Across the Mersey

by Annie Groves

  ‘I didn’t think that I’d be able to, not even when Sister Harris said that she wanted to put me forward, not with the twins still being at school and our Luke only an apprentice, but then Mum said she’d got a bit put by and Dad said that the country would be needing more nurses if there was to be a war,’ Grace told him, her tongue slightly loosened by the shandy Charlie had insisted she have to drink.

  Seb deduced from Grace’s artless confidence that her parents were not in as comfortable circumstances as her cousins’ family were. He had seen how both her cousins, but especially Bella, looked down on her, although in his opinion she was worth ten of the other girl.

  Seb had no particular liking for the Parkers, but he had been grateful to them for putting him up whilst he was attending the local military hospital and waiting to be pronounced fit for duty.

  He knew that both Alan’s parents, but especially his mother, wanted Alan to drop Bella and go back to his previous girlfriend, Trixie, and it was equally obvious to him that Bella wasn’t going to give Alan up without a fight.

  ‘I’m sorry I can’t ask you to dance,’ he apologised to Grace. He was indeed sorry, for he would have loved the opportunity to hold her close. She really was the most adorable girl. It was perhaps just as well that he would be going back to join his unit soon.

  * * *

  Bella was in a foul mood. So far Alan had determinedly ignored every attempt she had made to bring the conversation round to the subject of their engagement. To make matters worse, now, whilst he was dancing with her, instead of holding her close as she was trying to get him to do, he was actually looking at Trixie. And there was Grace, whom she had only invited to come tonight out of pity, looking as though she was having the time of her life.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Bella demanded as Alan released her the second the music stopped, turning away from her.

  ‘I’m going to go and ask Trixie to dance,’ he answered her truculently.

  Charlie had been plying him with double G and Ts all evening and now, as well as being slightly unsteady on his feet, his face was flushed and his behaviour belligerent. Bella could see her chance to achieve her goal slipping away from her. She looked round for Charlie. He was standing at the bar. She sent him a significant look, which he acknowledged by lifting his glass.

  ‘Why don’t you ask her later?’ Bella suggested, forcing her lips into what she hoped was a sweet smile, before adding coaxingly, ‘It’s so hot in here. Why don’t we go outside? We haven’t been alone together all evening.’ She moved closer to him, her voice softly suggestive.

  Alan hesitated, still looking at Trixie, who, to Bella’s relief, was now getting up to dance with someone.

  ‘I suppose so,’ Alan agreed unenthusiastically.

  ‘Me and Alan are just slipping outside for a bit of fresh air,’ Bella informed Grace almost aggressively, for once forgetting to use the ‘posh’ voice she normally favoured, and sounding far more like the Bella Grace remembered from when they had been much younger. Bella was holding on to Alan’s arm, determined to make sure that he didn’t escape from her.

  ‘Oh, Bella, do you think you should?’ Grace whispered. ‘Only Alan seems to have had a lot to drink.’

  ‘Like I just said, I need some fresh air,’ Bella insisted, glaring at her. Was Grace stupid or what? Couldn’t she take a hint? Didn’t her cousin understand that she wanted to be alone with Alan?

  ‘I’ll come with you, if you like.’

  Bella was furious. Grace was a stupid interfering prissy nobody. Her mother had been right to tell her not to invite her. Grace was already turning towards the exit and Bella seized her chance. Another few seconds and Alan would cotton on to what she had said and he’d be off to stand at the bar and watch his precious Trixie. Well, Bella wasn’t having that! Grace needed to be stopped. Deliberately Bella brought her heel down on the hem of Grace’s silk gown and kept it there so that when Grace tried to walk towards the door, one of the seams in the delicate panelling of the skirt ripped under the strain.

  Grace gazed down at the tear in the back of her dress in shocked disbelief. Bella was shrugging and saying petulantly that it was her own fault for borrowing a dress that was too long for her and that she wasn’t going to be blamed for the damage to it.

  ‘Come on,’ she commanded Alan firmly, ignoring Grace’s distress. ‘Let’s go outside.’

  Grace’s eyes filled with tears. Where the seam had given way along one of the pretty bias-cut inserts in the skirt the fabric was torn and frayed in a way that she could see immediately was beyond mending.

  Seb watched sympathetically. He was pretty sure that Bella had damaged Grace’s frock deliberately.

  ‘It may not be as bad as it looks,’ he tried to comfort her as he tactfully led her back to their table out of sight of the curious glances she was attracting. ‘I believe the Singer sewing machine can work wonders.’

  Grace shook her head, beyond comfort. ‘It can’t be mended; the silk is too frayed. It isn’t my dress.’ Fresh tears welled in her eyes at the enormity of her predicament.

  Discreetly Seb passed her a clean white handkerchief. ‘I’m sure your friend will understand.’

  Grace shook her head and gave a small sob, and burst out, ‘I should never have worn it. Oh, I so wish that I had not. I knew it was wrong, and it serves me right that this has happened.’

  Seb frowned. She was clearly very distressed, so much so that his protective instincts were automatically aroused.

  ‘Your friend may be upset, but—’

  ‘You don’t understand. I’ve done a really dreadful thing.’ Grace stopped him. ‘It doesn’t belong to a friend; it belongs to Lewis’s Gown Salon, where I work.’

  Seb’s frown deepened. He wasn’t sure just what the rules might be about borrowing clothes from the shop where one worked, but he suspected that it wasn’t something that was normally allowed. Grace hadn’t struck him as the kind of girl who would deliberately flout the ‘law’, but he could understand that a young woman who was looked down on by her better-off cousin could have been tempted to ‘borrow’ a rather grander frock than she might actually possess, even if he also felt rather disappointed to discover that Grace had given in to that kind of temptation.

  Seb didn’t allow any of what he was feeling to show, though, as he murmured something sympathetic and reassuring.

  ‘I should never have listened to Susan,’ Grace told him miserably. ‘I knew it was wrong. But she’d gone to so much trouble and … and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by refusing. It serves me right for doing it,’ she told him bravely, her face pale but set now that she had stopped crying.

  ‘Perhaps the Shop will be able to have it repaired?’ Seb suggested.

  Grace shook her head. ‘No, it can’t be mended. I shall have to pay for it. We are allowed to buy things at staff discount so …’ she gave a small gulp, ‘they might let me pay for it weekly out of my wages, although it will take me for ever.’

  ‘But I thought you were about to start training as a nurse,’ Seb pointed out.

  Grace swallowed and lifted her head proudly. ‘I was, but I shan’t be doing that now. Not with this frock to pay for, and … and I want to pay for it. What I did was very wrong. I knew that all along and, to be honest, I’d have much rather worn my own cotton dress. This is lovely but it isn’t mine and it isn’t me. I feel so very ashamed of myself. My parents will be shocked, I know.’

  Poor child, she was paying a heavy price for her moment of natural vanity, Seb thought compassionately, his earlier assessment of her character reasserting itself as he listened to her quietly determined voice. She had guts, though, he thought with admiration.

  Her whole future was ruined, Grace acknowledged, and all for the sake of being silly and for wearing a frock that she had no right to be wearing. She deserved to be punished.

  What on earth was she going to say to her parents after the sacrifice they were prepared to make so that she could do her nurse’s training
. Grace had never felt more miserable and in despair.

  Bella looked anxiously toward the Tennis Club. Where was Charlie? She had been out here with Alan in the thankfully still warm darkness of the small tree-shadowed garden that separated the Tennis Club building from the courts – a favourite place for Tennis Club ‘courting couples’, although tonight thankfully they had it to themselves – for what felt like for ever. She hated the revolting way he was slobbering all over her, and now the smell of his gin-laden breath was making her feel sick. He pawed at her breast, almost breaking one of the fragile shoulder straps of her dress. As it threatened to snap so too did Bella’s temper. Where was Charlie?

  ‘Aww, come on, Trixie,’ Alan protested.

  Trixie! He had called her Trixie. Furiously Bella tried to push him away, her determination to force him to marry her forgotten in the heat of her outrage, but he was refusing to let go of her.

  ‘I’m not Trixie,’ she told him

  He gave her an ugly look. ‘No, you aren’t, more’s the pity. If it wasn’t for you she’d be with me and—’

  ‘Here, I say, what the devil do you think you’re doing, Parker? Let go of my sister.’

  For once in her life Bella didn’t have to manufacture her reaction. She’d been so furious with Alan that she’d forgotten all about Charlie, who was now approaching them with Mr Baxter, the President of the Tennis Club, in tow. Mr Baxter had a very stern expression indeed on his face.

  Henry Baxter was in his fifties, a bachelor, and the Chief Clerk to the local council. He had rather a soft spot for Bella, being completely taken in by the flatteringly admiring manner she adopted towards him.

  Bella immediately played up to the situation, sobbing some crocodile tears on Charlie’s shoulder whilst Henry Baxter took a firm grip on Alan’s arm and refused to let him go.

  ‘Please don’t be cross with Alan, Charlie,’ she begged her brother dramatically. ‘It’s my fault. We’ve been talking about getting engaged for so long that when Alan suggested that we come outside, I thought it was because he wanted to surprise me with an engagement ring.’

  Bella could hear Alan’s enraged denial, but Charlie stepped in smartly, announcing, ‘Well, if you’re engaged … although I have to say that this isn’t the kind of behaviour a chap expects from his brother-in-law-to-be, Parker, and I dare say my father will have some pretty sharp words to say to you. It looks to me as though you’ve terrified the life out of poor Bella.’

  ‘I feel so ashamed,’ Bella wept. ‘What will people think? Oh, Mr Baxter …’

  ‘There, there, my dear,’ Henry Baxter comforted Bella. ‘Don’t know what you thought you were about, Parker, bringing Miss Firth out here instead of formally announcing your engagement inside, like any decent well-brought-up young man would.’

  Alan swore. ‘I’m not getting engaged to her,’ he began, hiccuping, and then turned away to be sick on the grass, before adding, ‘and no one can make me.’

  ‘’Fraid you’ve no choice now, old chap,’ Charlie told Alan. ‘I dare say my father will have a thing or two to say about the way you’ve behaved towards my sister, and it won’t stop there, not now. Not the done thing at all to trifle with the affections of an innocent girl, especially when there’s about to be a war on.’

  ‘I shall be speaking to your parents about your behaviour tonight, Parker,’ Henry Baxter told Alan sternly. ‘We do not tolerate this sort of thing here at the Tennis Club.’

  ‘Oh, Alan,’ Bella gave her new fiancé a reproachful look, ‘I’m so disappointed. I thought tonight was going to be so special and romantic, and now you’ve gone and spoiled it all. Still, at least we’re engaged.

  ‘Do you think we should make an announcement, Mr Baxter?’ Bella appealed to the President. ‘Only I’d hate people to think badly of Alan. I’m sure he didn’t mean to … to … well, I know he would have made things official tonight if he’d had time to get me a ring as we’d planned.’

  ‘An excellent idea, my dear. Parker, you are a very fortunate young man to have such a loyal and beautiful fiancée – far more so than you deserve. But your father will still be hearing from me,’ Baxter added grimly.

  ‘Bitch. Bitch.’ Alan swore at Bella the minute the President was out of sight. ‘As for me marrying you … you can go to hell …’

  ‘Here, I’m not letting you get away with insulting my sister like that,’ Charlie warned Alan, ‘and if you’ve taken more liberties with her than you should then—’

  Bella started to cry loudly. ‘I didn’t want to let him, Charlie,’ she sobbed, ‘but I couldn’t stop him, and he promised me he wanted to marry me.’

  There, let Alan try and get out of that, Bella thought triumphantly as she sobbed on her brother’s shoulder.

  * * *

  Grace was feeling increasingly uncomfortable. Bella and Alan had been missing for ages, and now Charlie had disappeared as well. She could see the speculative looks their now almost empty table was attracting.

  ‘Oh, here’s Bella now!’ she exclaimed in relief as she finally saw her cousin coming back into the room, followed by Charlie and Alan. Charlie had his arm round Alan’s shoulders whilst Alan himself looked dishevelled and was staggering slightly.

  Ignoring Grace and Seb, Charlie urged Alan on to the dance floor, taking hold of both Alan’s hand and Bella’s as he held them up in the air and shouted, ‘Congratulate the lucky man, everyone. Alan here has just got himself engaged to my sister.’

  From right cross the floor Bella could see the white shocked look on Trixie’s face as Charlie made his announcement. She had won, Bella acknowledged gleefully. Alan was hers. He had to marry her now.

  ‘Sorry I can’t give you a lift back, old chap, but there’s this girl, you see. I’m sure you understand,’ Charlie told Seb drunkenly as everyone started to file out of the Club at the end of the evening.

  ‘What about your cousin? Surely you don’t expect her to make her own way back to your parents’ house?’ Seb challenged Charlie.

  ‘Oh, Grace ain’t staying with us. No, she’s going home. You’ll be able to catch the last bus down to the ferry if you’re quick, Grace.’

  Seb was astounded and disgusted by Charlie’s lack of concern for Grace’s safety, but at the same time he acknowledged that he hadn’t been looking forward to being driven by Charlie after witnessing just how much he had had to drink.

  Grace was glad that the evening was at an end. She felt so ashamed of herself, and wasn’t surprised that Seb had gone so quiet after the announcement of Bella and Alan’s engagement.

  They were outside now. For some reason Grace didn’t entirely understand, her aunt and uncle had arrived shortly after the announcement of Bella’s engagement and had taken the newly engaged couple off with them whilst she had been changing into her own clothes ready for her journey home.

  Charlie too had now deserted her, and she and Seb were alone. She turned to him.

  ‘Thank you so much for a lovely evening. I’ve really enjoyed it. I do hope that your leg will soon be fully mended … oh.’

  She looked uncertainly at Seb as he tucked her arm through his own and said firmly, ‘Now where do we catch this bus for the ferry?’

  ‘Oh, no. You needn’t come with me. It will be out of your way and it’s late,’ she protested, but Seb wasn’t listening.

  They were just in time for the bus, having run the last few yards to arrive out of breath and laughing.

  ‘You are so kind,’ Bella told Seb as she stepped on to it, her eyes widening as he followed her. Was he going to travel all the way to the ferry with her? The thought gave her a warm glow deep inside.

  A glow that grew even warmer when she discovered that Seb wasn’t just planning to see her safely to the ferry, he was going to escort her all the way home.

  ‘Oh, no, you mustn’t …’ she protested.

  ‘Indeed I must,’ he corrected her. ‘I would never forgive myself if I allowed you to travel home on your own, and somehow I can’t imagine
that your parents would be very happy about that either.’

  Grace bit her lip, knowing that he was quite right.

  ‘You’re quite safe with me; I give you my word on that,’ Seb assured her.

  ‘Oh, yes, I know that,’ Grace agreed so innocently and immediately that Seb discovered that quite shockingly he was very tempted to show her that far from being the safe brotherly type she obviously saw him as, he was very much a man. But of course there was no way he was going to risk taking her in his arms, no matter how much he might feel tempted to do so.

  Bella lay in bed, gloating over her triumph. She had no idea just what her father had said to Alan’s father when he had telephone Alan’s parents and asked them to come round. She had not been privy to that discussion, and even though she had tried to listen to the raised voices from her bedroom she had only been able to make out the odd word.

  Not that it mattered what had been said, as her mother had told her when she had come upstairs to her immediately after the door had closed behind Alan and his parents. She was now engaged to Alan, and would very soon be Mrs Alan Parker. The sooner the better, in fact, it had been decided.

  ‘I hope Alan’s father is going to buy us a decent house, Mummy.’

  ‘Of course he will, darling. Especially under the circumstances. Your father was very firm about that.’

  Bella’s smile turned to a scowl. She still hadn’t got her engagement ring, though, and she meant to have one, the biggest one she could get out of Alan and his horrid parents. She had seen the tight-faced look Alan’s mother had given as she looked up towards Bella’s bedroom window as they left. Well, she would soon learn that she, Bella, was going to be the one who said what Alan could and could not do, and who he could and could not see, not her.

  FIVE

  ‘Grace, what’s wrong, love?’

  Jean lifted her hands from the soapy washing-up water, where she had been washing the cutlery, whilst Grace did the drying. It was a task they always shared, and one Jean looked forward to because it was one of the few occasions during her busy week when she and her elder daughter had time on their own to chat properly.