Read Online Sing as We Go by Margaret Dickinson - Free Book Online

You young girls should learn to keep your eyes and ears open, but your mouths very firmly closed. Whatever you hear in the course of your work either about other members of staff or about customers, you should keep to yourself. It doesn’t do to gossip, it really doesn’t.’
    With that Jemima stood up and began to clear the table, crashing the plates together with swift angry movements.
    Kathy bowed her head, dismayed that she had angered the woman who was being so kind to her. She said no more, silently vowing never to raise such a topic of conversation with Jemima again. But in truth the older woman’s very reticence had awoken a curiosity in Kathy.
    There was some mystery about the handsome Mr Kendall and Miss Curtis, and Kathy was determined to find out what it was.

 

    Seven
    Almost three weeks after Kathy’s arrival in Lincoln, Amy came to stay for the weekend, arriving on Friday evening when Kathy and Jemima got home from work. Taffy, ears flattened, fled the kitchen with a loud rattle of his cat-flap and retired to the washhouse at the bottom of the yard in a huff. All of a sudden there were too many people invading his domain!
    ‘What fun we’ll have!’ Amy trilled, hugging her friend.
    ‘That’s as may be,’ Jemima put in tartly. ‘You may be on holiday, but Kathy has a job of work to do. And I don’t want her appearing in the department bleary-eyed and looking like something the cat’s dragged in.’ She paused and looked about her. ‘And talking of cats, where’s Taffy?’
    The two girls glanced at each other and stifled their laughter.
    ‘I – I think he went out,’ Kathy said, keeping her face straight with a supreme effort and vowing at the same time to make a big fuss of the animal the moment Amy left.
    ‘Too many people about for his liking,’ Jemima murmured, and the two girls were left in no doubt that she shared her pet’s opinion.
    ‘We’ll go to the pictures tomorrow night,’ Amy said. ‘I’ll have a look what’s on when I go into town in the morning while you’re at work.’
    ‘It’ll be in the Echo ,’ Jemima remarked. She reached down at the side of her chair and held out the local evening paper.
    ‘What time do you finish work, Kathy?’ Amy asked, scanning the pages for the advertisement or a review of the city’s weekend entertainment.
    ‘Seven on a Friday and Saturday.’
    Amy pulled a face but forbore to make any comment in front of her aunt.
    ‘Ah, here we are.’ There was a slight pause, then she smiled. ‘We’re all right. The performance at the Regal is continuous from two o’clock until eleven, so we can just go in when you’re ready and see the programme round.’
    ‘What’s on?’
    ‘ The Texans with Randolph Scott and Trouble in Panama .’
    ‘That first one sounds like a cowboy picture,’ Jemima murmured.
    ‘Oh, I say!’ Amy squeaked with delight. ‘Tyrone Power’s at the Central. He’s dishy! Oh, do let’s go and see him, Kathy. Please?’
    Kathy smiled at her friend’s girlish excitement. ‘Whatever you want. I’ve only ever been to the pictures once before, so I really don’t mind what I see. What film is it?’
    ‘ Marie Antoinette with Norma Shearer. It says it’s a “spectacular drama of a scandal that rocked the world”.’
    ‘She gets her head chopped off in the end, doesn’t she? Very cheerful, I must say.’
    ‘But Kathy – Tyrone Power!’
    ‘All right, all right,’ Kathy laughed and held out her hands in submission. ‘We’ll go. Is it a continuous performance like the other one?’
    ‘Er – not sure, but I expect they’ll all be the same, won’t they?’
    ‘Well, we’ll give it a try.’
    ‘And if we go tomorrow night, we can have a lie in on Sunday morning . . .’
    ‘Oh no, you can’t,’ her aunt said. ‘You’ll be up to come to morning service in the cathedral with me.’
    Amy’s jaw dropped. ‘The cathedral? You go to church at the cathedral ?’
    ‘Of course. Why ever not?’ Jemima