Across the Mersey. Annie Groves

you are, you two,’ Grace smiled, handing the twins a bag of broken biscuits she had bought on her way home. ‘It’s them iced gems you like and some other iced fancies.’

      ‘Now don’t you go eating those before you’ve had your teas,’ Jean warned them.

      Grace pulled a face and said, ‘Sorry, Mum, I should have waited and given them to them later.’

      ‘It’s all right, love,’ Jean assured her eldest daughter, as the twins opened the back door and hurried out into the garden. ‘It was a kind thought to treat them. You’re a good girl, Grace.’

      At her mother’s praise Grace’s eyes stung with tears. She went over to her and hugged her tightly.

      ‘Everyone’s talking about what might happen if it does come to war, Mum. One of the women from Foundation Garments was crying her eyes out in the cloakroom today,’ cos she was having to get her kiddies ready to be evacuated.’

      Jean looked through the kitchen window at the 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 her heart, 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, but hers 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?’ Grace asked.

      ‘Only that she’s working hard and that there’s a lot of sunshine. But then she’s never been one to say very much, unless it’s to make a bit of a joke of things. Oh, that’s your dad and Luke back, and they’ll be wanting their teas. Go and call the twins in for us, will you, love?’

      ‘Teatime, you two. And you’d better make sure you eat it otherwise you’ll get me into trouble,’ Grace warned her siblings, ‘and then I won’t bring you any more biscuits.’

      ‘Aww, Grace.’ Sasha pulled a face whilst Lou giggled and demanded, ‘Look at this, Grace,’ and then licked one of the iced gems and stuck it on her face. ‘If I go to school like this do you think Miss Richards will send me home sick?’

      ‘More like she’ll keep you behind and have you writing out lines,’ Grace warned her, grimacing when Louise removed the biscuit and sucked the icing off before eating the biscuit base.

      ‘Come on, and don’t forget to wash your hands.’

      ‘What’s this about you telling folk we’re on the breadline?’

      Jean frowned at the grim note in Sam’s voice. It was rare for him to get angry with his children, especially Grace, who had always been such an eager-to-please girl, but Jean could see that he was angry now.

      Grace put down her knife and fork, her stomach tensing. ‘I never said that, Dad.’

      Ignoring her, Sam continued, ‘Captain Allen came to see me today. He said as how Sister Harris had told him she’d recommended that you should train as a nurse but that you’d said that your dad was too poor to pay for your training.’

      Jean looked anxiously from her husband’s face to her daughter’s.

      Grace flushed and bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Dad; I didn’t mean to do anything wrong, but—’

      ‘Well, you can go back and tell her that I’ve said you’d no business talking to her about our private family business.’

      ‘I’m sure Grace didn’t mean any harm, Sam,’ Jean tried to intercede.

      ‘Mebbe not, but she’s caused plenty.’

      Pushing back her chair, Grace stood up, demanding shakily, ‘Well, what was I supposed to say? You’ve always told us we’ve got to tell the truth and with Sister Harris saying that she was going to put me forward for training …’

      Unable to finish her sentence, Grace turned and ran out of the room and up the stairs in tears.

      Everyone round the table had gone silent.

      Sam pushed away his plate. ‘I’m going to the allotment.’

      ‘All right, you two, no leaving this table until you’ve finished your teas,’ Jean told the twins, smiling gratefully at Luke as he continued to eat.

      She had to wait until Luke had gone out to his ARP meeting and the twins were back outside in the garden before she could go up to Grace.

      ‘I’m sorry,