The Grace Girls (70 page)

‘It’s OK,’ Kirsty said, patting Heather’s arm. ‘I know you didn’t mean it. I know you weren’t your normal self.’

‘I promise I’ll never be like that again . . . and I’ll really make a big effort to get to know Larry properly.’ She moved back now to look Kirsty straight in the face, so that she would know that she was being sincere. ‘Even though he is a wee bit older, he’s very good-looking and he wears lovely clothes.’

A huge smile broke out on Kirsty’s face. ‘Even though I say it myself, he is very good-looking, isn’t he?’ She hugged herself with delight now. ‘I just can’t wait to get up to the phone box and tell him that everything’s all right.’ She suddenly stopped and put her hand to her mouth. ‘I forgot – you missed all that earlier on!’

‘What?’ Heather asked, her face creasing into a worried frown. ‘What did I miss?’

‘Larry came out to the house about an hour before you ar
rived, and my daddy wouldn’t let him over the doorstep
.’ Kirsty gave a little nervous giggle. ‘It was certainly all happening in the Grace household tonight.’

‘Let’s just be glad it’s all over and done with,’ Heather said, suddenly
feeling exhausted with the whole thing.

The front door opened again and the girls went out and had a few words with their parents then they threw on their coats and scarves and headed out into the cold night air.

‘You’re not going to believe it,’ Heather said, linking her sister’s arm, ‘but I’ve met a really nice boy . . .’

‘When?’ Kirsty asked. ‘Where?’

‘Just today, out at Claire’s house. He’s a young fellow who’s going to be working with Andy.’

‘So what’s going to happen?’ Kirsty said, all excited for her sister.

‘Well, we were supposed to be meeting up,’ Heather explained, ‘but before I could make any real arrangements with him, I got your phone call and then I had to rush to get out here.’ She looked at Kirsty and smiled. ‘But at least I managed to give him my address, so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.’

Larry was delighted and relieved with Kirsty’s news and after a brief chat they arranged to meet the following night. It was agreed that Larry would once again call out at the house to pick her up, and then they would go on to the pictures for their first real date.

The situation with Liz was much less cheery and there was little Heather could do or say that would make things any better.

‘At least I still have my friends,’ Liz said with a tear in her eye, ‘and I suppose that’s something to be grateful for.’ She blew her nose. ‘I’ll never trust a man again after this.’

There was a little pause, then she looked up at Heather, her eyes hollow and sad. ‘Although I can’t help wondering what might have happened if Gerry Stewart hadn’t got himself killed. Maybe you’d have got back together and the four of us would have all been happy together . . .’

‘No, Liz,’ Heather said softly. ‘We can’t keep looking back and wondering what might have been. It’s time for us all to start looking forward again.’

Chapter 70

Heather went into work the following morning, feeling that weeks had passed since Friday instead of days. She hung up her coat and outdoor things as usual and then stopped to have a few words with Muriel Ferguson, who was most interested to hear that Heather had spent the weekend at her aunt’s.

‘Lovely person,’ Muriel had enthused again, ‘and such a lovely house. We really must take a little trip out to visit her again when the weather is nice.’

‘It was very frosty this morning, wasn’t it?’ Heather said, changing the subject. Hopefully, she thought to herself, Muriel’s intended visit out to the McPhersons’ house would be long forgotten by the time the nice weather came around.

Danny and Maurice came up to sit on Heather’s desk later in the morning, full of stories from the weekend about the dancing and the pubs. And Danny took great delight in telling her all about a great new girl he had met in the Barrowland Dance Hall. ‘I’m takin’ her to the pictures on Wednesday night,’ he told Heather, ‘but I’ve already told her not to get any big ideas about us, as I’m not the kind to get tied down too easily.’

‘I think I’d give her the chance to get to know
you
first,’ Maurice had laughed, ‘and then there will be no fear of her wantin’ to get tied down too easily wi’ you!’

Sarah and Marie had caught her at the break time and the three girls arranged to go to The Trees restaurant as usual for their lunch.

Just as they were all watching the time for the lunchtime
buzzer, Muriel came rushing over to Heather’s desk. ‘There’s a very well-dressed young man at the reception desk,’ she whispered, ‘and he’s asked for you by name.’

Heather moved out from her desk, and looked down along the office to reception, to where the tall, fair-headed Paul Ballantyne was standing. Just looking at him started off the fluttery feeling again in her stomach and chest. She made herself take a long, deep breath. ‘Thanks, Muriel,’ she said to her curious colleague. ‘It’s a friend of mine who said he might be in the city today.’

Then, remembering Claire’s advice, she walked straigh
t towards him, smiling and calm.

‘I hope you don’t mind me calling up to the office,’ he said apologetically, ‘but I was afraid I might miss you if I left it too long.’

‘I don’t mind at all,’ Heather told him. ‘I wouldn’t have given you the address if I did.’

The buzzer suddenly sounded and everyone started to make moves in the office.

‘Are you free for lunch?’ Paul asked. ‘Or have you already made arrangements?’

Heather smiled at him. ‘Nothing that important that I can’t change. I’ll just get my coat.’

She paused to tell the girls about her change of plan, then she grabbed her coat and scarf and bag and walked quickly back to Paul, ignoring all the curious stares.

They went in a different direction to where her workmates usually went and found a small, quiet café up in Sauchiehall Street, where they ordered coffee and sandwiches.

‘I couldn’t explain too much about my new job when we were in Andy’s house yesterday,’ Paul told Heather, ‘because it was a wee bit awkward . . .’

Heather waited, not wanting to appear too keen or desperate to know everything about him – although that was exactly how she felt.

‘You see, my dad’s business hasn’t been doing too well recently,’ he explained, ‘and Andy has been great. When we had the meeting over the weekend, he drew up a new business plan for the next two years for the factory. It involved cutting back on certain things, and staffing was one of them.’ He gave a little shrug. ‘I was one of the newest management staff there, and I felt it wasn’t fair to keep me on when some of the older men were married with families.’

‘So, what’s happened?’ Heather asked.

‘Andy offered me a new job at his place,’ he told her, ‘which is just brilliant. There’s far more scope for me there and if my father’s business picks up, I can always go back with any new skills I’ve learned. It’s just for a year initially, and we’ll see what happens after that.’ He paused. ‘I start next Monday, so it’ll give me time to tie things up back at the factory, and get myself all organised to move out to Glasgow next weekend.’

‘It’s a great opportunity,’ Heather said. ‘And going on my own experience, Glasgow’s a great place.’

‘I wondered,’ he said now, ‘if you fancy meeting me a couple of times a week for lunch, just until I get to know more people.’

‘Sure,’ Heather said, her chestnut wavy hair rippling down over her shoulders as she nodded.

‘And maybe,’ he said, ‘we might meet up after work some Friday and go out to the Barrowland Dance Hall. It’s supposed to be great out there.’

Heather’s heart soared. Going to the dancing together m
eant that it was a
proper
date. It meant that Paul Ballanty
ne must really like her.

‘I have to confess that I was in two minds about moving to Glasgow,’ he told her, looking straight into her dark brown eyes, ‘but meeting you has made all the difference.’ He gave a small laugh. ‘I think somebody was smiling on me that day in Andy McPherson’s house. The last thing I expected to happen was that I’d meet a really nice girl who just happened to be gorgeous-looking as well.’

Heather looked across the table at him and she suddenly found she was laughing too. She knew she should have just kept calm and given a little smile – but she just couldn’t help herself.

While she was waiting for the train that evening, Heather decided to go to the row of public phone boxes and give Claire a ring to tell her what had happened with Paul Ballantyne.

‘Oh, I’m so delighted for you!’ her aunt exclaimed. ‘And Andy will be delighted too.’

‘He’s really nice,’ Heather said, pleased with the chance to talk it over with somebody who knew him. She would tell Kirsty all about it the minute she got home, but it was great to be able to talk to Claire about it now. ‘We’re going to meet up in Edinburgh on Saturday morning,’ she continued, ‘and then we’re going to spend the whole day going around the castle and places like that.’

‘Wonderful,’ Claire breathed, her approval evident in her voice. Then there was a little silence on the line. ‘Oh, Heather . . . there’s just a little thing that you might like to know. Paul Ballantyne is actually a Catholic – the same as yourself. I just thought I’d mention it because Ballantyne is often taken for a Protestant name.’

‘Is he?’ Heather said in a surprised but pleased voice. It wouldn’t have mattered, she would still have agreed to meet him – even if it meant starting the whole Mona thing all over again – but it just made things a whole lot easier.

‘Andy told me last night,’ Claire said. ‘Apparently his grandfather was originally a Protestant, but he changed when he married Paul’s grandmother and the whole family are now Catholic.’ She paused. ‘I was actually
relieved, because I wouldn’t like anyone to think that I’d deliberately introduced you to him, given mine and Andy’s situation. And it’s one problem less after all the recent difficulties with Mona and poor Kirsty.’

‘Well, it’s all worked out well so far,’ Heather said. ‘So let’s hope it continues. And I’m really glad I was at your house this weekend or I might never have met him.’

‘Oh, I’m sure you would,’ Clare said, laughing. ‘I think Andy would have got you two together somehow. From the minute he first met Paul, he thought you and he would make a perfect couple.’

Heather found herself grinning into the phone box. ‘Do you mean he deliberately tried to match us up?’

‘Something like that,’ Claire said. ‘I’ll tell you all about it the next time you’re out at our house . . . Oh, God!’ she suddenly remembered. ‘I meant to tell you about the experience I had driving home last night. You’re not going to believe it!’

‘What happened?’ Heather asked.

‘Well, I was just coming into Glasgow, at a dark bend just before Calderpark Zoo, when a man came out onto the road waving me down. He was smartly dressed in a dark overcoat and a shirt and tie and I thought it was somebody that had broken down, so I slowed down a bit . . . I nearly stopped, and then I got a good look at him in the headlights.’

‘What did he look like?’ Heather asked in a low shocked voice.

‘Quite good-looking,’ Claire told her. ‘He wasn’t very tall but he was broad and fit-looking, with nice dark wavy hair. It was his smart looks that stupidly made me slow down, thinking he was genuine. I was crawling along when he came around to my side of the car and tried to open it – thank God I’d locked it when I got in.’

‘What did you do then?’ Heather’s anxious voice ec
hoed on the line. She was also feeling a little bit disturbe
d herself, as the description she’d just given was exactly how she would have described Gerry Stewart. She nearly said as much to Claire but then just as quickly she dismissed the idea. There were probably thousands of men in Scotland who fitted that description.

‘It was his eyes that frightened me,’ Claire told her n
iece. ‘They were weird-looking – dark and piercing strai
ght into me. So I just put my foot down and scooted off as quick as the car could go, and I never looked back until I hit the streetlights in Glasgow.’ She paused. ‘He was probably only a drunk or something like that, but I wasn’t taking any chances – not with that lunatic still on the loose.’

‘Well,’ Heather said, ‘I am really glad that you’re OK . . .
and you did exactly the right thing.’ She then went on to give Claire the good news about Kirsty and Larry, and how her father was now fine about the whole situation.

‘Oh, I’m delighted,’ Claire said. ‘I feel much better hearing that.’

Heather glanced at the Departures board. ‘That’s my platform that’s just been announced,’ she told her aunt. ‘I’ll ring you next week.’

‘And come out to the house again soon, especially now we’re going to have Paul with us for a few weeks.’

‘I will,’ Heather promised. ‘I will.’

Chapter 71

July 1958

After a two-year engagement, Kirsty Grace married Larry Delaney in Rowanhill Church. Thankfully, Father Fin­lay was away on holiday, and they had a cheery, young, newly ordained priest to celebrate the wedding Mass. The summer’s day was bright and sunny, and Kirsty looked more dazzling in her white fitted sequinned dress and her little diamond tiara and veil than she had ever looked on the stage.