A Mistletoe Kiss (43 page)

‘It's only us, Agatha,' Hetty called as the footsteps hesitated. ‘We met outside the library and Gareth grabbed me and more or less threw me towards the bottom of the turret, but the aeroplane passed over, so that was all right.'

‘Oh, Hetty, hasn't it been a dreadful night?' Agatha said, her voice floating down to them as she came lower. ‘It looks as though the whole city is ablaze, and all the library windows and the glass doors have gone – blast, though, thank God, and not a bomb or an incendiary. Imagine what would happen to our books and documents if an incendiary smashed through the roof.' She reached the foot of the stair and flickered a small torch briefly into their faces, then politely switched it off, though not before she had smiled broadly at Gareth. ‘Hello, young man; it's good to see you. What have
you been up to? You both look extremely pleased with yourselves, not to say happy!'

‘We are,' Hetty said. ‘We're never going to quarrel again and – and one day, we're going to get married!'

Along a blacked-out wartime street a girl is scurrying, a basket on one arm. As the sirens begin and the bombs crash down, she is filled with panic and, with a heavy heart, abandons her burden in a sheltered doorway, meaning to return later. Even as she disappears in the resulting chaos, the bundle in the basket begins to wail.

Years later, two young unfortunates meet on a miserable November day. Martin has been desperately trying to hitch a lift along the lonely windswept road and when he sees a weeping girl in front of him, he hurries to catch her up.

Rose and Martin become unlikely companions until they go their separate ways, not expecting to meet again. However, fate decrees otherwise …

 

Addy and Prue Fairweather live with Nell, their widowed mother, in a flat above her shop on the Scotland Road. The sisters, however, are very different. Addy is dark-haired, plain and always in trouble, whereas Prue is flaxen-haired, blue-eyed and as angelic as her looks imply. To make matters worse, Nell makes no secret of her preference for the younger girl, increasing Addy's jealousy and resentment.

On the other side of the coin, Giles Frobisher and his twin sister, Gillian, live in a crumbling mansion near the sea in Devon. The family have lost most of their money in the Depression, so Giles leaves university and joins the Fleet Air Arm. He meets the Fairweather girls briefly on a visit to Liverpool but they lose touch. When they meet again Addy and Prue are no longer children, and Giles realises he is falling in love …

 

Claudia Muldoon and her younger sister, Jenny, live with their parents and their gran in her house in Blodwen Street. Both parents have good jobs and the family assume they are settled for life, but then Grandpa Muldoon has a seizure and begs his son to return to Ireland and the family croft.

The Muldoons leave and Gran has to take in lodgers to make ends meet, for the Depression is beginning to bite. In Ireland, however, the Muldoons flourish and the girls love the freedom of their new life, though as they grow up, disadvantages become clear. Claudia has to find work, so both sisters return to Liverpool and to their old pal Danny, who still adores the beautiful Claudia and welcomes them back with delight.

But both girls' lives take an unexpected turn when Danny's friend, the flamboyant and successful Rob Dingle, returns from America …

 

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