Across the Mersey. Annie Groves

to come up to the mark.’

      Bella gave her brother an angry look. She could do without that kind of comment, thank you very much.

      ‘Trixie’s just come in.’ Alan finished his drink, and started to stand up. ‘She’s on her own, so I’ll go and tell her to come and join us.’

      Immediately Bella made a grab for his jacket, hissing furiously, ‘You’ll do no such thing. What will people think? You’re with me. Let her go and find her own partner. Anyway,’ she told him, ‘I want to dance.’

      ‘Well, I want another drink. It’s your turn to get the drinks in, Seb. I’ll have another double.’

      ‘What would you like to drink, Grace?’ Seb asked her, smiling.

      ‘Oh, a lemonade please.’

      ‘A lemonade,’ Bella mimicked unkindly. ‘What a baby you are, Grace. I’ll have a G and T, Seb.’

      Grace tried not to look as shocked as she felt. Neither of her parents ever drank spirits, her mother only having the occasional port and lemon or a sherry at Christmas-time and her father sticking to beer.

      ‘You really don’t look at all comfortable in that dress, Grace,’ Bella told. ‘It doesn’t suit you at all.’

      ‘Stop being such a cat,’ Charlie told his sister, unexpectedly coming to Grace’s rescue. ‘You’re just jealous because Grace’s dress looks better than yours.’

      Grace could have sunk through the floor when she saw the look of fury on Bella’s face, especially when Charlie’s comment made Alan look more closely at her, and announce in a slightly slurred voice, ‘Charlie’s right, Bella.’

      Grace didn’t like her cousin’s boyfriend, and even though she felt that Bella was behaving very badly, she still felt sorry for her.

      ‘So you’re going to train as a nurse, then?’

      Grace nodded.

      They had just finished eating their buffet meal, and she and Seb were alone at the table, Charlie having gone to join some friends at the bar whilst Bella and Alan were dancing.

      ‘I didn’t think that I’d be able to, not even when Sister Harris said that she wanted to put me forward, not with the twins still being at school and our Luke only an apprentice, but then Mum said she’d got a bit put by and Dad said that the country would be needing more nurses if there was to be a war,’ Grace told him, her tongue slightly loosened by the shandy Charlie had insisted she have to drink.

      Seb deduced from Grace’s artless confidence that her parents were not in as comfortable circumstances as her cousins’ family were. He had seen how both her cousins, but especially Bella, looked down on her, although in his opinion she was worth ten of the other girl.

      Seb had no particular liking for the Parkers, but he had been grateful to them for putting him up whilst he was attending the local military hospital and waiting to be pronounced fit for duty.

      He knew that both Alan’s parents, but especially his mother, wanted Alan to drop Bella and go back to his previous girlfriend, Trixie, and it was equally obvious to him that Bella wasn’t going to give Alan up without a fight.

      ‘I’m sorry I can’t ask you to dance,’ he apologised to Grace. He was indeed sorry, for he would have loved the opportunity to hold her close. She really was the most adorable girl. It was perhaps just as well that he would be going back to join his unit soon.

      * * *

      Bella was in a foul mood. So far Alan had determinedly ignored every attempt she had made to bring the conversation round to the subject of their engagement. To make matters worse, now, whilst he was dancing with her, instead of holding her close as she was trying to get him to do, he was actually looking at Trixie. And there was Grace, whom she had only invited to come tonight out of pity, looking as though she was having the time of her life.

      ‘What are you doing?’ Bella demanded as Alan released her the second the music stopped, turning away from her.

      ‘I’m going to go and ask Trixie to dance,’ he answered her truculently.

      Charlie had been plying him with double G and Ts all evening and now, as well as being slightly unsteady on his feet, his face was flushed and his behaviour belligerent. Bella could see her chance to achieve her goal slipping away from her. She looked round for Charlie. He was standing at the bar. She sent him a significant look, which he acknowledged by lifting his glass.

      ‘Why don’t you ask her later?’ Bella suggested, forcing her lips into what she hoped was a sweet smile, before adding coaxingly, ‘It’s so hot in here. Why don’t we go outside? We haven’t been alone together all evening.’ She moved closer to him, her voice softly suggestive.

      Alan hesitated, still looking at Trixie, who, to Bella’s relief, was now getting up to dance with someone.

      ‘I suppose so,’ Alan agreed unenthusiastically.

      ‘Me and Alan are just slipping outside for a bit of fresh air,’ Bella informed Grace almost aggressively, for once forgetting to use the ‘posh’ voice she normally favoured, and sounding far more like the Bella Grace remembered from when they had been much younger. Bella was holding on to Alan’s arm, determined to make sure that he didn’t escape from her.

      ‘Oh, Bella, do you think you should?’ Grace whispered. ‘Only Alan seems to have had a lot to drink.’

      ‘Like I just said, I need some fresh air,’ Bella insisted, glaring at her. Was Grace stupid or what? Couldn’t she take a hint? Didn’t her cousin understand that she wanted to be alone with Alan?

      ‘I’ll come with you, if you like.’

      Bella was furious. Grace was a stupid interfering prissy nobody. Her mother had been right to tell her not to invite her. Grace was already turning towards the exit and Bella seized her chance. Another few seconds and Alan would cotton on to what she had said and he’d be off to stand at the bar and watch his precious Trixie. Well, Bella wasn’t having that! Grace needed to be stopped. Deliberately Bella brought her heel down on the hem of Grace’s silk gown and kept it there so that when Grace tried to walk towards the door, one of the seams in the delicate panelling of the skirt ripped under the strain.

      Grace gazed down at the tear in the back of her dress in shocked disbelief. Bella was shrugging and saying petulantly that it was her own fault for borrowing a dress that was too long for her and that she wasn’t going to be blamed for the damage to it.

      ‘Come on,’ she commanded Alan firmly, ignoring Grace’s distress. ‘Let’s go outside.’

      Grace’s eyes filled with tears. Where the seam had given way along one of the pretty bias-cut inserts in the skirt the fabric was torn and frayed in a way that she could see immediately was beyond mending.

      Seb watched sympathetically. He was pretty sure that Bella had damaged Grace’s frock deliberately.

      ‘It may not be as bad as it looks,’ he tried to comfort her as he tactfully led her back to their table out of sight of the curious glances she was attracting. ‘I believe the Singer sewing machine can work wonders.’

      Grace shook her head, beyond comfort. ‘It can’t be mended; the silk is too frayed. It isn’t my dress.’ Fresh tears welled in her eyes at the enormity of her predicament.

      Discreetly Seb passed her a clean white handkerchief. ‘I’m sure your friend will understand.’

      Grace shook her head and gave a small sob, and burst out, ‘I should never have worn it. Oh, I so wish that I had not. I knew it was wrong, and it serves me right that this has happened.’

      Seb frowned. She was clearly very distressed, so much so that his protective instincts were automatically aroused.

      ‘Your friend may be upset, but—’

      ‘You don’t understand. I’ve done a really