Dear Mrs. Bird_A Novel by AJ Pearce

Author:AJ Pearce [Pearce, AJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781501170089
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2018-07-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

To Us, Emmy Lake

On Monday afternoon, when I had returned home from work, Captain Mayhew, or rather, Charles called me. He had a lovely telephone voice and it all went very well. Charles said how pleased he was that I had been all right during the last night’s raid and I said it wasn’t that bad really and didn’t mention seeing two children and a Fire Brigade nearly get squashed to death in the street.

There was a bit of difficulty getting to the issue of seeing each other again, but after a tricky period where we both said different things over each other at the same time, and then a looming threat of neither of us saying anything at all, Charles took the bull by the horns.

‘I say, Emmy, do you enjoy dancing?’

‘Oh yes. Enormously,’ I said. ‘As a matter of fact Bunty and Bill are planning to go out the night after next.’ I stopped and cringed. It sounded as if I was fishing for an invitation to go along too.

‘Not that I’m fishing for an invitation to go along too,’ I said.

Charles laughed. ‘I wouldn’t mind if you were. In fact, do you think you would mind if I asked you to go with me, just to be clear?’

I laughed as well. ‘I would love to,’ I said.

‘If Bunty and her chap won’t mind?’

‘Bunty will be thrilled,’ I said, absolutely sure. ‘They both will.’

Then we sorted out what time Charles should come over to the house and chatted a bit more before saying goodbye. After I put the phone down, I stood in the hall grinning like a loon. I had to admit it, Charles Mayhew certainly had a way of perking me up.

I was right about Bunty too. When I told her about the dance, she thought it quite the best idea in the world, even if adding, ‘And I bet he won’t go off at the drop of a hat with some nurse or another like That Edmund,’ wasn’t entirely in the spirit of Forgive and Forget. I wasn’t sure I would be able to forgive Edmund, but I was doing my very best to forget.

Still, if it helped Bunty move on from being in a fury with That Edmund (as she now always referred to him) then it was all the better. I didn’t say anything but I thought it would be a good opportunity to make it up with Bill too. The more I thought about it, the worse I felt about giving him such a telling off when actually he had been incredibly brave.

On Wednesday evening Bunty and I were ready early. She had put on a pale green day dress she’d worn for her twenty-first birthday and updated with a layer of chiffon that looked awfully nice and floated about when she danced. I had decided on a midnight-blue silk frock which, though several years old, was my most favourite article in my wardrobe and when Bunts and I had a quick waltz around the flat as a practice, I was hopeful that I would pass muster.

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