Read Online Across the Mersey by Annie Groves - Free Book Online
Authors: Annie Groves
Tags: Fiction, Family Life
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kiddies ready to be evacuated.’
Jean looked through the kitchen window atthe twins sitting on the double swing Sam had built for them when they were younger. Lou’s arm was round Sasha’s waist, and their heads were together as they examined the contents of the biscuit bag.
‘Me and your dad have talked about what we should do for the best for the twins, and your dad reckons that we’ll be safe enough up here, seeing as we’re a fair distance from the docks and that. It’s like I told him, I couldn’t let them go off on their own, not for anything I couldn’t, even though they reckon that they as will be taking the kiddies in will look after them like they was their own. And I’m not minded to leave your dad and you and Luke neither.’
‘Bella said that Auntie Vi said that Jack was to be evacuated.’
‘Well, that’s their business, I suppose,’
Grace could tell from her mother’s expression that she didn’t approve but she also knew that her mother would not want to criticise her sister openly.
Jean glanced back through the window. The twins were engrossed in whatever it was they were saying to one another. Had she and Vi ever been that close? She supposed they must have been. She hoped when her two grew up they didn’t grow apart like she and Vi had done.
She looked round her small kitchen. Vi would turn her nose up at it, but Jean loved her neat small house and all the memories it held. Everything in her home had a special place in herheart, and an equally precious memory attached to it.
One of the first things Sam had done when they had first moved in was put a lovely new gas geyser on the wall next to the sink so that she could have hot water whenever she needed it. There’d already been one in the bathroom over the bath, although now they’d got a nice new electric immersion heater in its own cupboard, put in for them by one of Sam’s pals in the Salvage Corps.
Only last year they’d repainted the kitchen in a pretty bright yellow, and Sam had put down new linoleum, a piece he’d got cheap when they were doing a salvage job at a warehouse – a lovely pattern it had on it too, and there’d been enough left over to do the bathroom as well.
She’d managed to get the end of a roll of fabric to make new curtains: yellow with a big red strawberry pattern on it.
She’d been desperate for a proper dining-room table and some chairs once the twins were out of their high chairs, and she’d been thrilled to bits when Sam had taken her to a second-hand shop to show her the oak table he’d seen there, especially when the shop owner had shown her the two leaves that pulled out to double its size. A set of chairs being sold off as salvage had joined the table in the back room, and then a sideboard. She and Sam had reupholstered the chairs themselves.
Vi’s house might be full of expensive things, buthers was full of love, Jean told herself stoutly, and she’d sooner have that any day of the week.
‘Set the table for me, will you, Grace? Your dad and our Luke will be in soon. I’ve got a nice bit of ham, the last bit on the bone so Mr Gregory let me have it a bit cheaper. There’s enough for tomorrow’s sandwiches.’
‘I’ll just run upstairs and get changed, Mum, and then I’ll come and give you a hand,’ Grace told her.
She’d been debating whether or not to say anything to her mother about what Sister Harris had said to her. She desperately wanted her parents to know how Sister Harris had complimented her but at the same time she didn’t want them thinking she was upset because she couldn’t go nursing.
Back downstairs, she started to set the table for their evening meal. The radio was on and when Gracie Fields starting singing, Jean sighed. She had been washing a lettuce but now she stopped, turning off the cold tap and turning to Grace.
‘I wonder how your Auntie Francine is getting on in America.’
‘Didn’t she say anything in the card she sent for your birthday?’
Jean looked through the kitchen window atthe twins sitting on the double swing Sam had built for them when they were younger. Lou’s arm was round Sasha’s waist, and their heads were together as they examined the contents of the biscuit bag.
‘Me and your dad have talked about what we should do for the best for the twins, and your dad reckons that we’ll be safe enough up here, seeing as we’re a fair distance from the docks and that. It’s like I told him, I couldn’t let them go off on their own, not for anything I couldn’t, even though they reckon that they as will be taking the kiddies in will look after them like they was their own. And I’m not minded to leave your dad and you and Luke neither.’
‘Bella said that Auntie Vi said that Jack was to be evacuated.’
‘Well, that’s their business, I suppose,’
Grace could tell from her mother’s expression that she didn’t approve but she also knew that her mother would not want to criticise her sister openly.
Jean glanced back through the window. The twins were engrossed in whatever it was they were saying to one another. Had she and Vi ever been that close? She supposed they must have been. She hoped when her two grew up they didn’t grow apart like she and Vi had done.
She looked round her small kitchen. Vi would turn her nose up at it, but Jean loved her neat small house and all the memories it held. Everything in her home had a special place in herheart, and an equally precious memory attached to it.
One of the first things Sam had done when they had first moved in was put a lovely new gas geyser on the wall next to the sink so that she could have hot water whenever she needed it. There’d already been one in the bathroom over the bath, although now they’d got a nice new electric immersion heater in its own cupboard, put in for them by one of Sam’s pals in the Salvage Corps.
Only last year they’d repainted the kitchen in a pretty bright yellow, and Sam had put down new linoleum, a piece he’d got cheap when they were doing a salvage job at a warehouse – a lovely pattern it had on it too, and there’d been enough left over to do the bathroom as well.
She’d managed to get the end of a roll of fabric to make new curtains: yellow with a big red strawberry pattern on it.
She’d been desperate for a proper dining-room table and some chairs once the twins were out of their high chairs, and she’d been thrilled to bits when Sam had taken her to a second-hand shop to show her the oak table he’d seen there, especially when the shop owner had shown her the two leaves that pulled out to double its size. A set of chairs being sold off as salvage had joined the table in the back room, and then a sideboard. She and Sam had reupholstered the chairs themselves.
Vi’s house might be full of expensive things, buthers was full of love, Jean told herself stoutly, and she’d sooner have that any day of the week.
‘Set the table for me, will you, Grace? Your dad and our Luke will be in soon. I’ve got a nice bit of ham, the last bit on the bone so Mr Gregory let me have it a bit cheaper. There’s enough for tomorrow’s sandwiches.’
‘I’ll just run upstairs and get changed, Mum, and then I’ll come and give you a hand,’ Grace told her.
She’d been debating whether or not to say anything to her mother about what Sister Harris had said to her. She desperately wanted her parents to know how Sister Harris had complimented her but at the same time she didn’t want them thinking she was upset because she couldn’t go nursing.
Back downstairs, she started to set the table for their evening meal. The radio was on and when Gracie Fields starting singing, Jean sighed. She had been washing a lettuce but now she stopped, turning off the cold tap and turning to Grace.
‘I wonder how your Auntie Francine is getting on in America.’
‘Didn’t she say anything in the card she sent for your birthday?’
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