Читать книгу Across the Mersey - Annie Groves, Annie Groves - Страница 10

FOUR

‘Phew, I was beginning to think we were never going to get finished,’ Grace sighed in relief as she and Susan hurried down the staff staircase of Lewis’s and out into the early evening sunshine.

A last-minute message from Bella had meant that instead of getting changed at her Auntie Vi’s, Grace had had to change into her cotton frock in the cloakroom at Lewis’s, whilst Susan eyed her critically and gave her advice on her hair and makeup.

‘Are you sure I’m not wearing too much lipstick,’ she asked her uncertainly, ‘only—’

‘Of course you aren’t. You wait until some chap starts trying to kiss you, you’ll be glad you’ve put a bit extra on then,’ Susan assured her without explaining the logic of her statement.

‘Real mean of that cousin of yours, it was, to say you had to go ready-dressed, especially when she’d said first off you was to change at her place. I wouldn’t stand for it meself.’

‘I am beginning to wish that I hadn’t said I’d go,’ Grace admitted. All she could really think of at the moment was the excitement of knowing that she was going to train to be a proper nurse.

‘Well, you are going,’ Susan told her, ‘and what’s more you’re going to put that cousin of yours well and truly in her place when she sees you in this.’

Grace’s eyes rounded in disbelief when Susan rummaged in the large bag she was carrying and produced a paper bag, which she opened to show Grace the green silk dress that was inside it.

‘Here, go on, take it,’ she commanded, pushing the bag towards Grace.

‘Oh, no, I couldn’t, Susan.’

‘Of course you can, and you’d ruddy well better an’ all after all the trouble I’ve bin to to get it for you. You’ll look a real treat in it and no mistake. I just wish I could be there to see the face on that snotty cousin of yours when she sees you in it.’

Susan had really taken a dislike to Bella, Grace acknowledged.

‘You can get changed into it in the ladies in Lyons. I’ll come with you and give you a hand.’

‘No, Susan, I can’t, honestly.’

‘Come on,’ Susan ignored her protests as she took hold of Grace’s hand and virtually dragged her along the road and into Lyons.

Half an hour later Grace was staring at her reflection in the mirror, feeling horribly guilty and ungrateful, whilst Susan puffed out her cheeks and demanded, ‘Now aren’t you pleased I got it for you?’

Susan was so pleased with herself, and Grace knew that she had wanted to be kind. It seemed mean not to thank her.

‘It is a lovely dress,’ she agreed. ‘But taking it from the Gown Salon—’

‘Oh, give over, do. Like I told you, everyone does it, even Mrs James, I reckon.’

‘She never!’ Grace protested, diverted.

‘Come on, you’d better get a move on, otherwise you’re going to be late.’

With her own dress packed away along with her work clothes, Grace hugged Susan and then picked up her now quite heavy bag.

It was good job that her stole and her evening bag were both white and didn’t clash with the silk gown, she decided, feeling very self-conscious as she waved goodbye to Susan and set off for the ferry terminal.

‘Just you remember what we agreed,’ Bella told Charlie as she came downstairs, giving him a warning look before opening the lounge door and stepping inside.

‘What do you think, Mummy?’ she asked, doing a small pirouette in the new ice-blue gown she had persuaded her mother to buy her for the dance, whilst Charlie grimaced.

‘You look beautiful, darling. What time is Alan picking you up? I thought that Daddy and I would ask him in for a drink before you go. We really ought to have his parents round for a bit of supper soon.’

‘He should be here soon, but he’ll have that wretched cousin of his with him, don’t forget.’ Bella pulled a face. ‘Seb and Grace will have to go to the Club with Charlie. There won’t be room in Alan’s car.’

‘There won’t be room in mine either,’ Charlie protested, but neither his mother nor his sister was listening to him.

‘There’s the doorbell now,’ Vi announced.

‘There’s no car outside, though. I expect it will only be Grace,’ Bella said carelessly. ‘You’d better go and let her in, Charlie.’

If Grace hadn’t already been feeling self-conscious and guilty because of the attention her frock had attracted during her journey to her aunt’s, the look on Charlie’s face when he opened the door to her would have certainly made her feel both those things.

‘I say …’ he told her, giving a long appreciative whistle. ‘Bags I the first dance with you, cos.’

‘Charlie, hurry up and close the door. I don’t want you standing there when Alan arrives. It looks awfully common.’

‘Hark at her ladyship,’ Charlie grinned, cocking his head in the direction of the lounge door. ‘Gawd knows what she’s going to be like once she gets Alan’s ring on her finger.’

‘Come on, we’d better do as she says.’

Grace always felt a bit uncomfortable around her aunt and uncle, and now she really was wishing she hadn’t agreed to come, what with the dress and everything. She’d been tempted to change out of it at the landing stage, but there’d been a queue for the ladies and another one at the other end, so she’d pushed her guilt to one side and got on the bus instead.

Now, though, as she stepped into the lounge and its two occupants went completely silent as they stared at her, Grace wished that she had managed to get changed.

‘Where did you get that dress from?’ Bella demanded without bothering to welcome her.

‘A friend lent it to me,’ Grace told her. She knew that her face had gone red. Bella was giving her a narrow-eyed look whilst her mother was looking very cross indeed.

‘Well, I must say I’m surprised that anyone would want to lend out such an expensive-looking gown,’ said Vi.

‘Yes, so am I,’ Bella agreed.

‘I’m not sure that wearing it was a wise decision, though, Grace dear,’ her aunt announced patronisingly. ‘You don’t look very comfortable in it. That’s always the trouble when a girl tries too hard and steps out of her own class. It always shows.’

‘Alan’s here, Mummy. Just remember,’ Bella hissed at Grace as her mother went into the hall, ‘it’s Seb you’ll be partnering, so that me and Alan can have a bit of time to ourselves, so don’t start hanging around me all night. Charlie’s going to drive you and Seb there, aren’t you, Charlie?’

Without waiting for her brother to reply, Bella turned to check her reflection in the mirror above the new tiled fireplace, whilst her mother went to answer the door.

Grace couldn’t help noticing the speed with which Bella’s cross expression and demanding voice changed the moment her mother called out, ‘Bella darling, Alan’s here.’ Almost miraculously a smile replaced her earlier frown, her voice as soft and sweet as fresh cream as she jerked her head warningly to Grace, mouthing, ‘Come on’ before hurrying into the hallway.

To Grace’s surprise Alan Parker, instead of being the swooningly handsome matinée idol type she had imagined, was a rather ordinary-looking young man of around medium height and build, with a pugnacious expression, slightly protruding pale blue eyes, and brown hair.

‘Seb, do come inside properly and be introduced to my cousin,’ Bella instructed the young man who was half hidden by the open front door. ‘I should warn you that Grace isn’t actually a member of the Tennis Club. She works in Lewis’s,’ Bella added disparagingly. ‘I’ve told her that she’s not to disgrace you, though.’

Grace could feel her face starting to burn with misery and humiliation, which was made even worse when her partner for the evening stepped into the hallway. Alan Parker’s cousin was everything that Bella’s boyfriend was not. He was tall, broad-shouldered and very good-looking, the uniform he was wearing making him look distinguished and smart, despite the fact that his leg was in plaster and he was having to use crutches. His hair was thick and dark and nicely barbered.

‘I can see that your cousin is teasing us both,’ he told Grace, offering her both his hand and the kindest smile she had ever seen. It was so warm and understanding that she could feel her earlier misery melting away. ‘And I’m going to be escorting the prettiest girl at the dance.’

Bella flashed them an angry look. ‘You wouldn’t say that if you could see her in her Lewis’s uniform,’ she tittered angrily. ‘I really don’t know how you can work there, Grace, especially with that horrid common girl who works in the Gown Salon with you.’

‘Come on, Bella, otherwise we’re going to be late,’ Alan interrupted her irritably, thrusting a box containing a corsage of flowers towards her.

‘Oh, how lovely. Look, Mummy, my favourite flower. Alan darling, you are so thoughtful.’

‘Bet she ordered it herself and told him what she wanted,’ Charlie muttered irrepressibly in Grace’s ear as they all watched whilst Bella begged Alan with prettily sweet insistence to pin the corsage on for her.

‘Thank you, darling,’ she told him once he had finished, raising herself up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek and then pouting when he rubbed his skin, protesting that she was covering him in lipstick.

‘Seb, Charlie is taking you and Grace in his car. Grace can sit in the back so you’ll have plenty of room for your crutches. Alan, come on, darling. I dare say that everyone will be waiting for us to arrive.’ She gave a tinkling little laugh. ‘It’s so embarrassing, but everyone seems to take their lead from me and Alan. I suppose it’s flattering really.’

‘And entirely natural,’ Grace heard her auntie Vi saying firmly.

‘I’m really sorry that you’ve been forced to travel with us, instead of with your cousin,’ Grace apologised to Seb.

‘I’m not,’ he told her cheerfully. ‘In actual fact, Alan isn’t my cousin. Our relationship is rather more tenuous than that. It’s very good of his parents to put me up, though, whilst I wait for the medics to pronounce me fit for service. With any luck I should be off their hands by this time next week and back with my unit.’

They had reached Charlie’s car, and Seb opened the door and told her cheerfully, ‘There’s no need for you to risk creasing your outfit clambering into the back. I’ll sit there.’

‘Oh, no, you mustn’t,’ Grace protested, but it was too late. Seb was already settling himself in the back of the car.

‘This is going to be such a wonderful evening,’ Bella told Alan, hanging on to his arm possessively as they walked from his car to the Tennis Club entrance. Through the open double doors it was possible to see into the square hallway, which was decorated with bunting in the Tennis Club colours and cleverly cut-out paper streamers of tennis racquets and balls. On a table underneath the central light stood an impressive floral arrangement provided by those mothers who were on the roster for the church flowers, the flowers in shades of red, white and blue, but Bella wasn’t particularly interested in the effort the Social Committee had made to strike a cheery yet patriotic note in the décor for the dance. After all, she had far more important things on her mind than a few paper streamers and some flowers.

She breathed a deep sigh, keeping a firm hold on Alan as they went inside, whispering softly to him, ‘When we’re married and our children are growing up I shall tell them about tonight and how special it was.’

‘Now look here, Bella—’ Alan began grimly.

But Bella pretended not to be aware of what he was saying, exclaiming instead, ‘Goodness, look over there at Trixie, queuing to get in. What an awful fright she looks, doesn’t she? Poor girl. I really must give her a few tips about how to make the best of herself. Not that she’s got much to make the best of, mind you. Did you tell your parents that mine want them to come over to supper tomorrow? Daddy is getting awfully father-like about young men who take liberties, and the fact that you haven’t spoken to him yet,’ she told Alan archly, ‘but there’s no need for you to worry. He’s a pussycat really. Wasn’t I clever inviting my cousin along for Seb, so that we could be on our own?’

‘What exactly happened to your leg, or is it something you’d rather not talk about?’ Grace asked Seb with genuine interest, as they walked towards the Tennis Club together.

Although he had made light of it she was pretty sure that Seb had been uncomfortable in the back of the car, which was why she was deliberately walking slowly, letting others overtake them to join what was now a small queue waiting to get into the Club. Charlie, too impatient to wait for them, had gone ahead, and had already disappeared inside the building, following Bella and Alan, who had gone inside before the queue had formed.

‘On the contrary, I’d adore talking about it, especially to pretty girls,’ Seb grinned. ‘Or at least I would if the truth wasn’t so very dull. I broke it on a training exercise,’ he told Grace, bending down to whisper in her ear, ‘but normally I tell people that I was engaged on a highly secret mission that I’m sworn not to talk about.’

Grace giggled. She was enjoying herself more with every minute she spent in Seb’s company. She felt as comfortable with him as though she had known him all her life but at the same time something about the way he looked at her and the sound of his voice gave her a deliciously fizzy sensation inside her stomach that made her feel giddy and heady with excitement and happiness.

‘What kind of break was it? I’m going to be training as a nurse soon, you see,’ she explained when he gave her a quizzical look, ‘so …’

‘So naturally you find my leg utterly fascinating,’ he agreed so straight-faced that it took Grace a handful of seconds to realise he was teasing her again and she burst out laughing.

‘You’re a dreadful tease,’ she chided him, mock severely, ‘and from now on I shan’t take a single word that you say seriously.’

‘Not even if I were to tell you that you are the most enchanting girl I have ever met?’

Grace stared at him, the colour coming and going in her face, her eyes wide with shyness and confusion. She wasn’t used to men like Seb and she certainly wasn’t used to them flirting with her.

Her parents were very careful and watchful, and normally the only boys with whom she had any social contact were those she had known since childhood. Seb wasn’t just a boy, though, was he, she acknowledged. He was all grown up and a man. Her heart gave a flurry of fast beats.

Grace might not be very experienced but she had a good deal of common sense, so once her heart had returned to its normal beat she responded firmly, ‘Especially not if you were to tell me that. Is it the military hospital you have to go to about your leg?’

She wasn’t aware of the rueful look Seb gave her as he looked down at the top of her head.

When he had been informed by Bella that her cousin would be his date for the evening, he had assumed she would be a young woman very much in Bella’s own mould and had resigned himself to an evening of boredom, fending off the unwanted overcoy approaches of the kind of girl he most disliked.

Grace, though, was the complete antithesis of her manipulative little baggage of a cousin, and Seb recognised that she had no idea just how enchanting she was or how very sweet he found her. Which was just as well, and the way it must stay. It would be all too easy to enjoy the sympathy of a girl as sweet as this one, and they had all been warned about the dangers of doing that.

In fact, there were an awful lot of things he and the young men who had been recruited with him had been warned against saying and doing, Seb reflected as he drew Grace gently to one side and reached into his pocket, saying ruefully, ‘What an idiot I am. I nearly forgot this,’ as he produced a delicate cream-flowered corsage. ‘Shall I pin it on for you?’

Grace struggled between the warnings her mother had given her about not allowing young men to adopt overfamiliar behaviour towards her because of what it might ultimately lead to, and her own confusing sweet thrill of pleasure at the thought of accepting Seb’s offer, before saying recklessly, ‘Yes, please, if you wouldn’t mind.’

Seb, who thought she had the sweetest and most expressive face he had ever seen, guessed what she had been thinking, especially when she had turned her head to look towards the cloakroom. When they had been told during their training that they needed to make the most of whatever opportunities came their way to facilitate their mission, he doubted that putting that training to use in this sort of fashion was what the RAF had had in mind, he acknowledged, as he stepped forward, his body screening Grace from everyone else in the entrance to the Tennis Club.

As he leaned forward to pin the corsage on the front of her frock he heard her catch her breath and felt her tremble slightly. His own hands trembled a bit themselves. She was just so irresistibly sweet, and it would have been the most natural thing in the world to take her in his arms and drop a light kiss on that pretty little nose of hers. But of course he must do no such thing. One of the requirements of his acceptance for his training had been that he should not be married or thinking of getting married. As they had all been warned, the chances of them surviving a war, given the secret nature of their work, were very slim indeed.

Bella and Alan had already found a table when Grace and Seb joined them.

Charlie had been to the bar and he winked at Alan as the waitress brought over their drinks, telling him, ‘Got you a double G and T, seeing as Bella reckons you need a bit of Dutch courage to come up to the mark.’

Bella gave her brother an angry look. She could do without that kind of comment, thank you very much.

‘Trixie’s just come in.’ Alan finished his drink, and started to stand up. ‘She’s on her own, so I’ll go and tell her to come and join us.’

Immediately Bella made a grab for his jacket, hissing furiously, ‘You’ll do no such thing. What will people think? You’re with me. Let her go and find her own partner. Anyway,’ she told him, ‘I want to dance.’

‘Well, I want another drink. It’s your turn to get the drinks in, Seb. I’ll have another double.’

‘What would you like to drink, Grace?’ Seb asked her, smiling.

‘Oh, a lemonade please.’

‘A lemonade,’ Bella mimicked unkindly. ‘What a baby you are, Grace. I’ll have a G and T, Seb.’

Grace tried not to look as shocked as she felt. Neither of her parents ever drank spirits, her mother only having the occasional port and lemon or a sherry at Christmas-time and her father sticking to beer.

‘You really don’t look at all comfortable in that dress, Grace,’ Bella told. ‘It doesn’t suit you at all.’

‘Stop being such a cat,’ Charlie told his sister, unexpectedly coming to Grace’s rescue. ‘You’re just jealous because Grace’s dress looks better than yours.’

Grace could have sunk through the floor when she saw the look of fury on Bella’s face, especially when Charlie’s comment made Alan look more closely at her, and announce in a slightly slurred voice, ‘Charlie’s right, Bella.’

Grace didn’t like her cousin’s boyfriend, and even though she felt that Bella was behaving very badly, she still felt sorry for her.

‘So you’re going to train as a nurse, then?’

Grace nodded.

They had just finished eating their buffet meal, and she and Seb were alone at the table, Charlie having gone to join some friends at the bar whilst Bella and Alan were dancing.

‘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.