The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [126]
‘Oh, Billy…’ Jess heard her mother gasp as she went pale and put her hand to her mouth.
‘No, it’s all right, I’m only joking, Mrs H,’ Billy reassured her quickly. ‘What really happened is that them of us wot have just started with the section had to report to this bit of land wot the Royal Engineers keep specially for training new lads. They had this bomb there. Put it back together, they had, but with the TNT taken out and a bit of sand in instead. A one-hundred-kilogram bomb, this was – just a baby, really – and they have this fuse wot they call a number fifteen fuse, you see…’
Her parents were both silent as they absorbed what Billy was saying, leaving Jess free to look at him as well as listen. He was like a kid that had been given a new toy, she decided crossly, not someone who was dealing with something that might go off at any minute and kill him.
‘This number fifteen fuse was the first one the Germans used. Nothing to it, there is, not really, not once you know how to deal with them. You have to depress these two spring-loaded plungers wot are on the fuse head and then take out the fuse. We all had to have a go at doing it and the sergeant said as how I was the fastest.’
‘Where are you going, Jessie?’ Jess heard her mother ask as she headed for the door.
‘I’m going up to me bedroom. I’ve got better things to do than listen to a lot of talk about bombs.’
Her heart was beating so fast Jess had to put her hand on her chest to calm it once she was out of sight. Just listening to Billy talking like that had made her feel so sick and frightened for him. Why did he have to take such risks? But that, she conceded, was Billy all over. And one of the reasons she felt the way she did about him.
‘…And they’ve got this band at the Savoy, that’s called the Orpheans, and you should have seen the frocks the women there were wearing, and the jewels. You’d never have thought there was a war on down there in London – not like up here. Nick wanted to go to Madame Tussaud’s, but it was closed, but he showed me where the American Embassy was and we went to this club he’d heard about…’
Diane closed her eyes, wishing that Myra would leave her in peace. Her head was aching and her eyes felt as though they had had sand rubbed in them. She might have been the one to tell Lee that they could never be anything to one another, but today, a day without seeing him at all, had seemed to be one of the longest and most miserable days of her life, even without what the captain had had to say to her.
‘You’re not listening to me, are you?’
Diane opened her eyes and looked across at Myra, her expression changing when she noticed the ring Myra was wearing for the first time.
‘It’s my new engagement ring,’ Myra told her proudly. ‘Nick gave it me before we left for London.’
It was the most vulgar-looking ring she had ever seen, Diane decided, but even if it hadn’t been, she was worried Myra was getting herself in too deep.
‘You can’t mean to wear it in public at work, Myra,’ she protested.
‘Why not?’ Myra demanded.
‘Why not? Because you are already married to someone else,’ Diane reminded her.
‘That’s finished, and I’m engaged to Nick now. Did I tell you about the frock he bought for me? Of course, it’s too good to wear for going out up here, but it will come in handy when I’m sailing to New York. Oh, and here’s your blouse back.’
As she handed it over, Diane saw that one of the buttons was loose, and that it had been torn from the fabric.
‘Nick got a bit too keen,’ Myra smirked without a trace of embarrassment or apology. ‘You’ll be able to mend it.’
Maybe she would, but she knew she could never bear to wear the blouse again, Diane decided, in distaste.
TWENTY-SIX
‘What…what do you mean?’ Ruthie stammered. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘I understand that you were a witness at the fight that took place between Privates Johnson and Stewart this last Saturday.’
‘No. I mean, yes, I was there, but it wasn’t Glen and Walter who were fighting, but