A Mother’s Blessing

‘Oh, yeah? As if we’d believe that,’ Irene teased him, but Molly could see that she wasn’t averse to the suggestion.

‘Well, just you remember before you go introducing us to anyone that we’re respectable girls and dancing is all we shall be doing,’ June told him sternly.

‘Auntie Elsie would have me hide if I was to say anything else. She thinks of you and Molly as part of the family,’ Eddie assured her, before he disappeared into the crowd of young people now filling the dance hall.

Within five minutes he was back, along with half a dozen other young men, all slightly bashful but very eager to be introduced to the girls.

‘How about you and me being the first up on the floor, Molly?’ Eddie asked her with a big grin.

Molly laughed back at him. It had been Eddie, years ago, when they had all been children, who had been her partner at the dancing lessons they had had at the church hall in preparation for the annual Christmas party.

‘Just so long as you don’t tread on my toes,’ she agreed.

‘Well, I can’t pull the ribbons out of your hair any more, can I?’ Eddie laughed as he led her onto the floor, adding, ‘But I promise I won’t let anyone put any worms down your back.’

‘Oh, do you remember that too?’ Molly asked him eagerly, and then blushed slightly, as she realised that the music had started but she’d been too engrossed in their reminiscences to notice. As though he sensed her self-consciousness, Eddie gave her hand a small squeeze.

‘I remember what a game little kid you were, Molly – aye, and a pretty little thing as well.’

As he swung her into his arms, there was a look in his eyes that made Molly’s heart skip a beat. And when the band slowed into a new number and the lights dimmed, Molly didn’t object when Eddie slipped his arm round her waist and drew her closer.

He smelled of Pears soap, the skin on his hands rough against her own softer flesh, just as the muscles of his thighs felt so much harder than hers as he pulled her into his body.

However, when the dance ended and they returned to their table, June gave them both a baleful look and demanded sharply, ‘Why aren’t you wearing your engagement ring, Molly?’

Molly’s face burned. She had forgotten all about her ring, which she didn’t like wearing because of the greenish mark it left on her finger. But June’s tone of voice made it sound as though she had deliberately chosen not to wear it.

‘It’s all right, June,’ Eddie said promptly and easily. ‘I’ve already heard from Aunt Elsie that you and Molly are both spoken for now.’

Molly gave him a grateful look for rescuing her from her elder sister’s disapproval and her own forgetfulness.

‘I didn’t mean to forget about my ring,’ she told him quickly when he insisted on her getting up for another dance.

‘You don’t need to tell me that, Molly,’ Eddie reassured her. ‘I know you well enough to know you’re not the kind of girl who’d cheat on a lad. I just wish I’d had the gumption to come courtin’ you before Johnny did.’

Molly’s face burned even hotter. He was just teasing her, that was all, she told herself. She had always got on well with Eddie, with his ready smile and twinkling blue eyes. He was fun and he made her laugh, and that was why she felt so much happier and more comfortable being held in his arms than she had ever felt being held in Johnny’s. Eddie, she knew instinctively, was not the kind to press a girl for something she was not ready to give.

Johnny! She almost missed a step, causing Eddie to look down at her.

‘I was just thinking about Johnny,’ she told him honestly when he asked her if she was all right. ‘It’s horrible knowing there’s going to be a war, but not knowing when it’s going to happen. It feels a bit like waking up in the morning used to feel when it was Mr Roberts’s arithmetic lesson that day, only worse. You sort of forget about it for a while but then when you remember …’ She gave a small shiver.

‘Aye, I know what you mean,’ Eddie agreed soberly. ‘The Government is going to be using the merchant navy to carry supplies and we’ve all been warned that Jerry submarines are going to be after us, trying to stop us.’

‘Oh, Eddie …’

‘I shouldn’t have told you that,’ he said gruffly. ‘Not a word to me auntie about it, Molly, promise? ’Cos she’ll worry herself sick about it, and she’s got enough to worry about with Uncle John and our Jim working on the gridiron.’

‘I promise,’ she assured him solemnly, suddenly feeling very grown up and mature, not a girl any more but a confidante and an equal in this war that would soon be engulfing them all.

The Molly she had been last Christmas could not have imagined that the Molly she was now would be learning to drive, and going to first-aid classes, making notes on what to do if she was called upon to help out in an emergency. Being in the WVS wasn’t just a matter of making cups of tea and knitting socks for soldiers, Molly acknowledged proudly. It was proper war work for women, and she was proud to be one of those women.

‘When do you go back to your ship?’ she asked Eddie.

‘Tomorrow,’ he told her, and then added determinedly, as he swung her round into another dance, ‘So tonight I am going to mek sure I enjoy meself.’

‘It’s a good band, but I’m gettin’ hot so shall we sit this one out?’

They had been dancing together non-stop for nearly an hour, so Molly nodded her head, fanning herself with her hand as Eddie led her back to the table.

All around them, Molly could see young men in uniform, holding their girls as tightly as they could, so determined to enjoy every minute they had together that the sight of them brought a lump to Molly’s throat. Some couples were even embracing, something that would never have happened normally in such a public place without the management intervening, but tonight, instead of reacting disapprovingly to such intimacy, onlookers were viewing them with sympathy and understanding.

‘Our Jim seems well taken with that Jean, who works with you,’ Eddie commented to Molly, looking over at his cousin slow-dancing with Molly’s work pal.

‘Jean Hughes? She’s really nice,’ Molly told him.

‘Where’s she from?’ Eddie asked. ‘I’ve not seen her around before.’

‘Her family’s from down near the docks.’ When Eddie started to frown, Molly told him quickly, ‘The flower streets, Eddie, and she’s a very respectable sort. I like her.’

‘A Welshie, is she?’ Eddie nodded his head approvingly.

June came up to join them, flushed and out of breath from dancing.

‘The last time I came dancing here it was with my Frank.’

‘Aye, and you’ll be dancing with him at your own weddin’ soon,’ Eddie replied, trying to keep her spirits high.

‘Yes, I will, an’ all,’ June agreed. ‘I can’t wait for my first dance as Mrs Frank Brookes.’

It was gone eleven when they finally left the Grafton, Molly laughing, her face flushed with the pleasure of dancing and the warmth of the camaraderie and laughter they had all shared, even if at times she had felt as though the frantic giddiness with which they were throwing themselves into the fun of the evening masked an awareness of what lay ahead that none of them wanted to acknowledge. It was almost as though they felt they had to enjoy themselves whilst they still could, Molly admitted to herself uneasily.

Eddie insisted on walking them home – Jim having mysteriously disappeared, along with Jean.

‘Well, I suppose it will be all right walking home with you at this time of night – no one’s going to gossip about it if they do see us with you,’ June acknowledged, ‘seeing as you and Jim are the nearest thing me and Molly have got to brothers.’

‘Come on then, sis,’ Eddie teased her, offering each girl an arm and then pretending to strut along the street like a comic turn, making Molly giggle and protest.

‘Oh, give over, do, Eddie. You’ll give me a stitch.’

‘Fancy stopping at the chippy?’ Eddie asked them, nodding in the direction of Harry Scott’s chip shop up ahead of them.

‘Go on then,’ June agreed.

The three of them waited their turn in the queue whilst Hilda, Harry’s wife, removed a new batch of chips from the fryer, testing one between her forefinger and thumb before expertly shaking them free of fat. The chips were the best in Liverpool and people flocked from the opposite side of the city to get their fish supper.

‘Three penn’orths of mix, please,’ Eddie ordered when it was their turn.

Nodding her head, Hilda placed three portions of chips on separate pages of the Liverpool Echo, then took the huge pan of mushy peas off the gas stove, and scooped half a ladleful out onto each pile of chips.

‘Salt and vinegar?’ she asked.

All three of them nodded.

Quickly wrapping their chips in another sheet of newspaper, she handed them over.

Now intent on eating their chips and peas, they slowed their conversation to match their pace as they headed for Chestnut Close.

The cul-de-sac was in darkness, and their chips long finished by the time they finally reached number 78. Knowing that Eddie was going to be rejoining his ship in the morning, Molly wanted to say something to tell him that she was conscious of the danger he would be facing once war came – that though she may be safe at home at the moment, she knew that things would change for ever for them all once hostilities were declared. But at the same time she was reluctant to spoil the happiness of the evening by reminding them all of what lay ahead.

Whilst she hesitated, not sure what to do, Eddie turned to June and hugged her, kissing her on the cheek. And then, having released June, he turned back to Molly. She had been in his arms for a good part of the evening whilst they danced, so she had no qualms about being held tightly by him now. But when he bent his head to kiss her, it was not with the same brotherly peck on the cheek he had given June, but a lingering kiss on her mouth that took her by surprise.

She looked up at him, her eyes wide with surprise and confusion. In his she could see a mixture of emotions. With the shock of an icy cold finger pressed against her spine, she recognised that what she was seeing in his eyes were the feelings of a man about to face the reality of war and death. With a mix of compassion, tenderness and a wholly female response to his need, she kissed him back, shyly and inexpertly, as though somehow her kissing him was a kind of magic talisman that would protect him.

‘I’m off early in the morning,’ Eddie told them both gruffly as he released Molly. ‘Keep an eye on me auntie for me, won’t yer?’

Both girls nodded. Molly hoped it wouldn’t be too long before he was back home again, safe – and in her arms.

‘I really enjoyed it tonight,’ Molly told June sleepily when they were both in bed. ‘Did you?’

‘I’d have enjoyed it a sight more if my Frank had been there,’ June responded, immediately making Molly guiltily aware of the fact that she had not given Johnny much thought at all, apart from when she had spotted his sisters. As for the kiss she had given Eddie … Her face burned afresh, not just because she had given it, but also because she had enjoyed giving it.

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