A Daughter's Choice

by June Francis

‘Aye,’ he sighed because it had been a grey day in England so far. ‘I’m home safe, just like that Spanish gypsy said I would be, years ago before the war. Now I’ve got to find meself a wife.’

  Katie stared at him, thinking of what Ben had said, and muttered, ‘Not you, too! And what Spanish fortune teller?’

  Mick’s brown eyes twinkled. ‘I’ve never told you that tale? The one I met at the Pierhead when I was but a youth. She promised there’d be four women in my life but the one I would marry would choose me. I take that to mean I won’t have any say in the matter. When it happens it’ll be – POW! Anyway, who else is getting married? Not you, I bet.’

  ‘Don’t be silly! Ma’s got my life mapped out for me. I’m to be mistress of all I survey!’ she said in mocking tones.

  ‘Ah, yes, the Arcadia. Us boys really were a disappointment to Ma there. I felt a bit guilty sometimes but your arrival made everything OK. She was in her element then. You were the answer to all her dreams: pink ribbons, pink frilly frocks and pink bonnets! Did anyone ever tell you she put Jack in a pink bonnet once? Pops wasn’t pleased about that, I can tell you, but he was more worried about Ma than anything because it was down to her having lost a baby girl that she acted that way.’

  ‘I never knew she lost a baby girl?’ Katie was astonished that Kitty had never told her. ‘How sad.’

  ‘She probably doesn’t like talking about it. Anyway she lavished a lot of love on us lot and the Arcadia.’

  They both gazed up at the pink brick building with its tall windows and window-boxes filled with tulips and wallflowers.

  ‘I remember helping make them boxes,’ said Mick. ‘It was round about the time Ma got married, and Celia …’ He paused and his dark brows drew together. ‘Lord, where have all the years gone? There’s been a war, and people and places seem to have vanished off the face of the earth.’

  ‘They have,’ said Katie, adding, ‘Who’s Celia?’

  ‘No one you know, kid. Let’s go in.’

  She led the way through the gate in the wrought-iron railings and down the area steps to the family living quarters in the basement, and as she did – wondered what changes Mick’s return would bring to their lives.

  ‘So what are you going to do with yourself now you’ve finished?’ said Pops, glancing up from polishing a boot.

  ‘Don’t be rushing him,’ said Kitty, smiling at her eldest son. ‘Give him time to take his bearings. I’m not getting any younger and I’d like him around for a while.’

  ‘You’re looking good,’ said Mick in mild tones. ‘Stuck at thirty-nine, like Bebe Daniels.’

  ‘Don’t give me that flannel. You’re thirty-nine!’ Kitty shook her head at him. ‘John and I would like to retire and hand over to Katie as soon as we can, but she’ll need someone older around who knows the ropes.’

  Mick’s eyes went from the girl’s face to his mother. ‘I see you’re still trying to run our lives for us, Ma. You know I never wanted to be in the hotel business. As soon as I can I’m going to get my own place. I want to live a normal life, not one which has strangers coming and going all the time. Besides, I’ve another job in mind and I’ve already applied for it.’

  ‘I was relying on you,’ said his mother, looking hurt.

  ‘Well, you shouldn’t have. Anyway, what about Ben? It looks like he’s here for life.’

  ‘He’s thinking of getting married,’ said Pops, and winked at Katie.

  She frowned. ‘I don’t need anyone to look after me. With decent staff, I’ll cope. You’ve taught me so much already and the business is in my blood. It was your mother’s before you and it’ll be mine after you, so stop worrying about me needing someone to look after me.’

  ‘OK, OK! Keep your hair on,’ said Kitty, half-laughing at the girl’s vehemence but wondering how it was that Mick could not look at Katie and see Celia and himself in her. How she loved the child, yet she wished she had some proof of Mick’s being her father so she could make him take responsibility for her. Mick and Celia had been childhood sweethearts but had fallen out only to meet up again during the war when he had been on leave. Unfortunately she had never said that Mick was Katie’s father but Celia had wanted her baby named Katherine and begged for Kitty to look after her child before she had disappeared, believing Mick’s ship had sunk without a trace in the Atlantic.

  Whatever had happened to Celia? With Katie’s birthday looming Kitty always got herself into a tizz. She had intended telling Mick the truth in the beginning but what with the disruptions the blitz had caused and them spending a year in the house that had once belonged to John’s grandfather in Scotland, somehow he and Jack had remained ignorant. Ben knew because he had been too young to join the forces and had been living at home serving his apprenticeship as a bricklayer by building air raid shelters.

  ‘Who is it Ben’s thinking of marrying?’ asked Mick, rousing Kitty from her thoughts.

  ‘Sarah O’Neill! She’s been free the last few years. Remember I wrote and told you her husband was killed in Korea?’

  ‘Sarah!’ Mick could not hide his astonishment and it was several seconds before he added, ‘How would you say she is, Ma?’

  ‘Still very much the old Sarah.’ Kitty’s voice was as dry as autumn leaves.

  ‘“When she’s good, she’s very, very good, and when she’s bad she’s horrid,”’ said Mick softly.

  ‘That’s from a nursery rhyme,’ said Katie, thinking the horrible bit fitted Sarah perfectly.

  He nodded. ‘Fancy our Ben and Sarah getting together! I can’t believe it.’

  Katie thought she knew why he could not believe it but Pops raised his eyebrows and said, ‘Why not? They’re the same age and have known each other for years. I’d say he almost understands her.’

  ‘But can he handle her, Pop?’ said Mick earnestly. ‘You know what she was like even as a kid. A real little flirt! I remember …’ He stopped and wondered what use it would serve to relate how Ben had asked Sarah to marry him when he was seven years old and how she had turned him down flat, saying she preferred Mick because he was older and probably richer. The memory had made him smile once but not right now. He wondered what game she was playing.

  Katie said, ‘You don’t fancy her yourself, do you?’

  Mick stared at her. ‘I haven’t met her in years, Katie girl, so why should you think that?’

  She could have told him but at that moment Ben came in. He looked drained and his expression did not lighten when he saw his brother sitting there. ‘So you’re home?’ he rasped.

  ‘Looks like it,’ said Mick, getting to his feet. ‘What’s wrong with your face? You look like you’ve lost a florin and found a farthin’!’

  ‘It’s more serious than that,’ said Ben. ‘But I’m not going to go into it now. I’m tired. I’m going straight to bed.’

  ‘Aren’t you having your dinner?’ said Kitty, going over to him. ‘You work too hard, son. What’s so serious?’

  He flashed her a slight smile and eased his shoulders as if shifting an invisible weight. ‘Nothing for you to worry about, but I’m going to bed because I’m tired. I’ll see you in the morning.’ He half raised a hand before letting it drop and closing the door behind him.

  No one spoke for several minutes, waiting for the sound of his footsteps to die away.

  ‘That wasn’t a very friendly welcome,’ murmured Mick. ‘Doesn’t my face fit any more? We used to be great mates years ago.’

  Kitty exchanged looks with John. ‘What do you think? Have they had a row?’

  Katie marvelled that they had not heard the quarrel but guessed they had been at the back of the hotel in the kitchen at the time. For a moment she was tempted to tell them about it but decided it might embarrass Mick, and besides there had been real pain in Ben’s eyes and this was surely a private matter. If he wanted things known it was up to him to tell Ma. She was a cow, was Sarah! thought Katie wrathfully.

  ‘You know how moody Sarah can be sometimes,’ said John. ‘They
’ll sort it out. Probably a storm in a teacup.’

  Mick said abruptly, ‘I’m tired myself. I think I’ll have an early night.’

  Kitty, who was still looking at John, turned and smiled at him. ‘You do that, son. And you can tell us everything that’s been happening to you and your plans in the morning. Perhaps after you’ve been home for a bit, you’ll feel different about the ol’ Arcadia?’

  ‘Don’t depend on it, Ma,’ he drawled and left the kitchen.

  Kitty sighed as she gazed at Katie. ‘Time you were in bed, too, love. Early start in the morning. There’s several new guests who’ll be signing in and Eileen’s expected.’

  Eileen was her mother’s cousin’s daughter and lived in Kinsale on the west coast of Ireland where her parents, who had learnt the business at the Arcadia, now ran a hotel. The two girls had never met and Katie was looking forward to having her around, hoping that in the newcomer’s company she would be allowed more freedom than she was now.

  She went upstairs and for a moment stood on the landing up in the attics, which were well away from the guests’ accommodation, with her ear pressed against the door of the room Ben shared with his brothers whenever they were home. She could hear movement but no voices. Perhaps one of them was in the bathroom? She knocked gently on the bathroom door but when there was no response, opened it and went inside, relieved that all was quiet on the bedroom front.

  The room was tiny and had been wedged between hers and that occupied by Kitty and John when this part of the hotel had been rebuilt during the war. She looked at herself in the mirror and wished she looked more like her handsome half-brothers. How could Sarah possibly choose between them? Still, she was not going to think about her.

  She gazed at her reflection and into eyes which were grey with just a hint of mauve ringed with a dark circle. She would have preferred them to be blue. Her face was a nice shape, though, being perfectly oval, but she hated her freckles. ‘The sun’s kisses’ were what Kitty called them when Katie moaned about nobody else in the family’s having them, but that didn’t make her feel any better. She wrinkled her nose, dabbed soap suds on her forehead, cheeks and chin, and wished for a peaches-and-cream complexion like the Lux toilet soap film stars.

  Afterwards Katie went and stood on the landing again, listening for any sound of a quarrel, but all was quiet so she went into her bedroom.

  She sat on the bed and began to give her hair a hundred strokes with the hairbrush, gazing out of the window as she did so at a couple of girls coming out of the YMCA building opposite. She remembered Ben telling her the Americans had taken it over during the war for their Red Cross headquarters. Pops had worked for the British branch and had often come home with doughnuts. Ma had filled them with apple and custard and apparently, according to Ben, Katie had loved them.

  A couple came out of the building and she thought there must be a dance on. For a moment she wished she could have been one of those dancing away the evening to the latest rock and roll records: Elvis, Cliff or the Everly Brothers. Photographs of all four plastered her walls but it was Cliff she kissed every night before going to sleep because Katie had never had a boyfriend.

  It was as she slipped between the sheets that she heard men’s voices. Immediately she was across the room and had the door ajar. ‘I’m not having it,’ she heard Ben say. ‘She’s my woman so you keep your smarmy face away from her!’

  ‘I haven’t been near her!’ laughed Mick. ‘I’ve been away for eighteen months, for God’s sake! If you haven’t been able to fix her interest in that time then you haven’t got it, kid!’

  ‘Don’t call me kid, old man!’ Ben’s voice was vehement. ‘You think you’ve only got to turn on the charm and the women’ll fall for you like nine pins.’

  ‘It has been known to happen – but you’ve got this all wrong, laddie.’

  ‘Don’t call me laddie either. You’re not Pops! Although you might think you can rule the roost now you’re home.’

  ‘Again you’ve got me wrong,’ said Mick, sounding weary. ‘I want to get away from this place as soon as I can. Find meself a little house and a nice little wife and settle down for life.’

  ‘As long as you don’t pick Sarah for the role. There’ll be trouble if you start making a play for her. I could tell her things about you …’

  ‘Is that a threat?’

  ‘Take it any which way you like, but keep away from her.’

  ‘It is a threat! Big mistake, Ben. I don’t like being told what to do. Especially by a kid brother whose nose I used to wipe.’

  ‘I suppose that’s a threat?’

  ‘Too right it is! If Sarah wants to play games, then, dear brother, I’m ready to play,’ said Mick softly. ‘Now shut your mouth or you’ll wake Katie and we don’t want her upset, do we?’

  Katie crept back to bed and it was a while before she slept, she was so upset her brothers had fallen out – and all because of Sarah O’Neill.

  Chapter Two

  But Katie had little time to be upset the next morning as she was rushed off her feet cooking and serving breakfast to the guests, with the help of Ruth and Jennifer, the part-time all-purpose maids. John attended to Reception while Kitty was down at the Pierhead meeting the Irish boat bringing Eileen on her first visit to Liverpool.

  It was several hours before Katie had a chance to grab some breakfast herself and she was just wiping round her plate with a piece of fried bread when Mick sauntered in with a towel round his shoulders, naked except for a pair of pyjama bottoms. His hair was wet and he needed a shave. She stared at him open-mouthed, thinking she had been determined to be annoyed with him but now found it impossible. ‘Ma’ll have a fit if she sees you like that!’

  ‘I know.’ He yawned and scratched his head. ‘Any coffee going?’

  ‘Mick!’ She swallowed a laugh. ‘What about the guests? I don’t know how you dare …’

  ‘Don’t you, little sister? He who dares wins.’ Mick grinned. ‘Have you seen any sign of our Ben? He got up awfully early this morning.’

  ‘Good golly! I hope he hasn’t done anything stupid.’ Katie got up and spooned Nescafe into a cup.

  Mick stared at her from narrowed eyes. ‘What do you know?’

  ‘Don’t ask.’ Katie bit her lip and added milk to the Nescafe. ‘Sarah turned him down the other night,’ she muttered. ‘And then I heard you arguing …’

  ‘Oh.’ Mick gazed up at the ceiling and the sticky flypaper that hung there. ‘It’s more likely he’s gone to work than thrown himself in the Mersey even on a Saturday, you know. Our Ben’s not one to give up.’

  ‘True.’ There was a relieved expression on her face. ‘Even so, if he was out that early, what’s he been doing?’

  ‘Probably walked the streets or went to the baths and had a swim. He’ll be back. Now how about cooking me some breakfast?’

  ‘The works?’ she asked, relieved that he could take Ben’s being missing so casually.

  ‘Aye! Black pudding, too, if you’ve got it. The lot!’ He’d picked up a morning paper and begun to read when the door opened and Sarah stood there.

  Her face was pale and there were mauve shadows beneath her eyes. ‘Is Ben in?’

  ‘No, he’s not,’ said Katie coolly. ‘So if you don’t mind getting out of the way? We’ve work to do in this kitchen.’

  ‘Temper, temper,’ said Mick. ‘Hello, Sarah. You’re looking gorgeous.’

  ‘I’m glad to see you home, Mick.’ She sat down at the table. ‘Although you’re looking a bit like something the cat brought in this morning, if you don’t mind my saying so?’

  ‘Sarah, love, I’ve aged a hundred years since you last saw me.’

  ‘I didn’t mean you looked old,’ she stammered. ‘You’re only seven years older than me. I just meant –’

  ‘I know what you meant. I need a shave and to get dressed.’ He took one of her hands that rested on the table and lifted it to his lips. ‘Just let me drink my coffee in peace, have some breakfas
t, then give me an hour and I’ll be a new man.’

  ‘And then what?’ she said, her cheeks pink.

  ‘How about a spin in that motor of yours? That’s if it’s not going to fall apart on us.’

  She hesitated. ‘That would be nice.’

  ‘Great!’ said Mick. ‘Katie girl, make Sarah a coffee and then leave us alone to talk.’

  Katie was not going to do anything of the sort and was about to make cooking his breakfast her excuse when there were voices in the hall. The next moment Kitty entered the kitchen accompanied by a girl wearing a blue coat, navy tammy and flat black lace ups. The older woman stopped abruptly and her eyes went to Mick and Sarah, widening in an expression of pure horror. ‘You’re indecent! Go and get some clothes on, son, before the new guests arrive. I don’t know what Sarah and Eileen must think …’

  ‘I have been married,’ countered Sarah with a laugh.

  ‘That’s beside the point,’ said Kitty firmly, resting her hands on the back of a kitchen chair. ‘Upstairs with –’

  ‘I’m going.’ Mick had risen. He kissed his mother’s cheek and sauntered out, telling Katie over his shoulder to get on with cooking his breakfast.

  There was silence and she was aware of a certain tension in the air, which wasn’t surprising considering Mick and Sarah had been holding hands when Kitty entered the kitchen. Katie glanced at Sarah who flashed her a saccharine-sweet smile. ‘Still making me that coffee, Katie, my sugar plum?’

  ‘If I were a sugar plum, I’d hope you’d choke on me,’ she retorted before turning her back. ‘Ma, are you having coffee? And does –?’

  ‘Eileen will. And, Katie, don’t speak to Sarah like that!’ Kitty softened the words with a smile, and putting an arm round the Irish girl, gently forced her further into the kitchen. ‘Say hello to each other.’

  ‘Hello,’ said Eileen in an expressionless voice.

  ‘Hello back!’ Katie thought the girl looked like she wouldn’t say boo to a goose. She had extremely pale skin, a thin nose, limpid blue eyes and very dark hair – a strand of which was wrapped round one finger which she promptly stuck in her mouth. GREAT! thought Katie. It doesn’t look like she’s going to be much fun. Even so she leaned forward and planted a featherlight kiss on the girl’s cheek. ‘It’s nice having you here. I’ll soon show you the ropes and we’ll have fun. Have you had anything to eat? Do you want some breakfast?’