Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [138]
Bella went into the kitchen half-heartedly splashing cold water on her face and wrists in an attempt to cool herself down. The post had brought yet another letter for Bettina and her mother from Jan. Bella recognised his handwriting. How could she not do when he seemed to write to them virtually every other day?
Grace knew the minute she walked into the kitchen at home on her day off and saw Luke, that whilst Lillian had obviously ‘let him down’ it had not been lightly.
‘Where is everyone?’ she asked him.
‘Mum’s gone down to the allotment to see Dad, Aunt Francine’s at a rehearsal and the twins are at school. I suppose you know about me and Lillian, do you?’
Grace nodded. ‘Don’t look like that,’ she begged him. ‘She isn’t worth it, Luke, honestly she isn’t.’
‘She looked at me like I was the last person in the world she wanted to see,’ Luke told her miserably. ‘Said she was seeing someone else and that it was serious. Serious. When she’d been writing to me like she was my sweetheart! She said she wanted to tell me that but that you’d begged her not to.’
‘That’s not true,’ Grace gasped. ‘It was me that wanted her to tell you.’
Now wasn’t the time to tell him that she had tried to warn him, not when he was so very upset.
‘So who is he, then, this someone else she’s so serious about?’
Grace shook her head.
‘Come on, tell me. I suppose it’s someone in a reserved occupation, is it?’
Grace recoiled from his bitterness even whilst she could understand it. Lillian’s rejection of him was bound to be so much worse for coming so closely on top of Dunkirk and what he’d been through.
‘He’s a doctor,’ she told him quietly. ‘She told us right from the start that that was why she was going into nursing; because she wanted to marry a doctor.’
‘A doctor. No wonder she was turning her nose up at me then.’
‘Luke, don’t.’
‘Don’t what? Make the same mistake again? You can bet your boots I won’t. From now on I’m going to make sure that no woman gets the chance to make a fool of me a second time.’
Their parents’ return from the allotment brought an end to their conversation, Luke giving Grace a warning look that told her that he didn’t want her saying anything about what had happened.
‘Do you think that Hitler really will invade us like everyone’s saying he will?’ Sasha asked her parents anxiously later when they were all having tea.
‘I don’t know, love,’ Jean admitted, whilst Luke and Grace exchanged silent looks.
Grace knew that Luke was pretty sure that the Germans would invade now that they had broken through to the Channel.
‘We’ve all got to be prepared for the worst,’ said Sam sombrely. ‘France has surrendered and the Germans have got the Channel Islands now.’
‘They’ll never take Liverpool, though, Dad,’ said Lou stoutly, tucking into her fish pie, her words making them all smile.
‘Aye, well, we’ll certainly put up a good fight, love,’ Sam agreed, nodding his head when Jean offered him a second helping of pie.
‘Have you had any news about where you’ll be posted to yet, Luke?’
‘I met up this morning with one of the other lads who came back on the same troop train. He reckons that since we’ve both been told to report for duty to Seacombe barracks, we’ll be based there on Home Duties, because Churchill won’t want to risk not having the men to defend the country if Hitler does try to invade. You know, Mum, you might want to think again about you and the twins evacuating. They reckon that Liverpool is bound to be one of the Luftwaffe’s targets, on account of the docks,’ Luke warned.
Jean shook her head. She’d eaten her own pie and was about to get up to fetch the Eve’s pudding, which she knew was Sam and Luke’s favourite. ‘Me and the girls are staying here. My place is here with your dad, and we’re a family. If Hitler’s going to go for us then we’re better off sticking together.’
‘Well, I certainly don’t want to be evacuated, like poor Jack,’ Sasha told them. ‘We were talking about him when we came home from school, weren’t we, Auntie Francine,