Goodnight Sweetheart (15 page)

‘I dunno how I kept me face straight when Frank’s mam started telling them bawdy jokes,’ Sally giggled.

‘Huh, don’t be fooled by her,’ June complained. ‘Got a face like thunder most of the time. Done
nothing but boss me about, she has, and I’m fair sick of it. The sooner the war is over, and him and me get a place of our own, the better.’

‘Well, she has got a bit of a reputation for having a sharp tongue,’ Sally agreed, ‘but I haven’t forgotten how good she were to me when I were having baby. I don’t mind bettin’ that you’ll see a change in her once you and Frank have a little ’un, June.’

‘Aye, well, when we do she’d better not start trying to interfere,’ cos I won’t stand for it,’ June said crossly.

The combination of the hot kitchen, a glass of sloe gin and the conviviality they had all shared around the dinner table had brought a pretty flush to all three young female faces and the kind of mood that led to shared confidences.

‘I dunno if it’s on account of this war and living for the moment or what, but my Ronnie has been that keen on having his you-know-whats whilst he’s bin home that you’d think we was newly married,’ Sally informed Molly and June frankly, with a small giggle. ‘I’ve told him that I don’t want to be left with another kiddie on the way, not while he’s away.’

‘No, me neither,’ June agreed. ‘Not that my Frank isn’t very mindful of what he’s doing,’ she added, blushing self-consciously.

‘Oh ho, “mindful”, is it?’ Sally ribbed her, grinning. ‘Well, you wait until he comes back from the pub late on a Friday night, wanting his nuptials
– he won’t be so “mindful” then, you mark my words. I remember when we was first married my Ronnie used to give me this look, and quick as you like he’d have me upstairs, and out of me knickers that fast …’

‘Oh, he never,’ June protested, before confiding, ‘Me and my Frank was in bed every night before ten when we was on our honeymoon and some afternoons as well. One tea time the landlady came up and knocked on the door when we was … you know, and he called out to her that we was checking that the blackout worked!’

‘I can’t see you gettin’ away with that at his mother’s, June,’ Sally laughed. ‘You’ll have to come up with sommat else. Whilst your Frank’s coming up with sommat of his own.’

‘Oooh, cheek! I don’t want none of that kind of talk in front of our Molly, Sally,’ June protested, suddenly remembering her younger sister was in the same room. ‘It’s not fitting, her not being married yet.’

From their position as married women, Sally and June exchanged smugly knowing looks, whilst Molly blushed furiously. Whilst she no longer envied her sister her happiness with Frank, she couldn’t help enviously imagining sharing the married intimacies June and Sally were describing with Eddie.

‘Well, from what I’ve seen, it won’t be long before Molly’s gettin’ wed herself,’ Sally relented,
giving Molly an arch look. ‘We’ve all seen how keen Eddie is on her. And her on him!

‘You’re miles better off wi’out that Johnny, Molly,’ Sally continued. ‘A real wild ’un he is, from what my Ronnie has said. Aye, and that lass he’s got in the family way isn’t the only one he’s bin messin’ with, by all accounts. He were even givin’ me the eye at one stage! Mind you, there’s no denying that he’s a handsome-lookin’ lad wi’ a bit of a way about him. I’ve heard as his dad were just the same. A real good looker, wi’ enough blarney in him to get into a nun’s knickers. That sort’s all right for a bit o’ fun but when it comes to settling down a girl needs a good steady chap she can depend on.’ Ere, June, have you put those mince pies in the oven?’

‘Oh Gawd, I’d forgotten,’ June groaned, grabbing for the tray of pies they’d made with precious butter and flour rations. ‘We’ve got half of Chestnut Close coming round ’ere tonight, so we’d better crack on and get the supper sorted out ready.’

Molly had never known a Christmas Day pass so quickly. Whilst Sally took baby Tommy upstairs for a feed, she and June worked side by side preparing a cold buffet.

‘I just hope that John from next door remembers that he said he’d bring along some beer, because Dad and Uncle Joe haven’t held back this afternoon.’

‘He will do,’ Molly reassured June. ‘And Elsie has promised to bring a couple of jellies.’

‘We was lucky that Aunt Violet sent us that turkey,’ June admitted. ‘Mind you, when I saw it last night I was worried that it were going to be too big for the oven. I didn’t eat hardly any breakfast so as to save my appetite. It felt that funny this morning, waking up at Frank’s mam’s and not here. There was no stockings put up there, for one thing, and Frank’s mam had bin to church before I was even up. Frank got up early to go wi’ her so I didn’t get no nice cuppa in bed like we always have. Mind you, I did tell Frank that I would be wanting me and him to go to church wi’ you and our dad, so he ended up having to go twice. There’s no going downstairs in a dressing gown there like we do here neither. She doesn’t approve of that, and she wouldn’t let Frank bring me up a cuppa neither ’cos drinking tea in bed is something else she doesn’t hold with.’ June sighed before adding, ‘That sounds like Sally coming back downstairs. I’ll stay here and finish off, if you want to go up and get tidy.’

As she brushed her hair at her dressing table, Molly touched her heart necklace through the tartan fabric of her best winter dress. All the worry and upset of the last few weeks had caused her to lose weight so that the tartan dress was now a little bit loose on the waist. Molly had cinched in the spare fabric with a little black belt. So much had changed since last Christmas, and so much more was going to change. This time next year she, like June, would be sharing Christmas with
her husband. The only shadow darkening her life now was that of the war. Molly shivered inwardly, praying that it would soon be over and their lives could return to normal. Neither Sally nor June had said a word about their fears for their soldier husbands, but Molly had seen the looks they’d exchanged during the King’s speech, and she had seen too the way that June had clutched tightly at Frank’s hand as if frightened that if she loosened her grip, he would vanish into thin air.

An hour later Molly had no time to think or worry about anything other than how to stop her sides aching from laughing at Uncle Joe’s jokes, covering her ears when the men started singing ‘Roll Out the Barrel’.

Uncle Joe had just struck up another tune when someone banged on the front door.

‘If it’s that Hitler, tell ’im to go and salute himself,’ one wag yelled out, cheered on by the other men, whilst Molly struggled through the press of people filling the small house and opened the door.

Alf Davies was standing on the step, wearing his ARP uniform.

‘Oh, it’s you, Mr Davies. Happy Christmas,’ Molly said uncomfortably.

‘Aye, just checkin’ up to mek sure that everyone’s observing the blackout,’ he told her brusquely.

‘’Oo is it, lass?’ Molly’s father asked.

‘It’s Mr Davies, Dad—’ Molly started to tell him before Alf interrupted, ‘Come round to check up
on the blackout. I could see a light coming from here.’

‘’Ere, Molly, shut that door, will yer?’ Ronnie called out, coming into the hall with Frank.

Frank immediately sized up the situation and said quietly, ‘You wouldn’t begrudge two fighting men a bit of fun before they go off to war, would you, Alf?’

‘Rules are rules,’ the ARP man insisted, ‘and if there’s any light showing then it’s a three-pound fine.’

Molly looked towards her father, who had just entered the hallway, and gave him an anguished look. Three pounds was almost half his weekly pay.

Several men had crowded into the hallway now, and Molly could hear their angry mutter.

‘Here, Alf, get this down yer,’ Ronnie Walker invited, thrusting a small glass of sloe gin into the other man’s hand. ‘It’s a cold night and a thankless job you’ve got on, I reckon. But don’t you go blaming Albert or his lasses if’n there’s a bit o’ light showing – not that I’m saying there was, mind. I reckon it were likely me as done it when I looked out of the window to see if it were snowing. None of us here wants to give Jerry owt but the bloody nose he deserves.’

‘Aye, well, happen there’s no harm done,’ Alf said reluctantly.

‘Course there ain’t. Pity you ’ave to be on duty, otherwise you and your missus could have joined
us and ’ad a bit of fun, couldn’t they, Albert?’ Ronnie appealed to Molly’s father.

‘Aye, they could.’

‘I’d best be on me way, but mind now – no breaking the blackout,’ Alf warned them sternly.

‘And Happy Christmas to you, Ebenezer,’ Uncle Joe called out after Alf, amidst chuckles all round.

‘’Ere, Molly, are you and your June goin’ to the New Year’s Eve dance down at the Grafton?’ Ruby asked Molly, over the noise of the bell ringing to announce the end of their day’s work. It was three days after Christmas, and Molly and the other girls had been back at work a day already, although June had decided to take some time off without pay so that she could spend as much time as possible with Frank, who did not have to report for duty until early January.

‘Yes,’ Molly confirmed. ‘Are you?’

‘Of course I am. You wouldn’t catch me staying at ’ome on a New Year’s Eve, war or no war,’ Ruby told her scornfully.

When she stepped out into the street, Molly instinctively looked down towards where the docks lay hidden from her view by the buildings of the city, bracing herself against the icy cold wind as she wondered where Eddie’s ship was and when he would be home. He was supposed to be back
before New Year’s Eve but she dared not hope he would be, because she knew she would hardly be able to bear her disappointment if he wasn’t. It seemed such a long time since she had last seen Eddie. So much had happened in those few short weeks.

It was Thursday night and
ITMA
, the comedy show, would be on the wireless, to cheer her up, she reminded herself. No doubt Frank and June would be coming round to listen to it as well, since June was flatly refusing to spend any more time than she had to underneath her mother-in-law’s roof. Although, naturally, June had not said so, Molly had guessed that it was the privacy of an empty house that brought them to number 78 as much as June’s open resentment of her mother-in-law, and for that reason she had taken to rattling the handle of the back door to announce her own return home, when she thought they might be there.

The Government’s original determination to impose a total blackout had now given way to its reluctant acknowledgement that doing so was causing too many accidents, and Molly was glad of the light from her small torch as she made her way down the cul-de-sac in the cold darkness of the wintry evening.

The wireless was on when she walked into the kitchen, and June and Frank were already sitting together listening to it as she predicted.

‘Me and Frank are going to the pictures tonight,
Molly. You can come with us, if you want,’ June informed her.

Molly shook her head. ‘Ta, but no thanks. It’s
ITMA
– my favourite – and besides, I’ve got me frock to sort out for New Year’s Eve,’ she told June cheerfully.

‘I thought you said you was goin’ to wear your bridesmaid’s dress again,’ June reminded her.

‘I am, but the hem needs a stitch in it where I caught me heel in it at the wedding. Besides, I don’t want to be playing gooseberry with you and Frank.’

‘I’ll have you know that me and Frank are an old married couple now, so less of your cheek.’

Molly laughed. ‘Oh, yes, and I suppose it was because the two of you were taking a nap while you were here that you had the bedroom curtains closed all afternoon yesterday, was it?’

‘How do you know …’ June began, and then stopped, blushing hotly when Molly laughed even more.

Molly and her father had laughed at
ITMA
, with Tommy Handley, and listened to the news, and Molly had just finished making their bedtime cocoa when they heard the knock on the back door.

‘That’ll be our June, forgetting her key and come to tell us about the pictures, so as she can have a bit more time away from Frank’s mam,’ Molly called out to her father, who was on his way upstairs.

Opening the door, she announced warningly, ‘You can make your own cocoa if you want some, because me and Dad are just having ours.’

‘Well, that’s a fine way to greet a sailor home from the sea,’ a familiar male voice answered her ruefully.

‘Eddie!’ Molly gasped, torn between shock and delight, and then gathered herself together to demand excitedly, her face going pink with happiness, ‘Oh, is it really you? When did you get back? How—’

‘Wait up a bit,’ Eddie laughed, as she stepped back so that he could follow her into the kitchen. ‘We docked an hour ago, and I came round as soon as I could.’

She almost flew into his open arms, exhaling a shaky little sigh as they closed tightly round her, burying her face against his shoulder. She could feel the warmth of his lips pressing against her head, and also the slight tremble of his body.

‘Molly, you don’t know how much I’ve bin wanting to hold you like this.’

‘You’ve missed me then?’ she couldn’t resist asking.

‘Missed you? There hasn’t been a minute when I haven’t thought about you. You’re my girl now, Molly,’ he told her, ‘and I’m never going to let you go.’

Molly could have stayed in his arms for ever but reluctantly released him when Eddie said he had to go next door and see Elsie and John.

‘I’ll be back to see you tomorrow, mind. Maybe we can go to the pictures?’

After they had kissed goodbye, Molly ran up the stairs to her bedroom as fast as her feet would take her. It overlooked the close, so Molly was able to lift just enough of the blackout curtain to call out and wave to Eddie, and blow him a swift kiss as he stood below her. Dropping the curtain, she leaned against the wall, her heart pounding. She felt as though she was going to burst, she was that excited and happy. Hugging herself, she danced giddily round the bedroom. Eddie was home and now everything was going to be all right. No, from now on and for the rest of her life, everything was going to be wonderful. She stood still and closed her eyes, reliving the sensation of his lips on hers. Oh, Eddie!

Quickly Molly checked her appearance in her bedroom mirror, patting her hair and pressing her lips together to set her lipstick. The last thing she felt like doing now that Eddie was home was going to work. But there was a war on, and the uniforms they were making at Hardings were going to be needed by all those young men who were being called up – many of whom would be married with young families. Things must be serious if the Government was having to call up more men, but you wouldn’t know it, not from listening to the news or reading the
Liverpool
Echo
.

Her father was working an early shift and had left at six. Molly had gone downstairs to make sure he had some breakfast before leaving, and then returned to bed.

She shivered as she opened the door and stepped out into the cold air, quickly locking the door behind her and then hurrying into the street, where she came to an abrupt halt, her face breaking into a delighted smile as she saw Eddie standing outside the gate, rubbing his hands together and stamping his feet to keep warm.

‘Eddie, what are you doing here?’ she asked, trying to sound casual and grown up, not realising that the glow of happiness in her eyes gave her away, or how much it meant to the man watching her to see it there. He had thought about her, longed for her, all the way across the Atlantic and back.

‘Waiting for you, that’s what,’ he answered her. ‘I thought I’d walk you to work, like. I saw your dad going off to the gridiron earlier, so I didn’t knock in case anyone thought we was up to a bit of hanky-panky.’

He had taken off his cap and he was holding it in his hands as shyly as a schoolboy, his blond hair almost flattened straight with Brylcreem. He looked so handsome that Molly felt as though the sudden loving swelling of her heart would suffocate her.

‘You didn’t have to get up out of your warm bed to walk me to work, you daft thing,’ she chided
him, but her expression was giving her away and revealing how thrilled she was to see him.

‘I know I didn’t have to – I’ve done it because I wanted to. Because I wanted to be with you, Molly,’ he told her. ‘That’s what I want more than anything else. For you and me to be together, for always …’

Molly had never imagined that walking to work could be so wonderful. When they finally reached the factory she could barely bring herself to leave Eddie.

‘Will you still be here New Year’s Eve?’ she asked him. ‘Only there’s a dance down at the Grafton, and there’s a few of us going.’ The expression on her face gave away her longing to go to the dance with him.

Seeing it, Eddie crossed his fingers behind his back and told her nonchalantly, ‘I don’t reckon we’ll be sailing for a good few days.’ The truth was that he already knew they were on a quick turnaround but right there and then he decided that even if he had to jump ship and get another passage, he would do so, just to see the happiness in Molly’s eyes when he held her in his arms and danced the New Year in with her, the first of many, many New Year’s Eves they would spend together.