Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [39]
She was running so fast she almost collided with him. He put out his arm to steady her. Grace looked up at him. She was slightly out of breath and her heart was pounding, and not just because she had been running, she knew.
She put her hands on his upper arms and raised herself up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. He was the first man she had kissed, apart from her father and her brother, and she was careful not to look at his mouth.
‘Thank you,’ she told him emotionally. ‘I shall never forget what you’ve done for me. Never.’
Seb looked down into her face. She was so very lovely. He thrust the dress box towards her and told her gruffly, ‘You’d better take this. It isn’t any use to me.’
And then as she took it from him, to Grace’s surprise, he bent his head and kissed her fiercely on the mouth.
The whole world seemed to go still and silent. Grace trembled, and lifted her free hand towards his face, but Seb had already released her and was stepping back from her, and walking away from her.
Grace watched him until he had disappeared into the crowd. Her eyes were smarting and yet she felt happy – elated, in fact – as though she wanted to sing and dance and tell the whole world what a wonderful special person he was. Grace heard the bang of the daily One o’clock Gun from the docks as she hurried back to work, and as she registered its familiar sound she knew that it marked a place in her life that she would never forget, dividing what had been from what was to come.
From now on she was never going to forget how lucky she had been, and how much she owed to Seb’s kindness. Never ever again was she going to make the mistake of doing something she knew to be wrong. And what was more, she was going to be the best nurse she could possibly be, she told herself fervently.
Half-past six and Grace was normally home by now. Jean had been keeping an anxious eye out for her daughter ever since it had turned six o’clock, which she knew was daft because Grace didn’t even finish work until six. She hadn’t said anything as yet to Sam about what Grace had done. He had been so proud about the fact that she was to train as a nurse after his initial anger, and Jean knew how hurt and disappointed he would be. She would have to tell him soon, though. She gave a small sigh as she reached for the iron. Both Sam and Luke were late in for their tea tonight as well, and she had been so on edge that she’d almost been glad of having the washing to iron. She tensed as she heard Grace’s footsteps outside the back door, knowing how upset her eldest daughter would be at having to give up her hopes of training as a nurse, but when the back door opened and Grace came in, far from looking upset she was glowing with happiness and excitement.
‘Mum, you’ll ever guess what’s happened.’
‘You’d better tell me then, hadn’t you, love?’ Jean suggested. ‘And pretty sharpish before your dad gets in because I haven’t said anything to him yet about what’s happened.’ Jean frowned as she saw the dress box Grace was carrying, and her frown deepened as Grace started to explain disjointedly and excitedly all about a certain Seb Atkins, who had saved her from disgrace and despair by buying the frock she had damaged.
The more Grace enthused about her rescuer the more Jean felt inclined to mistrust him. It was typical of Grace that she always thought the best of other people, but Jean knew what Sam would have to say about a young man who bought his daughter an expensive frock – if she were to tell him, of course.
‘Wasn’t that a wonderful thing of him to do, Mum?’ Grace was demanding.
‘I don’t know about wonderful, Grace. In my day a young man certainly didn’t buy a girl a frock, not if she was a decent girl, that is, and he respected her,’ she added warningly.
Grace flushed and gave her a reproachful look. ‘He isn’t that sort at all, Mum,’
‘Well, it’s plain you don’t want to think so, love, but you’ve only met him the once and here he is buying—’
‘He didn’t buy it for me, Mum. He bought it because he wants me to train as a nurse,’ Grace told her.