Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [71]
A decorator had been hired to distemper the walls pale yellow, and the oilcloth covering the kitchen table matched the pattern on the curtains.
The house had a good-sized walk-in pantry with stone shelves and plenty of storage space, but Bella had still insisted on having a kitchen dresser with shelves at the top and two cupboards underneath.
‘I mean that there’s no supper,’ she told him, turning up the dial on the wireless and pretending to concentrate on the sound of Judy Garland singing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’
‘When a man comes in from work, he ruddy well expects his wife to have his supper ready for him,’ Alan bellowed at her, red-faced, as he strode over to the wireless and turned down the volume.
‘Work? You?’ Bella scoffed. ‘That will be the day, or has your father given you a job drinking G and Ts now? Mind you, he should because it’s all you’re fit for.’ She turned the volume back up and started to hum along to the song.
She had spent the afternoon with her mother. They had gone to see a film together and then she had gone back to her parents where her mother had cooked her some supper.
With her father being so busy with all the extra work he was getting from the Ministry and no Charlie to help him, he was working all hours God sent, as Vi put it, and Bella knew that her mother welcomed her company.
It was certainly far more pleasant going back home and being spoiled by her mother than staying here on her own or, even worse, having to put up with a husband who seemed to think a wife was some kind of skivvy on hand to wait on him hand and foot, instead of someone he should cherish and adore.
‘Now listen, you,’ Alan yelled, grabbing hold of Bella’s arm and forcing her round to face him.
‘Let go of me,’ Bella yelled back.
‘This is my house and I’ll do what I ruddy well like in it,’ Alan told her.
‘Your house? That’s a joke,’ Bella taunted him. ‘It’s my father that bought it and you’d better just remember that. And if you want some supper you can go round to your parents and get your mother to make it for you,’ she finished triumphantly.
She knew perfectly well that he wouldn’t dare go to them in the state he was in, smelling of drink and hardly able to stand up properly.
‘I should have married Trixie and not you. Things would have been different then.’
‘Well, you didn’t, did you? You’re going to have to tell that father of yours he needs to pay you more, as well. I had to ask Mummy to help me out with the housekeeping again this week.’
‘If you didn’t waste so ruddy much, you’d have plenty.’
‘Plenty? You spend more on petrol for that car of yours than you give me. Daddy was saying that he’s surprised you can still get so much petrol.’
In fact what her father had actually said was that the Parkers must have access to someone who was prepared to let them have more fuel than the Government was allowing for private use – but at a price – and that he wouldn’t mind knowing where they were getting it from as he could do with a bit more himself. Bella wasn’t going to say that to Alan, of course. She didn’t want him thinking that he was going to get her to ask him for something. He’d love that.
She had never imagined that marriage would be like this. She had expected Alan to spoil her and give in to her in exactly the same way as her parents had. But instead … her mouth tightened.
Her mother had tried to ask her if Alan was ‘being a good husband’ to her, as she had put it, and Bella had known from the look of embarrassment on her mother’s face that she had been asking if Alan was fulfilling his marital duties in the bedroom. What a joke that was! They had been married going on for three months now and there’d only been one occasion in the whole of that time when he’d managed to get his ‘thing’ hard enough to be a proper husband to her. Not that she intended to tell her mother the truth – or anyone else. She had smiled sweetly instead and nodded her head, knowing that her mother wouldn’t pursue