Child of the Mersey

by Annie Groves

  ‘So, you made it home then. That was a stroke of good luck.’ Delaney’s crashing words shattered Frank’s contemplation and brought him back to the sultry heat of his mother’s parlour, and the low buzz of polite conversation. Taking a deep breath, Frank studied the beefy power of the man he now suddenly thought of as an adversary.

  ‘Luck had nothing to do with it, Alfie. We were owed leave and we got it. Simple,’ Frank laughed, giving nothing away. Under the heavy herringbone suit and brushed cotton shirt, Alfie must be melting in this heat.

  A few of Frank’s pals off the ship were also enjoying Dolly’s hospitality. There were also a few merchant mariners present, chums of Eddy’s, and their conversation took on the form of light-hearted barracking. Dolly and Pop were enjoying it immensely, not to mention Nancy, over her nerves now and more relaxed. Now she was laughing at something Sid whispered to her. Frank was amazed at how many people their small parlour was able to hold, though guests were spilling out into the corridor and beyond into the back yard where cigarettes were being smoked and views on the threat of war were being traded.

  ‘Home long?’ Alfie asked.

  ‘Not really,’ Frank said, accepting another cup of tea, which Kitty poured with a smile. He was not interested in talking to Delaney right now. Instead, he was trying to resist the urge to brush from Kitty’s face the stray wisp of a dark curl that escaped her scarf.

  ‘Just give me a call if you want another top-up,’ Kitty smiled back, and her eyes lingered just a fraction longer than he ever dared hope.

  Oh, I will, he thought. I’d be overflowing with the stuff just to keep you close.

  A diamond in the rough, his mother had called Kitty. However, Frank knew it would not take much for Kitty’s brilliance to shine. Later, when she had a minute, he intended to ask her if she fancied going to the pictures before he went back to his ship. He was not much cop as a dancer and hoped Kitty did not want to go to St Winnie’s or St James’s church dance. If she did go out with him, no matter where, he would make sure he gave her an evening to remember.

  ‘How’s Anna?’ Alfie asked. ‘Still bobbing along?’

  ‘She’s fine.’ Frank did not want to talk about HMS Anna in front of Kitty, nor active service, and especially not with Delaney, who would probably find a way to dodge the war. His type always did. He was a wide boy if ever there was one.

  ‘I bet you can’t wait to get back to her,’ Alfie smiled as Kitty poured a finger of whiskey into his glass.

  Frank shrugged. He was telling Delaney nothing. They’d been clearly briefed time and again not to talk carelessly. These were uncertain times and secrecy was of the utmost importance if war were to break out.

  ‘It’s a wonder she manages without you.’

  ‘Leave it out, Alf,’ Frank said, but behind the light-hearted words was an almost undetectable core of steel. He knew that Alf was goading him. He was probably jealous. The likes of Alfie Delaney were more likely to line their own pockets and make money out of others’ misery than fight for their country.

  ‘Over ’ere, love.’ Delaney snapped his fingers impatiently in Kitty’s direction as she moved away.

  Kitty tried to keep her smile bright; she had just been wondering what had happened to Danny today – he should have been at the wedding – but her worries were overshadowed when she had overheard Alfie mention someone to Frank called Anna. Was Frank seeing someone again? Was it a different one from the one she had seen Frank walking with on Empire Street? Rita hadn’t mentioned it. But why should she? ‘More tea?’ she asked.

  ‘A little more of something a bit stronger, if you don’t mind, Kit, my love.’ Alfie spoke to Kitty in a way that she didn’t much like. Supplying her with a bottle of linctus for her younger brother might have saved the day, but it did not mean she and Delaney were bosom friends, as he seemed to be implying now. She vowed she would pay him for the medicine as soon as their Jack got paid next Friday.

  ‘Of course.’ Kitty was aware of Frank watching this exchange with Alfie; she could feel his eyes on her. She felt very self-concious. Frank probably thought her clumsy and silly. It was a ridiculous idea, her being head over heels in love with Frank Feeny. He saw her as a friend, more like a sister, she reminded herself. What a fool she was to think he would ever see her as anything more. Why on earth was she getting herself upset that he might be courting – why shouldn’t he? She could feel a painful tightening in her throat and the sting of tears behind her eyes and she knew she had to get out of the claustrophobic room quickly before she made a show of herself.

  ‘Everything all right, Kit?’ Frank asked, and she nodded, too full to speak and glad when somebody asked to open a window as it was very smoky in the parlour.

  ‘I’m fine, Frank. The room’s just a bit warm, that’s all.’ And Kitty excused herself, dashing off to refill the teapot again before Frank could say anything more.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Sitting in the corridor where the doctor had told him to wait after the examination, Danny could hear the low buzz of conversation within. He wondered if he was being missed at the wedding? Kitty was bound to have noticed he was gone and think that he was up to no good, but hopefully she had her hands too full to worry. He’d give them all something to talk about when he came back with his news. Listening hard, he couldn’t make out what the doctors were saying no matter how much he strained to listen. Jumping slightly when the door opened, he felt his heart race and tried to calm it with a few deep breaths. This is it.

  ‘Daniel Callaghan?’

  Danny nodded and followed the doctor into the room. The others had already gone. Anticipation was coursing through his veins now. He felt special already. Closing the door quietly behind him he followed the doctor to the desk at the far end of the room. Danny was already rehearsing what he was going to say to everyone at the wedding tonight. They were going to be so proud …

  ‘… Did you hear what I said, young man?’

  The doctor’s voice seemed to be coming from a long way off. It echoed around the large room, which suddenly felt hot. Danny, concentrate!

  ‘I’m sorry to have to spring this on you, young man, but …’

  The man’s voice droned on but it was as if the words were coming from somewhere very far away. His blood was pounding in his head. Danny willed himself to listen. He hadn’t heard it right. Surely to God he had not heard it right!

  ‘I am sorry, I … I didn’t catch …’

  ‘You had rheumatic fever as a child?’

  Danny nodded, unable to speak. He had caught rheumatic fever after his mother died. The doctor said it was the shock. All he remembered was that he was sick and his mother was not there to care for him. Kitty did her best, but she was only eleven …

  ‘… an enlarged heart …’ The words kept circling in his head. ‘I’m afraid that rules you out of joining the Royal Navy.’

  Danny heard a gasp and surmised it must have come from himself. They must have got it wrong! Got him mixed up with someone else.

  ‘It can’t be right!’ Danny shook his head, running his hand through his now unruly mop of dark hair before putting his cap on. Then he took it off again. No. They were wrong. His mam once said he had the heart of a young lion! She would have known …

  ‘Get him a glass of water!’ Danny heard the order and felt the cold glass being gently put into his hand and then directed to his lips but he could not make himself drink. Moments later, he looked up to see the navy doctor and an officer looking down at him with concerned expressions on their faces.

  ‘You mean …?’ His chest tightened. The air felt like it was being sucked out of his body and his heart was racing. He had always been able to make his heart beat faster. All he had to do was stop breathing for a few moments. Then he would take a deep breath and it would race along like billy-o. Who would be able to do that if they had a dicky ticker? This fella didn’t have a clue.

  ‘You can ask anyone,’ Danny challenged, ‘they’ll all tell you … Dann
y Callaghan isn’t scared of no one.’

  ‘We are not questioning your bravery, Daniel,’ the officer said in a kindly tone. There was something fatherly about the older grey-haired officer, Danny thought, but not like his own dad, who barely looked anyone in the eye.

  ‘Danny, the name’s Danny.’ He would scupper his chances for sure if he carried on talking to the top brass in this tone of voice, but he could not stop himself. ‘The only people who called me Daniel was the teachers and the Church.’

  ‘There are other things you can do,’ the officer was saying. ‘But right now you have to get checked out at the hospital. We will forward the details. Someone will be in touch.’

  ‘So, that’s it?’ Danny felt stuck to his chair, unable to move. They couldn’t just send him away like this. It was all he had been able to think about and now he was literally sick with disappointment. Nausea rose to that dip in his throat just below his Adam’s apple and he experienced the tingly feeling he got in his ears when he was about to throw up. Taking a long slow breath he swallowed hard. He could quell the nausea if he concentrated enough.

  ‘I know this must be a blow for you but there’s nothing we can do, I’m sorry…’ the officer said, seeing Danny’s pale and anxious face.

  ‘No you’re not,’ Danny said, unable to contain his distress. To his horror, Danny found that it was not only his legs that were letting him down, but now his voice was too. There was no disguising the shake in his voice. ‘As soon as I’m out of here it will be business as usual. What about me? What about—’

  ‘Bad luck, son.’ The navy doctor looked genuinely sympathetic but that cut no ice.

  ‘So, that’s it then?’ Danny shrugged. He felt hopeless. Worthless. All those people who had said he would come to nothing were right. Right now he couldn’t care less that his heart didn’t work properly. What was the point in living half a life anyway? He finally forced his legs to stand and managed to walk out of the examination room, closing the door quietly behind him, even though he wanted to slam it shut, and keep on slamming it until it fell off its hinges.

  Later, he would not be able to recall the journey back to Empire Street.

  ‘Any chance of another bottle of that beer, Kitty? I’ve been stood with this empty glass for ages and I’m parched.’ Delaney was now outside in the back yard with the rest of the men, who were cooling down and having a smoke, and he was getting impatient.

  ‘She’ll get to you in good time,’ Frank said in that quiet, authoritative tone that made the naval ratings obey without question. He never repeated himself or raised his voice to serving men, and he did not intend to do so for this porcine upstart. Who the hell did Delaney think he was? The dockyard foreman had always been full of himself. Nevertheless, he had no right to treat Kitty like a skivvy, thought Frank, or take it for granted that there was beer on tap. He was a guest so how dare he snap his fingers?

  ‘You just can’t get the staff these days, hey, Frank?’ Alfie Delaney laughed, but the obvious joviality did not reach his eyes.

  Frank, in amiable tones for the sake of his family, said, ‘Kitty’s a family friend and we are grateful she offered to help out.’ But the threat in his voice was there and Kitty picked up on it.

  ‘Oh, it’s all right, I’m here now. Let me take that glass, Alfie, and I’ll fill you up,’ Kitty said. She didn’t want the men coming to blows over something silly, not on her account.

  ‘I wouldn’t have been able to do all this without her, would I, Kitty, love?’ Dolly said, collecting empty glasses from the windowsill.

  ‘I’m sure anybody would have done the same, Aunty Doll,’ Kitty said, heading back into the house. ‘I’ll just go and put some boiling water in the pot.’

  ‘I didn’t mean anything by it; Kitty knows what I’m like, don’t you, Kitty?’ Delaney shouted after Kitty as she went back inside. ‘She’s a great girl.’

  ‘I know that,’ Frank said.

  ‘I’ll have a word later,’ Alfie said lightly, not meeting Frank’s steady gaze. ‘Kitty’s got a sense of humour, unlike some people.’

  Frank shook his head. Delaney really was a waste of space.

  ‘Hey, Kit, let me give you a hand with that. Take no notice of that Alfie Delaney; he’s too full of his own importance,’ Rita said, taking the tray of dirty glasses.

  It was that time of the day between the afternoon reception and the evening knees-up and the guests were relaxed, if not yet merry enough for a singsong.

  ‘I’m not bothered by the likes of him: fingers in every pie, doing a bit of this and a bit of that, ducking and diving on the dock and always got something to sell.’

  ‘I’d give him a wide berth if I were you,’ Rita said, but Kitty looked shocked at the well-meant advice.

  ‘I wouldn’t touch Alfie Delaney with asbestos gloves on, and I certainly wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, and that’s not far at all.’ She didn’t tell Rita about the medicine for Tommy; Rita might not approve. ‘Oh, mind your lovely suit,’ Kitty said, admiring the marine colour that brought out the beautiful blue-green of Rita’s eyes.

  ‘Here, I’ll take the jacket off and put me mam’s pinny on and I’ll give you a hand,’ Rita laughed. ‘To tell the truth, Kit, I could do with a breather from the party. The heat and the drink are going to the men’s heads. If you didn’t know better you’d think some of them would be able to beat off Hitler and his Nazi bully boys single-handed.’

  ‘Do you think war will happen, then, Rita?’ asked Kitty.

  Rita paused. ‘Yes,’ she said after a moment. ‘I’m sure of it. You and I have lived round here long enough to know that something different is happening now. We’ve seen all of those naval ships being readied and the hundreds, maybe thousands, of men in uniform all seeming to have appeared out of nowhere. It’s in the air and I don’t think all the fine words of Neville Chamberlain will put a stop to Hitler. It’s action, not words needed now.’

  Kitty started washing up some of Dolly’s fine tea- cups and saucers, placing them on the side where Rita got to work drying them with a tea towel, stacking them tidily on the kitchen table. ‘I saw in Dad’s Echo yesterday that some more of those Jewish children had arrived from Europe. What was it they called them, Rita?’

  ‘I know the ones you mean, the Kindertransport, I think they’re called.’

  ‘They looked so sad and alone, Rita. It must be awful not knowing what’s happening to their parents back home.’

  Rita thought of her own children. Soon to be sent off as evacuees. ‘I’m sure we don’t hear the half of what is going on over there, but at least those parents know their children are safe, Kitty.’

  They finished washing the glasses and cups just as the kettle boiled.

  ‘War terrifies the life out of me, to be honest,’ said Kitty, placing rows of china cups onto their matching saucers before taking the huge teapot Dolly had borrowed from Father Harding and filling them. When she’d taken out the tea she and Rita sat down at the table, taking a breather and enjoying cups of tea themselves. ‘Will Charlie join up, d’you think?’ She and Rita had been friends for so long they were like family.

  ‘Charlie says he’ll apply to be a conscientious objector,’ said Rita. ‘I said to him, “Charlie, you’ve got to have a conscience first” – he wasn’t impressed.’ The two women laughed.

  ‘I’ll be in the shop as soon as our Danny gives me the money he owes me and settle my bill,’ Kitty said.

  Rita shrugged. ‘I’m not even thinking about that place today. For all I care it can fall down. Let’s take our chairs out to the back yard and see if we can get ourselves a bit of a tan.’

  ‘If our Danny hadn’t been so partial to that game of pitch-and-toss, and me dad didn’t like his ale so much, we wouldn’t be in this mess, and now Danny hasn’t turned up. What on earth can he be up to now?’ Kitty wondered as she picked up a straight-backed chair.

  ‘You know what they say, Kit, “If ifs and buts were apples and nuts, we’d
have a cupboard full.”’ Rita laughed. ‘So come on, let’s not worry for tomorrow is another day.’

  ‘My mam used to say that too.’ Her mother would have enjoyed the wedding and a good old knees-up. Kitty’s throat tightened when she recalled her mother. Dad would sing to his beloved Ellen every chance he got. It must be perfect to have a love so strong. There was only one man she could ever imagine being that happy with: Frank Feeny.

  ‘We’re all cut from the same cloth, Kit, and there’s no use pretending otherwise.’

  Unconsciously, Kitty lifted her chin. Rita, like the big sister she never had, always managed to make things better.

  Vera Delaney, on the other hand, was already out in the yard, legs like newel posts, feet planted wide apart, whiskey in hand and giving her two-penny worth of ill-thought advice to whoever would listen.

  Kitty swallowed hard and looked away over the high wall where a poster on the side of the shop was advertising Camp Coffee. Although usually sociable, Kitty did not want to get involved in conversation with Vera Delaney.

  Vera made no secret of the fact she had no time for the Callaghan family. Kitty suspected it was her own father’s drunken performances at closing time that caused Vera, who lived almost opposite the Sailor’s Rest, to push up her sash window, Dinkie curlers akimbo, and scream blue murder.

  Standing tall now, Kitty tried to tell herself that it did not matter what the likes of Vera Delaney thought. However, it did not stop her cringing every time the older woman looked pointedly in her direction.

  ‘I’ll make a start on those sandwiches for later on tonight, Rita.’ The party was destined to continue into the small hours. Kitty managed only a tight smile for her friend.

  ‘Don’t let her drive you inside,’ Rita said, offering her face to the sun. ‘Have you enjoyed yourself, Mrs Delaney?’ Rita called, then whispered to Kitty, ‘The old bag is listening to every word of each person present; how she does it I will never know. I was in the middle of a conversation with her the other day, and she turned to answer somebody else’s question! Then she turned back to me and continued where she left off.’ Rita clapped her hands and laughed uproariously. ‘She’s a case!’