Annie Groves - Across the Mersey

‘It might have been different if our little Terry had lived,’ Jean said quietly. ‘He and Jack could have been good friends.’

‘Like our Luke and Grace are with your Vi’s Charlie and Isabelle, you mean?’ Sam asked her drily. ‘I could hear Charlie boasting to Luke about that ruddy car of his and how he spends his time driving about in it, showing off.’

‘Edwin won’t tolerate that. Vi told me herself that the only reason Edwin has given Charlie a car of his own is because he needs him in the business.’

‘You mean because he wants to keep him out of the army if it does come to war,’ Sam corrected her. ‘Mind, I can’t blame him. I don’t mind admitting that I’m relieved that Sid’s got a place waiting for our Luke with the Salvage Corps. What’s that look for?’

‘A lot of parents will have to see their sons go off to fight if it does come to war, Sam. Do you think that it will?’

‘Edwin reckons not, but I can’t agree with him. One thing’s for sure: if it does then we’ll bloody well have to win,’ he told her bluntly.

Jean shivered and moved closer to him. ‘The twins will be leaving school next summer. Maybe there’ll be some jobs going at Lewis’s that would suit them.’

‘I can’t see them two bowing and scraping to the posh women that our Grace has to serve,’ Sam chuckled.

Jean smiled as well. Grace worked in the À La Mode Gown Salon of the big store as a junior salesgirl and she often entertained her family over tea with tales of the well-to-do women who went there to buy their clothes.

‘Mum, did Auntie Vi say anything to you about this dance at the Tennis Club that Bella wants me to go to?’ Grace leaned over to ask, her face bright with excitement.

‘She did, love. I wasn’t sure that you’d want to go.’

‘Of course I do. Bella was telling me all about it. It sounds lovely. She says she’s going to ask Auntie Vi to buy her a new dress. She’s seen the one she wants. It’s pale blue silk embroidered with white marguerites.’

Some of the brightness faded from her face, and Jean knew exactly what she was thinking. Her heart ached for her daughter, who was never likely to own anything as expensive as a silk frock, never mind have a new one every time she felt like it.

‘Well, I dare say we can make up a new sash for your polished cotton, love. Suits you a treat, it does, and you’ve got the advantage over Bella, you being that bit taller and having such a lovely neat waist.’

The little boy in front of them in the queue dropped his ice-cream cornet and started to cry bitterly, whilst his mother, who looked harassed and was clutching both their gas masks, tried to calm him. His noisy tears brought an end to any private conversation. Luke disappeared, only to reappear five minutes later carrying three cornets, one of which he gave to the delighted child and the other two to the twins.

‘You’re just as soft as your dad,’ Jean mock-scolded him, after the child’s mother had thanked him profusely for his generosity, and explained, ‘I thought I’d give him a bit of a treat, like, with a day at the seaside, what with me being told that he’d have to be evacuated if there’s a war, and his dad already away in the army, but it’s bin a long day for him and he’s got himself a bit overtired.’

‘It’s only an ice cream, and the poor little chap had only had a couple of licks of it,’ Luke answered his mother now, before turning to his father. ‘Dad, Charlie was saying that he’s joined the TA because he reckons that it means he won’t have to go away to do his six months’ training. He was showing me his uniform.’ There was a note of envy in his voice. ‘I reckon that if I were to join them—’

‘You’ll do no such thing,’ Sam stopped him sharply. ‘The TA lot will be the first in if it does come to war.’

‘Charlie reckons they’ll be posted to home duties.’

‘Aye, well, he would reckon that, him and that father of his being the clever sods they are.’

‘Sam,’ Jean objected, ‘language!’

‘Sorry, love, but it gets my goat, it really does, the way that ruddy Edwin reckons to be such a know-it-all. I’m your father, Luke, and it’s me you listen to. We’ve been through all of this already. If there’s to be a war then you can do your bit just as well here at home with the Salvage Corps, aye, and you’ll have a decent job wi’ it if there isn’t a war. There’s no sense in rushing off joining summat like the TA.’

Jean listened anxiously. This wasn’t the first time that father and son had clashed over the issue of Luke joining up for active service should there be a war. Like any mother she desperately wanted to keep her son safe.

The Royal Daffodil was pulling away from the dock full of passengers and with any luck they would be on the next ferry to leave.

Jean hoped so. It had been a long day, and now she was tired and ready for her own home, and a nice cup of tea and a slice of bread and butter.

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