by Maggie Hope
‘I don’t suppose you fancy going out with me, do you?’ His voice was suddenly eager. ‘I mean, we could go to the Majestic in Darlington tomorrow night. My dad has a car now and I’ve taken my test. He lets me borrow it sometimes.’
Marina started to shake her head then stopped. Why not after all? She was finished with Charlie, finished with men really. She was going to concentrate on work, better herself, aim for Margaret’s job. But she could still go to a dance, couldn’t she? Everyone needed time off.
‘No strings,’ she said, and Brian opened his eyes wide.
‘Oh, no, no strings,’ he replied, sounding light-hearted. He grinned at the conductor as they got off the bus and he looked after them speculatively.
‘Mind, I didn’t know those two were courting,’ he remarked to Mrs Holmes as she followed them off the bus.
‘Me neither,’ that lady replied. ‘But maybe they aren’t. You know what the young ’uns are like nowadays. Some of these lasses go from one to another – shameless hussies they are.’
‘Eeh, man, I think Marina Morland is a decent enough girl,’ he protested.
‘Hmm,’ said Mrs Holmes, pursing her lips as she scurried off through the cold evening to the warmth of her kitchen fire.
Chapter Eleven
Brian was whistling to himself as he washed and shaved to go to the dance: ‘Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon.’ Annie, his young sister, popped her head around the door and sang along with him. The song was all the rage on the radio at the minute.
‘Where are you going, our Brian?’ she asked. ‘All dressed up an’ all.’ He was. He had on his new blue suit with the narrow trousers and single-breasted jacket. As she watched he took up a comb and carefully smoothed back his quiff then eased it forward with his hand to just the right prominence. Putting the comb down, he checked himself once again in the looking-glass and turned to grin at her.
‘Never you mind, little girl. You’re too young to know.’ He took her in his arms and whirled her round the tiny landing, Annie giggling as her thin little legs dangled in the air.
‘Have you got a date?’ she persisted when he put her down. ‘Have you?’ But he just laughed and ran on down the stairs and into the kitchen-cum-living-room.
‘It’s bed you should be going to,’ his mother observed as she put a plate before him, piled high with sausages and potato and turnips. ‘You were out all day yesterday, and only a couple of hours’ sleep last night before you went on fore shift at the pit and then a couple more this afternoon.’
‘I’ll sleep tonight, Mam, don’t fuss.’
‘Brian’s got a date,’ Annie cried.
‘Have you?’ Mrs Wearmouth gazed at her son. He wasn’t one for going out with the girls much and since Jeff had gone to live at Easington rarely went anywhere except the pictures now and then. She reckoned he’d always leaned towards Marina Morland though. She’d seen his face when he looked at the girl.
‘Marina, is it?’
Brian looked up, startled. ‘How did you – oh, Mother, I never said I had a date even. How did you know?’
‘I have my ways,’ she said and turned back to the oven to take out the rice pudding and stewed plums. She was smiling to herself. Oh, aye, her lad was growing up, he was a man now, taller than his dad. And he was quiet and manly and she was proud of the way he’d stuck up for Jeff when he’d had to leave Jordan pit and go over to the coast, especially with Jeff having no family of his own. He’d been brought up by his gran. Brian’s dad had told her all about it. Apparently Alf Sharpe had needled Jeff all the time, goading him until the older men had taken it upon themselves to haul Alf into a corner and tell him to leave the lad alone.
‘He’s useless,’ Alf had replied sourly.
‘He’s not, he’s a good worker,’ Mr Wearmouth had insisted.
‘Well, he’s after my Rose,’ Alf had blurted out then and the men looked sideways at him. He saw it and knew they were thinking there was something funny going on … after all, Rose was of an age to go courting, it was only natural. Alf was a bit more careful after that but it was too late. Jeff gave in his notice and went to work at Easington. He fancied getting right away, according to Brian, joining the Air Force even. Some of the lads he had gone to school with were doing their National Service, quite a few of them as far away as Germany. They came home on leave with an air of new maturity. But the Coal Board wasn’t too keen on letting a skilled miner go so for Jeff it had had to be another mine.
‘You have a good time, Brian,’ Mrs Wearmouth said now. ‘Enjoy yourself.’ She was thankful it hadn’t been her lad who’d had to go away. Poor Jeff, what with his mother running off to London at the beginning of the war and then his gran dying last year.
‘I will. See you later, Mam,’ he replied, and dropped a kiss on her head and patted Annie’s cheek on his way out.
‘Well,’ she said as the door closed behind him, ‘he’s with a nice girl, no complications with her family.’
‘What do you mean – complications, Mam?’
‘Never you mind.’
She was thinking of Rose Sharpe, of course, though she discounted some of the whispers going about as being altogether too preposterous. Rose was all right, though she did seem a bit low these days. But that wasn’t to be wondered at after losing her mother and the twins going away and that father of hers …Alf Sharpe was likely just too protective, that was all. Life hadn’t been good to him lately either. Nothing had actually been said about him, or not openly. It was just the way people hinted at things unmentionable. She couldn’t believe them, really she couldn’t, felt guilty at her own dark thoughts. Maybe she just had a nasty mind.
‘Come on in, Brian,’ said Kate as she opened the door to him. ‘Marina won’t be but a minute or two. She’s been visiting Rose Sharpe this afternoon and stayed on a bit. Rose misses the bairns, you know, and her mam.’
‘Aye, well, she will,’ said Brian. ‘But how are you, Mrs Morland?’ He was a little pink but quite self-assured and Kate smiled to remember him as a young boy. So painfully shy, he’d been.
‘Canny,’ she replied, then, courtesies over, motioned him to a chair and sat down opposite him, wiping her hands on her apron. She studied him frankly. He was all grown up now, she concluded, and a fine figure of a young man, clear-eyed and broad-shouldered. Their Marina could do worse than him. In fact she had been relieved when the girl had said she was going out with him. For a while there Kate had had a suspicion that Marina was up to something with someone she didn’t want to tell her family about. Dark thoughts of married men had hovered to worry Kate, tell herself as she might that their Marina was a well-brought-up lass and had more sense than that. Yet sometimes when she came in late from work there had been a look about her. And there were all sorts of folk in Durham City, what with the university and all those office workers at Shire Hall.
Well, she needn’t worry any more. Brian was a nice lad, she’d known him since he was a baby and he came from a clean-living family an’ all. Kate watched as her daughter came down in a black taffeta dress with a velvet motif on the bodice covered with red and white sequins. Black! To go to a dance an’ all. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. After all, it was fashionable. She’d seen similar in the shop windows in Bishop Auckland. And judging by the expression on Brian’s face, he thought her daughter looked a knockout.
He had risen to his feet and taken a couple of steps towards Marina as though drawn to her. Kate looked back at her daughter and frowned slightly. Marina was wearing a smile which didn’t quite reach her eyes, rather like the day she had expected a pot doll from Father Christmas when she was little and had received a knitted one instead.
‘Come on then, Brian,’ she said. ‘We don’t want to miss the bus now, do we?’ And he went to her eagerly.
‘Put your big coat on, Marina,’ said Kate. ‘It’ll likely be cold when you come out. And mind, the eleven o’clock bus or your dad’ll have something to say about it.’
‘Oh, Mam, I was just going to wear me swagger,’ Marina objected, but Brian picked up her top coat from the back of the chair where Kate had laid it ready and held it for her to put on. ‘Come on now, Marina, your mam’s right,’ he said, surprising both women by his firmness. He was growing up, thought Kate. Marina wouldn’t have it all her own way with him, even if she thought she would.
Marina wasn’t thinking anything of the kind as she sat beside Brian on the top deck of the Darlington bus. She stared out into the night, unspeaking, and Brian was content to sit quietly by her. Neither he nor Charlie was on Marina’s mind just then, she was thinking of the afternoon she had just spent with her old friend Rose. Alf Sharpe wasn’t in when she called. Of course she hadn’t expected him to be which was why she’d picked a time when she knew he would be down the Club.
Rose’s face had lit up when she saw Marina, which made her feel guilty yet again for not coming more often. But the house was so gloomy somehow, even though Rose kept it spotlessly clean.
‘Let’s go for a walk,’ she had suggested. Her friend had looked doubtful but Marina had persuaded her, and they had gone up on the fell beyond Jordan and walked along a deserted narrow road strewn with rocks from the outcrops which stuck through the bracken and dried yellow grass by the sides. Even Rose’s pale cheeks soon glowed red as they walked in the teeth of a freezing wind until they came to an overhang; it was the place where they had always gone when they were younger and played house. Marina had sat down on the dried bracken, in the hollow which was sheltered from the wind and even warmed by pale afternoon sunlight, and Rose took the shelf of rock which stuck out unexpectedly about a foot from the ground. In the old days it had been their picnic table.
They had talked of those old days like two old women at a yard gate. Carefully, Marina skirted round the subject of Rose’s home life though she was dying to ask why she didn’t go out to work now she didn’t have the twins to see to. Instead she told her about her date with Brian and about Jeff going to work at Easington Colliery.
‘But why did he go?’ Rose asked, and then suddenly, as if stricken, ‘It wasn’t because of me or my dad, was it?’ She felt as though a great hole had opened up in her life. Even though she had seen Jeff so rarely since she left school, he had been there, and now he was not.
‘No, of course not, don’t be so big-headed,’ Marina said lightly. ‘Why would he go because of you? No, he wasn’t happy at the pit …’ Her voice faded away as she realised that she had revealed more than she thought, for hadn’t Alf Sharpe been Jeff’s overman? Marina gazed out over the wintry fields to where a group of jackdaws were squabbling noisily over something unmentionable in the grass. To her horror, when she looked back at Rose her friend was sitting with tears rolling down her cheeks, making no sound and no attempt at all to stem the flow.
‘Here, Rose, don’t take on like that. I didn’t know you liked Jeff that much,’ she said, and began rooting in her handbag for a clean handkerchief. When she found one she handed it over and Rose mopped her face. Marina put an arm round her shoulders and then Rose was hiccupping and saying she was sorry and crying some more until at last the tears stopped and she blew her nose and sat quietly, apart from an occasional sniff.
‘Sorry,’ she said again but in a more normal tone of voice. ‘I don’t know what came over me.’
‘Well,’ said Marina, ‘I think I would be howling if I’d had to go through what you’ve been through. And the twins going away. I say, Rose, why don’t you go back to your old job? You’d get out of the house –’
‘Dad wouldn’t let me.’
‘Oh, rubbish! You’re old enough to do what you like,’ said Marina, the one who fibbed every day about her own movements in case her mam found out something she wanted to keep secret. ‘Anyway, you could go and live with your auntie too. Surely she’d take you in? You don’t have to live with your dad, you know, not when you’re over sixteen, you don’t.’
‘I do. I can’t get away.’
‘But why?’ Marina was genuinely puzzled, couldn’t think what it was that was holding back her friend, when she was so miserable.
Because then he would bring the twins back. And Mary at least wouldn’t be safe. Because he would do it to get at me, Rose thought. In fact the words seemed to ring in her head, but she couldn’t say them. Instead she twisted Marina’s handkerchief in her fingers.
‘I’ll wash this and give it you back.’
‘No need. I’ve got loads. People buy me hankies for Christmas and birthdays when all I want is Chanel No. 5.’
Rose gave a watery smile. ‘Oh, Marina, I’m sick of my life!’ she burst out. And then, shockingly, for the first time confiding in another person: ‘I hate my dad!’
Marina hugged her. ‘Eeh, I don’t know, pet, I don’t. Does he hit you? Is that what it is? Is he cruel?’ He would be cruel, vicious beggar that he was, she thought. Sometimes she felt she didn’t like her own dad, especially when he gambled away his pay and made Mam miserably unhappy, but she couldn’t hate him, the thought was shocking.
‘No, he –’ But Rose couldn’t say it so she carried on: ‘Yes, that’s it. He hits me.’
‘Bloody sod! And that’s swearing.’ Marina’s own troubles seemed paltry compared with Rose’s. Why, even if her dad found out about what she and Charlie had got up to, he wouldn’t hit her, she was fairly sure. Though Mam might. Dear God, how could she even think of herself when Rose was in so much trouble?
‘Listen, Rose, I think you should go and live with your aunt. Never mind what he says. If you tell her what he does she won’t let him take Mary and Michael back. It’ll be all right, you’ll see.’
Rose imagined telling Aunt Elsie what her dad did to her. But no, her aunt hadn’t believed her before so why should she now? To Marina it was all so simple. She saw what she should do and did it, or at least that was how it looked. Rose shook her head regretfully.
‘No, I don’t think that would work.’
Marina pondered, accepting what Rose said. After all, her friend knew better than she the situation at home. ‘Well, I tell you what, you like Jeff, don’t you? I’ll get his address from Brian tonight and you can write to him. He doesn’t live far from Shotton, does he? Easington isn’t far from Shotton. Then when you go to see your aunt you can meet him. Isn’t that something to look forward to?’
‘Dad would go mad if I got a letter from a lad, Marina. Talk sense, for goodness’ sake.’
‘Yes, but he can address them to me at our house, can’t he? And I’ll give them to you. Isn’t that a good idea?’
Marina was so obviously carried away with the idea that Rose smiled and nodded. She got to her feet and walked away to the edge of the fell, looking out over the rough grass and small hillocks which had once been spoil heaps for the bell pits which dotted the area in the eighteenth century. Now they too were covered in dead vegetation. As dead as she felt inside. It was no good, Marina could never understand. The winter afternoon was closing in, the jackdaws flying in a noisy black cloud towards the barn where they roosted. The wind was biting. Rose turned back.
‘Well then, we’d better be off before we freeze to death, Marina. Thanks for coming with me anyroad. And for listening.’
Marina linked arms with her as they set off for the village. She looked at Rose from time to time, anxiety in her expression. No, Marina couldn’t begin to understand and what was more it was unfair to ask her to try to.
‘I’m all right, Marina. I just had the hump, that’s all,’ Rose assured her. And even though nothing was resolved she felt a little lighter of heart because she had talked with her friend, almost as they had shared their secrets when they were at junior school. Ever since the day they had both started in the infants’ class they had done that. They had been seated next to each other then and had played together in the school yard. They would always be friends even though she would never tell Marina the whole truth.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Brian asked. Marina start
ed. She had been so immersed in Rose’s troubles that she had forgotten where she was. The bus was approaching Bondgate, she saw, on the outskirts of Darlington.
‘Oh, nothing,’ she said, debating whether to tell Brian all her worries about Rose. He was so sensible, surely he would think of something to help her? But no, she couldn’t do that, it would be betraying a confidence. She smiled at him, trying to keep her mind on tonight and the dancing ahead of them. A good night out was what she needed.
Later, as they came off the dance floor and sat drinking coffee at the refreshment bar, thoughts of Rose returned to haunt her. How sad she was, and what a miserable life she was leading. Marina turned to Brian and asked, ‘Do you think Jeff would like to write to Rose?’ At his look of surprise she went on, ‘I mean, she’d like to write to him and I know he likes her.’
‘Yes, but there’s her dad. He wouldn’t like it at all, would he?’
Marina leaned towards him eagerly. ‘Jeff could write to my house, I would give her any letters. Why not? Will you give me his address?’
‘All right.’ Brian made no further objection. It was yet another surprise to Marina that he had a pen and tiny notebook in his pocket. He tore off a leaf and wrote Jeff’s address on it. Marina slipped it into her bag. There wasn’t much she could do for Rose but this she could and would.
Chapter Twelve
Rose sat before the fire knitting pullovers for the twins, a deep blue one for Michael and a light blue one for Mary. At least the knitting was done, she only had to sew them up ready to take through to Shotton tomorrow. The twins were growing so fast now, or so Aunt Elsie had said in her last letter. Soon they would be seven. They had been gone for four months now, four months and eleven days. They went to school in Shotton and Aunt Elsie said they were on the Sunday School anniversary tomorrow. Rose wanted the pullovers finished to take with her, then if it was cold the children could wear them over their anniversary clothes. Mary had a pink broderie anglaise dress with a full skirt and Michael grey shorts Aunt Elsie had bought at the Co-op Store and a white shirt and blue dickybow tie. Oh, her aunt had told her everything.