Polly's War Page 2

  ‘What the hangment are you up to, dilly-dallying in the gutter? I don’t pay you for day dreaming.’ Startled by the sound of the sharp voice so close to her ear, Lucy dropped the bucket, which rolled noisily away.

  Minnie Hopkins stood arms akimbo, brows beetled, small mouth sucked into empty gums. Her false teeth, kept largely for best, would be reposing in a glass on the bamboo table by her high brass bedstead. She’d slip them in later, when she deigned to put in an appearance at the street party, for all she’d stick chiefly to the jellies. In honour of the occasion she was wearing her best brown chenille frock with a marquisette clasp at the vee of the collar. Above this was tucked a lace front, that hid the scrawny neck as high as the chin. She looked like a miniature Victorian schoolmistress, holding a broom handle in lieu of a cane. Minnie Hopkins was famous for her battles with her yard brush. It was said that she’d chased away every likely suitor with it, which was why at well into her sixties, she was still unwed.

  You don’t pay me at all, your nephew does, you bad tempered old goat, Lucy longed to say as she gave chase to the bucket which seemed set on rolling all the way to the bottom of Pansy street. Moments later, marching down the narrow lobby into the back kitchen, she deposited brushes, bucket and cleaning materials under the sink wondering, not for the first time, how the old bat’s nephew could tolerate her as well as he did. He must be hard up, to manage to stop on with an aunt as mad as this one. Or else he had a patience born either of long practice or budding sainthood.

  ‘I’ve done now. How about that cuppa?’

  ‘I don’t pay thee for idling over pots of tea neither.’

  ‘I thought it was you what wanted one.’ Cut her own nose off to spite her face, Lucy thought. Aloud she said, ‘I’ve plenty other jobs waiting for me when I get done here, so if you don’t want anything more, I’m off.’

  ‘Meaning yer doing me a favour by finding time to come at all, is that it?’

  ‘It’s always good to be appreciated,’ Lucy drily remarked, smiling politely and not quite meeting the sour gaze in case the old woman should interpret the merry glint in her hazel eyes as insolence and sack her on the spot. This had been threatened so often, that there were moments when Lucy almost wished she’d carry out the threat.

  Coming twice a week to clean this big draughty house with its seven high- ceilinged bedrooms and heavy Victorian furniture was no joy, and with more criticism than thanks at the end of it. But then Lucy would think of Sarah Jane and Sean, the rent and gas and other bills that had to be paid, war or no war and, as now, she’d bite her lip, placate and calm the quick-tempered old woman, and go home at least with a sense of pride that she was doing her bit without complaint.

  She’d made more money when she was working in munitions with Sal her sister-in-law, but that had meant leaving the children on their own too much. With cleaning, she could always take them with her if they were a bit off colour. And though it was hard work, she’d done all right, got a bit put by for a rainy day. Even so, she’d be glad enough for Tom to come home and take over this bread winning lark, so that she could tell Minnie Hopkins to stick her job and settle down to enjoying her children. What a treat that would be.

  ‘So where did you find money to pay for a party, eh?’ Minnie pulled out the bucket and cleaning materials that Lucy had just stowed away, and put them all back again in a different order. ‘Or have you a fancy man wi’ deep pockets tucked away some place?’

  ‘Oh, you badmouthed old ...’ Lucy stopped, seeing the glint of satisfaction in the old woman’s eyes. There was nothing Minnie Hopkins liked better than to stir up trouble but unlike many, Lucy had remained faithful to her husband throughout the duration so she refused to defend herself to this nasty minded old woman. ’We’ve all put in coupons. Which is more than you have, you mean old bat,’ she finished under her breath.

  ‘Go on, what am I?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Drat the woman for only being deaf when it suited her. Lucy yanked the curtain across the sink, nearly breaking the wire that held it. Her colour was high, though not nearly so high as her temper as she strode away, spine rigid.

  Minnie Hopkins, not one to be outdone, or miss the opportunity to have the last word, galloped after her for several paces along the passage. ‘Don’t you give me any lip, madam. You’re that sharp, you should take care not to cut yerself in the knife drawer. You can collect your cards for that bit of insolence, so don’t bother coming in tomorrow. There’ll be no job to come to.’

  ‘Well that suits me fine,’ Lucy staunchly replied, flinging her apron aside and slamming the vestibule door so hard the glass panel rattled. Once outside, all the fury drained out of her, leaving her weak and shaking with emotion. She had to go and sit on the kerbside for a minute and put her head in her hands while she wished, not for the first time, that her temper wasn’t quite so hot; inherited from her Irish mother, Polly Pride, no doubt. Oh lord, she’d done it now. What would her mam say?

  ‘By heck, a chap has to watch where he puts his feet on his own front doorstep these days. It’s that clean I could eat me dinner off it.’

  Lucy turned to greet the newcomer with a ready smile. She liked Michael Hopkins. He was a big, well-set-up sort of chap with a friendly open face, and a thatch of reddish-brown hair that hinted at a streak of Irish blood somewhere in his veins, descended no doubt, as her own family was, from one of the immigrant Irish who had come to work in Manchester during the last century. Not that he sounded Irish. He was as Lancashire as hot pot, and never short of a jokey remark.

  ‘Your aunt’s got a bit of brawn for your dinner,’ Lucy told him. ‘And you’d best take care you eat it all up.’

  He pulled a wry face. ‘Happen she thinks I need it,’ and with the last traces of her ill temper gone, Lucy laughed, tidying her bangs and wondering if she had any lipstick left on, for she hated to be caught looking anything less than her best.

  ‘If that’s the way of it, she must be blind as well as...’

  ‘Deaf? Daft? Or just plain cussed?’ He stood with his hands in his pockets, smiling down at her. ‘You and she been having another barny?’

  ‘I’ve been given me marching orders.’ Lucy screwed up her small face and rolled her eyes in a wicked parody of her employer.

  ‘Again?’

  ‘I reckon she means it this time. Says I’ve to collect me cards.’

  ‘I don’t think we’ve any cards to give you, have we?’

  Lucy gave a rueful sigh. ‘It’s me own fault. I was a bit rude to her. I’ve not to come tomorrow, she says.’

  ‘By heck, that’s serious. What’ll I do without you, Lucy? Who else could I get to come every day and face my aunt’s constant carping, yet still do her every bidding with the kind of tongue-biting patience you display.’

  ‘I didn’t bite me tongue hard enough today.’

  He grinned. ‘Let rip did you?’

  ‘She started it,’ Lucy protested, and then flushed with guilt at this childish remark.

  Michael came to sit beside her on the kerb, resting his elbows on his knees. Lucy cast a sideways glance at the strong biceps beneath the rolled up shirt sleeves, the flush of freckles and sheen of golden hair on his fore arms. ‘She doesn’t mean half what she says,’ he explained. ‘It’s only her way of blowing off steam. I reckon she just enjoys the drama of a good row. Livens a dull day.’

  Lucy gave a disbelieving snort. ‘She’s a nasty minded old... sorry but she’s got me all a-fluster. Accused me of having a fancy man. As if I would. What does she take me for? Tom could be home any day now. It’s ages since I’ve heard anything, but they say everyone’ll be home in a month or two.’

  ‘Ah,’ Michael attempted to look sympathetic but his heart squeezed with an odd sort of pain as he watched the way joy and sadness chased across her lovely face, flecks of gold sparkled in the hazel eyes one minute and clouded with uncertainty the next. Brown curls danced as if with a life of their own against the flushed curve of her cheek and he longed to r
each out and run his fingers through them, to kiss the rosy mouth, savour the softness of her against him. He knew for a fact that Tom Shackleton had rarely penned a line to his wife for the entire duration. Such a man did not, in Michael’s opinion, deserve to possess a lovely creature like Lucy if he couldn’t be bothered to treat her with more consideration. Pulling himself back under iron control, he glared solemnly at the setts in the road. ‘It won’t be easy for him Lucy, picking up the threads of civilian life again after so long away. He’ll feel a bit at odds for a while. I know I did.’

  Michael had been invalided out of the RAF in 1942, following a crash landing in a Lancaster bomber in which all the crew, bar him, were killed. He’d broken both legs which had left him with a limp, and suffered burns to his arms and chest, injuries which had taken a long time to heal. The guilt of finding himself alive while his mates were dead, never would. Consequently it was a subject he preferred to avoid since it had, at times, caused problems. Some folk could be less than kind when they saw a man walking around in civvies during wartime.

  ‘We’ll be fine and dandy,’ Lucy said, ‘given time, which we’ll have in plenty now this dratted war is over. Once Tom gets home I won’t need to go on me hands and knees scrubbing other folk’s mucky doorsteps.

  Michael managed a weak smile, trying to imagine an existence that didn’t contain the presence of this laughing, precious girl.

  ‘You’ll come to the party this afternoon?’ she asked.

  ‘Happen.’ His eyes on hers were thoughtful.

  ‘But you must. Everyone will be there, the whole street. There’s pies and sandwiches, jellies and all sorts of goodies. Even Mabel Radcliffe has contributed a whole ounce of butter and a plate of home-made sad-cake. What d’you think of that?’

  ‘Miracles will never cease. She’s not known for her generosity isn’t our Mabel.’ His blue eyes were twinkling now, no longer solemn.

  ‘Starts sharp at three.’ And so filled was she with the coming joys of a new life with her husband, that Lucy impulsively kissed him full on the lips, then wagged a finger teasingly in his face. ‘No arguing. Mam will have your guts for garters if you don’t show up.’

  ‘That settles it then,’ he agreed, needing to clear his throat before he could get the words out properly. ‘Your mam isn’t one to cross. I’ll be there.’

  Lucy drew in a deeply happy sigh and, giggling like the young girl she still was at heart, skipped off down the street, joining in a game of hopscotch on the way as if she truly were a child revelling in the joys of life, before reaching her own front door quite out of breath.

  Watching her go, Michael thought Tom Shackleton was a very lucky man.

  Chapter Two

  Polly Pride was waiting for her daughter at the front door and, snatching her arm, marched her straight into the kitchen, exasperation tight in her voice. ‘So its home you are at last, you little heathen. Will ye never learn to guard that devil tongue of yours? Whatever possessed you to risk losing such a fine job? Sure and you’ll be the death of me, so you will.’ The Irish in her always came out strong when Polly was agitated.

  ‘How did you know?’ Lucy gazed in mortification at her mother who stood, lips pursed, arms folded, disapproval oozing from every pore. She was a fine figure of a woman still, despite being very nearly fifty, which seemed tremendously old to twenty-eight year old Lucy. There wasn’t much she missed in Pansy Street but this was fast, even by her mother’s standards.

  ‘Didn’t Maisie Wright tell me while we were standing in the Co-op queue, waiting to collect our divvy. She witnessed the whole pandemonium.’ Polly considered owning up to her temper being due to the fact that she’d suffered the same fate, but pride prevented her.

  ‘She said some awful things about me cheating on Tom.’ Lucy’s eyes filled with a sudden gush of tears, whereupon Polly’s soft heart instantly melted and she wrapped her arms about her daughter.

  ‘Aw, m’cushla, I’m sure she didn’t mean it. I know cleaning is not what ye should be doing, a fine intelligent young woman such as yerself. And aren’t I in the same boat so who am I to throw the first stone?’ It all came out then about Polly’s employers laying off the women to make room for the returning service men. ‘I dare say it’s fair enough and we mustn’t fret. Now the war is over we’ll get the business up and running again so we will. Once our Benny is home.’

  Lucy felt a quick surge of irritation. Why was it always Benny who did the right thing and not her? ‘Our Benny might have his own ideas about that, Mam. Mebbe he won’t want to go back to cleaning and cutting carpets. Mebbe there won’t be enough work for him. The business has been closed for years. It’d be like starting all over again.’

  ‘Don’t talk soft. Aren’t folk just itching to buy carpets to smarten their drab homes? And won’t everything be grand for us then? I shall go looking for premises first thing in the morning, something small and cheap till we get up and running. The last thing we need is to be jobless.’ Her face clouded as she half glanced back over her shoulder down the lobby to the living room where she knew Charlie sat, reading the paper, as he’d no doubt been doing all day through no fault of his own. She dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘We need money coming in, me darlin’.’

  Lucy’s cheeks fired hot and red with evidence of her guilt. ‘I didn’t lose my job on purpose but that Minnie Hopkins has the muckiest mind in all of Manchester. She just got me paddy up, that’s all.’

  Polly snatched up a sharp knife and started hacking a fruit cake to pieces. Strictly speaking it wasn’t a fruit cake at all, since it consisted chiefly of dried egg and chopped prunes but she liked to think of it as such. She wagged the knife recklessly in her daughter’s face. ‘Seems to me you fly too easily into a paddy, so you do. You need to clip a peg on that sharp tongue of yours, madam.’

  ‘And where might I have got that from, d’you reckon?’

  For a while neither woman spoke as each relapsed into self-righteous silence, busying themselves preparing sandwiches for the party. Polly set two slices of bread and cheese together with a couple of pickles onto a small plate and handed them to Lucy. ‘Take that out to your Gran.’

  ‘Why me?’

  ‘Why not you?’

  Lucy carried the plate, together with a large mug of tea out to Big Flo who spent most days in the Anderson shelter that still occupied much of the back yard, waiting for the bomb that she daily expected would carry her off. She was back in the kitchen in seconds.

  ‘You should have stayed and made sure she ate it,’ Polly said.

  ‘Oh Mam. You molly-coddle her. What am I supposed to do? Ram it down her throat,’ and snatching up a plate of potted meat sandwiches, stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

  Polly found her legs were trembling so much she had to sit down. Why did she always find herself criticising Lucy, making it seem that she didn’t love her at all, when she loved the bones of her. But then why did Lucy fly off the handle at the least thing? Daughters were surely difficult creatures, far more emotional and pigheaded than a son. Independent to a fault, so she was. But Polly did so wish they got on better, as well as she did with Benny for instance.

  Putting her hands to her face she found them wet with tears, squeezing out between her fingers and dripping onto her clean pinny, though she really didn’t have the time. For all her brave words over starting up her business again, inside she felt a cold curl of terror. If only they knew what was wrong with Charlie. If only he was well and his usual cheery self, then it wouldn’t matter that she’d been sacked, and Lucy wouldn’t have to go cap in hand to get her job back.

  ‘Polly?’ That was Charlie now, calling from the parlour.

  He always told her not to interfere, to let her children live their own life without advice or counsel from her. Wise advice in itself, if she could only bring herself to follow it. But then he was only their stepfather so how could he possibly know how a mother felt? Polly guiltily conceded that wasn’t quite fair on Charlie, fo
r hadn’t he always supported her and been a fine father to her children, treating them as if they were indeed his own. It was simply that he’d not been quite himself lately, growing soft, or mard as he called it, in his old age, constantly complaining of aching bones made worse by his long days working on the freezing docks, so perhaps that was why he was less sympathetic. The pains had got so bad recently he could hardly walk and now had been laid off till he got over whatever it was. Aw, she was that worried about him.

  And now to add to her concerns, she and Lucy had both got the push.

  ‘I’ll not be a minute love. I’ll just see to these sandwiches then I’ll fetch you a cuppa.’ She stood up, dabbing her eyes on her pinny, knowing that the minute she’d done the washing up and got this food ready for the party, she still had to clean through. Saturdays were her only chance and she was never one for giving a lick and a promise as many women in this street were. Polly Pride liked her house to shine, from top to toe. She allowed no room for a speck of dust, nor self-pity either.

  Soon as they got the business going again, they’d all feel more secure, she told herself sternly as she set out spam sandwiches on a plate. Life would get back to normal at last and Charlie could have a nice warm job indoors instead of working on the wharfs, which he hated. Polly was quite sure that’s what had made him ill in the first place. Or he’d caught some nasty bug from that filthy river.