Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [139]
Jean put down the pudding she had been about to serve up and looked at Francine. She knew how her younger sister felt and she sympathised with her, but she didn’t want her involving the twins in matters that were far more complicated than they could realise.
‘I heard today that the BBC do want me to go to Bangor to try out for that show with Vera Lynn. They’ve evacuated the Variety Entertainment Department out there, and Tommy Handley and that lot are there, according to one of the girls in the show with me.’
‘It’s a long way to go on the off chance, when you’re already rehearsing for a show here, isn’t it?’ Jean asked her doubtfully. ‘I mean, even if they want you it’s not as though you can rely on the trains.’
‘They’ve said that they’ll send a car for me, and if they think I’m suitable then they’ll put me up at an hotel in Bangor whilst I’m doing the shows.’
‘They must think that you’ll be good, otherwise they wouldn’t ask you to go all that way,’ said Grace.
‘She is good, and we think she’s better than Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields, don’t we, Sasha?’ Lou demanded of her twin.
Sasha nodded, and Jean’s heart sank. The twins were rapidly growing to hero-worship Francine, and to her dismay they were constantly talking about wanting to go on the stage themselves, something she knew that Sam would never allow and something she wouldn’t really want for them herself, not after what had happened to Francine.
Francine laughed and shook her head. ‘I’m nowhere near as good as either of them. If I was I’d be the one who is a big star, wouldn’t I?’ said Francine.
‘Me and Sasha think you should be. I bet the BBC will think so as well.’
‘I doubt it, and even if they want me they don’t pay very much.’
Francine was uncomfortably aware that Jean wasn’t happy about the twins’ admiration of her. She hadn’t deliberately attempted to get them on her side, but they were evermore enthusiastic about their singing and dancing, and it was only natural that they should turn to her as someone who would understand how they felt.
They were excellent little dancers, and with them being identical twins Francine didn’t think they would have much difficulty in polishing up a nice little act for a theatre show. She didn’t want to do anything to alienate Jean, though. Not only was she genuinely fond of her elder sister, she also felt very grateful to her for letting her stay with them and for her attempts to persuade Vi to tell them where Jack was.
‘I’d better go and get ready. We’ve got a show tonight,’ she told them all.
After tea Grace helped her mother to do the washing up and told her about Seb.
‘You say he’s a bit poorly, then?’ Jean asked her.
‘Yes,’ Grace confirmed. ‘I went in to see how he was this morning before I came off duty. His temperature hasn’t risen any higher, but it hasn’t gone down either.’
Jean tried not to feel worried. She knew that Grace had a tender heart, but she had suspected all along with a mother’s instinct that her daughter had been far more taken with Alan Parker’s cousin than she had wanted to let on, and now she felt that her suspicions were being confirmed.
‘So what’s he doing in hospital up here, then? I thought you said he was from down south somewhere.’
‘His parents live near London, but Seb said that he’d been posted up here after coming back from France. He didn’t realise that he’d still got some shrapnel in his shoulder until he told the MO at Derby House when he reported for duty that he was having a lot of pain in his arm, and he sent him to us.’
‘Have Bella and Alan been told that he’s in hospital here?’ Jean asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Grace admitted.
‘Well, dare say they will want to visit him, and Alan’s parents as well, seeing as he’s their nephew.’
‘I don’t think he cares very much for the Parkers,’ Grace felt obliged to reveal. ‘At least that’s what he told me. He’s only related to them by marriage really.’
There was no sign of Teddy or his ambulance when Grace