The Bells of Bow (64 page)

‘The dog’s fine,’ said Maud, coming over to them. She still held Betty in her arms. ‘But look who wouldn’t go to sleep.’ When Maudie saw the expression on Babs’s face, her smile disappeared. ‘Babs, have you been crying?’

‘I’ll tell you later, Maud,’ sniffed Babs, smiling at Betty. ‘Come on, let’s get some drinks and go over and warm ourselves by the fire.’

As Babs was about to pour Georgie a glass of beer, Alice Clarke came over and slipped herself between Babs and the table. ‘Ethel’s told me that she thought she saw your Evie just now.’

Maud and Georgie both looked at Babs.

‘Did she?’ Babs said with a little shrug and reached round Alice’s skinny frame for a bottle of pale ale.

‘Gonna marry a Yank’s what I hear.’

Babs slammed down the bottle and glowered at Alice. ‘So?’

‘Must be mad. Everyone knows they’ve all got wives and kids back home.’

George shook his head angrily. ‘Come on, Maud,’ he said. ‘Let’s get the baby away from her.’ Then he leant very close to Alice’s face and said, ‘We can go and chuck something on the bonfire. That’s what they used to do with old witches, yer know.’

‘I only speak as I find,’ Alice said through her mean, pursed lips. ‘And fancy going off and leaving her kiddie like that.’

Maud looked at Georgie. ‘I think Betty and I’ll leave you to it, George.’ She glanced at Babs. ‘Coming with us?’

‘No. I’ll wait with Dad and Harry, if yer don’t mind.’

When Maud and his granddaughter were safely out of earshot, Georgie said, as calmly as he was able, ‘I know yer a silly old woman, Alice. And I don’t think yer can even help it half the time. But yer’d better shut yer trap, ’cos that’s my daughter yer talking about.’

Archie came swinging over on the crutches he still needed to get around on, with Blanche and Mary on either side of him. ‘What’s all this then, Ringer?’ he asked. ‘This old bag spreading her poison as usual?’

Alice bristled, playing for time as she tried to think of something spiteful to say about the Simpkinses.

‘All right, Arch,’ said Georgie, still glaring at Alice. ‘Sit yerself down, mate, and Babs’ll pour yer a pint.’

Archie lowered himself gingerly onto one of the chairs.

Blanche winked at Harry. ‘Ignore the wicked old bastard,’ she whispered. ‘She’s always like it. Never did like the Bells.’ She laughed. ‘Never liked no one really.’

‘What did you say?’ hissed Alice.

Blanche smiled pleasantly at Alice. ‘I was just telling Harry, him being a neighbour now like, that we heard from our Terry yesterday. And how I wish he was here with us. ’Cos I know how much he’d enjoy the company. Specially yours, Alice. Yer such a little ray of sunshine.’

Mary sighed. ‘I wish Micky was home and all.’

Alice tutted extravagantly and poked her scraggy finger almost up Mary’s nose. ‘And yer can leave my grandson alone and all, yer saucy little madam.’

Mary opened her eyes wide and stared challengingly at Alice. ‘I was gonna keep it a secret till Micky came home on leave. But it seems a shame not to share it with yer on such a happy day as this, Alice. Your grandson,
my
Micky, proposed to me in his last letter. And I think I’m gonna say yes.’

Alice’s eyes bulged.

‘Blimey, Alice,’ said Archie, spluttering his beer all over her. ‘That means me and Blanche’ll be related to you and Nobby.’

‘That made yer laugh, Babs,’ said Harry, patting her back to try and stop her from choking.

‘You won’t need yer jacket, Maud,’ said Georgie, looking out of the bedroom window. ‘It’s a beautiful day out there.’

He turned round and watched her smoothing the creases from the eiderdown where’d she been sitting on the bed putting on her shoes.

‘Yer a lovely woman, Maud. Lovely.’

She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled her thanks. ‘Ready?’

At the bottom of the stairs, she stood back for Georgie to open the street door for her.

‘Wait a minute,’ he said. He reached up and straightened the four photographs that he had put up in the passageway since he had moved in with Maudie. There was a copy of the old one of the twins as cute, apparently inseparable, five-year-olds; the one of Betty that Babs had had taken to mark her niece’s first birthday; a more recent group photograph of two couples and a little girl: Georgie and Maud, Babs and Harry and Betty – Betty in a pink satin bridesmaid’s dress and Babs holding a bridal bouquet. And then the most recent picture of all: Evie in a frothy white wedding gown and Ray in his officer’s uniform standing outside a white clapboard church in a beautiful green landscape that looked like it could have been a million miles from Bow.

‘Quite a family, the Bells,’ Georgie said to himself as he opened the street door. ‘Quite a family.’

Across the street, Babs was sitting outside number six on a kitchen chair, Harry standing protectively by her side as she laughed happily at Betty trying to play the skipping games with Janey Simpkins and her friends.

‘Not joining in this time, you two?’ Babs called across to Minnie and Clara.

‘No, we don’t know these new songs,’ chuckled Clara.

‘Sing up, kids,’ called Minnie. ‘See if me and Clara can learn the words and then we’ll show yer how to skip.’

The girls obliged gladly and sang at the top of their voices:

Vote, vote, vote for dear old Atlee,

Punch old Churchill in the eye,

If it wasn’t for the king,

We would do the bastard in,

‘Didn’t expect them words, did yer, Clara?’ said Georgie with a wink as he and Maudie crossed over the street to number six.

Babs stood up, but Harry anxiously persuaded her to sit back down again.

‘Ain’t yer coming to the polling station with us, you two?’

‘Sorry, Ringer. Babs’s feeling a bit dicky,’ Harry explained. ‘So we’ll have to go along later, when she’s not so queasy like.’ He put his arm proudly round her shoulder. ‘We’ve gotta be careful, see, what with her condition and everything.’

‘
You!
’ Babs smiled shyly and jabbed Harry in the side with her elbow. ‘I was gonna tell ’em meself.’

Georgie’s mouth dropped open. ‘What? Yer don’t mean?’ He scratched his head. ‘No. You’re not?’

‘I think she is,’ laughed Maud.

‘I am.’ Babs nodded and her smile broadened into a grin. ‘I’m having a little playmate for our Betty.’

Maudie kissed Babs on the cheek. ‘That’s wonderful, darling. You take care of yourself. If you need anything, anything at all …’

‘Blimey, she’ll be knitting by this afternoon.’ Georgie rolled his eyes at Harry. ‘But there’ll be plenty of time for all that, Maud. Come on, Nan, we’ve got another grandchild’s future to think about now. We’d better go and vote for this new Britain they’re all promising us.’

Maud slipped her arm through Georgie’s and smiled up at him. ‘I’ve already got everything I want, George.’

‘So have I, girl,’ he said, patting her arm. ‘So have I.’

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Epub ISBN 9781448183906

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Published in the United Kingdom in 1999 by Arrow Books

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Copyright © Gilda O’Neill 1994

The right of Gilda O’Neill to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

First published in the United Kingdom in 1994 by Headline Book Publishing

Arrow Books Limited
Random House UK Limited
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA

Random House UK Limited Reg. No. 954009

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780099277958