Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [31]
Seb deduced from Grace’s artless confidence that her parents were not in as comfortable circumstances as her cousins’ family were. He had seen how both her cousins, but especially Bella, looked down on her, although in his opinion she was worth ten of the other girl.
Seb had no particular liking for the Parkers, but he had been grateful to them for putting him up whilst he was attending the local military hospital and waiting to be pronounced fit for duty.
He knew that both Alan’s parents, but especially his mother, wanted Alan to drop Bella and go back to his previous girlfriend, Trixie, and it was equally obvious to him that Bella wasn’t going to give Alan up without a fight.
‘I’m sorry I can’t ask you to dance,’ he apologised to Grace. He was indeed sorry, for he would have loved the opportunity to hold her close. She really was the most adorable girl. It was perhaps just as well that he would be going back to join his unit soon.
* * *
Bella was in a foul mood. So far Alan had determinedly ignored every attempt she had made to bring the conversation round to the subject of their engagement. To make matters worse, now, whilst he was dancing with her, instead of holding her close as she was trying to get him to do, he was actually looking at Trixie. And there was Grace, whom she had only invited to come tonight out of pity, looking as though she was having the time of her life.
‘What are you doing?’ Bella demanded as Alan released her the second the music stopped, turning away from her.
‘I’m going to go and ask Trixie to dance,’ he answered her truculently.
Charlie had been plying him with double G and Ts all evening and now, as well as being slightly unsteady on his feet, his face was flushed and his behaviour belligerent. Bella could see her chance to achieve her goal slipping away from her. She looked round for Charlie. He was standing at the bar. She sent him a significant look, which he acknowledged by lifting his glass.
‘Why don’t you ask her later?’ Bella suggested, forcing her lips into what she hoped was a sweet smile, before adding coaxingly, ‘It’s so hot in here. Why don’t we go outside? We haven’t been alone together all evening.’ She moved closer to him, her voice softly suggestive.
Alan hesitated, still looking at Trixie, who, to Bella’s relief, was now getting up to dance with someone.
‘I suppose so,’ Alan agreed unenthusiastically.
‘Me and Alan are just slipping outside for a bit of fresh air,’ Bella informed Grace almost aggressively, for once forgetting to use the ‘posh’ voice she normally favoured, and sounding far more like the Bella Grace remembered from when they had been much younger. Bella was holding on to Alan’s arm, determined to make sure that he didn’t escape from her.
‘Oh, Bella, do you think you should?’ Grace whispered. ‘Only Alan seems to have had a lot to drink.’
‘Like I just said, I need some fresh air,’ Bella insisted, glaring at her. Was Grace stupid or what? Couldn’t she take a hint? Didn’t her cousin understand that she wanted to be alone with Alan?
‘I’ll come with you, if you like.’
Bella was furious. Grace was a stupid interfering prissy nobody. Her mother had been right to tell her not to invite her. Grace was already turning towards the exit and Bella seized her chance. Another few seconds and Alan would cotton on to what she had said and he’d be off to stand at the bar and watch his precious Trixie. Well, Bella wasn’t having that! Grace needed to be stopped. Deliberately Bella brought her heel down on the hem of Grace’s silk gown and kept it there so that when Grace tried to walk towards the door, one of the seams in the delicate panelling of the skirt ripped under the strain.
Grace gazed down