Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [10]
Just thinking about that incident now made her smile and shake her head.
‘You’re in a good mood this morning,’ Susan Locke, another salesgirl, commented as she came hurrying in, looking over her shoulder to check that she couldn’t be overheard before she added, ‘Thank heavens Ma James isn’t here yet to dock me wages for being late.’
‘She said on Friday that she’d have to see a dentist. She’s been having really bad toothache,’ Grace told her.
‘That explains why she was in such a bad mood all day Saturday, when you was having your day off, you lucky thing.’ Susan pulled a face. ‘I hate having Monday for me day off like I had this week. Listen, do you fancy coming out for a bite of dinner wi’ me today?’
‘I’d love to but I can’t. I’ve got to go down to haberdashery and see if I can find a bit of something to make a sash to freshen up me polished-cotton frock, only I’ve been invited by my cousin to the Tennis Club dance in Wallasey at the weekend.’
‘You can’t wear a cotton frock to a posh tennis club dance,’ Susan told her knowledgeably. ‘I’ve served some of them wot’s come in here looking for frocks for that kind of thing and they allus go for summat fancy and silk. In fact, I know exactly what you should wear. That green silk you was modelling for that chap wot came in the other week. Suited you a treat, it did, and he certainly thought so as well.’ She gave Grace a meaningful look. ‘If you ask me, that tale he gave about wanting to see it on you on account of him wanting to buy it for his sweetheart and you looking like you was the same size as her was all so much malarkey. We used to get one chap coming in here that regular with that kind of tale, you could set your watch by him. Allus came in when the new stock arrived, he did, and wanted to have us try on them frocks what had the lowest necklines. Ma James used to have him out of the salon as quick as a flash if she was here when he came in. He had me trying on this red crepe one Christmas. Came up to me and patted me on the backside, he did, when no one was looking. Aye, and peered down me front as well. Dirty bugger.’
Grace laughed.
‘Listen, I meant what I said earlier about you borrowing that green silk frock,’ Susan told Grace in a hushed voice later in the morning when they were in the small room at the back of the salon where the girls had their tea breaks and ironed the gowns. ‘You wouldn’t be the first to do it by a long chalk. Borrowed one meself the Christmas before last, I did, when the chap I was seeing then wanted to take me to his office do. There was one girl even borrowed her wedding frock and no one the wiser.’
‘I couldn’t do that,’ Grace protested, firmly refusing to be tempted by the memory of how perfectly the green silk had fitted her and how wonderful she had felt in it.
Her parents would have been horrified and shocked by Susan’s suggestion, deeming it dishonest.
‘Why not? It’s not like it’s stealing or anything,’ insisted Susan. ‘You just take it wi’ you when you leave on Saturday after work and bring it back on Monday. Perk of the job, if you was to ask me, but if you don’t mind going to a posh do looking daft in a cotton frock and having all them other girls there laughing at you then that’s your funeral, isn’t it, especially wi’ all them frocks just hanging there doin’ nowt. That green silk could have been made for you, Grace. Fitted you like a glove, it did, and there’s not many would have the waist for it, nor the colouring. Mind you, I have to say that I’m surprised that cousin of yours would invite you to a posh do like that, from what I know of her.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ Grace demanded uncertainly.