The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [143]
‘Well…’ Lee looked dubious, but then when Diane squeezed his hand he laughed and said, ‘OK…I guess I’d agree to anything to have you smile at me like that, Di.’
‘Wait here.’ She released his hand and stood up. ‘I’ll go across and fetch her.’
‘Ruthie?’
Both Jess and Ruthie looked up from their silent contemplation of the dancers when Diane touched Ruthie lightly on the shoulder.
‘I was sorry to hear about…about what happened,’ she told them both quietly.
‘I keep feeling that it’s wrong for me and Jess to be alive,’ Ruthie said miserably. ‘It’s as though somehow we’ve cheated, and…’
‘Major Saunders has had a word with your Glen’s colonel,’ Diane told her calmly, overriding her despair. ‘And he wants to talk to you about it, if you can spare a minute.’
The immediate change in Ruthie’s expression was heart-wrenching. Diane watched the hope flare briefly in the girl’s eyes, only to die away again as she looked across the dance floor.
‘It’s no use, is it?’ she asked Diane. ‘He can’t do anything.’
‘You need to talk to him yourself,’ Diane told her.
Ruthie looked uncertainly at Jess. ‘I don’t like to leave you on your own.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ Jess told her robustly. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Dance?’
Jess looked up, Billy’s voice bringing her out of her dark thoughts.
‘I…I’ve promised Ruthie I’d wait here for her.’
‘She doesn’t look like she’s about to come rushing back any time soon,’ Billy told her drily, glancing over to where Ruthie was talking animatedly to the dark-haired American major sitting next to Diane.
‘I need to talk to you,’ Billy added, ‘about Walter.’
Jess discovered that her mouth had suddenly gone very dry whilst her hands had gone very clammy.
‘Why would you want to do that?’ she demanded warily.
‘Oh, I’m just so happy. I can’t thank you enough.’ Ruthie put her hands to her burning cheeks, her voice breaking with emotion. ‘I almost feel as though I can’t let myself believe it, just in case.’
‘Of course you can believe it,’ Diane assured her gently. ‘Lee wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.’
‘That’s right,’ he confirmed.
Ruthie smiled beatifically and then stopped, her eyes filing with tears. ‘Oh, but I shouldn’t be feeling like this, not when…’ she gave a small shudder. ‘It seems so wrong to be happy with all those poor women and girls gone and poor Walter too.’
Diane exchanged looks with the major. He was beginning to appear slightly impatient and very much as though he wanted to have her to himself.
Touching Ruthie lightly on the shoulder she told her in a kind voice, ‘You must try to look on you not being there as something that was meant to be, Ruthie.’
‘Meant to be?’
‘Yes. You see, if Glen hadn’t been accused of being responsible for Walter’s death, you wouldn’t have been so upset that you had to go home from the factory, would you?’
Ruthie shook her head.
‘And then you and Jess would have perished with the others,’ Diane persisted. ‘So you see, you surviving must have been meant, and that means that you owe it to those who didn’t survive to make the most of what you’ve been given.’
‘You mean that because of them I have to be happy?’ Ruthie asked her uncertainly.
‘Absolutely,’ Diane confirmed. She’d never felt surer that life needed to be seized with both hands. And she would do just that this weekend.
‘Why do you think I want to talk to you about him?’ Billy asked Jess.
She heaved a sigh. They could go on and on round the houses like this for the rest of the night without getting anywhere.
‘I don’t know,’ she told him. ‘So why don’t you tell me?’
‘All right then, I will.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Why did you let on to me like you and Walter was together?’
‘I did no such thing,’ Jess denied immediately.
‘Yes you did.’
‘No I didn’t.’
They had stopped dancing now and were facing one another. Jess had her hands on her hips and