The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [157]
‘Aye, and probably a baby bouncing on your knee as well by then,’ Jess laughed. ‘You should hear my Billy. You know what he’s like.’ She rolled her eyes and laughed. ‘He keeps on saying that he reckons we should have a honeymoon baby. I can’t say as I’d mind. I haven’t got the stomach for working on munitions any more, and there’s no work conscription for mothers with young kiddies.’
Diane listened to them without making any comment. There were those who said that they couldn’t think of bringing a new life into the world in such perilous times; women who said practically that they did not want to face bringing up a fatherless child as a widow, but she suspected that Ruthie and Jess felt as she did herself – that with the coming of a new life there also came hope for the future. For her there was also the matter of her duty to the uniform she wore, and the work she was trained to do. She and Kit both had roles to play in the war and they had agreed that they would try to wait to start a family if they could.
‘Have you heard anything from that Myra?’ Jess was asking her. ‘That husband of hers is a fool for tekin’ her back, if you ask me.’
Diane could see the way Ruthie was looking away. She certainly didn’t blame her for not feeling sympathetic towards Myra after what she had done.
‘He loves her and I think that Myra recognises now how lucky she is to have him. What happened to her has changed her.’
‘Well, she certainly needed to do some changing,’ Jess broke in.
‘Yes, she did,’ Diane agreed. She couldn’t help feeling glad for Myra’s sake, and that of the child she was carrying, that Jim was prepared to stand by her, even if she sensed that the other two thought she had been undeservedly lucky.
‘Come on, girls,’ Jess announced determinedly, refilling their teacups. ‘Let’s have a toast.’
‘What to?’ Diane asked her.
‘To the future, and the end of the war, and, of course, the Grafton,’ Jess grinned. ‘And to us, the Grafton Girls.’
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following for their invaluable help:
Teresa Chris, my agent.
Harper editors Maxine Hitchcock and Susan Opie, who has now kindly taken me under her wing.
Yvonne Holland, for making sure I got my facts right.
Everyone at HarperCollins who contributed to the publication of this book.
Tony, who as always has helped enormously with the research process.
About the Author
THE GRAFTON GIRLS
Annie Groves lives in the North-West of England and has done so all her life. She is the author of Ellie Pride, Connie’s Courage and Hettie of Hope Street, a series of novels for which she drew upon her own family’s history, picked up from listening to her grandmother’s stories when she was a child. She has also written a new series of novels, Goodnight Sweetheart and Some Sunny Day and now The Grafton Girls, which is based on Annie’s extensive research of the Italian community in Liverpool during the war as well as wartime recollections from members of her family who come from the city. Annie Groves also writes under the name Penny Jordan and has written over 130 books and sold over 67 million copies.
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By the same author:
Ellie Pride
Connie’s Courage
Hettie of Hope Street
Some Sunny Day
Goodnight Sweetheart
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © Annie Groves 2007
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ePub Edition June 2008 ISBN-9780007279517
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