Daughter of Mine. Anne Bennett

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СКАЧАТЬ and we kissed and all, he produced the champagne and we drank it between us.’

      ‘Oh Tressa.’

      ‘I know,’ Tressa said. ‘It was bloody stupid, but it seemed like a good idea last night.’

      ‘I bet,’ Lizzie said with a grin. ‘Never mind, you’ve survived the morning—just. Nothing will be as bad as that.’

      ‘No,’ Tressa said with feeling. ‘Now you. What went wrong with you and Steve?’

      And Lizzie told her. ‘I can’t go on with this charade, Tressa, really I can’t. It isn’t fair. It’s nothing to do with Steve’s family, but God knows they’re bad enough; it’s Steve himself, and before you say it there’s nothing wrong with him either. He’s a fine man, handsome, generous, good company and he has a good, steady job. He could make some girl a first-rate husband, but that girl is not going to be me. I’m wrong to keep him hanging on, hoping.’

      Tressa knew that this time Lizzie was serious. She’d hoped Lizzie would fall for Steve and she knew Mike did too, but she saw now that what they hoped for wasn’t going to happen. ‘Could you wait until we’re properly engaged?’

      ‘Oh I don’t know, Tressa.’

      ‘Please.’

      ‘It could be ages.’

      ‘No, it won’t,’ Tressa said, and added, ‘Look, Lizzie, Mike has planned a big night for our next Saturday off, because it’s the day before Valentine’s Day. We’re meeting you two for a few drinks early and then Mike’s taking me to the theatre to see Gracie Fields and afterwards we’re going to dinner. Once the ring is on my finger you can say what you like to Steve.’

      ‘I don’t see what difference having the ring will make. You’re committed anyway.’

      ‘Just do this one thing for me,’ Tressa said. ‘Steve is going to be upset when you tell him—and I know that’s not your fault, I’m not blaming you. But, what if Mike decides to postpone the engagement to comfort his mate and try and get him to forget and all that, and you know he could do just that.’

      Lizzie knew he could. ‘Somehow, I don’t think he’ll feel the same if his ring is on my finger,’ Tressa went on. ‘He’s made his choice publicly then and that choice is me. Please, Lizzie, don’t mess it up for me. If I don’t have Mike, I will die. I might as well, for never as long as I live will I love someone as I do him. It’s less than a fortnight I’m asking for.’

      Lizzie looked at her cousin and knew if she was to do anything to jeopardise this romance Tressa would never forgive her, and she’d not forgive herself for Tressa’s heart would be broken. ‘What if you don’t hear from Ireland before then?’

      ‘We’re going ahead anyway. With or without their permission or blessing, we are getting engaged on the thirteenth of February, come hell or high water.’

      Steve knew all about the engagement plans and he was filled with envy.

      ‘Amazing, the powers of a ring,’ Mike said to Steve one night as they returned from a date with the girls.

      ‘Have you gone all the way yet?’ Steve asked.

      ‘Nearly, but not quite,’ Mike said. ‘The ring will clinch it. I’ll give Tressa a good time, and bingo! Christ, I can hardly wait.’

      Steve was silent, trying to cope with the frustration eating at him, and Mike said, ‘Aren’t you thinking that way yourself—engagement, I mean?’

      ‘Lizzie’s not ready yet,’ Steve answered shortly. Mike had no idea how little he and Lizzie did together and Steve had no intention of telling him. Tressa had said nothing either, because until she was securely engaged it was in her interest to pretend things between Steve and Lizzie were hunky-dory.

      ‘Maybe when she sees the ring she’ll change her mind,’ Mike commented. ‘You know how women are about rings.’

      God! Steve thought, it would need more than a ring to alter Lizzie, for she was worse if anything. And she was worse, because for all her promise to Tressa to say nothing to Steve until the fateful engagement day, she felt as if she was leading him on by still going out with him. She tried not to let this affect her, but of course it did, and that evening, Steve, remembering how unsatisfactory things had been of late, said to Mike, ‘I’m not going home yet, Mike. Be seeing you.’

      Mike knew where Steve was heading. In his pre-Tressa days he’d have probably been alongside him, but now he said, ‘Why d’you have to go to those places when you have a lovely girl you’ve just spent the evening with?’

      ‘Mind your own business, Mike,’ Steve spat out angrily. ‘I don’t have to answer to you.’

      ‘I was just saying.’

      ‘Well stop just saying,’ Steve said, ‘because I’ve stopped listening.’

      Mike shrugged as Steve turned away from the streets and headed back to one of his favoured haunts in Varna Road.

      The good news approving the engagement came after a week. Tressa read it out:

       It is obvious you are smitten with each other and as this Mike Malone gives a good account of himself, you have our blessing so far. However, you are young and there is to be no marriage until we have met your intended. We suggest you come home in the summer and introduce us.

      ‘Isn’t Mammy a pet,’ Tressa said, spinning around in delight.

      ‘It seems all fine for you, right enough,’ Lizzie said, but she was a little saddened for she knew she would be quite lonely when she told Steve she didn’t want to see him any more, but despite this she would wait no longer than the thirteenth. She owed him that much.

      That day, the girls were on duty until three o’clock and Tressa got dinner and sweet orders mixed up, laid tables the wrong way round, forgot the cruets and sauces and dropped so many things in the kitchen that the chef yelled at her. She didn’t seem to care; excitement had taken hold of her and her nerves were jumping about inside her body as she watched the clock anxiously, willing the time to be gone so she could go out to meet her man.

      ‘We just have three hours,’ she told Lizzie in their room. ‘Do you want the bath first?’

      ‘Why just three hours. Surely we’re not meeting them at six?’

      ‘Aye. The theatre performance is at seven thirty.’

      ‘Even so.’

      ‘They’re going to be in town anyway,’ Tressa explained. ‘They’re buying the ring today.’

      ‘Didn’t you want to choose it?’

      ‘No,’ Tressa said. ‘I wouldn’t know how much Mike would have to spend. I told him to surprise me.’

      It had surprised Steve, for he’d seen Mike part with the best part of three weeks’ wages to buy the diamond cluster he’d set his heart on.

      ‘Some price, man,’ he said as they left the shop.

      ‘Tressa’s СКАЧАТЬ