Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [146]
Jean listened to Sam in admiration. He had got exactly the right way of dealing with Edwin and appealing to what mattered most to him – his bank account. She could almost see Edwin puffing out his chest and mentally preparing the letter he would send to the Davieses, demanding his money back. She gave Sam a grateful look.
Vi had started to frown.
‘And what’s that Jack’s wearing, might I ask, because those certainly aren’t his clothes?’
‘No, I bought him some new things when we were out,’ Francine told her. ‘What he was wearing were little better than rags, weren’t they, Jean?’
‘He’d certainly outgrown them,’ Jean agreed diplomatically.
Vi pounced triumphantly. ‘Well, if he’s grown then he certainly can’t have been as badly treated as he’s told you. If you’ve been lying to your aunt Jean, Jack—’
‘I haven’t. It’s true, all of it.’
Francine could hear the panic in his voice and moved closer to him whilst Jean’s heart sank. Didn’t Vi have any tact? Couldn’t she see what she was doing? And poor little Jack – he was the one who was going to suffer the most because of all this upset.
‘Well, you’d better come home with us now until we sort out somewhere else for you to go.’
‘You’re not thinking of sending him back?’ Jean protested.
‘It’s not safe for him here. You know that. Wallasey’s already been bombed once, and four killed. There’s hardly two nights together now when we don’t have the air-raid sirens going on.’
None of them could dispute the truth of Vi’s words.
‘Come along, Jack,’ she insisted sharply. ‘Your father’s been put to enough trouble already having to leave his work and then wait around for your aunt Francine to bring you back, after she’d taken you out without a by-your-leave, or telling anyone where she was going.’
Jack was leaning back into her, and now, as Francine put her hand on his shoulder, he looked up at her.
Jean looked helplessly at Sam.
Francine’s eyes were swimming with tears, and Jack looked so helpless and afraid, whilst Vi was clearly furious. Any minute now something would be said or done that would cause the kind of family trouble that could never be put right, thought Jean worriedly.
‘Why don’t you leave him here with us for a few days, Vi, whilst you sort out what you’re going to do?’ Sam suggested.
‘No. He’s coming back with us now, and as for sorting something out, we’ve done that already. First thing tomorrow Edwin is taking him back to Wales. We’ve found another family that’s willing to take him. Very highly recommended, they are as well, by a fellow member of my WVS committee. Come along, Jack.’
Francine dropped on her haunches and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him fiercely and giving him a kiss.
She hoped he’d remember about the little card she’d given him with the address of the theatre on it, and that he’d be able to keep it hidden from Vi. She told him he could write to her any time he wanted to, and that he must if he wasn’t happy. It wasn’t what she wanted but what else could she do?
It was Jean’s turn to hug him now, and then Sam was leading him over to Vi, who frowned and grumbled over a mark on his shirt and said that his hair was untidy and needed cutting.
‘I can’t bear it,’ said Francine to Jean after they had gone. ‘I really can’t.’
‘You must,’ Jean responded. ‘Because there’s nothing else you can do.’
Grace had just come off duty and was halfway across the yard on her way to see Teddy