers. Mellowing her tone she continued, “Look, I thought that with all the dancing lessons you’ve had, the Charleston would be a cake-walk for you.”

  “Well, it isn’t!” snapped Alice.

  “Okay, keep the heid,” her sister riposted, demonstrating yet once more just how the dance should be done. “See. After the high kick, you’re on to pivoting on the ball of your right foot, kicking out before stepping back, and then twisting on your left foot: dah, dah, and stepping forward. Now, come on – try it in time with me.”

  Both girls halted abruptly as the front door opened and their brother, Sam, came in. He had sprouted to six feet during his two years in the army, and this, coupled with his sun-enhanced complexion and the signs of grey flecking through his red-tinted hair, made him now appear a quite dominant figure to his sisters.

  “Where in the name o heavens d’ye think ye two are going, all dressed up like a couple o Rose Street tarts?”

  “You know perfectly well that we’re going as the Roaring Twenties Girls to the Halloween fancy dress ball in the Leith Assembly Rooms tomorrow,” Alice countered as she retreated safely behind her sister.

  “Roaring Twenties? Seems to me it’s a burning shame that two well brought-up lassies are going out to make a laughing-stock o themselves.”

  “You know something, Sam?” said Carrie as she began to face up to him. “Ever since you came back from Korea you’ve had a face the length of Leith Walk. Finding fault with everything, so you are. And I wouldn’t care,” she continued with increased boldness, “but you were only out there two months before the shooting stopped!”

  Eyes blazing, Sam bristled angrily. “Aye, that was because when we joined up with the Black Watch we didnae half put the fear o God into them.”

  Without another word he escaped into the kitchen and sat down at the table, his head between his hands. How, he wondered, could he explain to his family – or indeed to anybody – that, hard as his childhood had been, he would rather it had been twice as tough just as long as he hadn’t had to go shooting and killing folk he didn’t even know!

  No, he admitted, as the memories came flooding back, I’m not really a hard man – no natural-born killer. He was jolted back to reality when the harsh ring of metal being banged on metal reminded him of gunfire. “In the name o heavens, Carrie, what are ye doing, scaring me like that?” he yelled, jumping to his feet in alarm.

  “Scaring you? What can be frightening about me beating up a batter?”

  Sam shook his head in despair. “Oh, Carrie, somebody just has to listen to me.”

  “Okay. I’m all ears.”

  Sam sighed and sank down on his chair again but hesitated before finally beginning: “Look. Ye ken I was sent out to Korea as part o my National Service.”

  Carrie nodded, stopped her batter-beating, and sat down beside him.

  “Well, try to understand that Paddy Egan and me were both shit-scared, holed up every night in a stinking foxhole with only a Bren gun for company.”

  “That all?”

  Sam paused again before adding, “Well, aye – if ye dinnae count the thousands o Chinese that were dug in just twenty yards from us.”

  Without answering, Carrie rose to pour the batter into a baking tin which she placed in the oven. It was only when she turned round to face Sam again that she noticed he was shivering.

  “Ken what?” he continued, almost to himself. “All freezing night we had to watch and listen for them coming to get us.”

  “Must have made the nights seem long,” Carrie whispered.

  “Long? A bloody eternity it seemed. Only other thing ye could do in that midden was sit and think.”

  “Think about what?” Carrie was now desperate to keep Sam talking.

  “About hame. Going to the game on Saturdays. And about Mammy and you lassies.” A long pause followed before he blurted out. “Aw Carrie, we did fire on them – but please believe me – only when we thought they were really going to do for us.” Sam covered his ears with his hands and groaned, “Oh God, the noise o they guns. The flashes. The screams when we hit them – when we murdered them. Funny thing though – in the morning there were nae bodies lying about.”

  “There weren’t?”

  “Naw. Dragged them away in the night they did, so we couldnae dae a heid count.”

  “And was the daytime any better?”

  Sam pushed out his lips and blew on them before answering. “Daytime? Oh aye, it was just dandy if ye were into lookin’ forward to being fed pigswill washed down with some stinking water from the bloody river Imjin.”

  “Mmm,” Carrie mused. “But that’s not what’s really bugging you, is it?”

  Sam sighed and shook his head. “Naw.”

  “So what is’t that’s getting to you?”

  “Paddy,” was all Sam could say as he dragged his hand over his mouth. “Ye ken how we grew up thegither.”

  “Aye, but you both went to different schools.”

  “So he was Catholic. What of it? Did we no join up every Saturday for a game or twa o football?” retorted Sam, before banging the table with his right fist. “And know something… killing that po-faced officer, who had the cheek to tell me that the Korean casualties were light compared with the two world wars, would have been easy for me. Why could he no understand it wouldnae be light for Paddy’s mammy? Oh aye, what matters to her and me is that Paddy’s no coming hame from a bloody war we shouldnae ever have been in.” Carrie stayed silent until eventually Sam muttered, “Aye. And the upper-class asses that sent us out th
ere will still have learned nowt. Naw, naw. Paddy’ll no be the last nineteen-year-auld to buy it in some bloody foreign field…”

  Carrie went over and laid a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “There’s nothing you can do for Paddy or for his mammy now – except make a success of your own life.”

  “And how will I do that?”

  “For a start you can get stuck into your police job next week,” replied Carrie as she took the cooked meal from the oven and dished it up.

  Sam nodded. “Aye, ye’re right – and I’ll be outside most o the time in the polis… Mustn’t be shut in right now.”

  “Good thinking, Sam. Now, let’s get tucked into our tea before it eats us.”

  Sam looked up, wondering what Carrie was going on about and then he became aware of the plate in front of him. “Toad in the Hole!” he said with a grin. “Ye minded how I just love Toad in the Hole.”

  Carrie smiled back. “Well, well. Not only are you back with the living but you also know what you’re about to eat.”

  Before Sam could speak, a loud knock at the front door had Alice running to open it. “It’s Senga Glass, Sam. She’s wondering if you’re in?” she called.

  Sam and Carrie both groaned before Sam hoarsely whispered, “Do something, Carrie. I just cannae take Crystal right now.”

  Carrie chuckled at Sam using the nickname he’d given Senga – who believed he called her Crystal because she shone for him – but Carrie knew it was because she came across as fairly thick. However, before either Sam or Carrie could signal to Alice that she should say that he was out, Crystal had pushed her way in. “Sam,” she burst out. “I was wondering if ye were still game to walk me down to the Halloween dance the morn’s night.”

  “Em, em.” Sam floundered as he struggled to think of some kind of excuse. “Well, I cannae really – ye see I’ve promised Chalky I’d go down with him and his cousin from the Dumbiedykes.”

  Unable to conceal her disappointment, Crystal tried to coax Sam by stammering, “B-b-but I’ve told everybody ye’re going with me and I’m going as Betty Grable – and so are four other lassies from the Bond.”

  “So?”

  “Well Sam, if ye don’t go down with me how’ll ye ken which Betty Grable is me?”

  “Simple,” sneered Alice. “After all, I’m sure none of the rest will be ban…”

  Before Alice could finish saying bandy-legged she was silenced with a warning glower from Carrie who was fully aware that Alice could at times be a bitchy big head. This was due to the family insisting to their blonde, willowy, blue-eyed Alice that she could easily become Miss Scotland some day – provided their mother Rachel ever allowed her to lower herself by entering a beauty competition.

  Carrie’s intervention failed to stop Crystal realising that Sam would remember that, as a child, she’d had rickets which had left her with slightly bowed legs. And as she looked at him, she thought just how strong, straight and handsome he was. It was this recognition that brought tears of regret to her eyes and all that poor Crystal could do was to bend over and pull her skirt further down over her legs.

  Crystal’s desperate actions reminded Carrie just how badly she herself had felt before the squints in her eyes were corrected, and she blurted out, “Look, Crystal, why don’t you walk down to the dance with Alice and me?”

  Wiping her nose with the back of hand, Crystal responded, “Aye, that would be just great – us lassies should all stick thegither.”

  The three wind-tossed girls were glad to escape the clutches of the blustery gale and find refuge inside the doors of the impressive Constitution Street Assembly Rooms where the Halloween ball was being held. As they brushed the rain from their coats, Alice muttered, “We should have taken a taxi.”

  “A taxi!” screeched Carrie. “We’re here tonight dressed up like a pair of demented hens just so you can win first prize in the Fancy Dress – and you think we should have wasted money on a taxi?”

  “Carrie, there’s only one prize the night, and it’s a tenner!” insisted Alice. “A tenner that would go some way to paying my fare to America. But with my head feathers all drookit and hanging down over my face, winning is no longer a certainty for me.”

  “You win?” sneered Crystal. “When they judges get a butcher’s at my wig ye’ll have nae chance.”

  “Says you!” huffed Alice.

  “Listen, does that music floating down the stairs no make you want to twinkle?” interrupted Carrie, beginning an impromptu dance. “C’mon, you two… let’s hand our coats in and get up to the hall to see what talent’s around.”

  It was on the dot of eight when the girls arrived in the hall but since the pubs didn’t close until ten there were no men on the dance-floor, except for those who had come with a partner; so Carrie, who couldn’t keep her feet still, danced with Alice. Crystal in the meantime took up her customary wallflower pose until Sam and Chalky sauntered in just before ten. Immediately she pounced on Sam and dragged him on to the dance floor, insisting emphatically that even though it was a jive it was most certainly a Ladies’ Choice!

  By cavorting backwards Sam managed to steer himself to where Alice and Carrie were dancing, landing there just in time to see Alice to do a back somersault before being dragged back smartly between Carrie’s legs.

  “When did you two become contortionists?” Sam exclaimed admiringly as he watched Carrie begin to twist her slim legs in all directions.

  “I thought you were coming with Chalky and his cousin from the Dumbiedykes?” said Carrie, ignoring Sam’s comments on the dancing.

  “Didnae turn up for some reason,” drawled Sam, who was now staring at the hall entrance.

  Instinctively turning to see what was holding her brother mesmerized, Carrie was confronted with a vision – a true Rita Hayworth look-alike who could well have given the real Rita a run for her money. And it wasn’t just the flowing Titian wig and fluttering eyelashes that were so spellbinding – no, the main attraction was her tantalizing and perfectly-formed bosom. There was so much of it that Carrie knew for sure that this Rita would never fall flat on her face. However, before she could speak to Sam again, the next dance had been announced and Carrie’s brother dashed across the floor to whirl a very willing Rita on to the floor. As the music of “Jealousy” thundered out, Sam and Rita’s interpretation of the tango brought all the other dancers to a halt. All they could do was gape at a version of the dance that would have made George Raft’s tango look positively demure!

  “Wherever did he learn to dance like that?” cried Crystal, as Sam’s legs shot between Rita’s and his head abruptly swivelled round to dance cheek-to-cheek with her.

  “Not in my mammy’s living room – that’s for sure!” exclaimed Carrie, whose cheeks were glowing with embarrassment.

  “Then where?”

  Carrie couldn’t answer that – but she guessed that when Sam had been sent from the front line in Korea to Tokyo for two weeks’ rest and recuperation he must have taken full advantage of what was on offer there. That of course included long lie-ins, cooked meals whenever he wanted them and the services of the local geisha girls who were doubtless more than willing to allow him to sample their diverse cultural pastimes!

  “Never mind about who taught him and where,” fumed Alice. “Don’t you realise that yon Rita Hayworth double, that our Sam is flaunting around the room, has just stolen the first prize off me?”

  All Carrie and Crystal could do was to glumly agree.

  There were another three dances before the interval; and Sam danced every one with Rita. As Carrie watched them growing closer together, she had to stifle uncomfortable feelings of jealousy rising within her. Simply watching them both evoked memories in her of how Will and she had clung to each other as they had danced the night away before he left for his ship. She heaved a sigh, remembering how Will had whispered in her ear the wonderful news of how he’d been offered the post of fifth engineer on a Salvesen’s whaling supply ship. “I’ll only be away six month
s,” he’d assured her. That was twenty-three months ago and still he hadn’t sailed into a British port. She took some comfort, however, at realising that he just had to get home shore leave within the next month or the company would be breaking its own contract terms – one of which was that no sailor would be more than two years away from home.

  “Shall we join the queue for refreshments, Carrie?” asked Alice, breaking into Carrie’s reverie. “What I mean to say is that ever since you started saving up the deposit for a house, no penny in your purse seems allowed out without a police escort.”

  Ignoring Alice’s caustic observations on her frugality, Carrie casually replied. “Oh yes, we might as well join the queue. You never know: Sam might treat us.”

  “Sam treat us? When has he ever treated anyone except Mammy? And with her away in the Hebrides with Hannah and not being here when he came home on demob leave, I doubt if even she would get a crumb off him, never mind a nibble at his boiled ham sandwich.”

  Alice was right. After buying his own tea and gammon-filled delicacy, the only other person he treated was Rita. “Did you see that, Alice?” moaned Carrie as Sam handed Rita her cup of tea and slightly less than half of his own sandwich.

  “I did. And just see how she’s wolfing into it. Honestly, with teeth that size, I hope Red Riding Hood’s not around.”

  After the break, it was time for the Grand Parade and the fancy dress judging. Alice of course was still sulking and Carrie urged, “C’mon. We still have a chance if we look as if we’re enjoying ourselves – but if we Charleston around like we’re doing a Death March, we’ve had it.”

  The parade stopped and everyone stood silently on the dance floor. Not a sound could be heard as the excitement mounted. Then, as the drum-roll echoed around the hall they all knew that the winner of the biggest prize ever was about to be announced. The bandleader began by saying how difficult the judging had been and how he personally had admired the Roaring Twenties girls. Alice and Carrie beamed with pleasure, believing they were now the winners. Their grins faded however, when he went on to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, by a very small margin, the worthy victor is – Rita Hayworth!”