Cousins at War Read online

Well, that was the end of Callum, and she wouldn’t go out with another boy for as long as she lived. She would remain a spinster . . . not a vinegary spinster, but maybe like Miss Thomson at school, gentle and kind. Teaching would be a good career, Queenie decided, as she left South College Street and carried on up Bridge Street, feeling safe amongst people. To give her face time to cool down before her aunt saw it, she walked very slowly along Union Street, looking in shop windows but not seeing anything. Noticing that the Town House clock showed only five past nine, she realised that she would have to wait a little longer before she went home. If she went in too early, Auntie Gracie would want to know why, and she wasn’t in a fit state to tell a convincing lie just yet.

  It was almost ten when she finally climbed the tenement stairs, tired out from all the walking she had done to pass the time. ‘What did you see tonight?’ Gracie smiled.

  Queenie was ready with her answer, although her heart was hammering as she voiced the half truth. ‘We didn’t go to the pictures, it was too hot. We . . . met two girls in my class, so we all went for a walk.’

  Joe grinned. ‘Didn’t Callum object to having three females on his hands?’

  ‘No, he was quite happy about it.’

  ‘Come to think of it, I’m quite happy with you three.’

  Gracie snorted. ‘Aye, you haven’t to lift a finger, have you? You get everything done for you. You wouldn’t know what to do if you’d to fend for yourself. I’m sure you don’t even know where I keep the tea.’

  ‘In the caddy on the mantelpiece,’ Joe said, triumphantly.

  ‘That’s about all you do know, then.’

  ‘It’s all you need to know, isn’t it, Dad?’ Patsy smiled affectionately at her father. ‘Well, goodnight, I’m off to bed. You’ll be taking a cup of tea first, Queenie?’

  ‘No, I don’t want anything.’

  The two girls left the room together, and Queenie was glad that Patsy asked no questions as they undressed. She would tell them all in a day or two that she and Callum had had a quarrel at school, to explain why they weren’t going out any more. It would be awful to face him tomorrow, but he would probably keep out of her way. She smiled in the darkness. She had surprised herself as much as him by the knee-punch, but even though it had been a reflex action, it had done the trick and nothing had actually happened.

  The pseudo love letters continued to flow, much to Alf’s and Neil’s amusement, but Olive believed every single word and was delighted that each one was more affectionate than the last. She tried not to show how deeply she cared, but her feelings did intrude on what she wrote. ‘I’ll only be half alive until you come back to me,’ she said in one letter.

  Neil howled at this, but Alf said, guiltily, ‘She’s going to be real hurt when I tell her it’s all off.’

  ‘Oh, come on! Don’t go soft on me now. Olive’s too full of her own importance to care.’

  ‘It doesn’t look like that to me.’

  ‘She’ll be angry, not hurt, and you won’t be there for her to shout at. She’s not fully hooked yet, so wait till after our next leave, then you can call it a day.’

  Alf straightened his shoulders. ‘OK, I’m game if you are. It’s not me that’ll end up on the chopping block.’

  ‘She doesn’t know I’ve got anything to do with it.’

  ‘Maybe not, but I bet she’ll take her spite out on you.’

  The laughter left Neil’s eyes. Had he built up trouble for himself in his attempt to be rid of Olive?

  Chapter Seven

  Over the long summer, Neil and Alf notched up many ‘scores’ in the little villages near the camp, vieing with each other in their descriptions of how they had succeeded. Sometimes, they discovered that the girl one was describing had already been ‘done’ by the other, but it only had them helpless with laughter. There was no animosity.

  ‘This war’s the best thing that ever happened to me,’ Neil observed one morning.

  Alf nodded eagerly, ‘Me, too. I just hope we don’t run out of steam.’

  ‘Come off it, man, we’re young yet.’

  ‘I’ll be twenty-one in December.’ Alf made it sound as if he were on the border line of senility, and Neil patted his hand sympathetically. ‘I forgot how old you were. Aye, you’d better go canny.’ Dodging a sham right hook, he went on, ‘I just hope we get posted, I quite fancy a change of girls and I wouldn’t even mind if we were sent overseas, for it would solve our problem with Olive.’

  ‘Our problem? It’s your problem, Neil boy, I can pull out whenever I want. To be honest, I was going to call it off the next time I wrote, for her letters are getting a bit too serious for my liking.’

  ‘Ach, that’s the way she is. It’s you she wants now, thank God, and I know how her mind works. She’ll go all out to get you to say you love her, so make her believe you do – that’s all I ask. Come to King Street with me again . . . just one last time, Alf?’

  ‘It’ll definitely be the last. It’s gone on long enough.’

  Because it had been raining the day before, all the washing was still hanging on the pulley and Gracie was depressed at the sight of it when she went into her kitchen first thing in the morning. Joe would complain, as he usually did, about ‘clothes flapping round his lugs’, and she didn’t care much for it herself – it wasn’t healthy – but she hadn’t time to feel if any of the thinner articles were dry, so they would all just have to put up with it.

  She was brusque with her husband when he came through and snapped at Queenie and Patsy for ‘scuttering about’ instead of eating their breakfast, but fortunately for her family, a letter from Ellie banished her blues.

  ‘Kathleen was married last Saturday,’ she told them, after she had read it. ‘I was beginning to wonder about her, for she was twenty-four last month, and I’ve never heard of her having a lad. She didn’t get that off her mother, for Ellie had lots of lads before she married Jack Lornie.’

  ‘I never knew him,’ Joe observed.

  ‘No, he was killed in 1917. He was a nice boy but he went and enlisted in 1915 when Kathleen was just months old, so she never knew her real father.’

  ‘Gavin was a good father to her though. Ellie was lucky there.’

  ‘He was too old for her, but they were happy.’

  ‘We’ve been happy too, haven’t we, lass? I have, anyway.’

  Gracie looked self-consciously at Patsy and Queenie, then smiled, ‘Aye, we’ve been happy, and we’ve got two daughters now as well as a son.’

  ‘Did Kathleen have a big wedding?’ Patsy wanted to know.

  ‘No, it was in the registry office. It’s not the same as a church wedding, or having the minister coming to the house, but I suppose it’s just as binding.’

  Patsy looked thoughtful. ‘I think I’d rather be married in a church.’

  Queenie nodded, ‘Me, too.’

  Gracie had been glad when Queenie stopped going out with Callum, though she didn’t know what had gone wrong, but now she looked fearfully at her daughter. ‘You’re both far too young to be thinking of marriage. You haven’t got a steady lad, Patsy, have you?’

  ‘I haven’t got a lad at all. I just meant I wouldn’t feel really married if the wedding was in a registrar’s.’

  Joe changed the subject, ‘Does Ellie say anything else?’

  ‘She says Morag’s joined the Wrens, and she’d to report at Portsmouth on Monday. At least she got to be at her sister’s wedding, but that means Ellie’ll be all on her own now, for Kathleen’s gone to Chatham with her new husband.’

  ‘You could ask her to sell her house and come here,’ Joe suggested. ‘We’ve a spare room now Neil’s away, he could aye sleep on the settee when he’s on leave.’

  ‘She wouldn’t come. I asked her after Gavin died, and she wouldn’t hear of it. Anyway, Neil’s things are still in his room, and he’ll need it again when the war’s finished.’

  When her husband and daughter went out, Gracie turned to Queenie who was on holiday from scho
ol. ‘Will you manage to make the dinner? I want to go and tell Hetty about Kathleen, for it’s not the same over the phone.’

  ‘Off you go,’ the girl smiled. ‘I’ll manage the housework and the cooking, so you don’t need to hurry home.’

  ‘I’ll likely be back before Joe and Patsy come in.’

  Hetty was delighted to hear that Kathleen was married, but Olive’s nose screwed up in disdain. ‘A registry office?’ She couldn’t have put more disgust in her voice if it had been a place of ill repute. ‘I wouldn’t dream of being married in a registry office.’

  Gracie’s hackles had risen. ‘What’s wrong with it?’

  ‘It’s not really legal, for a start.’

  ‘It’s quite legal, and it’s what Kathleen wanted.’

  ‘Oh, well,’ Olive sneered, ‘if it’s what she wanted, it’ll be all right . . . I suppose. Did she have a white dress?’

  On the verge of losing her temper now, Gracie said rather stiffly, ‘She’d on a navy costume with a dusty pink blouse, and Ellie says she looked really lovely.’

  ‘Maybe she wasn’t entitled to wear white?’

  ‘Olive!’ Hetty warned.

  The blatant slur on Kathleen’s virginity was too much for Gracie. ‘You’ve a nasty mind, you spoiled brat! Ellie would have said if she was pregnant and, even if she is, it’s none of your dashed business.’

  Olive’s smirk was more annoying than any reply and Gracie turned away, still seething. Hetty, looking helplessly from one to the other, eventually ventured, ‘I think Gracie’s due an apology, Olive.’

  ‘What for? She should apologise to me for saying I was a spoiled brat.’

  Gracie’s eyes twinkled suddenly, although she did her best to keep a straight face. ‘I’m sorry you’re a spoiled brat, Olive, it’s a terrible handicap for you.’

  Hetty drew in her breath, and it came as no surprise to Gracie when Olive spun round and stalked out, angry that the tables had been turned on her. Almost in tears, Hetty said, ‘I’m sorry, Gracie, it’s my fault she’s spoiled.’

  Her sister nodded, ‘Aye, we all know that, and don’t worry about me. I won’t lose any sleep over what she said, and I’m sure Ellie wouldn’t bother, either, though I’ll not tell her anything. She’s happy that Kathleen’s happy, and that’s what matters, isn’t it?’

  After another hour of conversation which was less strained as time passed, Gracie took her leave, but waited until she and Joe went to bed before she told him what had transpired.

  ‘That girl’s going to cause a lot of trouble some day,’ he remarked. ‘Hetty’s going to wish she’d been harder on her.’

  Gracie looked at him keenly. ‘That’s what I’ve thought for a long time. I used to worry that it would be Neil she would make trouble for, but she’s hasn’t bothered with him since she started going with Alf Melville. I can’t think why she was so nasty about Kathleen though, unless her own romance isn’t coming on as fast as she hoped, or maybe she’s annoyed that Kathleen got a husband before her. Aye,’ she ended, in great satisfaction, ‘that’s likely what it was.’

  The following morning brought a letter from Neil, telling his mother that he would be home at the end of the next week and asking if it was all right if Alf came to King Street again before going to Elgin. ‘Neil’s going to be here a few days before Alf,’ Gracie observed. ‘D’you think I should ask him to warn Alf about the kind of girl Olive is?’

  Joe grinned. ‘He’ll find out for himself soon enough.’

  ‘Alf’s coming a week on Sunday!’ Olive told her mother after reading his latest letter, her excitement too great to hide. ‘He says he’ll call for me at seven, and I hope you’ve some clothing coupons left so I can buy a new dress.’

  ‘You’ve used all mine, and your father’s, and Raymond’s, and anyway, you’ve plenty of things that Alf’s never seen.’

  ‘I’d have liked something new,’ Olive said petulantly. ‘I won’t feel good in anything old, but I suppose the blue slub linen will just have to do. I’ve only worn it once.’

  Her frustration at the strictures imposed by wartime had evaporated by the time she went up to her room again and her mind was entirely on Alf. Each time he wrote, he said he was missing her but he always stopped short of telling her that he loved her. She almost swooned when a new thought struck her. He was so romantic, he must be waiting until he could tell her in person! She was hurt that he was going home to Elgin on the Tuesday – he could have waited another day or two – but he probably felt duty-bound to see his parents.

  Olive let her mind drift ahead. An engagement party on his leave after this one, and he would take her home with him to introduce her to his mother and father, and it would be the leave after that before they could actually be married. Her father would probably want a big wedding . . . a white dress and a church ceremony – definitely not in a registry office like her cousin Kathleen McKenzie – a reception in the best hotel in the city. Excitement rippled inside her at the thought of how marvellous it would be, and all that was only the lead up to the wedding night! She had planned to give herself to Alf this time, but it would be best to wait until they were on honeymoon. It would be all the sweeter for them both if he took her virginity legally. The rippling thrills merged and formed a huge shivery knot in the pit of her stomach as she tried to picture what would happen.

  ‘Olive! Breakfast’s on the table!’

  Her mother’s voice shattered the dream, but there would be plenty of time to think before the big event. ‘Coming!’

  Looking up when Queenie came through, Neil was amazed. Having taken a few hours in bed after he arrived home, Neil was back in the kitchen only a few minutes when Queenie came throught, ready to go to the pictures with Patsy. The difference in her amazed him. She’d been a schoolgirl when she went out in the morning, but now . . . what a transformation!’ Her long fair hair had been swept up at the sides in the latest style, emphasising its gold tinge; the touch of lipstick she was wearing outlined her mouth in delectable curves; whatever she had on round her eyes made them look larger and an even deeper blue; the bodice of her dress – last summer’s by the look of it – was so tight that the points of her nipples were straining upwards against the thin cotton. God almighty! She was the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen, and he was glad he was sitting down. If he’d been standing, his arousal would have been in full view.

  He had never thought of her as desirable before, had even smiled contemptuously when his mother wrote that Queenie was going out with a boy from her school – a couple of innocent kids, he’d thought – but now he prayed that the boy had done nothing to spoil that innocence.

  ‘What d’you think of our Queenie now?’ his father asked, a proud smile on his face.

  Neil had to swallow. If he said what he had been thinking, everybody would be embarrassed, including himself. Luckily, Patsy came through and saved the situation. ‘Are you ready, Queenie?’ she asked.

  Queenie appealed to her aunt first. ‘Do I look OK?’

  ‘You look fine, both of you.’

  When the girls had gone, Joe looked at Neil again. ‘She’s quite the young lady when she’s all dressed up, isn’t she? I bet you got a surprise.’

  He was able to laugh now. ‘I sure did. She could pass for eighteen with the make up on. Is she still going with that boy?’ He had to find out.

  ‘She stopped going with him weeks ago. She never said why, but I’m sure there was never anything serious between them. It hasn’t bothered her, at any rate.’

  Satisfied, Neil started telling his father about problems he’d had with some of the vehicles he had to repair, and it wasn’t until he went to bed that Gracie had the opportunity to voice to her husband a new fear which had arisen in her mind. ‘Did you notice how Neil’s eyes lit up tonight when he saw Queenie?’

  ‘Aye, she looked a right wee smasher. If I’d been thirty years younger, I’d have . . .’

  Gracie frowned. ‘It’s nothing to joke about. I was pleased w
hen Olive started going out with Alf, for it meant Neil was free of her, but if he falls in love with Queenie . . . oh, Joe, I hope there’s no . . .’

  ‘Queenie would be better for him than Olive.’

  ‘But she’s still a cousin,’ Gracie pointed out.

  Hetty held Martin back from going to the door with the young soldier after his evening visit. ‘Can’t you see Olive wants to get Neil on his own so she can ask about Alf?’

  ‘I never thought . . . but Alf’ll be here himself on Sunday.’

  ‘Oh, you! Have you no romance left in your soul?’

  Trying to sound fully convincing, Neil told Olive that Alf could hardly wait to see her and had to stifle a laugh when she asked, ‘Does he say nice things about me?’

  ‘He says you’re wonderful. He’s always speaking about you, wondering what you’re doing and if you think about him as much as he thinks about you . . . the usual rubbish when a man’s in love.’

  Olive’s eyes sparkled. ‘He is in love with me, then? He’s never said, but I was almost sure he was. D’you think he’ll tell me when he’s here?’

  ‘I wouldn’t be surprised, if he can pluck up the courage, that is. He’s really quite shy, though he maybe doesn’t give that impression.’

  ‘He doesn’t. I’d have thought he was full of confidence . . . but being in love makes a difference, I suppose?’

  Neil couldn’t hold back a giggle and covered up by saying facetiously ‘Never having been in love, I wouldn’t know.’

  ‘Has Alf ever been in love before?’

  ‘Not that I know of.’ That was true, Neil thought. Neither he nor Alf were serious about any of their conquests.

  ‘You know,’ Olive said, dreamily, ‘I used to think that I was in love with you, but that was when I was still just a silly schoolgirl. True love is nothing like that.’

  ‘I’d better go. Cheerio, Olive.’ Neil hurried away before his control snapped, but he had to collapse against a garden wall in a few seconds to give vent to his laughter. When he got over it, he wondered how his pal would cope with Olive in this state, and hoped that he hadn’t gone over the score. It would be awful if Alf took cold feet now.