Читать книгу Child of the Mersey - Annie Groves, Annie Groves - Страница 11

‘Gloria!’ Nancy Feeny’s hereditary titian-coloured curls bounced in the afternoon sunshine as she hurried down the street in white, peep-toe wedge-heeled sandals. They would certainly have got her into trouble with her supervisor in the exclusive George Henry Lee haberdashery department if she wore them for work. However, she was not working today because of the imminent wedding and was just setting off to go into town.

Nancy was sure Gloria had heard her and she waved to her best friend. Gloria had obviously not been in work, and by the look of her evening gown and swish jacket, she had not even been home last night. Detecting a whiff of gossip in the hot afternoon air, especially if that notoriously nosy Vera Delaney saw Gloria, Nancy hurried over. For a moment, she felt a pang of envy at her friend’s freedom to do as she pleased.

Nancy admired the blush-coloured square-shouldered ‘swing’ jacket, lavishly embellished around the neck with diamanté, that swayed around Gloria’s slim hips, a gorgeous contrast to the navy-blue skirt and cardigan, teemed with a plain white blouse that they were obliged to wear to serve behind the elegant counters at George Henry Lee.

‘I’m just going into town if you fancy coming with me?’

‘Shh!’ Gloria put her finger to her lips and pointed to the open upstairs window at the Sailor’s Rest. Already undoing the jacket, she beckoned Nancy to follow as she headed towards the side door of the public house, where her father had been the proprietor for the last twenty years. ‘I’ll have to change out of these first.’

‘You have been out all night, haven’t you?’ An incredulous laugh laced Nancy’s words. ‘You dirty stop-out … Tell me everything!’ Gloria’s silky blonde shoulder-length hair, which framed her flawless features in a becoming Jean Harlow style, still looked as immaculate as always.

Nancy wished her own despised auburn waves were as gorgeous, and hoped Gloria, her lifelong friend and chief bridesmaid, would not steal her limelight tomorrow. With an inimitable giggle in her voice and a natural wiggle in her hips, Gloria was never short of male attention. Men said they wanted to protect her, although Nancy could not think why, given that Gloria, brought up over a pub, could take care of herself very well.

‘I miss us going out together,’ Nancy said wistfully. Sid was the jealous kind. He did not like Nancy and Gloria spending their evenings together. Gloria liked to go to late-night jazz clubs in town, which was harmless fun really. She just enjoyed singing, and she had a smashing voice. Nancy was flattered Sid loved her so much he wanted to be with her every night he was not working shifts on the docks, and he had made it clear Nancy was not to go dancing without him. She could see Sid’s point of view, too. What kind of a husband let his wife run around town at all hours of the night? Not that she ever would now. Not in her condition.

He did not mind Nancy going to see Gloria when he was having a pint in the pub, though. Gloria lived upstairs, and lately they would spend the evening going over the wedding preparations and listening to the wireless.

‘Did you see Sid last night?’ Gloria asked, her tone unusually abrupt.

Nancy’s eyebrows puckered. ‘No, he’s working nights on the dock.’

‘Oh, is that what he told you?’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Nancy asked. It was not like Gloria to be sarcastic or even annoyed usually. They could tell each other anything. Except … Nancy placed an almost protective hand on her abdomen …

She and Sid had decided that they would keep the news of her pregnancy to themselves. Nancy knew how people talked and he’d asked her to marry him ages ago. There was no point in filling people’s mouths with gossip when they were already getting married.

‘I couldn’t have a man telling me what to do,’ Gloria answered. ‘You want to put your foot down and tell him it’s not the Victorian days and he doesn’t own you.’

‘He doesn’t tell me what to do … well, not always.’ Nancy was confused. She knew there was no love lost between Gloria and Sid. Gloria thought he was overbearing and domineering, telling Nancy what she could and could not do, and Sid thought Gloria was fast and heading for trouble in a big way. But this display of waspish criticism was surely due to her best friend being jealous. After all, who would have thought Nancy would be the first to get married? She remembered the night of Sid’s proposal vividly.

Nancy told Sid she was staying in and washing her hair because he was doing night work on the docks when, in truth, she and Gloria had made plans to go to the local church dance. They had spent all their dinnertime discussing what they would wear. Getting dressed up was half the fun. Nancy favoured the Rita Hayworth look and Gloria was the image of Jean Harlow.

Nancy remembered she had just finished waltzing with Stan Hathaway from Accounts when she caught sight of Sid standing at the church door. She was rooted to the spot. Sid glared over to where she was, still in Stan Hathaway’s arms. He had always had his eye for her and said so as they danced … Poor Stan, thought Gloria. He’d have to be prepared for fisticuffs if Sid got angry. She watched as Sid separated the dancers like Moses parting the Red Sea. Everybody knew how possessive he could be.

They were waiting for him to drag her out of that hall like some kind of Neanderthal. Nobody was more surprised than she was when he just took her hand and they walked silently out of the dance hall together. The next day she was still in raptures over Sid’s gentlemanly conduct, slipping his arm around her waist like that and walking her home. Then Gloria spoiled it all by saying, ‘Stan was bigger than him, though, let’s be honest.’

However, Nancy soon wiped the smile from Gloria’s face when she told her that Sid had asked her to marry him, adding that he’d told her he wasn’t letting her get away that easily.

Now, though, Gloria was being all tetchy and disagreeable, and Nancy did not have a clue why. Gloria snatched a sudden intake of breath as if she were about to say something else. Then she stopped. Nancy realised that it was going to be hard for her best friend to give up their time together. Nancy would go her own married way; her life would change as she made a home and a new family with Sid, and poor Gloria would be left all on her own … It was understandable that her best friend felt no longer wanted; like a once-favourite cardigan that was no longer of any use.

‘We’ll have great memories of the good times, Glor. And we can still always go to the pictures during the week,’ Nancy said, trying to cheer her up.

‘Ah, thanks for that, Nance,’ Gloria said sardonically. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’ She knew that Sid wouldn’t let Nancy move before they were wed, so there was little chance afterwards.

‘Don’t be like that, Glor,’ Nancy said, smoothing her straight dark skirt, which fitted more snugly than it had last month. There wasn’t much she could do about it now, was there?

Gloria looked at her best friend. Nancy had a total blind spot to Sid Kerrigan’s domineering ways and she could not understand why. Surely, she could not love such an uncouth and shady man. Nancy had been brought up in a decent family who went to church and grafted hard even when work was scarce.

‘He doesn’t like me going to dances and being eyed up by other men.’

‘Maybe he knows his own tricks best,’ Gloria said, then put her hand to her lips, immediately regretting her slip of the tongue. It was one thing knowing Nancy was too good for Sid Kerrigan, caught up in the seedy criminal underworld she knew nothing about, but quite another to enlighten her about it on the eve of her wedding.

If only I had known sooner, Gloria thought. Sid had been having a fine old time last night in the Adelphi Hotel. Gloria recognised his lady friend, whose brother had connections in late-night drinking clubs, and he was not keen on shifty characters seducing his sister. Gloria knew Sid was playing with fire. But what could she do about it now?

It was too late to say anything, surely. Nancy was besotted with Sid.

‘Sid’s very good to me. He’s out looking for a house for us as we speak.’

No doubt, it would be some run-down rooms in a dilapidated old house barely fit for pigs to live in, convenient for Sid to make a few bob on the side smuggling contraband off the dock and selling it cheaply around the area. What the hell had her best friend let herself in for? Gloria was so angry she could scream!

There was one thing Gloria was certain of: the man she married would have to be very special. Her man would have money, status, and would wine and dine her in style at exclusive restaurants and … Until last night she had drawn the line at meeting in hotels.

‘So, what kept you out until now?’ Nancy asked, eager for details.

‘I can’t talk here,’ Gloria took Nancy’s arm, ‘and … if by any strange chance my mother asks where I was … I slept in yours last night.’

‘She’s bound to have talked to my mam today already,’ Nancy said.

Gloria shook her head. ‘My mother seldom asks questions, especially about me.’

‘You are so lucky, Glor.’ Nancy linked Gloria’s arm. ‘My mam knows what we’re doing before we even think about doing it.’

‘It must be nice to have a mother who cares.’ Gloria opened the side door, then, popping her head inside the passageway, she listened before leading the way up the narrow staircase.

‘I’ll get changed and come with you into town.’

‘Well, you’ve got to give me every last detail.’ Nancy followed in eager anticipation of a good old jangle, hurrying up the sumptuously carpeted stairs leading to the Ardens’ private quarters.

Pop and his sons made themselves scarce and, disappearing into the Sailor’s Rest, let the women do what they had to do the night before a wedding. Both his sons being home at the same time was a rarity these days, and Pop was in his element. Looking after them gave his lovely wife, Dolly, something to keep her mind occupied other than on what he was doing, for a change.

It was a great relief to know he could go about his ARP training without Dolly wanting to know the ins and outs of it all. Not that any of them would have her any other way; his Doll was the mainstay of the family, and he did not know where he would be without her.

Having the boys home made for lively discussions around the tea table. He smiled recalling the way each tried to outdo the other with his naval stories. He loved every minute of it. He had hoped they would take up the cartage line of work like him, get their own team of horses and be out delivering goods from one end of the docks to the other. Pop had a roving soul and loved the open road, but the rolling seas called his sons like many who lived in and around the docks and they were quick to answer. Frank had joined the Royal Navy three years ago, and Eddy had joined the Merchant Navy not long after. Both were proud they had salt water running through their veins and would not give it up for anything.

Outside the Sailor’s Rest the cobbles rang with children’s voices as they skipped in a rolling rope.

Under the spreading chestnut tree,

Neville Chamberlain said to me:

‘If you want your gas mask free,

Join the blinking ARP.’

A young girl was sitting on a looped rope lashed and knotted to the outstretched arms of the gas lamp while her friends swung her around it. A ship’s horn could be heard on the Mersey.

Pop, trying to push the anxious worry about what the war held for his family to the back of his mind, had thrown the singing children a few coppers as he passed. They scrambled in the dusty gutter, where a thrupenny bit landed on one of its twelve flat sides. Pop knew his wife hated the thought of another war, especially now her sons would both be in the front line. ‘But, Pop, it’s only been twenty-one years since the last war,’ Dolly had cried – as if that would prevent another one. Pop took a sip of his pint while his sons caught up with old pals … What had the world learned in the last twenty-one years? Here they were, on the brink of war again. Pop had seen many terrible things in the Great War and it made his blood run cold to think that his sons would do the same. But Pop knew that his boys would stand up to Hitler, no matter what.

‘Don’t fret about it now, Doll,’ he had said. Dolly was a strong, dignified woman, but first and foremost she was a mother. Fretting over her offspring came as naturally as breathing. ‘You’ve got a wedding to think about.’ If Dolly knew he had been humping corrugated cardboard, flat-packed coffins into the local swimming baths in Balliol Road all day she would have had a fit and refused to speak to him. However, the authorities had ordered them in case of war, and someone had to shift them …

Pop glanced at the huge round clock over the bar and wondered if Sid would get here before closing time.

Enjoying his rare night out with Frank and Eddy, Pop joined in the singing while Frank played the old upright piano. By nine o’clock, the whole pub seemed to be full of voices all happy to throw their opinions into the ring. They were all listening with interest to war stories from veterans of the last lot. By nine thirty, his sons were talking as if they would guide the British fleet to victory all by themselves, if need be. However, Pop laughed when he thought of thick heads in the morning, because tonight the only thing they were sinking was their beer.

‘Here, where’s the bridegroom got to?’ Eddy asked when he saw Pop looking at the time again.

‘This is a fine carry-on,’ said Frank, ‘a stag do and no stag.’ The die-hard regulars standing at the bar joined in Frank’s cheery banter.

‘Well,’ said one, ‘who wants to spend their last night of freedom with their future outlaws?’

‘Don’t you let my Dolly hear you talking like that, Fred,’ Pop replied. ‘We only got out of the house on the promise of looking after Sid …’ Pop, with theatrical exaggeration, looked right and left before he spoke again. ‘If she finds out he’s not turned up, she’ll be in here, evacuate the lot of us and have us making fairy cakes.’ The bar erupted with good-natured laughter and before long Frank started a medley of sea shanties.

Much to Eddy’s delight, Gloria came into the pub and silently beckoned him to the end of the bar. She was looking particularly fetching in a pale cream dress with puffed sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, and with her hair swept up in those fabulous Betty Grable curls, she looked very sophisticated.

‘Hello, gorgeous,’ Eddy said, giving Gloria a huge sloppy kiss on the cheek. They hugged and passed the usual pleasantries. How long are you home? Are you courting yet? Do you fancy going to the pictures sometime? Gloria saw the Feeny boys as welcome extensions of her own family, the brothers she did not have, especially Eddy, who always took the mick and made her laugh. But the boy next door wasn’t for Gloria, she had other ideas about the sort of man who would be worthy of her.

‘Eddy, listen to me,’ Gloria said as he started to hum along to the piano. ‘Eddy? Eddy, are you listening?’ She turned his face towards her and could see by the silly grin and half-closed eyes that he was already half-cut. Eddy nodded like an adoring two-year-old.

‘It’s about Sid.’ Gloria voice was urgently solemn now and she saw his expression change. His brow pleated and his head went up.

‘What about him?’ Eddy asked, alert now.

Gloria leaned over and whispered in his ear. Concentrating hard, Eddy felt his head begin to clear.

‘Frank,’ he said in a low voice, summoning his brother with a slight nod of his head. Frank dutifully left the piano and joined Eddy at the end of the bar.

‘What’s the matter?’ Frank asked. Able to take his ale better than his younger brother, he was listening intently.

Eddy wagged a finger in front of his nose and said in a low voice, ‘I don’t want Pop to hear this, but we’ve to go on a mission.’

‘A mission? Where to?’ Frank asked. ‘And why don’t you want Pop to hear?’

‘First things first,’ Eddy answered, putting his full pint of best bitter on the bar. ‘We are going to the Adelphi Hotel.’

‘What? Now?’ Frank asked, puzzled, and Eddy nodded. ‘It’s a bit late to be going into town; Ma will have our guts for violin strings if we get up to mischief and spoil the wedding.’

‘She’ll do more than that if she ever finds out what I’ve just heard.’

‘Oh, aye,’ said Frank, suddenly interested, ‘and what was that?’

‘I’ll tell you outside,’ Eddy offered, before letting Pop know he would see him back at the house later.

‘Sailors, hey?’ Pop’s laughter was drowned out by the cheers of the other men at the bar, all of whom had been away to sea at one time or another. ‘You can’t keep good men down.’

‘Thanks, Glor.’ Eddy gave her a peck on the cheek, quickly followed by Frank, who did not want to miss a female hug. A cheer went up as the two brothers left the pub.

‘So, what’s the mystery?’ Frank asked, hands in pockets, as they ambled across to the dock road. A striking pair of handsome sailors, the same height, weight and jovial manner.

‘I think Sid might be in a bit of bother,’ Eddy said in a low voice as they crossed over towards Seaforth and the terminus of the overhead railway. ‘He certainly will be if we don’t go and fetch him.’

‘What kind of bother?’ Frank felt his heartbeat quicken. He never went looking for trouble but if it came to visit, he was always ready.

‘Gloria saw him in the Adelphi Hotel last night and again tonight. And he was not on his own.’ Eddy filled Frank in on the details Gloria had told him about Sid enjoying the company of a woman whose brother, infamously, was not averse to the use of violence.

‘I’m more Queensberry rules than the rough stuff,’ said Frank, who knew how to handle himself if need be. Coming from a neighbourhood where being tough was a state of mind, as well as body, you had to learn very quickly.

‘And what about Gloria?’ he asked. ‘How come she was in the Adelphi?’

‘She’s a singer, is Glor,’ said Eddy. ‘Didn’t you know? Nancy told me that she’s got a regular spot at the Adelphi. She’s going places, that girl.’

‘Have you gone a bit soft on her?’ asked Frank, nudging his brother playfully in the ribs.

‘Who wouldn’t be? That figure, those hips! She drives men wild.’

Frank was amused by his brother’s glowing assessment of Gloria. The drink had clearly loosened his tongue.

‘But I’m not daft, Frank. She’d no more look at me than she would a scrape of mud on one of her shoes. I’m not in her league.’

Frank clapped his brother on the shoulder. ‘Who dares wins, Edward, who dares wins …’

The dance floor at the Adelphi was heaving with couples entwined in the last waltz of the evening. Soldiers, sailors and airmen were taking a chance to enjoy the tranquil ambience, the good music and fine wine before they were to be shipped off at a moment’s notice to God knew where.

It took only a moment before the Feeny brothers caught sight of Sid Kerrigan swishing around the polished floor like Fred Astaire, obviously enjoying himself. Perhaps a little too much. They both recognised his dance partner immediately and they were shocked to see Queenie Calendar, sister of the infamous gang leader Harry Calendar, hanging around Sid’s neck like a barnacle. Sid appeared to be whispering sweet nothings into her ear and she was lapping up every minute. They certainly looked like more than dance partners. Before Sid was aware of it, a handsome sailor had whisked his ravishing partner away and was twirling her around the dance floor himself.

‘Oy, this ain’t a gentlemen’s-excuse-me,’ Sid protested. Then he noticed who it was leading him off the dance floor and he gave a sickly grin. ‘Oh, hello, Eddy, me old cock sparrow, where did you come from?’

‘We just thought we’d escort you home, Sid,’ Eddy offered with a tight smile. ‘A nice fish supper and an early night would do you the world of good, don’t you think?’ Sid looked flummoxed but nodded all the same.

Just then, Queenie, who had extricated herself from Frank, came up to Sid, and with her hands on her hips said, ‘What happened to my dance?’ Queenie was all woman, with large breasts and hips that strained against her tight-fitting dress, and a mop of dark brown curls that she had pinned up in the latest style.

‘I’m just having a chat with some old friends, Queenie,’ said Sid, ushering her away, his face flushing as he tugged nervously at his necktie, which suddenly felt too tight.

He turned back to the Feeny brothers. ‘Yes, a nice fish supper, that’s just what I was saying to that nice lady over there,’ Sid recovered himself quickly, ‘before she dragged me up to dance. I don’t have a clue who she is. Never seen her before in my life.’

‘Is that right, Sid?’ Eddy, level-headed now, was in no mood for excuses. He had left a full pint on the bar at the Sailor’s and was not pleased about it one bit. However, his sister’s good name was at stake and it was his job to make sure that Sid did nothing to embarrass her in any way.

‘And your white lies are turning darker by the minute, me old mucker,’ Frank advised Sid. He went on to inform his future brother-in-law about the danger of plank walking over the River Mersey. ‘… A man might miss his wedding day and that would never do. We have to think of the poor bride in all of this.’