The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [151]
Diane didn’t know what to say. She reached for Myra’s hand, patting it awkwardly, whilst reflecting inwardly on how easily the situation Myra was now facing – being a young woman carrying the child of a man who had deserted her – was one that was becoming increasingly common. And one she could potentially have been facing herself if she had gone ahead and had an affair with Lee.
But she had not done, had she, and if sometimes at night she lay in her bed and ached with loneliness and need, well, at least she could comfort herself with the knowledge that she had done the right thing.
‘Have they said yet when you’ll be able to come out of hospital?’ Diane asked.
‘Another couple of weeks,’ Myra said, looking off into the distance, obviously fearing what the future held.
‘There’s Billy waiting for you,’ Ruthie told Jess unnecessarily, giving her a nudge as they walked out of the church hall where they had been to check up on the final arrangements for Ruthie and Glen’s wedding.
‘I don’t know why,’ Jess responded grumpily.
Ruthie laughed.
‘What’s that for?’ Jess challenged her.
‘Well, if you can’t see that Billy’s mad for you, Jess, then you want to go and get those eyes of yours tested,’ Ruthie told her with the forthright-ness that had come with the new confidence Glen’s love for her had given her.
‘Huh. He might make out that he is, but then that doesn’t mean owt, not with a lad like Billy.’
‘Maybe it’s up to you to make it mean something, if that’s what you want,’ Ruthie suggested.
Jess stared at her. ‘What, me go chasing after him, you mean? Not on your nelly.’
Ignoring her grumpiness, Ruthie replied cheerfully, ‘What I was meaning was that if that was what you wanted, you could perhaps give him a chance to come chasing after you instead of pushing him off all the time. If that’s what you was wanting…’
‘Well, it isn’t,’ Jess snapped, but Ruthie was well aware of the yearning look in her eyes that she couldn’t quite conceal as she looked towards where Billy was standing waiting.
Ruthie knew that she would never ever forget how close she had come to losing Glen. He had brought so much happiness to her life that it was only natural, surely, that she should want her friend to have the same happiness. Even when that friend kept on claiming that it wasn’t what she wanted.
‘I’ve got to go,’ she told Jess. ‘Glen will be waiting for me at home.’
‘Hang on,’ Jess began, but it was already too late: Ruthie was hurrying away from the hall, leaving her standing on her own with Billy between her and the gate.
She watched as he came towards her.
‘Bin sorting out the wedding, have you?’ he asked her.
‘No, I was looking for the Majestic Picture House and I took a wrong turning,’ Jess told him witheringly.
‘Vicar still in there, is he?’ Billy nodded toward the church hall. ‘’Cos if he is, how about you and me going and having a word wi’him and asking how he fancies doing us as well?’
Jess’s face was difficult for him to read.
‘Doing us as well? One day, Billy Spencer, them jokes of yours are going to get you into big trouble,’ she warned him angrily, making to walk past him. But as she did, Billy reached out and caught hold of her arm, stopping her.
‘Who said anything about a joke?’ he asked her abruptly.
Jess could feel her heart pounding like one of those bomb fuses Billy was always talking about to her stepfather. She felt a bit like a bomb inside, as well, she admitted – a bomb that was about to go off!
‘I mean it, Jess,’ he continued seriously. ‘I’m fed up wi’us messing about.’
‘Us messing about…’ Jess began and then was forced to stop as suddenly Billy took hold of her. ‘Stop it, Billy,’ she protested. ‘You’re nearly squeezing the breath out of me, holding me so tightly like that.’
‘Well, I’m going to go on holding you tightly, and I’m going to kiss you as well,’ Billy told her ruthlessly. ‘And I’m going to keep on kissing you until you tell me that you and me are going to get married.’
‘You can’t—’ Jess began.
‘Oh, yes I can,’ Billy told