Goodnight Sweetheart (26 page)

What time was it? She could see light coming in through the curtains, and she could hear voices from the room down below so it must be early morning.

Her eyes felt sore and gritty and her throat felt raw from the smoke of last night’s bomb.

Last night! Molly sat bolt upright in her bed, and then reached for her watch. The pain of Eddie’s death had softened enough for her to be able to wear it now without being filled with misery, but she still thought of him every time she put it on. It had been so typical of him that he had thought to make sure she had her birthday present even though he had known he wouldn’t be there to give it to her.

It was half-past one, gone dinner time. She pushed back the bedclothes. The gold satin eiderdown hadn’t even shifted from its position on top of the matching bedspread, a sure sign of how deeply she had slept. She could not even remember
getting undressed. All she could remember was the hell on earth that had been the scene at the college – that and coming home to find Frank waiting for her.

A thin wail pierced the muted adult voices downstairs. Baby Elizabeth Rose was obviously awake and hungry.

‘No, Frank, don’t pick her up, you mustn’t. Dr Truby King says it will spoil her if we pick her up every time she cries,’ Molly heard her sister cautioning her husband crossly. As Molly walked into the kitchen she sighed. Elsie had said how much she regretted giving June the book, which now seemed to rule her life.

‘Oh, there you are,’ June commented. ‘I suppose you’re going to want some breakfast now, are you, and me having only just finished cleaning up the kitchen?’

‘I’m not really hungry, June,’ Molly answered her quietly, unaware of the look Frank was giving her. ‘I’ll just make meself a cuppa and then I’d better get off to work, otherwise Mr Harding will be wondering what’s happened to me.’

‘You can sit yourself right down here, Molly,’ Frank announced firmly. ‘You’re not going anywhere until you’ve got some food inside you.’

‘Oh, do stop fussing, will you, Frank?’ June demanded waspishly. ‘Some of us didn’t get a wink of sleep last night, what with them bombs, and folk coming in at all hours of the night, and then
staying in their beds all morning whilst the rest of us have had to just get on wi’ it.’

‘I don’t need any breakfast, Frank, honest,’ Molly assured her brother-in-law quietly.

The truth was that she didn’t think she could eat anything. A leaden weight of dull misery filled her chest every time she thought about the previous night. Just looking at Elizabeth Rose, lying so pink and healthy in her pram, made Molly’s heart lurch against her ribs as she remembered the tiny bodies that had been brought up out of the shelter. Not that she would say anything like that to June, of course.

‘Here you are, Molly lass. Drink this.’

She looked up at Frank in surprise. She hadn’t even heard the kettle boil and now here he was holding out a mug of tea to her.

As she took it from him she realised that she couldn’t quite bring herself to look directly at him. Because of last night? Because for a few minutes he had held her in his arms? As a brother, that was all, Molly reminded herself sharply. That was how Frank had held her and that was all he was to her. That was all she wanted him to be to her.

‘I’ll be off to work as soon as I’ve drunk this.’

‘Are you on duty again tonight?’ Frank asked her quietly.

Molly nodded.

‘In that case I’ll come along with you,’ Frank told her, earning himself a scathing look from June.

‘And why would you be wantin’ to do that?
You’ve only just come home on leave, and if there’s anyone needs a bit o’ help it’s me,’ she told him sharply.

‘Last night you said I was upsettin’ the baby on account of her not knowing me, and keeping you awake into the bargain,’ Frank pointed out gently. ‘Besides, with Jerry bombing Liverpool the way he is, the emergency services need all the help they can get. I feel so helpless staying at home when people need support.’

‘Some help you’ll be if you go and get yourself hurt,’ June sniffed disparagingly. ‘You’re a soldier, don’t forget, Frank, and you’re entitled to have a bit o’ leave and spend it wi’ your family.’

‘It’s really kind of you to offer to help, Frank,’ Molly put in placatingly, ‘but June’s right, you’ve come home to see her and Elizabeth Rose, not go out working.’

‘We’re all in this together,’ Frank said quietly, ‘and from what I’ve heard about the bombing Liverpool’s bin suffering; another pair of hands wouldn’t go amiss.’

‘Aye, well, another pair of hands wouldn’t go amiss here neither, if it comes to that,’ June informed him crossly, adding in an even sharper voice, as the baby started to cry, ‘Oh, look now what you’ve done, and I’d only just got her off to sleep, an’ all.’

Molly could see the way Frank’s face was reddening from June’s rebuke. Discreetly she looked away. June had refused to go to Doris’s.

‘Why don’t I wheel her down to me mam’s for a bit o’ fresh air? A ride in the pram might send her off,’ Frank suggested.

‘Take her out in this perishing cold weather? Are you mad?’ June objected. ‘’Sides, your mam will be wanting to pick her up like she allus does and if I’ve told her once I’ve told her a hundred times that Dr Truby says babies mustn’t be picked up except at feeding and changing times. You go on yer own if you want to go and see yer mam.’

To Molly’s relief there was a knock on the door.

‘It’s only me,’ Elsie announced, bustling in. ‘Oh, you’re still here then, Molly. I’d heard as how you was wi’ them down at Durning Road last night. Poor things. They was saying in the grocer’s that there’s upwards of three hundred bin killed and more to come. Aye, and some of them kiddies as well …’

‘If you ask me, none of them shelters is safe,’ June announced. Since giving birth to her baby, June had developed a dislike of air-raid shelters, insisting that she felt safer inside her own house, and Molly had learned not to try to convince her otherwise, even though the Government had said that people would be safer inside the shelters than their own homes.

‘That’ll be Sally,’ June announced when there was a second knock on the door.

‘I’ve just come round to see if there’s anything else you want me to do to help with the christening,’ Sally smiled, as she kneeled down to
release her toddler from his leading reins, whilst expertly rocking the pram with her foot.

‘Let me help,’ Frank proffered, but immediately June snapped, ‘Don’t listen to him, Sally, he’s useless. Elizabeth Rose screams her head off every time he goes near her.’

‘Well, she hasn’t had time to realise that he’s her dad yet, has she?’ Sally offered pacifically, before adding, ‘I expect you’ve heard about the Durning Road bombing last night?’

‘Our Molly was there,’ June answered her. ‘Weren’t you?’

Elizabeth Rose had started crying again, drowning out Molly’s reply.

‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with her, Sally,’ June said tiredly. ‘She just won’t stop crying and her nappy rash is that bad …’

‘She sounds hungry to me,’ Sally proffered.

‘Hungry? She can’t be. I’ve bin feeding her dead on time.’

‘June …’

‘No, it’s her nappy rash that’s upsetting her.’

Her sister sounded so harried that Molly couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.

‘Put plenty of Vaseline on her when you change her. That’s what I do,’ Sally confided. ‘Mr Smithers up at the chemist’s on Edge Road will sell yer some if you tell him it’s for yer baby,’ she promised, obviously anticipating June’s next complaint that you couldn’t buy supplies like Vaseline for love nor money.

It was nearly three o’clock and Molly was on duty again at seven. As though he had read her mind, Frank turned to her and said quietly, ‘If I was you, Molly, I wouldn’t bother goin’ into work. Not today. I’ll go along and have a word with Mr Harding, if you like. I’ll explain to him where you was last night and what you was doin’ and then I’ll call at me mam’s on the way back. She was expecting June to move in with her whilst I was home, and I’ll have to explain to her that June doesn’t want to in case it upsets Elizabeth Rose’s routine.’

Frank was avoiding looking at her as he spoke and Molly’s heart went out to him. She had overheard the argument between him and June when June had announced that she was staying at number 78 instead of joining Frank at his mother’s.

‘Oh, Frank, you don’t need—’ Molly began, but he shook his head and gave her a gentle smile.

‘You’d be doing me a favour – aye, and your June as well. I reckon she’ll be glad to get me out from under her feet.’

It was said mildly enough, but Molly could still see that June’s behaviour was upsetting him. Worriedly, she watched as Frank went to get his coat whilst June ignored him. What was wrong with her sister? Surely she must be delighted to have her husband home, and yet she was behaving as though she could hardly bear the sight of him. June hadn’t been herself at all these last few weeks and Molly was concerned about her. But every
time she tried to say so, June refused to listen to her, claiming that Molly was making a fuss about nothing and that it was only natural that she should feel tired and out of sorts.

‘I’m off now then,’ Frank called out.

‘Aye, well, think on, Frank. I do not want you coming back tellin’ me how your mam thinks I should be bringing my Elizabeth Rose up,’ June warned him, ‘and I do not want you coming in after I’ve got her settled neither and waking her up like you did last night.’

‘’Ere, June, you was a bit hard on poor Frank,’ Sally protested as soon as he had gone.

Molly was glad that it was Sally who had spoken out, even if she was thinking the same thing. June certainly didn’t look very pleased by her friend’s comment.

‘I dare say you’d feel like being hard on your Ronnie if he was to come bursting in and upsetting your two’s routine,’ June snapped. ‘I’d just about got Elizabeth Rose settled to a proper routine, an’ all, and now there’s Frank waking her up when she should be sleepin’, with never a thought for me. Downright selfish, he’s being, and I’ve told him so. It’s bad enough with our Molly coming and going at all hours.’ June’s face had become as heated as her voice.

Sally was looking startled and Elsie had opened her mouth, obviously about to put in her own twopennyworth when the back door opened and Frank walked back in – accompanied by Johnny.

‘Look who I just found on the doorstep,’ Frank grinned with a twinkle in his eyes. ‘I wonder who he could be coming to see?’

Molly could feel a warm blush creeping up her whole body, beginning at her toes.

‘He’s got no business visiting anyone in this house, and if it’s our Molly he’s after—’ June began.

‘Cut it out, June,’ Frank stopped her sharply.

Molly was shocked. She had never heard Frank utter a sharp word before in her life.

‘Don’t you go talking to me like that, Frank Brookes,’ June retaliated. ‘You might be a corporal, but this isn’t the army.’

‘Nipper playing yer up, is it, June?’ Johnny cut in easily. To Molly’s amazement he gave her sister a sympathetic smile. He’d always said that he thought June was a right old bossy boots. And to her even greater amazement, instead of snapping at him, June actually returned his smile.

‘See, Frank Brookes,’ she tossed her head, and nodded towards Johnny, ‘some men understand how it is when you’ve got a baby keeping you awake all hours.’

‘Pretty little thing,’ Johnny commented, looking down at the baby. ‘Teks after her mother, she does, June.’

June started to laugh. ‘Go on with yer, Johnny, and less of yer nonsense. And what brings you round here?’

‘You was right the first time,’ Johnny answered
her cheerfully. ‘I’ve come round on account of your Molly.’ He turned to her. ‘Just to see if you was all right, like, after last night.’

‘I’m fine, Johnny, thanks for asking,’ Molly answered swiftly.

‘That’s good then, only I was a bit worried when they said you hadn’t bin into work.’

‘You’ve bin to Hardings?’ Molly demanded.

‘Aye. Just in case she hasn’t told yer yet,’ he continued, turning back to June and the others, ‘your Molly deserves a medal for what she did last night. A real heroine, she is, and no mistake. Wi’out her help there’s a fair few from last night who wouldn’t be alive right now.’

‘Give over,’ Molly protested self-consciously. ‘I was only doing me duty, same as the rest of us.’

‘’Ere, if yer not doing anything this Saturday how about comin’ wi’ me to the Grafton?’ Johnny asked guilelessly.

‘By, but you’ve got your cheek, Johnny,’ June breathed sharply. ‘But you’re wastin’ your breath because our Molly will be helping me get ready for baby’s christening on Saturday night.’

‘It’s kind of you to come round, Johnny,’ Molly told him, standing up determinedly. ‘I’ll see you out.’

‘Sure you don’t want to change your mind and come to the Grafton wi’ me on Saturday night?’ Johnny coaxed her as she stood politely on the doorstep, waiting for him to leave.

‘You heard what our June said. It’s Elizabeth Rose’s christening on Sunday.’

‘What about the Saturday after, then?’ Johnny asked.

All Molly could do was shake her head and try not to laugh. No matter what happened in the world, Johnny Everton would always be up to his old tricks.

‘I hope you’re not encouraging him, our Molly,’ June told her as soon as she returned to the back room. ‘I would have thought you’d have learned your lesson last time.’

‘We’re just friends, that’s all,’ Molly defended herself, thinking how June was an expert at rewriting history – she’d pushed her into the engagement with Johnny! ‘Both of us working together on the emergency services means we bump into each other from time to time. Anyway, it was you that wanted me to go out with him in the first place,’ she reminded her sister.

‘That were then,’ June told her firmly, ‘before I knew what he were really like. I thought you said you was going down to your mam’s, Frank?’ she prodded her husband. ‘If you go now, happen she’ll do yer a bit of tea and that’ll save me the trouble.’

‘Wait on a bit, Frank,’ Sally begged him as he reached up to the row of coat pegs by the back door for his coat. ‘I’ll walk back wi’ yer. I’ve got to go past yer mam’s on me own way home.’