MB09 - You Stole My Heart Away Page 14

  Ellen saw Molly and Nellie out with their husbands. As she returned to the living room, she found herself comparing life now to what it had been years ago. What a difference there was. Her firstborn was going to marry a boy she’d loved from afar since she was a schoolgirl. She’d been Phoebe Clarke then, and because her father, Nobby Clarke, was a drunkard and a wife-beater, they were looked down on by neighbours in the street. Ellen was never free of bruises and black eyes, and was ashamed for herself and her four children, walking round empty-bellied and in rags. Nobby Clarke spent all his wages on booze and horses while his family starved. It was his love of beer that finally killed Nobby. It was the day the war ended, and everyone was celebrating. Leaving his wife and children without a penny, he’d gone out to celebrate, and he got so drunk he’d walked in front of a tram and been run over.

  All these memories came back to Ellen. She smiled at her daughter, while part of her mind was still thinking of those dark days. She would never have survived without the help of Molly and Nellie, to whom she owed everything. They had made her go out with her head held high, had dressed her and her children in second-hand clothes from the market, and even got her a job at the local butcher’s. And Corker had come into her life then, helping to restore the pride and dignity that Nobby Clarke had robbed her of. Corker was the best thing that had ever happened to her and the children, who had led a dreadful life with their drunken father who lashed out with his hands and feet if they dared to speak in front of him. When the giant of a man married their mother it was the happiest day they had ever known, and they were immensely proud when he asked them to call him Dad. He taught them to be open and honest, and he brought love and laughter into a house that had once been their prison.

  All this flashed through Ellen’s mind as she took her seat at the table. ‘Well, now it’s quietened down, we can hear ourselves think. I am so happy for you, Phoebe, and I couldn’t have chosen a better man to be your husband.’

  ‘I’ve just been telling them the same thing, love,’ Corker said, stroking his beard. ‘I have to admit there were a few times when I wondered whether Paul was serious, but now I know he’s been saving up like mad, I have to admit I was wrong, and I’m happy to do so. Any man who can put that look on my beautiful daughter’s face, well, he must have all the qualities she wants in a future husband. And what me and Ellen are most pleased about is that you’ll be living next door but one. The Bennetts, McDonoughs and Corkhills are becoming an even bigger family, and nothing could please me more.’

  Paul’s guffaw told them a laugh was coming. ‘I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, Uncle Corker, and I’ve worked out that the Corkhills and McDonoughs will be blood relations, but not the Bennetts! They’ll be blood related to the McDonoughs through our Steve, but not to the Corkhills.’ Again the dimples showed themselves at the same time as a guffaw. ‘So I’ve worked it all out. I did it in bed last night actually, and ’cos there’s so many now, I kept getting confused. But in the end I came up with the answer. If Ruthie Bennett marries your Gordon or Peter, then all three families will be blood related!’

  Corker’s loud guffaw could be heard as far away as Molly’s house, where she and Nellie were standing discussing the happy and surprising news. George and Jack had left them to it, and gone to the pub for a pint. After all, what better excuse could they have than the announcement of a wedding? Even if it was months off !

  ‘Listen to Corker,’ Molly laughed. ‘He is over the moon, yer could see it in his eyes. And I’ll tell yer what, Nellie, he’ll make sure Phoebe has the best wedding money can buy. He absolutely adores those children, all four of them, and he’s a fantastic father. I never think about Nobby Clarke, haven’t done for years, but I couldn’t help but compare him with Corker tonight. Can you imagine Nobby ever giving those children the life that Corker has? I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but that man was an out and out rotter.’

  ‘Yer can say that again, girl, ’cos he was a real bad ’un. But when ye’re talking about the wedding, yer should mention our Paul, yer know, ’cos he’s playing as big a part as Phoebe. Without him there wouldn’t be no wedding, so I want him to be included. Don’t forget, girl, he’s the last of me children.’

  ‘You won’t get left out, sunshine, don’t you worry. But I know how yer feel about Paul, because I felt the same when our Tommy got married. I cried for weeks because me only son was leaving home. It still pulls on me heartstrings every time I go to me ma’s and see him. I know it’s daft, but I can’t help it. None of us can help the way God made us. I love the bones of Jack, and me four children, and I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m soppy.’

  ‘Ay, girl, look on the bright side. Think of the time we’ll have buying new hats and dresses. We’ve got something to look forward to.’ Nellie’s head gave a little shake, her back straightened and her bosom rose majestically. ‘Mind you, girl, being mother of the groom, I’m going to have to look better than you. No offence, like, girl, but it’s true, isn’t it? Stands to sense that the people in the church will be looking out for me, to see what creation I’m wearing to me son’s wedding.’

  Molly’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. She’d just been insulted by her best mate, but she didn’t mind. Nellie thought she was going to be the star of the show at this wedding, and Molly wasn’t going to burst her bubble. Then again, there were two ways of looking at this situation. One was that Nellie would be happy, and that was the good part. But on the other hand, Molly would hear nothing but the wedding for the next few months, and she’d end up with a headache every day. And it would be useless to tell Nellie she had a headache with having the wedding rammed down her ears every day. In her mind she could hear her mate’s reply. ‘Well, it’s to be hoped yer don’t have a headache on the day of the wedding, girl, ’cos yer’ll look as miserable as sin, and yer would spoil my son’s wedding. The happiest day of his life, and you pick the same day to have a bleeding headache!’

  ‘What did yer say, girl?’

  ‘I never said anything, sunshine.’

  ‘I could have sworn yer said yer had a headache, girl.’

  ‘No, yer must be hearing things, Nellie, ’cos I haven’t got a headache. I’m expecting one soon, though.’

  ‘Well, as long as it doesn’t come on the day of the wedding, that’s all right. Or the day I go for me mother of the groom hat, either! I want you to watch me trying hats on, and I’m counting on yer telling me which I look best in. You know what I mean, one what will catch everyone’s eye, so they’ll still be talking about it weeks after the wedding. What I don’t want is to be looking in a mirror in Lewis’s, expecting to see meself looking like a film star in a big, wide creation, and instead I see you behind me with a face as long as a fiddle.’

  ‘That’s a bit awkward, Nellie, because I haven’t a clue how long a fiddle is! If yer tell me, then I promise I’ll try and keep me face shorter than a fiddle. I can’t do better than that, can I, sunshine?’

  Nellie looked up at the sky for guidance before answering. ‘I’m trying to work out whether ye’re being sarcastic, girl, ’cos yer don’t seem to be very excited about this wedding. It wouldn’t be that ye’re jealous, would it?’

  ‘Of course I’m jealous, Nellie.’ Molly had to think quickly. What could she say she was jealous of to put a smile of satisfaction on her mate’s face? ‘I’ll be as mad as hell on the day of the wedding, because your hat will be twice the size of mine, and all eyes will be on you. I’ll be like the poor relation.’

  ‘Ay, girl, yer can borrow the hat I had for our Lily’s wedding. It’s a nice hat, as good as new, and it’ll look nice on yer.’

  ‘No, thank you, sunshine. The whole of the neighbourhood will be at the church, and they’ll all recognize it as the hat you wore for Lily’s wedding. No, I’ll come up with something, even if it’s only a beret!’

  Nellie’s nostrils flared. ‘Ye’re not coming to my son’s wedding in a beret, Molly Bennett, or I’ll pretend I don’
t know yer.’

  ‘I’ll have yer know that berets are all the rage in France. The height of fashion they are.’ Molly would have loved to laugh at the expression on Nellie’s face, but she wanted to keep the farce going a bit longer. Jack was in the pub, Ruthie was out with Bella, and she’d rather rile her mate up for a laugh than sit in the house on her own. ‘The French are noted as the fashion capital of the world, sunshine, it’s where all the models go, and their clothes are chic. So I might just give some thought to a beret. A nice bright red one, I think. Anyway, I can choose a colour when we go shopping for your mother of the groom hat. I could buy a nice red chiffon scarf to go with the beret, they’d go well together.’ Molly clapped her hands and giggled like a schoolgirl. ‘Ooh, I’m not half looking forward to it. I’m dead excited.’

  ‘I don’t know about excited, girl, but dead yer would be if yer turned up at the church wearing a bright red beret. I’d throw yer out of the church meself, and choke yer with me bare hands.’

  Molly did her best to look horrified. ‘I’m surprised at yer, Nellie McDonough, talking about murder in a churchyard! Whatever would Father Kelly say?’

  ‘He’d probably send for the gravediggers, if he’s got any sense. I mean, there’d be no point in taking yer dead body to a hospital, would there? He’d think I’d been very considerate, but being a priest, he’d have to hear my confession, and he’d probably give me six Hail Marys as a punishment.’

  ‘Am I only worth six Hail Marys, sunshine? Surely I’m worth a lot more than that.’

  ‘Yer might be now, while ye’re still alive, but not when ye’re dead, girl. And I’ll make sure that ruddy red beret and scarf go in the coffin with yer. High fashion or low bleeding fashion, they’re not allowed at my son’s wedding.’

  ‘Ay, Nellie, I’ve just thought of a good answer to that.’

  ‘What is it, girl?’

  ‘I wouldn’t be seen dead in red, sunshine!’

  ‘Oh, yeah, that was very quick-witted, that was. Not like you, ’cos yer usually take ages to catch on.’

  Molly heard her husband’s voice in the distance. ‘Good grief, sunshine, here’s the men back from the pub, and we’re still standing in the same spot they left us in. They’ll think we’re real gasbags.’

  ‘I don’t give a bugger what they think, girl. I bet we’ve had a better time than they’ve had, ’cos my feller is no good at making up jokes. He’ll laugh at other people’s jokes, but he doesn’t know any of his own.’ Nellie’s whole body shook as she burst out laughing. ‘He wouldn’t see the funny side of me choking yer to death in a graveyard, all because I didn’t like yer red beret. I know exactly what he’d say if I told him. And he’d be dead serious when he said, “Nellie, that’s not a bit funny. There’s many a true word spoken in jest.” And he’d think I’d lost the run of me senses if I told him that berets were all the rage in France. Especially bright red ones.’

  ‘Don’t tell me you two have been here since me and George went to the pub.’ Jack was amazed. ‘Why didn’t yer go in and talk in comfort?’

  George came up behind him. ‘My wife prefers to stand up when she’s talking, don’t yer, love? It gives her a feeling of power.’

  ‘Ay, smart Alec, at least I don’t need to get beer down me to be able to talk. It doesn’t cost me nothing, either. Me and Molly have enjoyed our little chat, breathing in the cool, fresh night air.’

  ‘I don’t know how yer find enough to talk about,’ Jack said, ‘seeing as yer’ve been together most of the day. Me and George have got our work to discuss, and our workmates and bosses.’

  Nellie didn’t give Molly a chance to hit back, not when she had a quick retort on her lips. Putting the back of her hand to her mouth, she let out a loud and long yawn. ‘Oh, dear, how bleeding dull can yer get? Ye’re at work all day, and then it’s the only thing you can talk about at night! Not like me and Molly. We’ve been talking about clothes from the big French fashion houses. Most fashionable people in the world, the French are. They have models what walk on these catwalks what look like the planks of wood sailors used to have to walk on because they’d started a mutiny. Walking the plank they used to call it.’

  George raised his brows at Jack, and shrugged his shoulders. ‘Ye’re as wise as me, Jack. I never knew Nellie had been to France – she never told me. And I certainly didn’t know she’d crossed the ocean on a galleon that had a plank for sailors to walk to their death on.’

  ‘I knew we’d have been better staying with the wives,’ Jack said. ‘At least the conversation wouldn’t have been as flat as that beer was. There wasn’t even a head on it!’

  ‘Ooh, er, don’t start talking about a head, Jack Bennett, unless yer want to be here all night. My mate here, your wife, has talked me hind leg off over what she’s putting on her head for the wedding. She’s going to make a holy show of herself if somebody doesn’t talk some sense into her.’

  ‘Nellie, it’s the hind leg off a donkey,’ Molly told her. ‘Yer got yerself a bit mixed up.’

  Nellie scratched her head. ‘What flaming donkey are yer talking about, girl? I never mentioned no donkey, and I don’t know no donkeys.’

  ‘I know yer don’t, sunshine, that’s why I said yer got mixed up when yer said I’d talked the hind leg off yer. I couldn’t do that ’cos ye’re not a donkey.’

  ‘And yer thought it worthwhile to tell me that? Don’t yer think that I’d have noticed meself that I’m not a donkey?’

  George was happy to add his two-pennyworth. ‘I don’t know so much, love. Yer might have been one at some time, but didn’t notice because yer talked the hind leg off yerself.’

  ‘No, I don’t agree with yer there, George,’ Jack said, his face deadpan. ‘Even if Nellie had talked the hind leg off herself, she’d still have the “hee-haw”. Every donkey I’ve seen nods their heads and snorts “hee-haw”.’

  ‘Yer wouldn’t believe it, would yer, girl?’ Nellie asked. ‘You and me have spent our time having an intelligent conversation, about fashion and models in France, and outfits for my son’s wedding. And these two roll up and act like children. They haven’t got a brain between them. I bet if yer blew in one of their ears, yer breath would come out of the other end, ’cos there’s nothing inside to stop it. Pig igorant they are.’

  ‘It’s pig ignorant, Nellie,’ her husband said. ‘Yer missed a letter out.’

  Nellie rose to her full height. ‘If you don’t behave yerself, George McDonough, it won’t be a letter missing, it’ll be two of yer front teeth. And if you don’t stop laughing, Jack Bennett, two of your front teeth will be lying on the pavement next to the silly sod I’m married to.’

  ‘I think it’s time we called it a day, Jack,’ George said, ‘while we’ve still got teeth in our heads.’

  Jack nodded. ‘Yeah, we’d better call it a day, ’cos our Ruthie will be home any minute.’

  George put a hand on his wife’s arm. ‘Are yer coming, love? It’ll be time for bed before we’ve had our usual cup of tea.’

  Nellie shook his hand away. ‘You go in and put the kettle on. Me and Molly have got lots to talk about yet. Give me a shout when the tea is poured out.’

  Jack pulled a face at George. ‘I suppose that goes for me, too! Although it’s beyond me that they’ve still got anything to talk about.’

  ‘That’s for us to know, Jack Bennett,’ Molly said. ‘And I expect me tea to be on the table when I come in. Just as I like it, with milk and one sugar.’ She gave a sly wink at her mate. ‘Now, where were we up to, sunshine, before we were so rudely interrupted?’

  Chapter Seven

  ‘When we’ve had our second cup of tea, girl, are we going over the road to tell Doreen and Victoria about our Paul getting married, before we go to the shops?’

  ‘I’ve been wondering whether we should or not,’ Molly answered. ‘But if we don’t tell them, somebody else will and they’ll think we’re dark horses. So we’ll mention it when we go over. And come to think about it, there�
��s no way yer could keep news like that to yerself.’

  ‘Well, it’s my son getting married, girl, so I’ve got every right to let folk know, ’cos it’s a big occasion in my life.’

  ‘It’s a big step in Paul’s life as well, sunshine. And I hope that every time you tell anyone that your son is getting married, yer’ll mention it’s Phoebe he’s getting married to! Yer can’t leave her out, sunshine, ’cos the bride is more important at a wedding than the groom is.’

  Nellie didn’t agree with that, and she was quick to say so. ‘She is not! There wouldn’t be no wedding without a groom. Phoebe wouldn’t like it if she was standing on her own in front of the altar.’

  ‘She wouldn’t be the only one, sunshine, because Father Kelly would think it was a queer goings-on. But don’t be getting yer knickers in a twist, Nellie, because I mentioned the bride being more important than the groom. It’s the wedding dress and veil and the bouquet that make the bride stand out. And her bridesmaids. Yer know yerself that most of the neighbours only go to see the outfits. Nobody takes much notice of the groom, because all men wear suits.’

  ‘What ye’re trying to tell me, Molly Bennett, is that a groom is only there to make the numbers up.’

  ‘Paul isn’t a wallflower, Nellie, he’s very outgoing and also very handsome. He’ll be noticed, don’t worry, ’cos he’ll be giving the after dinner speech, don’t forget.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, he’ll be good at that ’cos he’s always cracking jokes. And as I’ll be sitting next to him at the table, nobody will be able to miss seeing me hat.’

  Molly turned her head away for a few seconds so she could have a quick, quiet chuckle. When she turned back to her friend, she said, ‘Nellie, there is one thing I’ll be sure of over the next few months, and that is I can say without any fear of contradiction that your hat will not be missed by a single soul. Even next door’s cat will see it.’