Triumph of the Shipyard Girls (The Shipyard Girls Series) by Revell Nancy

Author:Revell, Nancy [Revell, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473572812
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2020-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

Ashbrooke, Sunderland

1938

‘She’ll be all right, won’t she?’ Rosie looked up at the huge, overhanging elm trees as she strolled through Ashbrooke on her way to Lily’s. This part of town was so affluent, so different to where she worked during the day.

‘You’ll make sure she doesn’t get too lonely, won’t you?’ Rosie walked slowly, breathing in the clear air. ‘I don’t know what it is, I just feel she needs you to keep an extra-special eye on her at the moment.’

Before she’d left her bedsit this evening, the landlord had given her a letter from Charlotte. She’d read it quickly while getting ready for Lily’s and had immediately picked up on something. Was it an underlying sadness? Was she lonely?

Rosie always asked Charlie if she was all right, trying to put it in such a way that her sister could be honest and tell her if there was anything wrong, but it was hard. Especially as they were so far apart.

‘I know, I worry too much.’ Rosie continued her imaginary conversation, second-guessing what her mam and dad would say. ‘It sounds like she’s got a nice friend called Marjorie … Mind you, the poor thing doesn’t sound in the best health. Charlie says she’s got something called asthma. A problem with her breathing.’ Rosie looked at a robin perched in the bushes of one of the perfectly manicured front gardens she was walking past.

‘I’d let her come back here,’ Rosie said, turning down the back lane that ran parallel to West Lawn, ‘I know it’d be good for her to come back occasionally, perhaps even have a trip to Whitburn, but it doesn’t feel safe.’ Rosie knew her mam and dad would understand. She just wished Charlie could too. She had gone on and on when she’d first started at Runcorn, asking, no, begging Rosie to let her come home – just for a few days. She’d given in the once but had spent the whole time on tenterhooks, waiting, fearful that Raymond would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Clicking open the latch on the back gate and walking down the narrow path to the back door, Rosie knocked the required three times. She waited a moment while the shutter to the spyhole opened and closed.

‘Ma chère!’ Lily’s welcome put an end to Rosie’s one-sided conversation. ‘A word, ma chérie, before the travaille.’ She waved Rosie into the kitchen.

‘Come, come, sit down. There’s a pot of tea stewing.’ Lily went over to the armoire and poured herself a glass of cognac. She knew Rosie rarely drank and if she ever did it would be at the end of the evening.

‘I want to offer you the role of “head girl”,’ Lily said, getting out her cigarettes and lighting one. ‘You know that Lucinda has nabbed herself a man and has this week run off into the sunset to get married – and have copious amounts of children, no doubt.’

Rosie smiled. Lily loved to dramatise. Lucinda had got engaged months ago and had given Lily plenty of notice.

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