Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [5]
‘Grace? Well, that’s very thoughtful of you, darling, but I wonder if it was wise.’
‘She was saying the last time I saw her that she hardly goes out at all, only to that St John Ambulance group she’s joined.’ Bella pulled a face and shuddered. ‘I know she’s always wanted to be a nurse but I’d hate having to do anything like that. It makes me feel faint if I cut my finger. It’s bad enough having to roll all those bandages for the WVS. But at least I’m doing my bit.’
‘Of course you are, darling.’
‘Anyway, Alan’s parents have got Alan’s cousin staying with them. He’s in the RAF but he’s on leave at the moment and, of course, Alan feels he has to include him in things, so I thought that Grace could partner him.’
‘Well, yes, darling, but Grace is a shop girl, remember, for all that she’s your cousin, and I wouldn’t want her to feel uncomfortable or embarrass you mixing with your friends at the Tennis Club.’
‘Oh, there’s no need to worry about that, Mummy.’
Vi was about to warn her daughter that, on the contrary, there was every need to worry if she was to make the right kind of impression with Alan’s parents, but before she could do so the doorbell rang.
Jean looked quickly and a bit anxiously at her brood. It was a hot day and both her husband and her son were beginning to look uncomfortable in their suits. Sam was even tugging impatiently at his collar.
‘Sam,’ she hissed warningly, but it was too late, the door was opening and Vi was standing there, her attention immediately focusing on Sam’s attempts to loosen his collar.
‘Jean. At last.’ Why was it that Vi so frequently managed to sound bossy and disapproving, Jean wondered ruefully.
‘We had to wait for a bus because the first one was full with it being such a nice day,’ she explained as she and Vi exchanged brief hugs.
‘Oh dear, yes. I tend to forget how unreliable public transport can be now that I’ve got both Edwin and Charlie to drive me wherever I need to go. Really I can’t think how we went on when we only had the one car, especially now that Bella has joined the Tennis Club and is so much in demand. Come on in, anyway. I thought we’d have tea outside, seeing as it’s such a lovely day.’
‘So that the twins don’t spill tea on her carpet again is more like it,’ Luke grinned, muttering his aside to Grace as they followed their parents into the house.
‘That wasn’t their fault,’ Grace whispered back. ‘It was actually Jack who spilled the tea but they took the blame for him.’
‘Poor little tyke. It’s hard to believe sometimes that Mum and Auntie Vi are twins, isn’t it?’
‘Very hard,’ Grace agreed feelingly.
‘We’ll go straight through into the garden, I think.’
Jean exchanged looks with Sam as they all trooped through her sister’s kitchen and out into the garden. They hadn’t, Jean noted, been invited to walk through the sitting room at the back of the house and out into the garden via the French windows that Vi had showed off to her so proudly when they had first moved into the house earlier in the year. But, of course, Vi hadn’t had her new carpets put down then.
The garden, its lawns shorn as short as possible and its flowerbeds weed free and rigidly immaculate, was empty, a white cloth flapping gently on the card table set up for the birthday ‘tea’ and six deck chairs drawn up in a straight line.
‘Where is everyone?’ asked Jean.
‘Oh, well, with you being late, Edwin said that he might as well catch up on a bit of work. He’s been ever so busy just lately, what with the business and then all his ARP duties and the council. He’ll be out in a minute, I dare say. Bella’s just run upstairs to change out of her tennis things, and Charlie’s with his father.’
‘And Jack?’ Jean asked.
Vi tensed. ‘He should be in his room doing his homework. His last report said that he spends far too much time daydreaming. Edwin’s completely out of