by Pam Howes
‘Consider it done,’ he said, smiling. ‘Believe you me; you will be doing me a huge favour as well. They always fall asleep after dinner and that leaves me bored to tears for the rest of the day. They won’t dare do that with visitors. I’ll really look forward to it.’
9
December 1939
Mary was standing in the kitchen up to her elbows in pastry-making as Bella walked in from work. ‘Hiya, chuck. Just thought I’d make something for you to take into work tomorrow to help with the food for the party. It won’t be much, a few sausage rolls and some cheese straws. Better than nothing though, eh?’
‘Oh, Mam, that’s smashing, thank you.’ Bella came over to hug her mother. ‘Everyone is bringing a bit of food to put on the buffet table. It all helps. I didn’t like to ask if I could take something in, well, with you watching the pennies for Christmas.’
‘I know, love. But us going to Bobby’s mam’s will be a big weight off our shoulders, money-wise. We’ll still take some mince pies and a bottle of sherry though. I don’t want to show my face empty-handed. It’s not polite. But at least we know we’ll get a good dinner.’
‘I’m so glad you said yes. I’m really looking forward to it,’ said Bella.
‘I still can’t get over the fact she’s asked us round. I mean, we haven’t spoken since we were at school. I left the Old Swan area when I married your dad and came to live in Wavertree and she just seemed to vanish into thin air. Then next thing I hear, she’s married to an air-force bloke, Wing Commander Harrison, no less, changed her name and moved into one of the posh houses opposite The Mystery.’
‘You never saw her again?’ Bella asked.
‘No, I’ve no idea what happened to her or her family in between, but it’s not my place to ask and unless she wants to tell me herself, I’m not going to be nosy. She hasn’t even let on that she knows who I am yet, so it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie unless she brings up the subject.’
Bella nodded her agreement and took off her scarf and coat. She hung them on the hall stand and went back into the kitchen. ‘I’ll have a bite to eat with everyone and then I’m going to Fran’s with Edie to pin-curl our hair and put some nice varnish on our nails, so we’re ready for tomorrow night. We won’t have time before the party. I’ll be staying at Bryant’s and not coming home at teatime as there’s no point. We’ll get changed in a spare office and we’ll be having the buffet, so at least I’ll get something to eat. Bobby’s dad will come and collect us later on and bring us all home.’
‘That’s very good of him,’ Mary said. ‘He seems a nice man. Bet Bobby takes after him.’
Bella smiled. ‘I think maybe he does.’
‘Has he not asked you out properly yet? To do a bit of courting, I mean?’
‘Mam,’ Bella said, blushing furiously. ‘You know he hasn’t or I would have asked you if it’s okay. We’re simply good friends, that’s all. He’s very caring and nice but I don’t think he’s looking for a proper girlfriend at the moment.’
‘Hmm, is that right?’ Mary muttered under her breath. ‘We’ll see.’
Bella linked Edie’s arm as they hurried round to Fran’s house. She was looking forward to a nice night, just the three of them. A good gossip and playing around with their hair and nails was just what they all needed to give them a morale boost.
‘Are you looking forward to tomorrow night?’ Edie asked.
‘Sort of. I’m a bit nervous, but it should be fun. And at least we know the audience likes us. Well, we assume they do.’ Bella laughed.
‘Come on in, gels,’ Fran’s brother Donald said, flinging the door open at their knock. ‘She’s in the back room with Mam. Go through.’
‘Thanks, Don,’ Bella said and led the way into the warm and cosy back sitting room, where Grandma Jackson was dozing in her usual chair by the fire.
‘Evening, girls, take a seat. There’s a fresh brew in the pot and a few biscuits on that plate there.’ Mrs Jackson pointed to the table that was set with tea things. ‘We’ve got some pin-curl clips and my home-made sugar and water setting lotion at the ready and our Fran picked up a nice bottle of red nail varnish on Saturday when she got her new dress. I’ve turned the hem up and pulled the bodice darts in a bit and it fits her a treat now. I think you’ll do them proud tomorrow. I hope someone manages to take a photo of you all dressed up. I wish we had a decent camera that takes photos indoors.’
‘Perhaps the foreman will bring one in, Mam,’ Fran said, pouring tea out for her friends. ‘When we’ve had this will you pin Bella’s hair up and I’ll do Edie’s and then you can do mine and then by the time we’ve done each other’s nails our hair will be ready to comb out. The setting lotion will have dried off and we should have nice waves.’
Mrs Jackson nodded. ‘I’ll get Grandma to bed while you finish your tea. Come on, Gran.’ She woke her gently, helped her to her feet and led her out of the room. The front parlour here was converted to a bedroom for Grandma.
The house was overcrowded with the two older boys, young Alfie, and Fran as well. It was slightly bigger than Bella’s home in that there was a small third bedroom that Fran slept in. At least all her brothers had gone upstairs out of the way and there was no sign of her dad, so they had the back room to themselves for now.
Bella reached for a ginger biscuit and dunked it in her tea. ‘Mam’s baked some things to take in for the buffet tomorrow,’ she announced.
‘That’s nice of her,’ Edie said. ‘I’ve got some crackers and cheese to take in and Fran’s mam said she’s making some sarnies first thing in the morning so that they’ll be fresh. The cook can put them in her fridge in the canteen then. Should be a good spread if we all take stuff in.’
‘I’m really looking forward to it,’ Fran said, smiling. ‘Wish I could ask Frankie to come but it’s for staff only; well, apart from your Bobby.’ She raised an eyebrow in Bella’s direction.
‘He’s not my Bobby,’ Bella said. ‘We’re just good friends. I keep telling everyone that but no one takes any notice,’
‘So he hasn’t asked you out yet?’ Fran said. ‘Taking his bloody time, isn’t he?’
Bella sighed. ‘No, he hasn’t. We go to the pictures now and again and our singing classes of course, but nothing else.’
‘And would you like to go out with him properly?’ Edie asked. ‘I’d have thought by now the pair of you would be doing a bit of courting.’
‘Yes, well we’re not. And I’m not sure why, but that’s the way it is, so don’t keep going on about it.’ Bella folded her arms, dismissing the subject. She didn’t understand why Bobby hadn’t suggested they have a proper date either, but nothing had been said and it wasn’t up to her to ask him. Nice girls just didn’t do that sort of thing.
‘You don’t know what you’re missing,’ Fran said, lowering her voice, a dreamy look in her eyes. ‘Me and Frankie can’t keep our hands off one another. We haven’t, well, you know, done anything yet. But if he has to go away when he joins up, then I think we will do, before he leaves.’
Edie stared at her wide-eyed. ‘You just be careful. You don’t want to be taking any chances. Your mam would go mad if you got yourself in the family way and he’s nowhere to be seen.’
Fran rolled her eyes. ‘He’s not that stupid, Edie, and neither am I.’
‘Even so—’ Edie stopped as Mrs Jackson came back into the room.
‘That’s her settled for the night,’ Mrs Jackson said. ‘Right, let’s clear this table and get on with the hair-styling, shall we?’ She cleared the pots away and Fran sorted out the pin-curl clips, and draped a towel each around Edie and Bella’s shoulders.
Mrs Jackson came back into the sitting room with a tail comb and gave the bowl of sugar and water a stir. ‘Right, Bella, let’s get you sorted.’ She dipped the comb in the water and pulled it through the ends of Bella’s hair. Then, while Fran did Edie’s, Mrs Jackson deftly wound loops of hair around her fingers and pinned the curls up with the clips all around Bella
’s head. ‘There, that won’t take long to dry. It’s nice and warm in here so we’ll leave them clips in until we’re ready to comb you out. Go and sit on the rug in front of the fire and keep turning your head around while the heat gets to it all over. We’ll put a hairnet on you for going home and to keep on overnight. Have you brought a headscarf for walking home?’
Bella nodded. Fran finished Edie’s hair and then sat down while her mam pinned hers up. Edie joined Bella on the rug. By the time Fran was ready they had bright red cheeks and were both sweating cobs.
‘Come and sit at the table, girls, while our Fran dries her hair, and we’ll make a start on your nails,’ Mrs Jackson said. ‘I’ll give them a bit of a file with an emery board and then our Fran will do the rest.’
‘Thanks for having us over, Mrs Jackson, it’s really kind of you,’ said Bella.
‘It’s a pleasure, girls.’ She smiled and then yawned. ‘I’m going to get off to bed shortly. I’m really tired. Your dad will be back from the pub any minute, Fran. It’s his darts team meeting tonight and he’s never usually too late home because he needs to be up early for work.’
She set to with the emery board and Bella and Edie’s nails were soon nicely shaped and ready for the first coat of nail varnish. ‘I’ll do yours while you’re still on the floor,’ she said and knelt down besides Fran and filed her nails too. ‘Right, you’re all done now. Just be careful putting the varnish on, take your time and let it dry fully in between coats and it’ll look lovely.’
She got to her feet, groaning as her knees creaked when she righted herself. ‘Flipping rheumatics, mind you, kneeling on the floor doesn’t help. You girls make the most of being young because when you get to my age it all starts to go downhill.’
Fran laughed. ‘Mam, you’re not at all bad for forty-one. You can give a lot of ’em younger than you a run for their money.’
As Bella, Fran and Edie got ready in the small office space they’d been allocated just off the canteen their excitement mounted, mixed with a feeling of nervousness. They zipped up each other’s dresses, smoothed down full skirts, made sure the seams were straight on their stockings and fluffed out their curls, which had been protected by loosely fastened turbans all day. There was no full-length mirror available, so they took it in turns to stand on a chair and gaze into a mirror fastened to the wall. They slicked on lipstick that matched the red of their nails and rubbed a touch into their cheeks to add a blush.
‘Do you think we look okay?’ Fran asked as Bella opened the door and pulled Bobby, who was waiting outside and making sure no one walked in on them, inside.
He nodded and whistled. ‘You all look amazing. Like true professionals.’
‘Thank you,’ Bella said with a laugh. ‘I know our dresses aren’t the same blue, but I think we blend well together and the styles are similar.’
Bobby gave them an appraising look. ‘Well you kind of go down the scale of blues, dark, medium and light,’ he said, ‘and you match my navy suit. So that was good fortune that I chose this one.’
Fran laughed. ‘It blooming well was. Right,’ she said as clapping sounded from the makeshift theatre in the canteen, ‘that’s Harry finished with his squeezebox turn. Are we ready, ladies?’
A knock at the door had them all jumping to attention and Bobby opened it.’ The foreman, George Barratt, stood there, mopping his forehead with a hanky.
‘Didn’t like to just barge in with the ladies getting changed in here,’ he announced. ‘But we’re about ready if they are. I’ll introduce the gels first, Bobby; they can do their spot, then we’ll have the buffet and after that I’ll bring you and Bella on together for your duets. Then you can all finish the night together with a finale.’
He straightened his bow tie, clicked the heels of his shiny black shoes together, did a little bow and walked back to the area designated for the stage, where he was compèring the show. He walked to the microphone that he’d borrowed from his mate who managed the Speke British Legion club, cleared his throat and one-two-ed as someone shouted good-naturedly, ‘Gerron with it!’
He smiled. ‘Now I know you all like the Boswell Sisters and the Andrews Sisters, but tonight, to entertain you for the first time in Liverpool, we are bringing to you the one and only – the Bryant Sisters.’ A cheer went up, followed by loud wolf whistles and clapping as the girls ran forward to join him.
Bella smiled. They hadn’t even thought to choose a name and she nodded enthusiastically at George’s well-thought-out choice. They were in Bryant & May’s, after all.
‘Thanks, George,’ Bella whispered. ‘That name is perfect. What else could we be?’ She spoke into the microphone. ‘Good evening, everybody. Oh come on, you can do better than that,’ she said as a ripple of voices greeted her. ‘GOOD EVENING!’
More clapping and whistling and Bella nodded to the pianist, who they’d rehearsed with over several lunchtimes since the piano had arrived. He knew the key they preferred to sing in and struck up with ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band.’ The audience joined in and a few got up to dance.
Following the cheering and applause that followed, Fran and Edie grinned at each other as Bella spoke to the audience and then announced the next song. She was a natural leader and they let her do the talking in between the songs. By the time they finished their spot with ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’ everyone was on their feet waving their arms and singing along.
George’s grin was splitting his face as he walked over to them. They bowed and smiled and waved as the audience called for more.
As soon as they came off, Bobby gave them a group hug as they all talked at once. George announced the buffet was ready; to queue patiently as there was plenty for everybody, and that the show would continue in half an hour.
‘Shall we get something to eat?’ Fran said, pointing to the buffet tables set out against the back wall of the canteen. ‘Me stomach thinks me throat’s been cut.’
Bella shook her head. ‘I can’t eat until after we’ve done our next spot. I get too nervous to eat anything. It might make me sick.’
Bobby nodded. ‘Me too. I’ll wait until later. That was fabulous, girls. They all enjoyed your performance.
‘I really enjoyed doing it,’ Edie said. ‘Beats packing matches any day. It would be smashing to earn a living doing something we love like this instead of having no choice because my mam needs the money.’
Bella sighed. ‘Wouldn’t it just. Ah well, it’s nice to perform properly tonight instead of on the factory floor.’
When Bobby and Bella took their places in front of the microphone the room fell silent. George had announced them as the new Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell. They began with the popular duo’s ‘An Apple for the Teacher’, immediately followed by ‘Swinging on a Star’. The applause was tumultuous and Bella felt the lump in her throat threatening to choke her. She couldn’t believe how much the audience were enjoying this. They sang ‘Paper Doll’ next and finished with Bob Hope and Shirley Ross’s ‘Thanks for the Memory’. Couples got up to waltz, singing along. Bobby gave Bella a squeeze at the deafening applause and shouts of ‘More!’ ‘Shall we?’ he whispered. ‘Can you manage it?’
She nodded and took a deep breath. ‘I think so. Let’s do it for Betty.’
He smiled. ‘Thank you so much,’ he addressed the audience. ‘We’d like to sing one more song for you now and we dedicate this to the memory of Bella’s little sister, Betty. It was her favourite song.’ He nodded at the pianist; a gentle ripple of applause went around the room and silence fell as everyone listened to ‘Over the Rainbow’. At the end, when everyone got to their feet and cheered, Bella blinked rapidly as Bobby squeezed her hand and whispered, ‘Well done.’
George thanked the pair and announced that while they took a short break before the finale he was going to do the raffle.
Bella dashed off to the ladies’ cloakroom while Bobby got them some food from what was left. He took the plate over to a table in the corner, where Fr
an and Edie were sitting with a middle-aged man in a suit who was smoking a cigar. Bobby had seen the man earlier when he was talking to George. He smiled and said hello.
‘Good evening, young man,’ the man said. ‘I’m Chas Morris, George’s mate who lent him the microphone.’
Bobby smiled politely and took a bite of sausage roll, savouring the flaky pastry. ‘I didn’t realise how hungry I was,’ he said as Bella joined them and picked up a sandwich.
She took a peep inside it. ‘Spam and tomato, yum. I’m feeling hungry now.’ She wolfed it down and took a swig of lemonade that Fran had poured her from the jug on the table. ‘Oh, that’s better,’ she said with a sigh.
‘This is Chas, he’s George’s friend,’ Bobby said, introducing them.
‘I’m honoured to be here tonight as it’s workers only, apart from Bobby, I believe,’ Chas said. ‘However, there’s a reason for it. I run the British Legion club in Speke and I’m always looking for good acts to put on when I do a special Saturday night show. George suggested I come and see you perform and give my opinion.’
All eyes turned to Chas as he continued. ‘I’ve got to say that both your performances were the best I’ve seen in a long time. Most professional, in fact. Now I know that none of you are very old and certainly not of drinking age yet, but I’d like to invite you all to put on a show for me early next year, maybe on the first Saturday after New Year. I can come and speak with your parents if they have any objections and reassure them that I’ll look after you. The money is good. I think you’d go down very well with my members.’
‘Oh my God,’ Fran said. ‘I can’t believe it. Really?’
‘Yes, really,’ Chas replied. ‘It won’t interfere with your daytime jobs as it’s weekends only and if it takes off maybe you could do it once a month for me.’
‘We’d need to discuss it with each other and then with our parents,’ Bobby said. ‘But I can’t see why it would be a problem at all.’