Christmas Wishes (32 page)

She stood very still, trying to blend in with her surroundings, and waiting. The time seemed to stretch endlessly, but she forced herself to remain just where she was whilst a distant clock chimed, first the hour and then the quarter. Only when half an hour had passed did she move her head from side to side, listening intently, for sometimes she could sense someone approaching by this method even if there was no actual sound. Having done her best to make sure that she was alone, she set off in the direction of Rodney Street, walking extremely slowly and using her stick to ensure that she stayed on the pavement and did not stray on to the road.

The wall ended and she turned left, then left again, and was pretty sure she had regained Rodney Street. She paused on the corner, as though to check her whereabouts, and heard footsteps coming towards her. She listened. Not Gillian’s; she knew her sister’s tread. A man? Almost certainly. Joy cleared her throat. She pretended to be interested in the building she was passing, feeling her heart begin to hammer then slow to a normal beat as the sound of the man’s footsteps grew fainter and disappeared; she assumed he had entered one of the houses. She began to walk slowly along once more. More footsteps; a woman with several small children gathered them about her and then moved to one side and Joy smiled her thanks. Other people came and went but no one took the slightest notice of her. And then she heard lighter, almost dancing footsteps coming towards her along the pavement. Gillian!

Seconds later she felt her hand seized in her twin’s warm, familiar clasp and a voice, with laughter bubbling beneath the words, spoke in her ear. ‘Oh, Joy, I’m so sorry – what must you have thought! I went back to where I left you … but we can’t talk now.’

‘But what happened? Did the feller catch up with you, or is he still searching?’

Gillian gave a breathless little laugh. ‘You could say he’s given up; he’s gone back to his house, anyway. But I can’t tell you any more than that until we’re safely home.’

‘Aren’t we safe now, then?’ Joy asked apprehensively. ‘I thought you said …’

‘We’re safe all right; I just don’t want to tell you what happened until we’re alone. Oh, what an adventure … I dare say you’ve had one of your own as well, but we’ll both have to wait. Tell you what, shall we run? Just for fun, not because we’re being chased. The pavement’s pretty smooth … ready, steady, go!’

It could be a frightening thing to be running with all one’s might in complete darkness, in a strange place, with no knowledge of why one runs or where, but Joy trusted Gillian completely and the edge of laughter in the other girl’s voice was very comforting. The twins often ran, arms tight round each other’s waists, and Joy loved the feeling it gave her of being ordinary, like other girls. Besides, Gillian had made it clear that they were not running from any danger. She still kept giving tiny, purring laughs, and Joy felt obliged to remind her, somewhat breathlessly, to warn her of possible hazards. A tilted paving stone here, a wall sticking out too far there, a woman with a pram and toddlers at heel approaching, a side road to cross … Gillian mentioned them all as they ran until, at long last, she pulled Joy to a halt and they both stood still, panting, but somehow exhilarated, having reached Mount Pleasant at last, Joy assumed. ‘Right, here’s the tram stop,’ Gillian informed her twin in a triumphant voice. ‘Goodness! I should think you and I could represent our country in the three-legged race in the Olympics!’

Joy smiled. The danger, if there had ever been any, had clearly passed, but even so she knew she would feel a good deal happier once they had left Rodney Street far behind. The traffic noise was considerable, but her keen ear picked out the roar of an approaching tram and she pinched her sister’s arm. ‘Is the tram I can hear coming ours?’ she asked hopefully. ‘Are we at the end of a long queue or will we be able to get aboard?’

‘Wave your white stick and they’ll push us to the front,’ Gillian said, giggling, knowing full well that her sister would scorn such tactics. ‘I wish I could tell you, but it’s too weird … too personal.’ She lowered her voice. ‘What’s more, I can’t explain with half Liverpool listening. Oh, Joy, I just wish you could have seen me … only I can’t tell you yet.’

Joy had had enough. ‘Shut up!’ she said. ‘If you want to keep your secret, keep it. Just get me on this tram or I’ll – I’ll simply walk away from you, so there!’

Gillian giggled. ‘All right, all right, don’t get in a bate,’ she said quickly as the tram drew up alongside them. ‘Yes, this one will do very well. Hop aboard.’

Joy hoped Gillian would tell her story as soon as they reached home, but when they entered the kitchen they realised that this would be impossible, for the room contained not only their father, Irene and Mrs Clarke, but also someone else: a young man. Irene began to say that Joy would be delighted to meet an old friend, but Gillian stepped forward and must have put a hand over Irene’s mouth for her words were cut off abruptly. ‘Shut up, Irene Finnigan,’ Gillian said reprovingly. ‘You’ll never guess who it is, Joy, not in a thousand years.’

Joy thought hard and then addressed the stranger. ‘Say something, just to give me a clue,’ she said. ‘You could try saying “Hello, Joy”, or a whole sentence if you’d rather.’

The stranger laughed and might have begun to speak had not Joy given a crow of triumph and held out both hands. ‘Edward!’ she squeaked. ‘I’d know your laugh anywhere. But you’re at university! In your last letter you said you were doing end-of-year exams and thought you might have to go to a crammer in the summer vac. So why are you here now?’

‘Because I passed everything so don’t need a crammer,’ he said. He had taken her hands, but he let them go in order to sweep her into a hug, planting a resounding kiss on her cheek. ‘I’ve not seen you for months, which means I get to kiss you.’ Then he took her hand again and guided it to his shoulder. ‘Say “Haven’t you grown, Edward, and aren’t your shoulders broad!”’ he said. ‘I’m incredibly handsome – well, I’m still spotty of course, and my squint hasn’t gone, and nor have my freckles. Then there’s my wooden leg …’

There was a howl of derision from Irene and Gillian and the sound of a slap. ‘Twerp!’ Gillian shouted. ‘You talk too much. And you were so pleased that you’d had an offer of a place at Cambridge, yet you’re at Liverpool after all. Why was that?’

‘Wanted to live at home,’ Edward said after an infinitesimal pause. ‘Mam and Dad aren’t getting any younger … Well, young Joy, notice any changes?’

‘You are an awful lot taller. Gillian and I don’t seem to grow much,’ Joy said ruefully. ‘We haven’t changed at all, I don’t think.’

‘Well, you’re twins,’ Alex said comfortably. ‘And I must say, darling Joy, that in every respect you and Gillian are …’

‘… as like as peas in a pod,’ the twins chorused, and Joy, still holding tightly to Edward’s hand, led him towards the kitchen table.

‘You sit next to me, Edward, and tell me all about university,’ she commanded. ‘Is your friend Tolly home as well? What about Smithy, and old Bluenose? I’d love to meet them, because you made them sound so funny.’

‘Funny they definitely are, but I don’t intend to let you meet them because you might fall for one of them and abandon me to bachelorhood,’ Edward said, and Joy could tell he was grinning. ‘I see the table’s laid for one of Mrs Clarke’s wonderful teas; can I pass you a couple of Welsh cakes or some shortbread?’

‘No you cannot, young man,’ Mrs Clarke said before Joy could reply. ‘The idea! Bread and butter with just a little jam comes first, otherwise these gannets would fill up on cakes and pies and just leave bread and jam for their elders.’

‘Of course, I forgot,’ Edward said apologetically. He put a plate down in front of Joy. ‘Bread and jam, ma’am?’

Joy thanked him and began to ask him what his plans were for the summer vac. Edward said that he meant to get a job, since he needed to earn something, and his uncle who farmed in North Wales needed help over the summer and was prepared to take him on. ‘It’s live-in, which means I shan’t have to shell out for grub, and the pay’s not bad,’ he said.

‘And North Wales isn’t far,’ Joy said, beaming. ‘Oh, Edward, you’ll be able to come home when you aren’t too busy. I promise I won’t be a drag on you, but the more people who are willing to take me about the better. Mind you, I’m having a fortnight off and then I mean to start looking for work myself, so hopefully I shan’t have all that much spare time. When do you start at your uncle’s place?’

‘I’m having the next two weeks off as well,’ Edward said quickly, ‘so you and I, Joy my love, will be able to catch up on each other’s news!’

It was at this point that Gillian leaned across the table and interrupted Edward’s polite offering round of Mrs Clarke’s fruitcake. ‘I say, Edward, did I hear you say you’re taking a couple of weeks off?’ she demanded. ‘If so, might you be free next Wednesday? Only Joy and myself are going down to Llandudno for the day, to meet a pal of mine who’s working down there. It would be really grand if you could come along to keep our Joy company.’

‘Oh, I’m sure Edward has better things to do,’ Joy said awkwardly. ‘Wednesday’s only a few days off, and I don’t think he knows Keith … It might be awkward, too, since Keith’s only expecting the two of us and you said he was giving us lunch at the Imperial.’

‘It’s all right, I can pay my way,’ Edward said easily, and it occurred to Joy that her old friend was not only taller and broader, but more self-confident too. In fact she would enjoy spending the day with him, getting to know him all over again, but would he share her feelings? They had been good pals, but she was uneasily aware that she was still rather young for her age, and might seem boring company to a sophisticated young man of nineteen.

Plucking up her courage, she said as much, only to be told she was ‘talking daft’. ‘We’ll have a good laugh, just like we used to on our way to and from school,’ Edward assured her. ‘You don’t want to put yourself down, young Joy. When did I ever get bored with you, answer me that! And you say this Keith feller is feeding us at the Imperial? I’d go along just for an excuse to get into that gorgeous place, and I’ll pay for my dinner, because I’d have to eat somewhere, wouldn’t I?’ He took Joy’s hand and squeezed her fingers. ‘Let me come to the seaside, pretty lady,’ he said, imitating a gypsy’s whine, then changed to the shrill tones of a three-year-old. ‘I’ll be ever so good, Mammy, I’ll be the bestest boy in the whole world if you’ll take me wi’ you to Llandudno!’

All through tea, Gillian hoped that she was concealing her wild desire to grab her twin by the hand and take her off to where they could be alone, because the events of the afternoon burned like fire in her mind and she was simply longing to tell Joy every detail of what had happened. Indeed at one point, when everyone was clearing away and washing up, she had grabbed Joy’s shoulder and suggested, in a hissing whisper, that they might make some excuse to go up to their bedroom and have some time together. But Joy had given a wicked grin and shaken her head. ‘No way, Gillian Lawrence,’ she had whispered back. ‘You were so keen not to tell me a thing earlier, you can jolly well keep your secret now, if it’s worth keeping, that is.’

‘Oh, but …’ Gillian had begun, but Joy had wriggled out of her grasp and gone over to the sink, where Edward had given her his tea cloth and a handful of cutlery and started talking about a certain night when he and his pals, having imbibed rather too much beer, had gone to one of the parks and plunged naked into the lake. In the shouts of disbelief and amusement that followed Gillian had been forced to curb her impatience; her own story could not be told in this company.

When the clearing up was finished, Alex departed for his shift at the fire station, Mrs Clarke announced that she meant to take Dilly up to the park, since the dog had been cooped up in the parlour for several hours, and Irene suggested that the four of them might accompany the older woman, unless Edward had other plans, of course.

‘Fancy that horrible little brute still going strong,’ Edward commented as soon as Mrs Clarke had left the kitchen. ‘I’ve still got the scars on my calf from where it tried to take a lump out of me before I went to university.’

Joy had been sitting down whilst the others put away crockery and cutlery, but now she stood up and made her way to where her jacket hung on a peg. ‘We might as well all go with Auntie Clarke,’ she said. ‘Then we can discuss our plans for Wednesday.’ She lifted her twin’s jacket off its peg and held it out. ‘It’s all very well for you to invite Edward to accompany us, but who can say there’ll be room on the coach for him? I think we ought to go down to the bus station right now, so Edward can buy a ticket. You’ve not even told him what time we’re leaving.’

‘Well we can’t do both – walk Dilly and buy a ticket – because they’re in opposite directions,’ Gillian said crossly. This evening seemed interminable; if they had to accompany the wretched pug to the park and then turn round and make for the bus station, it would be midnight before she got to tell Joy what had happened in Rodney Street.

But Mrs Clarke did not want to take Dilly such a distance and said at once that they had better split up. She turned to Joy, who had donned her jacket and was waiting by the door. ‘Irene, Gillian and I will go to the park whilst you and Edward go to the bus station,’ she said, ignoring Irene’s mumble that she’d had a long day at work and wasn’t that keen on walking anyway. ‘Edward came round to see you, Joy, and you’ve scarce had time to exchange half a dozen words.’ So saying, Mrs Clarke bent to attach Dilly’s lead, taking care to keep out of the reach of the dog’s jaws, and led the way out to the jigger.

As soon as they were out of hearing of the others, Joy asked Edward if he was sure he wanted to go to Llandudno. ‘I’d be perfectly all right with just Gillian and Keith, because although he’s her boyfriend they won’t get all lovey-dovey and embarrass me,’ she assured him. ‘Anyway, there might be somebody else I know on the coach who would take me about for an hour or so, or they could simply sit me on the sands and leave me to enjoy the sunshine.’

‘Oh,
do
shut up,’ Edward said imploringly. ‘Provided there’s a seat on the coach I shall come with you, and if there isn’t a seat on the coach I’ll catch an ordinary service bus, or come by train.’ He gave the hand on his arm a little pat. ‘And if there’s no room on the trains or the buses, I shall walk; does that satisfy you?’