Chapter 25 #2
‘Will Uncle Charlie come home to play too?’ Florrie asked. ‘Then I can wear his hat and Jess can wear yours.’
Bobby experienced a pang as she thought about Charlie. She had rushed over to the cow house when she had seen Gil deliver that morning’s post, but once again there had been no letter.
‘I sincerely hope so,’ she said, forcing her voice to stay bright. She didn’t want either the girls or Mary to pick up on her worry. ‘I’m not sure how keen he’ll be on a game of Beauty Salons though, Florrie.’
Jessie giggled. ‘I bet he’d play if we asked. He’d look so funny wearing lipstick, wouldn’t he, Florrie?’
‘Which of our valiant forces friends are to be at the ceremony then?’ Mary asked as she applied some rouge to Bobby’s cheeks. ‘Are those young Canadians joining us?’
‘Chip and Sandy are. Ernie couldn’t get leave from his instructor post.’
‘You’ve heard from him?’
Bobby felt her colour rise, and wondered why that should be.
It was a fair question. She and Ernie were friends, after all.
Mary knew she had other male friends as correspondents – Don for one and Piotr for another, although perhaps the fact they were both married added a degree of respectability.
Even so, Bobby had wondered if a letter from Ernie might arrive at some point.
She hadn’t heard a word, however, although he always asked to be remembered to her in the letters he wrote to Teddy and Topsy. He was down in the south-east somewhere now, Topsy informed her, a long way from Silverdale.
Bobby couldn’t deny she missed his warm smile and teasing jokes, but after how they had parted, it was something of a relief that he hadn’t tried to engage her in a private correspondence. Before, she would have welcomed it, even been the one to begin it, but it didn’t feel quite proper now.
‘No, but he writes to Teddy,’ she said in answer to Mary’s question, hoping her heightened colour had been sufficiently disguised by rouge.
‘Topsy’s hopping mad about him not getting leave.
She wanted him and Piotr to be at the head of the guard of honour.
I imagine her father’s friend at the Air Ministry got an earful about it. ’
‘She thinks the world revolves around this wedding of hers,’ Mary said, smiling. ‘The fact the Air Force have got a war to fight probably hasn’t even occurred to her.’
‘Silk gowns and guards of honour,’ Lilian said with a wistful sigh. ‘That’s exactly the sort of wedding I always pictured.’
‘Oh, them’s nobbut frills,’ Mary said dismissively. ‘It’s not how you do it, it’s the husband you find yourself lumbered with once it’s done. Pout please, Bobby.’
Bobby puckered obediently so Mary could apply some lipstick: rose pink to match the flowers on her dress. It was rather nice to be dressed and brushed like a favourite doll.
Mary stood back to examine her handiwork. ‘All done except for styling your hair. What a shame it isn’t the fashion to wear it loose, as girls did at weddings when I was young. You look as blooming and bonny as any film star, young Bobby.’
Bobby blushed. ‘Don’t be daft.’
‘Yes you do. It’s just a shame our Charlie couldn’t get leave to see you.’ Mary smiled. ‘Mind you, he’d not be satisfied until Topsy had agreed to make it a double wedding.’
‘What will your wedding be like when you marry Uncle Charlie, Bobby?’ Florrie asked as she ran the brush through Bobby’s hair.
‘I’d like to have the date confirmed before I start making plans,’ Bobby said. ‘It’s probably dreadful bad luck.’
‘Why are so many wedding things supposed to bring bad luck?’
Mary laughed. ‘You’ll find out when you’ve a husband of your own, Flor.’
‘What will you do?’ Lilian asked Bobby. ‘I suppose you and Charlie have talked about it.’
‘Charlie says he doesn’t mind how we do it so long as it’s done and legal.
At any rate, it’ll have to be a simple affair.
We won’t have long to organise everything.
’ Bobby was quiet for a moment. ‘Mary is right though. As nice as it is to celebrate, it’s only window dressing, isn’t it?
It’s Charlie that’s important – Charlie and me.
As long as we can be together, I don’t care a fig about the rest of it. ’
Mary smiled. ‘Well said, my love.’
‘Oh, but we’ll still be flower girls though, won’t we?’ Jessie asked anxiously. ‘Uncle Charlie promised.’
Bobby laughed. ‘No matter how we manage things, Jess, I promise the two of you will be there with baskets of petals over your arms.’
‘I do hope you can do it in May, when there’ll be plenty of flowers to be had.
’ Mary looked rather dreamy. ‘A girl ought to be married in the spring, when the landscape is as blooming as she is. I can just see you, Bobby, ornamented by nature – always the best ornaments for a bride – and Charlie so handsome in his uniform. What a happy day that will be! There was a time I despaired of seeing that young rascal respectably wed.’
‘Have you had a letter recently?’ Bobby asked, as casually as she could. She had seen Gil drop something in, but someone had scooped it up before she could see the envelope.
‘Aye, we had one this morning. Were there not one for you?’
Bobby felt as if she could breathe again. If Mary had had a letter, that meant Charlie must be safe.
But then why was there nothing for her?
‘Not this week,’ she said. ‘It’s been held up, I suppose.’
Mary nodded. ‘You can’t rely on post from military. I don’t know what they do with it. I’m sure half of it must get tipped in with the salvage or used to light campfires.’
‘Yes. I’m sure that’s it.’
It was strange though. If a letter from Charlie had come through to Moorside, why should those he had written to her at the house across the way have disappeared into the ether?
While Bobby was relieved he was safe, she couldn’t help worrying that something else might be wrong – something that involved him and her.