Far From Home (12 page)

‘Lawrence is right,' he said as he shook her hand. ‘You are welcome, my dear, very welcome.' Then he turned to his wife and said, ‘A cup of tea would go down well – it's real brass-monkey weather out there.'

‘I have some homemade vegetable soup. We can all have a cup of that for now,' Dora said. ‘Warm you up better than tea and it won't take me a jiffy to heat it up.' Everyone was agreeable to that and Kate stuck like glue to David and ignored the ogling glances that Lawrence was throwing her way.

He said little to her as they bunched around the fire drinking the wholesome and appetizing soup, but she told Alf, too, of her home and family in the cottage in Ireland, and her reasons for coming to Birmingham. She went on to say that she had met David at the weekly dance she and Susie went to. Lawrence gave his brother's leg a kick as he said, ‘Didn't know you could dance, our kid. If I was asked I would have said you had two left feet.'

‘Then you would have been wrong,' Kate snapped
out, louder than she intended because she was suddenly angered by Lawrence's supercilious tone. Her words and the way she had spoken had surprised everyone; they were all looking at her and she felt herself growing hot with embarrassment as she said, ‘Sorry, but I hate people taking the mickey like that.' And she turned to Lawrence and said, ‘David is a very good dancer.'

‘Good teacher perhaps?'

‘Not at all,' Kate said. ‘I didn't teach David to dance. I didn't need to.'

‘Oh, regular Fred Astaire, our David,' Lawrence sneered, then turned to Dora and said, ‘Bet you didn't know that, Mom?'

Alf chuckled but Dora looked at the frown on Kate's face and said, ‘That will do now, Lawrence.'

‘Only having a bit of a laugh,' Lawrence said.

‘Well, you've had it,' Dora snapped. ‘Let that be the end of it.' And turning to Kate, she said, ‘Tell me, my dear, are you a Catholic?'

‘Yes,' Kate said, and added, ‘in fact, until I came here I had never met anyone who wasn't a Catholic.'

‘Oh, you meet all sorts here,' Dora said. ‘Church of England, Baptists, Methodists, Jews and—'

‘Then there are people like us,' Lawrence put in. ‘Who don't give a damn either way.'

Everything he says, thought Kate, has an extra edge to it, and she decided to ignore him. She finished off the soup and handed the cup back to Dora, saying as she did so, ‘That was lovely soup. Thank you.'

‘Think nothing of it,' Dora said, though she was obviously pleased. ‘I make a lot of soup in the winter. I hope you like the tea as much. And talking of tea,'
she said to Alf, ‘I lit the fire in there. Well, you check it and put more coal on.'

‘Will do that readily enough,' Alf said. ‘That room is like an ice box without a fire.'

And so when they went in later, a cheerful fire was crackling in the cold black grate, which was set into a tiled hearth enclosed by a brass fender. A fluffy dark red rug lay in front of that, and the table fair groaned with food.

There were ham sandwiches and others made with salmon, and then Dora brought in a large, piping-hot cheese-and-onion pie and another that she said was bacon-and-egg. There were also mouth-watering pastries, two plates of assorted cakes and a great big Victoria sponge filled with jam and cream and dusted with sugar.

With such lovely food and so much of it, coupled with the general chitchat and banter around the table, Kate would have liked to relax a little, but she was only too aware that Lawrence continued to stare at her. It was unnerving to find his eyes boring into her every time she raised her head, and so to try to deflect attention away from herself, she turned to Alf and said, ‘David was telling me that you work in the brass industry?'

‘I do,' Alf said proudly. ‘Birmingham is famous for its brass. Did you know that?'

Kate nodded. ‘Frank Mason told me. He said the heat in the brass foundries is colossal.'

‘Aye,' Alf agreed. ‘Has to be, see, because we have to turn copper and zinc into molten metal and to do that you need heat – and lots of it.'

‘Yeah,' Lawrence said in agreement. ‘The furnaces are white-hot.'

‘So that's how brass is made, by mixing copper and zinc.' Kate said in amazement. ‘I never knew that.'

‘Why would you?' Lawrence said. ‘Then, when it's turned to liquid, we pour it into crucibles. Got to be real careful then. It's heavy work and one drop of that stuff on your skin and you would be badly burned.'

‘That's right,' Alf said. ‘Our overalls would be no good at all. A steady eye and a steady nerve is what's needed.'

‘They're filthy dirty when they come home as well,' Dora said. ‘And always glad of a wash and a clean dry shirt because the one they've been wearing all day is usually dripping with sweat.'

‘It sounds awful.'

Alf shrugged. ‘It's a job,' he said. ‘And it pays well. I mean, our David is earning good money now, but he didn't for ages, did you, son?'

‘Well, no, but that's because I was learning the trade,' David said. ‘I didn't really warrant earning a lot of money when I either didn't really know what I was doing, or someone else had to check everything I did to make sure that I was doing it right.'

‘Face it, David,' Lawrence said mockingly, ‘you hadn't got the bottle to go in the brass foundry anyway.'

David looked across the table to Lawrence and said disparagingly, ‘It's nothing to do with not having the bottle.'

Lawrence was angered by David's tone and there was a steely glint in his eyes as he snapped, ‘Yeah, that's just what it was.'

‘Don't be so daft,' David said. ‘I went to be an electrician because I was good with my hands and I liked electrics. The teacher came and talked to Mom about it and he was right. I earn plenty now and I always have loads of work on.'

‘And I'd say you'll have more, not less, before you're much older,' Alf said, jumping in quickly before Lawrence could find some other retort to annoy David further. ‘The gaffer was only telling me on Friday that they are fitting new dies to some of the lines next week and they will be making war-related stuff. It's bound to affect you as well.'

‘Yeah, I suppose so. If we do declare war, I should say that even more people will want wirelesses.'

Kate's eyes when she turned to him were very wide and fear-filled. ‘But there isn't going to be a war, is there?' she said. ‘I mean, we had that agreement with Hitler in October last year.'

‘Well, I'd say not everyone thinks that Hitler will keep his word,' David said. ‘Dad's right. Everyone seems to be getting ready for something and the number of people buying wirelesses has gone up. That's why I'm so busy.'

‘Yes, but more people might have been buying wirelesses anyway,' Kate said. ‘You said yourself that once electricity was fitted into the houses they would want to change the old ones they had. It doesn't necessarily mean that we are going to war.'

Dora saw Kate's agitation and didn't blame her – she hated all this talk about war as well. Wasn't as if it was going to make any difference, however much they talked about it. She patted Kate's hand comfortingly as she
said, ‘Course it doesn't, Kate. It's men like all this war talk. Fair turns a body off their meals, it does. Well, there's to be no more of it for today at least,' she said, glaring around the table. ‘Let's eat our tea in peace, for pity's sake.'

For a few minutes there was silence. Then David said, ‘Tell you what, dear brother, if the balloon does go up we'll see who has the bottle in this family. I will volunteer for the Air Force. It will be interesting to see what you'll do.'

Lawrence leapt to his feet, his face almost purple with rage as he demanded, ‘Just what are you insinuating?' As he spoke he made a lunge at his brother and caught hold of his shirt and hauled him from his seat.

Alf, however, had anticipated this, and got between them and broke Lawrence's hold. Meanwhile, Dora, after one cry of dismay, had begun to weep. ‘For God's sake, how old are the pair of you?' she cried brokenly.

As for Kate, she had sat in horrified silence. She knew that if it hadn't been for Alf's timely intervention, that comment might have easily led to a full-scale fight between the two brothers. Lawrence still stood like a bull ready to charge at any moment, gasping as he glared at his brother.

Alf looked at David and said, ‘Was there any need for that?'

David straightened his clothes but did not sit down as he said, ‘Probably not, but there is no need for him to say that I was afraid to go into the brass works. When war comes, it will sort out the men from the boys and we'll see who the brave ones are then.'

‘Are you saying I'm a coward?' Lawrence snapped.

David shrugged. ‘If the cap fits,' he said.

Lawrence made another lunge, countered again by his father, as Dora said through her tears, ‘For God's sake, David, will you shut up and sit down and eat your tea? I have slaved all day to put nice food on the table and you have taken away my appetite with your goings-on. And I don't know what your young lady must be thinking.'

‘Sorry, Ma,' David said. ‘It's just—'

‘Just nothing,' Dora said dismissively. ‘If war is declared, there will be time enough to worry about it, and God help us if it does. Then neither of you will have a choice in whether you fight or not, because there will be a call-up and that will be the end of it.'

Kate knew that too, and she hoped and prayed that David was wrong and that war could be averted. However, she said nothing, and an uncomfortable silence settled round the table.

Kate left as soon as she could after tea and, when they were clear of the house, David apologized for his family's behaviour and especially the scene around the table. Inwardly, Kate thought that David hadn't helped the situation, and in fact had inflamed it at times, but she sensed he didn't want criticism from her. Instead, she said, ‘Will you stop saying sorry? No one is responsible for their families. That being said, I don't like your brother much and it's more than obvious that you don't either, but why do you let him rile you so much?'

‘He started flirting with you the minute he came into the house.'

‘He's that kind of man,' Kate said. ‘I have met his sort before, and I can deal with him – like most women
can. I didn't respond to him, and never would. I really think he does it to make you cross. When you react, he's won, so don't react. Ignore him.'

‘That's easier said than done.'

‘Look, David, how often do we have to see your family, including Lawrence?'

‘Not often, if it's up to me,' David said.

‘That suits me as well,' Kate said. ‘And now, are we going to spend the rest of the night discussing the failings of your family, or are we going to make arrangements to meet again?'

‘I didn't know that you'd want to meet me again.'

‘Why wouldn't I?' Kate said. ‘Unless you are bringing the family along.'

David laughed. ‘I'll say not.'

‘Well,' said Kate. ‘
The Thief of Bagdad
is on at the Plaza.'

Kate told Susie all about what had happened at the Burton's house the next day on the way to work. ‘It was bedlam,' she said. ‘Honestly, Lawrence and David seem to really hate each other. And anything can start them off.'

‘Who's the worst?'

‘I'd say they're mainly as bad as each other,' Kate said. ‘Though I suppose, apart from that comment David made that they nearly came to blows over, I would say Lawrence has the edge. He seemed to set out to wind David up, flirting with me and so on. You know the sort of stuff.'

‘I know. I hate creepy men like that.'

‘Me too, but it is a bit difficult to know how to deal with him in front of his family.'

‘Oh, yes, I can see that.'

‘Anyway, David hardly speaks, and if he does, his brother usually makes some sarcastic comment about it,' Kate said.

Susie smiled. ‘Good job you're not marrying the family.'

‘I'll say,' Kate said. ‘And yet his parents are all right, on the whole, but I haven't the least interest in getting to know Lawrence any better.'

‘Don't blame you,' Susie said. ‘The lads knew him while they were growing up. Martin always said that he was glad the Burton's didn't go to his school because Lawrence was a year older than him and a big bruiser of a lad. He used to bully Martin mercilessly if he got him out on the street on his own.'

‘Why didn't you warn me?'

‘Because it was years ago,' Susie said. ‘And he could have been a changed person, for all I knew. Anyway, I thought you should make your own mind up.'

‘And I did.'

‘And what's the verdict?'

‘That Lawrence Burton is a nasty piece of work and I will steer well clear of him.'

‘Bit difficult if you are going to see much of David's family.'

‘Well, I'll see to it that we don't,' Kate said. ‘He won't mind that; he said he has always felt an outsider.'

‘Why?'

‘Well, he overheard his dad talking one day,' Kate told Susie. ‘And he said that once Lawrence was born, he and Dora didn't really want any more nippers. And when Dora fell for David, it was a very unpleasant shock for the both of them.'

‘Yeah, but people say things like that and get over it.'

‘I don't think his dad did totally,' Kate said. ‘David said his dad seldom took him for a kick-about in the park, but he went with Lawrence every week, and they
went to see the Villa play a fair few times and he was never taken along, and Alf taught Lawrence to swim in the cut. David still can't swim. Then Lawrence followed his dad into the brass foundry. When they go out for a pint at night or Sunday afternoon, David is never asked to go along with them.'

Susie wrinkled her nose. ‘Seems a bit mean,' she said.

‘I agree,' Kate said. ‘But none of us can help the families we are born into, so we will go our own way regardless.'

‘So you are seeing him again?'

‘You bet I am,' Kate said. ‘We're going to the pictures tonight, as a matter of fact.'

‘What's on?'

‘
The Thief of Bagdad
.'

‘Oh, I'd love to see that,' Susie cried. ‘Can me and Nick come too?'

‘Course you can,' Kate said, linking Susie's arm as they alighted from the tram and set off down the road. ‘The more the merrier, I say.'

 

The four of them had a great night at the cinema. When they came out, as they were all hungry, they bought fish and chips and walked home eating them out of the newspaper. David and Kate bade goodnight to Susie and Nick at the head of Marsh Lane and walked down the slight incline to Kate's flat; they had finished their supper when they reached the front door. Kate wiped her greasy fingers on the newspaper and said, ‘I think a cup of tea is in order. What about you?'

‘I think that would be just the job,' David said, and a few moments later they were sitting either side of the
fire drinking the very welcome tea. When they had the tea drunk, knowing that they would have the flat to themselves for another hour or so until Sally came home, Kate snuggled into David's arms quite willingly.

The kisses that she had once simply submitted to, now made her body tingle all over and left her gasping for more, but David went no further than that. Kate was both relieved and a little disappointed, because she was certain that what she felt now for David Burton was true love. In her weekly letter home, she told her mother all about David – the first time that she had ever mentioned him, or any other man either. She was so disappointed with the reply she got, because all her mother said about the new love in Kate's life was, ‘I hope this man that you seem so fond of is a good, practising Catholic.'

He wasn't. ‘Neither is Nick,' Susie said. ‘And he has already told me that he has no intention of turning. Why should he have to? And I'll tell you one thing, no priest or Catholic Church will dictate to me who I am going to spend the rest of my life with.'

‘What about your parents, though?'

‘I told them what Nick had said and they said it was up to me.'

‘Oh, God,' Kate said. ‘I doubt mine would be that understanding.'

‘Mine don't live in a small Irish village,' Susie said. ‘And it has to make a difference. Ask David – he might turn, you never know.'

Kate didn't say a word because they had never discussed marriage and she didn't want to appear too
forward. Sally, whom she had confided in, agreed with Susie. ‘Phil is C of E,' she said. ‘But he doesn't care about anything much and said he only goes to church to please his mother. She likes the vicar, who he said was very good to her when his father died. But he said  that it wouldn't bother him to change sides if it would make life easier for me.'

Kate was surprised that Phil and her sister had discussed marriage, given they were both still so young. ‘I know I can't do anything about it yet,' Sally said when Kate expressed concern. ‘I mean, Mammy will hardly give me consent to marry a man she has never met when she is trying to pretend I never existed. I'll be seventeen next week and there's not even a card from Ireland.' She turned bright eyes that glittered with unshed tears as she said that, and Kate felt so sorry for her as she went on: ‘And it still hurts.'

‘Ah, Sally, I can do nothing about that situation,' Kate said. ‘But I will give you a birthday to remember. You see if I don't.'

‘Oh, Kate, you have been great,' Sally said. ‘But with Mammy not really caring whether I live or die, it won't make a jot of difference whether Phil turns or not, so I said he can do as he pleases. And,' she said, ‘I'll tell you something else: I would want to marry Phil if he was a Hindu, Sikh or Jew, because it's the person who counts.'

‘I know that,' Kate said. ‘But how shall I answer Mammy?'

‘I would ignore the comment and just write your normal letter,' Sally said. ‘In the end, she will probably get the message. Mammy isn't stupid.'

Kate did as her sister advised, stressing how kind David was and how generous and gentle. She sketched over the visit to his home for Sunday tea and mentioned his brother only briefly. She concentrated instead on the things they had done together and how they often made up a foursome with Susie and her boyfriend, Nick Kassel, because she thought that would reassure her mother that she was not getting up to things she shouldn't be getting up to.

But she didn't forget what her sister had said, and on her birthday Sally had cards from all the Masons as well as Susie and Kate, and Kate had also bought her a rose-coloured blouse in shiny satin, which Sally was ecstatic about. She needn't have worried, though: she wasn't the only one determined to make sure Sally had a good day, for flowers were delivered before Kate left for work, and if there had been any doubt who had sent them there was a card attached:

To Sally with all my love – Phil.

‘They are gorgeous,' Kate declared. ‘And they will make the room smell lovely.'

Kate was drinking a cup of tea prior to going to bed as Sally burst through the door that night; she had a bag full of cards and presents. ‘Look at all these, Kate. Everyone made such a fuss of me because I am the youngest there.'

Kate looked at the boxes of chocolates and toiletries on the chair and all the lovely cards and remarked, ‘You have been thoroughly spoiled.'

‘I know,' Sally said with a grin. ‘Isn't it lovely? And this is what Phil gave me.' She withdrew a beautiful heart-shaped card and a small jewellery box where a silver locket encircled a velvet pad.

‘Oh, goodness,' Kate said, lifting it out and playing it between her fingers. ‘Isn't it absolutely splendid? I thought the flowers were Phil's present.'

‘Just part of it, he said,' Sally told her sister.

‘Well, you are a very lucky girl,' Kate said, and Sally grinned mischievously as she said, ‘I know.'

 

With Christmas, the New Year and Sally's birthday out of the way, Kate and Sally began to look for a bigger flat. Sally had had a rise as she had been at the cinema for three months, which was their trial period, so they could afford more rent. Everyone was on the lookout for them. It wasn't easy, and anything suitable had usually been snapped up before they could get to see it; both felt frustrated as the time slipped by.

But in other ways, Kate was happier than she had ever been, for she was so much at ease with David, as if she had known him all her life. They could and did talk about anything and everything. As they grew closer and closer, Kate wondered why she had ever been hesitant with the man she now loved totally.

Her mother, in her letters, still occasionally harped on the one thing that mattered to her, and that was David's religion, or lack of it. In her replies, as Sally had advised, Kate ignored any questions like that, but continued to write in the same vein as she had the first time. She told her mother again of the cinema visits and occasional trips to the music hall and the walks she enjoyed with David on fine Sunday afternoons.

As the winter finally relinquished its icy grip on the city, and blustery winds of early spring began to billow through those dusty streets, Kate found Sally waiting
for her one evening as she alighted from the tram on her way home from work. Sally was hopping agitatedly from one foot to the other. That had never happened before, and Kate was startled. ‘What is it?' she asked.

‘I've seen a flat and it's much bigger than ours,' Sally burst out. ‘One of the other usherettes heard about it and came to tell me and I went round to see it before work. It's really nice, but I said I had to ask you and she said she'd hold it till six and it's nearly that now. I was given leave to come and meet you off the tram.'

‘Better get a move on, Kate,' said Susie. ‘Best of luck.'

‘Yeah, see you tomorrow, Susie,' Kate said with a wave of her hand, and to Sally she said, ‘Where is this place?'

‘That's the beauty of it,' Sally said. ‘It's only a bit further down the Slade.'

And so it was. A converted house like the one they were in and in very good condition too. The landlady lived on the ground floor and she answered the door with a smile on her face when she recognized Sally. ‘You've just made it,' she said. ‘I've had a number after it but I said I would hold it until six.'

‘I couldn't get here any earlier,' Kate said. ‘I've come straight from work.'

‘Your sister said as much,' the landlady said as she crossed the tiled hall to the stairs. ‘Now,' she went on as she climbed the stairs with some difficulty because she was a very large lady. ‘My name is Dolly Donovan and the available flat, as your sister knows, is the one at the top of the house. And climbing all these stairs does me no good at all.'

It certainly didn't appear to, Kate thought, as she
listened to the landlady's laboured breathing every step of the way. She was wheezing heavily when the flat was finally reached. ‘It's one hefty climb,' she panted, and Kate agreed, particularly after a day at work, but it was well worth it. The front door opened into a small hall with a rug covering most of the lino; a door opened either side of it. The door to the right was a large room that stretched from one end of the house to the other, with a window either end. Like the hall, the whole place had lino on the floor, but a rug lay in front of the gas fireplace. A small brown moquette three-piece suite stood in front of the fire and by the far window was a table and four chairs. ‘Oh, it's lovely,' Kate exclaimed, stepping into the room.

‘The other room was originally the same size as this,' Dolly said. ‘But when the house was converted to flats, a proportion of it was taken off to make a kitchen. Access to that is from the living room.' She led the way down the room as she spoke and opened another door at the far end by the table and chairs. It was a far cry from the curtained area they had now. There was nothing rickety about these shelves and there were two wall cupboards besides – one housed crockery and glasses and the other was empty and could house foodstuffs. The sink was set by the window and below it was another cupboard. ‘Pots and pans and the like are in there,' Dolly said, and Kate had a look in and was impressed by the amount and quality of the cooking utensils. But best of all was the fairly new gas stove with four burners and an oven – Kate knew she would just love cooking on that. The bedroom was sizeable and housed two single beds. ‘Oh, single beds!' Kate
exclaimed. She said to Dolly, ‘That's much better. Sally and I share a bed at the moment.'

‘Yeah,' Sally said. ‘And every time I turn over in the night I fall out.'

‘Oh, you and me both,' Kate said, and Dolly laughed at the pair of them. ‘No danger of that here,' she said. ‘I'm sure you will be able to sleep the night through.'

‘And we have a wardrobe.'

‘Yes,' Dolly said. ‘When George was fitting this out, I insisted on a wardrobe, and you have a chest of drawers and a dressing table to share too.'