me, will you? If you must know I do his wife’s hair. Now give it a rest, will you? You’re making me head ache.’
‘What are we having for tea? There’s some of that tinned fish left and we could make a bit of a fish hash pie with it,’ Rosie suggested.
Christine shook her head. ‘You have some if you want, but I don’t want anything. I’m going out to the Gaiety with some of the others from the salon and then we’re all going round to Flo’s for a bit of supper afterwards. I don’t know what time I’ll be back. You know what that Flo is like once she’s had a couple of drinks. She’ll keep us natterin’ at her place all night if we let her. I might even end up staying over with her. Are you doing anything?’
Rosie nodded. ‘I’ve promised to meet up with Evie and her cousins and go to the pictures with them.’
‘You mean you’re going to the Gaiety as well?’ Christine demanded sharply.
‘No, Evie said to meet her up town outside Lewis’s.’
‘Well, just you mind what you’re doing. Your dad thinks you’re the next best thing to a ruddy angel and he won’t be too pleased if he comes home to find you’ve gone and got yourself in trouble with some lad in a uniform who’s taken himself off and left you.’
‘There’s no need to say that,’ Rosie assured her indignantly, her face pink. ‘I know better than to let any lad mess around with me.’
‘You can say that now, but there’s a war on, remember. Maggie Sullivan, her as looks after Father Doyle and Father Morrison, was saying in the salon the other day that people are queuing up to book weddings, and that most of them should be booking the christening at the same time, by the look of them. And that’s only them as are with lads who are willing to stand by them and do the decent thing. There’s plenty of the other kind around who won’t.’
‘There’s no need to worry on my account.’
‘Well, you just make sure it stays that way. I’ve had enough trouble with your dad’s bloomin’ sister, without you giving her more ammunition to fire at me.’
‘I don’t know why you’re having a go at me like this,’ Rosie objected. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘Not yet you haven’t. Like I just said, there’s a war on,’ her mother answered darkly.
Later that evening, queuing for the pictures with Evie and her cousins, Rosie had cause to acknowledge that her mother had a point when she claimed that the war was affecting the way people behaved. There were several couples in the queue who were wrapped in one another’s arms and behaving as brazenly as you liked.
‘Here, look at them two over there,’ Evie urged Rosie, giving her a nudge in the ribs. ‘Just look where he’s got his hand! You won’t catch me letting a fella show me up like that in public.’
Rosie peered over Evie’s shoulder, automatically avoiding stepping back on the heavy sandbags, which had been put in place when war had first been announced, to protect buildings from bomb damage, but which were turning green, and leaking trickles of sand.
‘No,’ Jane giggled. ‘Me neither. It’s best waiting for the blackout if you want to get up to that kind of how’s-your-father.’
It was impossible to pretend to be shocked and Rosie didn’t try, joining in with their raucous laughter.
‘They were doing this new dance at the Grafton last weekend. It’s all the rage in London,’ Evie informed the others. ‘It’s called “the Blackout Stroll”. All the lights go off whilst you’re dancing and then you change partners in the dark. Last weekend I ended up with this Canadian chap – a pilot he told me he was, and ever so handsome.’
Rosie could well imagine what her Aunt Maude would think of Evie’s revelations.
The queue moved forward slowly. There was a big crowd to see the latest newsreels of the war, as well as the main film. Rosie loved the cinema; she had done ever since she was a small girl and her father would take her to see the latest Disney film as a treat when he was on leave. As she grew up, she couldn’t wait for the Saturday afternoons of darkness and excitement, of adventure and passion. The women were all so beautiful, the men so brave. But just because they fell in love and lived happily ever after, it didn’t mean that that could happen to real people, Rosie always reminded herself warningly. She would hate to end up in a marriage like her parents’, where one partner loved too much and the other not enough.
Now the cinema fulfilled a different function. It was a means of escape, certainly from the devastation and drudgery, but also it was a way of finding out more information on the hostilities, of seeing for oneself the progress of the war.
‘Last time I came here they were still showing them newsreels of them taking the men off the beaches at Dunkirk,’ Jane told them all, as the queue moved towards the door. ‘Sobbed me heart out, I did.’
‘Me an’ all,’ Evie agreed.
Rosie nodded. She couldn’t imagine that anyone could not have been affected by the pictures of those brave men waiting patiently to be brought home to safety, knowing that the Germans were advancing on them.
In the clear evening sky the barrage balloons down by the docks were clearly visible, glowing a misty pink in the rays of the setting sun. Rosie couldn’t look at them without a small shudder. They were a constant reminder, if one was needed, of the fact that they were at war. She shuffled along again, grateful of the chance to escape into the world of film for an evening.
* * *
‘Well, I say that it’s good riddance, and the more of them Eyeties they get on board the ships and get out of our country, the better,’ Nancy insisted, taking a bite out of her sandwich and then pulling a face. ‘Cheese again. I’m that sick of it.’
‘You should think yourself lucky. I’ve only got a bit of pickle on mine,’ Evie told her.
‘Swap you one then,’ Nancy offered. ‘I’m surprised you haven’t got summat to say about them Eyeties being shipped off, seein’ as how you think so much about them,’ she challenged Rosie.
They were all in the workroom having their dinner, and the truth was that Rosie was trying valiantly not to get dragged into the conversation Nancy had initiated about a ship – the Arandora Star – which had been lying off the Liverpool landing stage and had left in the early hours of the morning, sailing for Canada, carrying on board a large number of Italian and German internees. They were being sent to Canada where it was deemed by the government they would not be able to participate in the war as enemies of Britain.
‘It must be very upsetting for Italian families who have lived here for a long time,’ was all she allowed herself to say.
‘Rosie’s right,’ Evie supported her. ‘I wouldn’t like it if it were my dad or hubbie wot was being sent all them miles away from me.’
‘It’s no different than having your dad or your man away fighting,’ another girl chipped in. ‘And at least them Italians will be safe. No fighting for them like our lads are having to do.’
‘A lot of the families have sons in the Forces,’ Rosie felt bound to remind the others.
There’d been stories going round the neighbourhood about men returning from active duty or off their merchant ships to find their fathers and younger brothers missing and their mothers and sisters distraught. Rosie knew too that this was causing a lot of bad feeling amongst Italians who had previously considered themselves to be British, but who now, like Bella, felt alienated and badly done by. There had been talk too of members of those families who had relatives on board the Arandora Star going down to the landing stage in an attempt to say a final goodbye to their loved ones, but that armed guards had been posted there to prevent them from doing so. Rosie gave a small shiver. What a dreadful thing it must be to know that someone you loved was being sent so many thousands of miles away. It was different