Cousins at War (13 page)

‘I haven’t got a lad at all. I just meant I wouldn’t feel really married if the wedding was in a registrar’s.’

Joe changed the subject, ‘Does Ellie say anything else?’

‘She says Morag’s joined the Wrens, and she’d to report at Portsmouth on Monday. At least she got to be at her sister’s wedding, but that means Ellie’ll be all on
her own now, for Kathleen’s gone to Chatham with her new husband.’

‘You could ask her to sell her house and come here,’ Joe suggested. ‘We’ve a spare room now Neil’s away, he could aye sleep on the settee when he’s on
leave.’

‘She wouldn’t come. I asked her after Gavin died, and she wouldn’t hear of it. Anyway, Neil’s things are still in his room, and he’ll need it again when the
war’s finished.’

When her husband and daughter went out, Gracie turned to Queenie who was on holiday from school. ‘Will you manage to make the dinner? I want to go and tell Hetty about Kathleen, for
it’s not the same over the phone.’

‘Off you go,’ the girl smiled. ‘I’ll manage the housework and the cooking, so you don’t need to hurry home.’

‘I’ll likely be back before Joe and Patsy come in.’

Hetty was delighted to hear that Kathleen was married, but Olive’s nose screwed up in disdain. ‘A registry office?’ She couldn’t have put more disgust in her voice if it
had been a place of ill repute. ‘I wouldn’t dream of being married in a registry office.’

Gracie’s hackles had risen. ‘What’s wrong with it?’

‘It’s not really legal, for a start.’

‘It’s quite legal, and it’s what Kathleen wanted.’

‘Oh, well,’ Olive sneered, ‘if it’s what she wanted, it’ll be all right . . . I suppose. Did she have a white dress?’

On the verge of losing her temper now, Gracie said rather stiffly, ‘She’d on a navy costume with a dusty pink blouse, and Ellie says she looked really lovely.’

‘Maybe she wasn’t entitled to wear white?’

‘Olive!’ Hetty warned.

The blatant slur on Kathleen’s virginity was too much for Gracie. ‘You’ve a nasty mind, you spoiled brat! Ellie would have said if she was pregnant and, even if she is,
it’s none of your dashed business.’

Olive’s smirk was more annoying than any reply and Gracie turned away, still seething. Hetty, looking helplessly from one to the other, eventually ventured, ‘I think Gracie’s
due an apology, Olive.’

‘What for? She should apologise to me for saying I was a spoiled brat.’

Gracie’s eyes twinkled suddenly, although she did her best to keep a straight face. ‘I’m sorry you’re a spoiled brat, Olive, it’s a terrible handicap for
you.’

Hetty drew in her breath, and it came as no surprise to Gracie when Olive spun round and stalked out, angry that the tables had been turned on her. Almost in tears, Hetty said, ‘I’m
sorry, Gracie, it’s my fault she’s spoiled.’

Her sister nodded, ‘Aye, we all know that, and don’t worry about me. I won’t lose any sleep over what she said, and I’m sure Ellie wouldn’t bother, either, though
I’ll not tell her anything. She’s happy that Kathleen’s happy, and that’s what matters, isn’t it?’

After another hour of conversation which was less strained as time passed, Gracie took her leave, but waited until she and Joe went to bed before she told him what had transpired.

‘That girl’s going to cause a lot of trouble some day,’ he remarked. ‘Hetty’s going to wish she’d been harder on her.’

Gracie looked at him keenly. ‘That’s what I’ve thought for a long time. I used to worry that it would be Neil she would make trouble for, but she’s hasn’t bothered
with him since she started going with Alf Melville. I can’t think why she was so nasty about Kathleen though, unless her own romance isn’t coming on as fast as she hoped, or maybe
she’s annoyed that Kathleen got a husband before her. Aye,’ she ended, in great satisfaction, ‘that’s likely what it was.’

The following morning brought a letter from Neil, telling his mother that he would be home at the end of the next week and asking if it was all right if Alf came to King Street again before
going to Elgin. ‘Neil’s going to be here a few days before Alf,’ Gracie observed. ‘D’you think I should ask him to warn Alf about the kind of girl Olive is?’

Joe grinned. ‘He’ll find out for himself soon enough.’

‘Alf’s coming a week on Sunday!’ Olive told her mother after reading his latest letter, her excitement too great to hide. ‘He says he’ll call for
me at seven, and I hope you’ve some clothing coupons left so I can buy a new dress.’

‘You’ve used all mine, and your father’s, and Raymond’s, and anyway, you’ve plenty of things that Alf’s never seen.’

‘I’d have liked something new,’ Olive said petulantly. ‘I won’t feel good in anything old, but I suppose the blue slub linen will just have to do. I’ve only
worn it once.’

Her frustration at the strictures imposed by wartime had evaporated by the time she went up to her room again and her mind was entirely on Alf. Each time he wrote, he said he was missing her but
he always stopped short of telling her that he loved her. She almost swooned when a new thought struck her. He was so romantic, he must be waiting until he could tell her in person! She was hurt
that he was going home to Elgin on the Tuesday – he could have waited another day or two – but he probably felt duty-bound to see his parents.

Olive let her mind drift ahead. An engagement party on his leave after this one, and he would take her home with him to introduce her to his mother and father, and it would be the leave after
that before they could actually be married. Her father would probably want a big wedding . . . a white dress and a church ceremony – definitely not in a registry office like her cousin
Kathleen McKenzie – a reception in the best hotel in the city. Excitement rippled inside her at the thought of how marvellous it would be, and all that was only the lead up to the wedding
night! She had planned to give herself to Alf this time, but it would be best to wait until they were on honeymoon. It would be all the sweeter for them both if he took her virginity legally. The
rippling thrills merged and formed a huge shivery knot in the pit of her stomach as she tried to picture what would happen.

‘Olive! Breakfast’s on the table!’

Her mother’s voice shattered the dream, but there would be plenty of time to think before the big event. ‘Coming!’

Looking up when Queenie came through, Neil was amazed. Having taken a few hours in bed after he arrived home, Neil was back in the kitchen only a few minutes when Queenie came throught, ready to
go to the pictures with Patsy. The difference in her amazed him. She’d been a schoolgirl when she went out in the morning, but now . . . what a transformation!’ Her long fair hair had
been swept up at the sides in the latest style, emphasising its gold tinge; the touch of lipstick she was wearing outlined her mouth in delectable curves; whatever she had on round her eyes made
them look larger and an even deeper blue; the bodice of her dress – last summer’s by the look of it – was so tight that the points of her nipples were straining upwards against
the thin cotton. God almighty! She was the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen, and he was glad he was sitting down. If he’d been standing, his arousal would have been in full view.

He had never thought of her as desirable before, had even smiled contemptuously when his mother wrote that Queenie was going out with a boy from her school – a couple of innocent kids,
he’d thought – but now he prayed that the boy had done nothing to spoil that innocence.

‘What d’you think of our Queenie now?’ his father asked, a proud smile on his face.

Neil had to swallow. If he said what he had been thinking, everybody would be embarrassed, including himself. Luckily, Patsy came through and saved the situation. ‘Are you ready,
Queenie?’ she asked.

Queenie appealed to her aunt first. ‘Do I look OK?’

‘You look fine, both of you.’

When the girls had gone, Joe looked at Neil again. ‘She’s quite the young lady when she’s all dressed up, isn’t she? I bet you got a surprise.’

He was able to laugh now. ‘I sure did. She could pass for eighteen with the make up on. Is she still going with that boy?’ He had to find out.

‘She stopped going with him weeks ago. She never said why, but I’m sure there was never anything serious between them. It hasn’t bothered her, at any rate.’

Satisfied, Neil started telling his father about problems he’d had with some of the vehicles he had to repair, and it wasn’t until he went to bed that Gracie had the opportunity to
voice to her husband a new fear which had arisen in her mind. ‘Did you notice how Neil’s eyes lit up tonight when he saw Queenie?’

‘Aye, she looked a right wee smasher. If I’d been thirty years younger, I’d have . . .’

Gracie frowned. ‘It’s nothing to joke about. I was pleased when Olive started going out with Alf, for it meant Neil was free of her, but if he falls in love with Queenie . . . oh,
Joe, I hope there’s no . . .’

‘Queenie would be better for him than Olive.’

‘But she’s still a cousin,’ Gracie pointed out.

Hetty held Martin back from going to the door with the young soldier after his evening visit. ‘Can’t you see Olive wants to get Neil on his own so she can ask about
Alf?’

‘I never thought . . . but Alf’ll be here himself on Sunday.’

‘Oh, you! Have you no romance left in your soul?’

Trying to sound fully convincing, Neil told Olive that Alf could hardly wait to see her and had to stifle a laugh when she asked, ‘Does he say nice things about me?’

‘He says you’re wonderful. He’s always speaking about you, wondering what you’re doing and if you think about him as much as he thinks about you . . . the usual rubbish
when a man’s in love.’

Olive’s eyes sparkled. ‘He is in love with me, then? He’s never said, but I was almost sure he was. D’you think he’ll tell me when he’s here?’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised, if he can pluck up the courage, that is. He’s really quite shy, though he maybe doesn’t give that impression.’

‘He doesn’t. I’d have thought he was full of confidence . . . but being in love makes a difference, I suppose?’

Neil couldn’t hold back a giggle and covered up by saying facetiously ‘Never having been in love, I wouldn’t know.’

‘Has Alf ever been in love before?’

‘Not that I know of.’ That was true, Neil thought. Neither he nor Alf were serious about any of their conquests.

‘You know,’ Olive said, dreamily, ‘I used to think that I was in love with you, but that was when I was still just a silly schoolgirl. True love is nothing like
that.’

‘I’d better go. Cheerio, Olive.’ Neil hurried away before his control snapped, but he had to collapse against a garden wall in a few seconds to give vent to his laughter. When
he got over it, he wondered how his pal would cope with Olive in this state, and hoped that he hadn’t gone over the score. It would be awful if Alf took cold feet now.

On Alf’s first night in Aberdeen, Neil took him to Rubislaw Den, and they had giggled all the way home at Olive’s flirtatious behaviour. They were still laughing
about it when they went out for a walk the following morning.

‘Hey, you two! What’s the joke?’ Scuffling out of Back Wynd on his lethargic way to Gordon’s College, Raymond Potter had heard the laughter before he saw the soldiers,
but when he recognised them, he ran across Schoolhill to talk to them.

‘Oh, hullo.’ Neil looked surprised. ‘It’s funny us running into you – we were laughing about Olive.’

‘Oh, her!’ All the contempt of a sixteen-year-old for his elder sister was contained in these two words. ‘What’s she done now?’

Neil chortled again, ‘It’s what we’ve done to her.’

Alf shot him a warning glance, ‘Watch it!’

This only served to whet Raymond’s curiosity. ‘Go on. What have you done to her? She was going on at breakfast time like she’d come into a fortune.’

Neil nodded wisely, ‘I bet she was. She’ll be hearing the tinkle of wedding bells after last night, for Alf here told her he loved her.’

‘Great! When you marry her, you’ll be my brother-in- . . .’

‘No, no,’ Alf interrupted, panicking. ‘It wasn’t true. She practically forced it out of me.’

Raymond was confused now, ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

After Neil told him, the boy was beside himself with glee. ‘So you’ve pulled a fast one on her? Goodoh! When are you going to tell her the truth, Alf?’

Neil explained, ‘When he goes back to camp, he’s going to write and tell her he’s found somebody else. He’s going home to Elgin now – we’re on our way to the
bus – and I go back to Larkhill tomorrow, so none of us’ll be here when she gets the letter.’ He paused for a moment, realising the danger of what he had said. ‘For
God’s sake, Raymond, don’t tell her!’

His cousin looked offended. ‘What d’you take me for? I can keep my trap shut.’

‘You’d better, or else . . .’ Neil drew one finger across his own throat, menacingly.

‘Scout’s honour!’ Raymond vowed, then looked at his wrist watch. ‘I’ll be late for school. Cheerio.’

A worried frown gathered on Alf’s brow as the boy ran off, ‘You shouldn’t have told him.’

‘Ach, Raymond’s OK. He won’t say anything.’

‘Famous last words,’ muttered Alf darkly, as they turned the corner past the granite lion erected as a memorial to the dead of the previous war outside the Cowdray Hall.

The Elgin bus was already standing in Blackfriars Street, so Neil walked off as soon as Alf was seated. It was strange meeting Raymond but he was a sensible kid, and he was just as keen to see
Olive get her comeuppance as they were. He would keep his tongue between his teeth. Remembering that he hadn’t told Alf how he’d felt about Queenie that night last week – it
wasn’t something he could joke about – he decided to consider it carefully before he jumped in with both feet and did something stupid. He’d never felt anything like this before
about a girl . . . but was it love?

Unable to banish the memory of Neil’s face when he had seen her all ‘toffed’ up, Queenie Ogilvie wondered once again if she had imagined the admiration. She
knew that she had looked good – Patsy had assured her of that, and even Uncle Joe had seemed proud of her – but Neil must meet some really lovely girls in Larkhill. It could easily have
been surprise that he had registered not interest. Nevertheless she was delighted that he had noticed how she looked, and perhaps next time he came home, he might ask her out, maybe even fall in
love with her. She was certainly well on the way to being in love with him.