Sing as We Go (17 page)

Tony stood up and came around the desk to take her in his arms. ‘Not too bad. She’s resting. Dad’s stayed off work today to look after her and I’m taking tomorrow off. Darling, I’m so sorry our date was spoilt and, the way things are at the moment, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see you again.’

Kathy swallowed her disappointment and smiled bravely. ‘That’s all right. I understand. I just hope she’ll soon feel better.’

‘You’re very sweet. Not many girls would be as understanding as you are.’

‘It’s not your fault.’ She put the palms of her hands flat on his chest and smiled up into his face. ‘But just promise me one thing.’

‘I will if I can. You know that.’

‘When she’s well again, you’ll take me home to meet both your parents.’

A look of horror flitted across Tony’s face. ‘Oh, I don’t know about that. She – she doesn’t like visitors.’

Kathy put her head on one side and regarded him steadily. ‘What you mean is – ’ she spoke softly, but now there was a note of firmness in her tone – ‘that she won’t want to meet
me
. Your girlfriend.’

Tony closed his eyes and groaned. ‘You’ve heard the gossip about Muriel and me, I suppose? You shouldn’t believe everything you hear.’

Determined not to tell any more outright lies, instead Kathy said carefully, ‘Then tell me what happened with Muriel.’

‘I hate talking about this. It – it doesn’t seem right.’

‘I promise I won’t say anything to her. I wouldn’t be so cruel. I – I think she still has feelings for you.’

His mouth hardened. ‘I doubt it. And I certainly don’t feel anything for her now. She ended our – our friendship suddenly and without any explanation. All she would say was that “it would be for the best”. I didn’t understand it. I still don’t.’

So, Kathy thought, with a pang of sympathy for the other girl, Muriel had acted so very nobly that Tony was still unaware that his own mother had been instrumental in bringing about the end of the affair. Muriel had loved him so much that she had spared his feelings. She had even protected his mother, who certainly didn’t deserve such thoughtfulness. Yet, Kathy supposed, Muriel had realized that in telling the whole truth she would hurt Tony too.

‘Tony – please be honest with me. It’s important. If Muriel were to explain everything and – and wanted you back, would you—?’

He didn’t even let her finish. ‘No,’ he cried vehemently. ‘No. It’s you I love, Kathy. Really I do and – I don’t suppose you’ll believe me – ’ he gave a wry, lopsided grin that melted her heart – ‘but I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. Not the way I feel about you.’

‘I bet you say that to all the girls.’ Kathy laughed flippantly.

But Tony’s face was utterly serious. ‘No, I swear I haven’t ever said that before. Not to anyone.’

‘Not even to Muriel?’ Now Kathy’s question was serious. She needed to know.

He looked directly into her eyes and she knew he was speaking the truth when he said soberly, ‘Not even to Muriel.’

Kathy gave a huge sigh that came from deep within her being. She believed him and vowed she would never again mention his relationship with Muriel, though she spared a sympathetic thought for the other girl and hoped that she too might one day find the kind of happiness that Kathy herself now felt.

But there was still one problem – apart from the obvious one of the war – that overshadowed their happiness. Tony’s mother.

‘He doesn’t want to take me home to meet his mother.’

‘Are you surprised?’ Jemima retorted tartly. ‘He’s afraid the same thing will happen again.’

‘He doesn’t seem to know the full story about what happened between his mother and Muriel,’ Kathy said and related what Tony had told her.

Jemima pulled a sceptical expression. ‘You surprise me. But then, if I think about it, Muriel was so besotted with him that I expect she sacrificed her own feelings for the sake of his. How very noble!’

‘You don’t sound as if you admire her for that.’

‘I don’t. She should have stood up to his mother. Fought for him.’ She glanced at Kathy over the top of the steel-rimmed spectacles she wore for reading or knitting and sewing. Her busy hands were already knitting socks for the troops. She had joined the local branch of the WVS and, two or three evenings a week, she was disappearing to meetings involved with war work. ‘I don’t expect you’ll give in to that dreadful woman quite so easily, will you?’

Kathy grinned. ‘You bet your life I won’t.’

‘Good.’

‘Only thing is – I can’t get him to take me home to meet his parents.’

‘Then go and see them yourself. Nothing to stop you.’

Kathy gasped. ‘You mean – on my own? Without him being there? Without him even
knowing
?’

Jemima pondered for a moment. ‘No . . .’ she said slowly. ‘No, I wouldn’t do that. But what I
would
do is to tell him that if he is serious about you, then you would like to meet his parents and that if he doesn’t take you, you will go on your own.’

Kathy stared at her. ‘You’re absolutely right. That’s exactly what I’ll do.’ Then she laughed ruefully. ‘Only thing is, I’m a bit stuck if he turns the tables on me and demands to meet
my
parents too.’

Jemima smiled. ‘Ah, well now, that’s another story.’

‘Are we having a Morrison shelter in the front room or an Anderson shelter in the back yard?’

‘Neither,’ Jemima answered promptly. ‘There’s a big cupboard under the stairs. You can get into it from the front room. I’m going to clear that out and make it so we can both get in it. It’ll be as safe as any shelter. More so, probably.’

‘Right you are. Can I help?’

‘I tell you what you can do. Pack up my mother’s best tea service out of the china cabinet into boxes and we’ll push them to the narrow end of the cupboard.’ She was thoughtful for a moment, then murmured. ‘I’m sure there’s other things I ought to put in there for safety, but I can’t think what at the moment.’

Kathy smiled. Jemima had so much on her mind now, she often seemed to go off into a little world of her own. The girl rather suspected she was reliving the events of the last war and that her memories were far from pleasant. But she dared not ask. Jemima Robinson was not the kind of person one asked personal questions. Instead, Kathy said brightly, ‘Where can I get some suitable boxes?’

‘Mm? Oh yes. Boxes. Er – ’ Jemima wrinkled her forehead – ‘you could try the shop on Monks Road. They might have something.’

A little later Kathy returned triumphantly with two sturdy boxes and something wrapped up in newspaper. ‘Guess what I’ve got? Four sausages and two lovely pieces of fish.’

‘Well done,’ Jemima smiled. ‘We’d better make the most of them. I’m sure there are going to be shortages very soon. I hear they’re cutting the bus services already because of a shortage of fuel, and men to drive them, if it comes to that.’

‘They’ll have to take on women bus drivers then, won’t they?’ Kathy laughed jokingly, but Jemima’s answer was quite serious. ‘Yes, they will.’

‘Kathy, please don’t do that,’ Tony begged.

‘Then take me to meet them yourself.’

Already it was almost the end of October. It had snowed during the day, but they were cosy, sitting close together on the old sofa in Jemima’s front room, the only light coming from the flickering fire.

Tony ran his hand distractedly through his hair. ‘I can’t. I really can’t.’

‘Why?’

‘Because – because – ’ he took a deep breath – ‘Mother won’t like you. Oh, that sounds awful,’ he added swiftly, gripping her hand tightly in apology. ‘It’s not you personally she won’t like. She doesn’t like anyone I take home. Anyone who I might marry and leave home for.’

‘She wants to keep you at home, tied to her apron strings forever, does she?’

He smiled ruefully. ‘I suppose that’s about the size of it, but put like that, so bluntly – it – it makes me sound very weak.’

Kathy did not contradict him outright. Instead she said slowly, ‘I can see that it’s very difficult for you. If she’s ill and depends on both you and your father, it would be rather brutal of you just to leave. I do see that.’ She bit her lip, longing to ask if his mother really was as ill as she made out. Instead, she toned down the bluntness a little by asking, ‘How ill is she?’

Tony shrugged. ‘Who’s to say? When she has one of her attacks, she certainly seems genuinely poorly. And the doctor’s never once hinted that she’s not really ill. Mind you, he gets paid for every visit and her stays in the private nursing home – marvellous though it is – cost us quite a lot.’

‘When you say “us”, I take it you mean that you contribute?’

He nodded. ‘Dad works very hard. Does a lot of overtime whenever he can get it, but even then he couldn’t afford the fees on his wage.’

He returned her steady gaze. ‘You’re wondering if she’s putting it on just to make me stay at home. To keep me tied to her.’

‘No,’ Kathy said carefully. ‘I didn’t say that. I wouldn’t accuse her of that. At least,’ she added, trying to lighten their conversation a little, ‘not yet.’

But Tony could not see anything funny in his situation. He was caught between his ailing mother and the girl he loved. ‘Kathy, I know this must sound like a trite line, but I swear it isn’t. I’ve truly never felt this way about any other girl. And oh yes, I know there’ve been a few, but I’ve never – ever – asked anyone else to marry me.’ He squeezed her hands. ‘Marry me, Kathy. Please – say you’ll be my wife.’

Tears sprang to her eyes. Tough as she could be, Kathy was always moved by a romantic gesture. There had been so few of them in her life and certainly from no one that she cared deeply about. Even in that moment – the happiest moment in her life – she spared a fleeting thought for poor Morry. How happy she would have made him if she had been able to have given him the answer she was about to give Tony. And how much simpler life would have been. She would have pleased everyone. Her father, her mother – especially her poor, dear mother – and even the Robinsons would have been delighted. But she didn’t love Morry, not in the way she loved Tony.

She put her arms around his neck and gently kissed his lips, murmuring. ‘Yes, oh yes, please.’

He held her close and they kissed long and hard.

‘Let’s go and tell Aunt Jemima,’ Kathy said at last. ‘Oh, I can’t wait to tell the whole world.’

‘Hey, hey, wait a minute. Slow down,’ he protested, but he was laughing as he said it. ‘Let’s not say anything. Not until I’ve bought you a ring and we can announce it officially.’

Kathy was disappointed. ‘But surely we can tell Aunt Jemima?’

‘I’d rather you didn’t. I – I must tell my parents first.’

Kathy felt her heart sink. Still, he was afraid of his mother’s reaction.

‘I see,’ she said flatly.

‘Darling,’ he caught hold of her hand. ‘Don’t look like that. Just a day or two. That’s all I ask. Please?’

She forced a smile and nodded. ‘All right. A week. I’ll give you a week.’ She tapped him playfully on the end of his nose. ‘But no longer. That gives you plenty of time to pick out an engagement ring for me and also to tell your mother and father. Then next Sunday afternoon, we’ll go to see them.’

Tony pulled in a deep breath and now it was his turn to force a smile. ‘All right,’ he agreed and Kathy tried hard to ignore the reluctance in his tone.

Seventeen

Beatrice Kendall was nothing like Kathy had imagined. True, she lay languidly on a couch in front of a roaring fire in the front room of the semi-detached house. The room was cluttered with heavy mahogany furniture and ornaments on every available flat surface. But there, any resemblance to Kathy’s romantic picture of a pretty, but delicate, woman ended.

Tony’s mother was sharp-featured and beady-eyed. Her face was pale and thin, her grey hair straight and cut in a twenties-style bob.

‘And who might this be?’ was her greeting as Tony ushered Kathy, rather nervously she thought, into the room. The woman spoke with an upper-class accent that Kathy was sure was put on.

‘This is Kathy, Mother.’

‘Kathy who?’

‘Kathy Burton. She – she’s a friend of Miss Robinson.’

‘Miss Robinson? You mean Miss Robinson at the store?’

‘That’s right.’

The woman’s thin lips curled with obvious disapproval. ‘And why have you brought her here, pray?’

‘I – she wanted to meet you.’

‘To meet me? Whatever for?’

Kathy stepped forward, plastered a smile on her face and held out her hand.

‘Tony and I have been going out together now for over seven months so I thought it was high time I met you. And Mr Kendall too, of course.’

There was a brief, fleeting glimpse of fury in Beatrice’s eyes and a tightening – if that were possible – of her thin lips. But only Kathy saw all this, for the next moment, Beatrice covered her face with her bony, wrinkled hands and let out a pathetic cry. ‘Oh, Anthony, how could you?’

‘Please don’t upset yourself, Mother. Kathy and I are just friends. We—’

‘We’re getting engaged,’ Kathy interrupted.

Now the woman let out a high-pitched wail and let her head fall back against the pillows. Tony hurried forward, almost pushing Kathy aside in his haste.

‘You’d better go,’ he muttered to Kathy as he bent over his mother. ‘She’s having one of her turns.’

‘I’m going nowhere,’ Kathy said firmly. ‘Are you calling the doctor?’

‘No, no,’ Beatrice protested weakly. ‘There’s no need. I just need rest and quiet. You’ve given me such a shock, Anthony. How could you do it?’ Her face crumpled and she dissolved into tears, dabbing at her cheeks with her lace handkerchief. ‘How could you become engaged without even telling me?’

Kathy noticed the word ‘me’ rather than ‘us’ and she was even more shocked and hurt when Tony cast an accusing look at her and said harshly, ‘I really think you’d better go, Kathy.’

Her only answer was to sit down in the armchair near the fire. ‘I said, “I’m going nowhere,” and I meant it.’

‘Please, Kathy . . .’

‘Anthony, my pills . . . They’re on my bedside table. I forgot to bring them down with me this morning.’