‘It’s . . . it’s Dad. He’s by the door.’
Nora’s eyes lit up. ‘So he came after all. I knew he would.’
‘What?’
But Nora was already making her way across the bar to him, so Katie went off to find Danny.
She found him standing by the bar in his outdoor clothes. He had a leather helmet and goggles in his hand.
‘Yer not going already, are yer, Dan?’
‘Yeah, I’ve just told Dad. We’ve gotta be off soon, Mum. It’s nearly two o’clock already and we wanna get there before it gets too dark.’
Katie bit her lip. It was just dawning on her that her child was really married. All she had ever prayed for was for her children to be happy, and Danny was happy all right. But she didn’t know how she would cope with his leaving home. She swallowed back her tears. ‘Give us that bell,’ she called across the bar to Harold.
Harold handed her the brass bell he used to call time.
Katie rang it as loudly as she could; the music stopped and everyone turned round.
‘Right everyone,’ she sniffed. ‘Outside, all of yers, the lovebirds are about to fly the nest!’
All the guests spilled out on to the pavement and waited while Joe Palmer went along to his yard to fetch his motorbike and sidecar so that the newlyweds could leave for their honeymoon.
As he wheeled it into place outside the Queen’s, Liz hid her blushes behind her bouquet as the tin cans he’d tied on the back rattled and clattered over the cobbled street. ‘Everyone’ll know we’ve just got married,’ she giggled.
‘The confetti’s gonna be a bit of a giveaway and all,’ shouted her friends from work, and showered her navy going-away costume with bags full of coloured paper shapes.
‘Where they off to, then?’ Sooky asked Phoebe who was standing next to her, right up at the front.
‘They’re having a week down on the farm where we go hopping, if yer’ve ever heard of such a thing,’ Phoebe replied, with a tight-lipped grimace. ‘We never had no week away when we got married.’
‘Thank Gawd for that,’ whispered Albert to Jimmo, behind his wife’s back, raising his glass of beer in gratitude.
‘Hang on. How about a smacker for yer old nanna before yer go?’ Nora called.
‘I wouldn’t have gone without saying goodbye to you, Nanna.’ Danny gave Nora a noisy kiss on the cheek.
‘And would yer go without saying goodbye to yer grandfather?’ Katie asked, pushing Stephen forward.
‘Farvee!’ Danny threw his arms round his grandfather.
Stephen patted his back. ‘Good luck to yer both, Dan. Good luck.’
‘Yer will be here when we get back, won’t yer?’
Stephen winked. ‘I hope so, Dan. I hope so.’
Danny winked back. ‘Me and all, Farvee.’
He took Liz’s hand and helped her into the sidecar. ‘In yer go, Mrs Mehan,’ he said to a round of noisy cheers. ‘And thanks for lending us the combination, Joe.’
‘You just make sure yer careful.’
‘I will.’ Danny grinned. ‘That’s twice I’ve said that today,’ he said, straddling the bike.
‘And make sure yer bring us back a hop bine for luck!’ Sooky shouted, waving her hankie at him.
‘Silly mare,’ scoffed Phoebe. ‘There ain’t no hops this time of year.’
‘So what they gonna do, down there in Kent then?’
‘How long you been married?’ Phoebe asked her.
Realising what she’d said, Sooky started tittering into her hand. ‘I reckon I’ve forgotten what yer do with it, after all these years being married to Jimmo!’
Danny revved the engine into life. He was ready to go, but Liz wasn’t. She threw open the top of the sidecar and shouted for him to wait. Then she clambered out on to the pavement again and ran over to her mum and dad. ‘Thanks Mum, Dad. For everything.’
Peggy flapped her hand and took the handkerchief that Bill handed her without being asked. ‘Don’t, yer’ll set me off again.’
‘Come on, Liz, we’ve gotta get going. Them narrow lanes are bad enough without it being dark and all.’
‘Just one minute.’ Liz stood by the sidecar, closed her eyes and deliberately turned her back on everyone, then she heaved her bouquet over her shoulder in a high tumbling arc.
She turned round and clapped her hands with delight. Her flowers had reached her intended target; Molly, her best friend, was cradling them in her arms.
‘You next!’ she called.
Molly felt her face turn scarlet and, just as Liz had done earlier, she buried her blushes in the bouquet.
Danny helped Liz back into the sidecar and revved up the bike again.
‘She did that on purpose,’ Phoebe jeered. ‘Threw them flowers right at her. My granddaughter should have had them by rights. She’s the next one who should get married round here. Not that there’s anyone good enough for her, mind. And who’s that bloke standing over there with that Molly Mehan, anyway?’ she added without pausing for breath. ‘Is he that foreign bloke they was talking about that time?’
‘I dunno,’ said Sooky. ‘Handsome though, ain’t he?’
‘He’s all right, I suppose,’ Phoebe admitted with a grudging sneer.
‘There they go!’ someone shouted, and they all watched as the motorbike disappeared round the corner to a chorus of whistles and yells.
Pat bent forward and kissed Katie tenderly on the forehead. ‘Come on, let’s go back in the warm.’
Inside the pub, Katie shooed Pat over to the bar while she waited by the door until the guests had filed back in. As she had expected, Molly and the dark-haired young man, who had been standing by her side, weren’t amongst them.
Katie took a deep breath, reminded herself that all she ever wanted was for her kids to be happy, put a smile on her face, and then poked her head outside the door.
‘Why don’t yer bring yer friend inside and get him a drink, Moll? He must be freezing out there.’
Molly and Simon stepped warily inside and stood there in awkward silence.
Katie smiled at them, trying to look relaxed, but her hands were clenched in tight fists behind her back. What should she say to them? What could she say to them?
Just as Katie thought her jaw was going to break with the effort of keeping up her smile, Jimmo announced loudly that the dancing was about to start up again. She could have kissed him.
‘Listen to that row,’ she said, taking a step away from Molly and Simon, as the three musicians began to bash out a well-intentioned but slightly strangulated rendition of ‘I Only Have Eyes for You’. ‘They’re ruining me favourite song.’
As she took another step back, she gestured vaguely. ‘I’m gonna go straight over to yer dad, Moll, and get him to have a dance with me before they bugger it right up.’ She put her hand to her mouth. ‘’Scuse me language.’
She turned and fled across the room, almost bashing into Stephen and Nora who were already whirling around to the music with effortless grace.
‘Your grandfather dances really well,’ Simon said, and began humming along to the twanging rhythms.
‘This is bloody awful,’ Molly said, staring at her mum and dad as they took to the floor.
Simon stopped humming. ‘It’s not that bad. Maybe they’re a bit out of tune . . .’
‘Simon, you know very well what I’m talking about.’
‘I know it won’t be easy, but your grandfather promised me he’d help us convince everyone that we should be together.’
‘My grandfather?’ Molly knew she couldn’t even begin to explain, not now. She started laughing, she couldn’t help it.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘Nothing. I think I’m getting a bit hysterical.’ Molly turned to face him. She stuck her fists into her waist and appraised him as though she was seeing him for the first time. ‘D’yer know, I’ve dreamt about this moment so many times: you asking me to marry yer, and me introducing yer to all me family. And it wa
s never like this.’
She closed her eyes tight as though she was making a wish, then opened them wide. ‘Have you ever heard that old saying: there’ll be good times just around the corner?’
Simon nodded.
‘Well, I reckon there just might be.’ She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into the middle of the floor. ‘And now I’m gonna teach yer to dance.’ She put one of his hands round her waist and pulled him close to her. ‘Hold me like that,’ she instructed him.
‘Like that?’
She nodded. ‘Yeah, exactly like that.’
And there, in the middle of the bar in the Queen’s Arms, an ordinary little East End pub at the end of Plumley Street, Molly Katherine Mehan and Simon Blomstein began to dance; not very well at first, but at least they had taken their first steps together, and were holding each other tight for everyone to see.
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Copyright © Gilda O’Neill, 1995
Gilda O’Neill has asserted her right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be
identified as the author of this work.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and charaters are the
product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
First published in the United Kingdom in 1995 by
Headline Book Publishing
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ISBN 9780099280484
Just Around the Corner Page 45