Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [103]
‘I’m not staying here to listen to silly stuff like this,’ Teddy told her angrily. ‘I thought you and me was friends, Grace. I thought you were a sensible sort of girl, not the sort who’d go acting daft and listening to what others have got to say …’ He shook his head, his mouth compressing, and then to Grace’s shock he turned on his heel and walked off, leaving her standing on her own.
At first she was too shocked to do anything and then she started to hurry after him, but he was already halfway across the road, and jumping onto a bus. Tears blurred her eyes. Well, let him go then. He was right about one thing. She was a sensible sort of girl, the sort of girl who would never ever go running after a lad who didn’t want her.
Too unhappy to bear the thought of spending the rest of her day off on her own, she decided to go home.
If her mother was surprised to see her so early when she had told her that it would be teatime before she came round, she didn’t say so, simply looking searchingly at her pale face and then saying placidly, ‘Sit down, love; I was just about to put the kettle on.’
‘Jean, I still haven’t heard back from Vi. I’ve got half a mind to go round and see her … Oh, Grace, hello, love.’ Francine gave Grace a warm hug as she came into the kitchen.
Grace had been surprised and just a little bit wary when she had learned that her mother’s younger sister was back in Liverpool and sleeping in her own old room, but then when she had come home and Francine had been so warm and loving and such fun, Grace had immediately stopped feeling stiff and just that little bit jealous that someone else might be taking her place in the family.
Of course, the twins adored Francine and were forever plaguing her to listen to them singing, but she was very firm with them, telling them that a career as a singer was more hard work and disappointments than glamour, whilst at the same time assuring them that they did indeed have very pretty singing voices.
‘I hope you’re eating properly at that hospital Grace, only you’re looking thin,’ Jean fussed maternally.
‘I dare say she’s run off her feet,’ Francine defended Grace.
‘We are busy,’ Grace agreed, giving her aunt a grateful look. The truth was that her growing anxiety over her feeling that something about her relationship just wasn’t right had led to her losing her normal appetite.
She could see that despite Francine’s reassurance her mother wasn’t looking convinced, and with her recent upset still very much on her mind she acknowledged that she couldn’t keep what she was feeling to herself and that she desperately wanted to unburden herself. There was something she just had to know, even though she couldn’t quite bring herself to look at her mother as she asked the question that had been burning so painfully inside her.
‘Mum, how do you know when you’re in love?’
Over her downbent head Jean and Francine exchanged helpless looks.
‘Well, love, it’s hard to explain but you just do. But why are you—’
‘What your mum’s trying to say, Grace,’ Francine intervened firmly, ‘is that if you were in love you wouldn’t need to ask, because you would know you were. It’s because you aren’t in love that you need to ask.’
‘So you can’t be in love with someone and not know?’
‘No.’
‘Not even the first time?’
‘Especially not the first time,’ Francine assured her.
Grace looked from her aunt to her mother.
‘Francine is right, love. If you were you would know,’ Jean assured her. ‘I suppose you’re thinking about this Teddy you’ve bin seeing? If he’s bin pressing you about, well, anything, just you remember that you’re training to be a nurse.’
‘It isn’t that, Mum. Teddy isn’t asking me do anything I shouldn’t be doing.’ Grace got up and paced the room, her colour high, but having come this far she might as