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Authors: Annie Groves
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inside of her dress pocket, and then addressed her aunt briskly in her best no-nonsense voice.
‘Visiting time’s over now, Auntie, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave, otherwise we shall both be in trouble with Sister.’
‘What?’ Somehow, before Vi could voice her indignation, her niece was walking her down past Charles’s bed and through the ward doors, and saying calmly to her, ‘I’ll tell Mum that you were asking after her.’
Really, the modern generation of young women were most disrespectful to their elders and betters. She would certainly have something to say to Jean about her daughter’s behaviour the next time she saw her.
As she left the hospital Vi pressed a handkerchief to her mouth in an effort to keep out the dust. How foolish some people were walking around without their gas masks. Vi never went anywhere without hers. How dreadful Liverpool looked with its bombed-out buildings and its shabby citizens. Thank heavens she did not live here any more. She couldn’t wait to get back to Wallasey. She just hoped there wouldn’t be any delays with the ferry now that one of them had been sunk by the Germans. Such a nuisance, you’d really have thought that someone would have made sure that the ferry boats were properly protected.
Poor Charles. He had taken his bad news so well, even being gentlemanly enough to suggest putting off the wedding for a year to give Daphne time to grow accustomed to the idea of being married to a serving soldier. How noble he was. Fortunately she had managed to make him see that Daphne would notwant him to make such a sacrifice. She would have to make sure that Daphne’s mother understood just how noble he had wanted to be, of course, when she telephoned her with the sad news that Charles was not after all going to be discharged from the army.
‘So what do you think we should do then?’
Lou and Sasha had just been told that, reluctantly, Lewis’s was going to have to let them go – news that wasn’t unexpected but that now meant that they would have to find new jobs. Now they were in the cloakroom, changing their shoes and collecting their cardigans.
‘Well, we can’t join the ATS or anything like that. We’re not old enough yet. Dad would have to sign the forms ’cos we aren’t twenty-one and you know that he wouldn’t.’
Sam was a loving and protective father, and it was true that he would not want to see them enlisting and going into uniform, preferring to keep them close to home. Their mother would support him in that decision as well.
‘We could lie about our ages. I heard of someone who did that and—’
‘But they probably looked older; we don’t even look sixteen properly,’ Sasha pointed out to her twin.
It was always Lou who came up with the ideas and Sasha who pointed out the pitfalls in them.
But now it was Sasha who said quietly, ‘We could always try to find out if—’
And Lou who stopped her with a quick, ‘No, we can’t do that. I know we said that we wanted to join ENSA but we can’t now, not after what happened. It wouldn’t be fair to Mum and Dad.’
‘No,’ Sasha agreed.
The twins had been mad on music and dancing for as long as they and their family could remember. They had driven their father to distraction with the music they played upstairs in their bedroom on their gramophone player as they practised the dance routines they had seen at the pictures, adapting them and even making up their own routines – and they were good, they both knew that.
With their mum’s youngest sister, their auntie Francine, already a singer and a member of ENSA, they had reasoned that if they could just get a bit of stage experience themselves then they could end up famous, and even perhaps go to Hollywood and be in pictures themselves.
But things had gone badly wrong, and five nights ago, on the night that should have been their big moment, they had quarrelled very badly. Whilst Liverpool was being bombed they
‘Visiting time’s over now, Auntie, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave, otherwise we shall both be in trouble with Sister.’
‘What?’ Somehow, before Vi could voice her indignation, her niece was walking her down past Charles’s bed and through the ward doors, and saying calmly to her, ‘I’ll tell Mum that you were asking after her.’
Really, the modern generation of young women were most disrespectful to their elders and betters. She would certainly have something to say to Jean about her daughter’s behaviour the next time she saw her.
As she left the hospital Vi pressed a handkerchief to her mouth in an effort to keep out the dust. How foolish some people were walking around without their gas masks. Vi never went anywhere without hers. How dreadful Liverpool looked with its bombed-out buildings and its shabby citizens. Thank heavens she did not live here any more. She couldn’t wait to get back to Wallasey. She just hoped there wouldn’t be any delays with the ferry now that one of them had been sunk by the Germans. Such a nuisance, you’d really have thought that someone would have made sure that the ferry boats were properly protected.
Poor Charles. He had taken his bad news so well, even being gentlemanly enough to suggest putting off the wedding for a year to give Daphne time to grow accustomed to the idea of being married to a serving soldier. How noble he was. Fortunately she had managed to make him see that Daphne would notwant him to make such a sacrifice. She would have to make sure that Daphne’s mother understood just how noble he had wanted to be, of course, when she telephoned her with the sad news that Charles was not after all going to be discharged from the army.
‘So what do you think we should do then?’
Lou and Sasha had just been told that, reluctantly, Lewis’s was going to have to let them go – news that wasn’t unexpected but that now meant that they would have to find new jobs. Now they were in the cloakroom, changing their shoes and collecting their cardigans.
‘Well, we can’t join the ATS or anything like that. We’re not old enough yet. Dad would have to sign the forms ’cos we aren’t twenty-one and you know that he wouldn’t.’
Sam was a loving and protective father, and it was true that he would not want to see them enlisting and going into uniform, preferring to keep them close to home. Their mother would support him in that decision as well.
‘We could lie about our ages. I heard of someone who did that and—’
‘But they probably looked older; we don’t even look sixteen properly,’ Sasha pointed out to her twin.
It was always Lou who came up with the ideas and Sasha who pointed out the pitfalls in them.
But now it was Sasha who said quietly, ‘We could always try to find out if—’
And Lou who stopped her with a quick, ‘No, we can’t do that. I know we said that we wanted to join ENSA but we can’t now, not after what happened. It wouldn’t be fair to Mum and Dad.’
‘No,’ Sasha agreed.
The twins had been mad on music and dancing for as long as they and their family could remember. They had driven their father to distraction with the music they played upstairs in their bedroom on their gramophone player as they practised the dance routines they had seen at the pictures, adapting them and even making up their own routines – and they were good, they both knew that.
With their mum’s youngest sister, their auntie Francine, already a singer and a member of ENSA, they had reasoned that if they could just get a bit of stage experience themselves then they could end up famous, and even perhaps go to Hollywood and be in pictures themselves.
But things had gone badly wrong, and five nights ago, on the night that should have been their big moment, they had quarrelled very badly. Whilst Liverpool was being bombed they
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