Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [86]
‘Oh, no, just listen to that.’ Hannah pulled a face when the band broke into a fast jitterbug number. ‘I can’t dance to that.’
‘We can, can’t we, Gracie?’ Luke laughed, reaching for Grace’s hand and pulling her to her feet despite her objections, to join the reduced number of couples brave enough to try the new dance.
‘Luke, we’ll make total fools of ourselves,’ Grace warned him, but she admitted to herself that it was fun to see the look of astonished admiration on the faces of her friends as she and Luke showed off the moves the twins had taught them.
She was laughing and out of breath when they returned to their seats at the end of the dance.
‘I hope you realise that you’re going to have to teach all of us to do that,’ said Doreen as Grace sat down. ‘We were all so envious watching you, weren’t we, Teddy?’
‘Very envious,’ he agreed.
There was a note in his voice that Grace neither recognised nor understood. She looked at him and was reassured when he smiled back at her with his familiar happy jokey Teddy smile.
It just wasn’t fair. This wasn’t how she’d expected to spend New Year’s Eve at all, in her in-laws’ front room surrounded by her parents and the dullest and most boring people she had ever met, Bella thought crossly.
And what made it worse was that Charlie had come home two days earlier on unexpected leave, and was going to the Tennis Club dance using her tickets because Alan had put his foot down and insisted that they had to accept his parents’ invitation.
Even her mother had taken his side, whilst her father had gone on and on about how important it was that councillors supported one another, especially now that some idiots had started making all sorts of ridiculous accusations about councillors getting benefits that other people couldn’t have.
Bella supposed that her father was in a temper because of the criticism he was receiving over the petrol allowance he had managed to get for himself through his connection with the Ministry, but why that meant that she had to sit here listening to her mother-in-law’s dull bridge-playing friends going on about the need for everyone to do their bit, and asking her stupid questions about what kind of voluntary work she was doing, Bella had no idea. She certainly didn’t intend to waste her time making bandages or knitting. If she had to play a role in this silly war then it would have to be doing something much more glamorous than that. She started to drift off into a very pleasant daydream in which her mother-in-law’s jaw was dropping at the news that she, Bella, had been invited to Buckingham Palace to have tea with the Queen as a thank you for the wonderful effect the Women’s Enlistment poster photograph of her wearing a Norman Hartnell-designed uniform had had on recruitment numbers.
Bella was just enjoying listening to the Queen saying admiringly, ‘And it’s all down to you, my dear,’ when her daydream was rudely interrupted by Alan’s father’s raised voice.
Bella did not like her father-in-law. Of course, she didn’t like either of Alan’s parents but she particularly disliked his father, who according to Alan had said that the only reason she wanted to marry him had been because she had thought she was ‘on to a good thing’. That was why, according to Alan, his father had refused to buy them a house or give Alan a salary raise.
He was saying something about the local papers taking a dim view of those who were using the war as an excuse to line their own pockets, and Bella guessed from her father’s angry red face that the comment had been directed at him. He looked as though he was about to explode and, knowing her father’s temper, Bella wasn’t entirely surprised when he burst out, ‘If you’re referring to the work I’m doing for the Ministry, then at least my son’s in the army and doing his bit for the country, instead of staying at home and pretending to work for me, unlike some I could name.’
Alan’s mother’s face went dark red, whilst Bella saw that her own mother was looking equally flushed but triumphant. Alan himself was scowling,