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СКАЧАТЬ where they were playing a chasing game. There was only fifteen months between the two children and Michael was the image of his mother, with flame-red hair, though his eyes were hazel, unlike her green ones. Megan’s hair was fairer and she favoured her father’s looks.

      ‘All the better for seeing you, Rita.’ Jack gave her a warm smile. Despite herself, Rita felt herself blush. She and Jack went back a long way. Before she married Charlie, she and Jack had been walking out together. But that had all been a long time ago, she reminded herself. They’d been little more than kids. Now she was married to Charlie with two children. It was best to look forward and not back.

      ‘It looks like you’ve got your hands full there, Rita,’ Kitty said as she placed one of the boxes on the table ready for the family inspection. She felt nervous suddenly. She did hope they liked it. Nancy especially.

      ‘They never give me a minute.’ Rita’s laugh was easy-going, practised, and Kitty marvelled at her ability to snap on a smile at a moment’s notice. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without them, though.’

      ‘They’re thriving, Rita, and it’s a credit to you,’ Jack said.

      Rita found it hard to meet his eyes and brushed off his compliment. ‘Thanks, Jack, they’re good kids. Let’s hope there isn’t a war. I couldn’t bear to part with them.’

      Thinking of Tommy, Kitty knew exactly what she meant. If Mr Chamberlain decided that this country was going to war with Germany, the children were to be taken away to a place of safety. Kitty had heard the mothers talking in the shops and in the streets around. Many said that they would send their children away to God only knew where only over their own dead bodies. Others said that their children’s safety must come before any personal considerations. It was a choice no mother wanted to make.

      ‘It’s lovely to see everybody here,’ Kitty smiled as Jack placed the two bigger boxes on the table.

      Pop and Dolly nodded with proud appreciation of a full house. ‘Only our Frank missing,’ said Dolly, ‘but he’ll be home tomorrow if he can get leave.’

      ‘I’d better be off, Dolly. Good to see you all. I’m looking forward to a slice of that cake on Saturday.’

      ‘Bye, Jack. Mind how you go, now,’ Rita said, as Jack made his way to the door.

      ‘You too, Reet,’ Jack replied as their eyes met. Rita looked away quickly and then he was gone. But she was aware that Jack had used the same shortening of her name that he’d always done. Jack was the only person that Rita would allow to call her that.

      ‘Have a seat, Kit.’ Eddy scraped back his chair and offered it to Kitty. A merchant mariner, he had managed to get leave for his sister’s wedding.

      ‘Hopefully he will get here before Saturday,’ Dolly said, pouring tea into another two cups while Kitty’s heartbeat fluttered at the mention of Frank Feeny.

      ‘You’re looking well, Kit.’ Eddy’s friendly smile flashed white against a rugged, windblown complexion, enhanced by three years of sea voyages.

      ‘I’m fine, Eddy.’ Kitty took the cup of tea from Dolly and sat at the table. ‘How’s yourself?’

      ‘We docked yesterday. I’m joining a new ship down the Pool on Monday.’ He sounded excited and Kitty couldn’t help but notice the pained look on his mother’s face. Kitty knew young men like Eddy were joining the services because they could not get jobs, but around here many had always gone away to sea. The thought of war made her feel sick. There were two million unemployed in this country and it seemed that joining one of the Forces was the only one way to get a decent day’s work. She knew that naval forces had been marshalling for months and the local docks had provided anchorage for ships of many nations.

      ‘I’ve got salt water in my veins, like Frank … and Pop, of course.’ Eddy looked over to his father, a Royal Navy veteran who had seen action in the Great War. Although he did not talk about it much the proof of all he had been through sat on his handsome face. The dark eye-patch he wore was a daily reminder.

      ‘You’ll have best bitter running through your veins on Saturday,’ Pop laughed. The Feeny house was always lively and full of laughter.

      ‘You know,’ Pop whispered to Eddy, out of Dolly’s earshot, ‘your mother never talks about it but there are bags of sugar and tins of stuff all over the house. She doesn’t want to be caught out if the worst happens. There’s talk of rationing if war breaks out.’ Everybody was quietly preparing for war, it seemed.

      ‘Are you going to save me a dance on Saturday, Kit?’ Eddy asked, slow, slow, quick-quick, slowing in circles around the room, making Kitty laugh loudly. ‘Go on, Kit, will you?’

      Kitty, nodding, agreed.

      Eddy and his older brother, Frank, had always treated her like a younger sister, larking about with her just as they did with Nancy or fifteen-year-old Sarah, the youngest of the Feeny clan. The thought of any of them, especially Frank, going to fight an enemy – risking their lives – gave her chills.

      Neither of them had serious relationships, but Frank seemed more the type to play the field. He always said there was enough of him to go round, and why stop at one, which brought howls of protest from his sisters, who maintained he would get himself into trouble saying things like that.

      The more outgoing of the Feeny brothers, Frank had courted a great many girls on his travels – so he said – and Kitty had no cause to doubt him. Now she sat ramrod straight, holding tightly on to her teacup like a shield. What was it they said about sailors – a girl in every port?

      Please come home alone, Frank. The sun dipped behind a cloud and the room grew darker for a moment, the gloom temporarily mirroring Kitty’s feelings when she recalled the last time Frank had brought a girl home to Empire Street. Kitty did not know who the girl was, nor did she ask Rita about it. She had seen Frank come down the street with the pretty girl, obviously taking her home to meet his folks. Kitty thought they looked like a couple of film stars. Frank, being his usual friendly self, waved to Kitty, sitting on the front step after cleaning the house from top to bottom and worrying where the money for the next meal was coming from. Frank’s girlfriend, dressed in a fabulous camel-hair coat with wide, turn-back cuffs and large buttons, waved too, making Kitty feel dull and dowdy by comparison. To her shame, Kitty did not wave back, pretending not to notice; instead she got up, went inside and cleaned up all over again, all the while fighting back hot tears and wondering where they had come from all of a sudden.

      ‘Oh, Kitty!’ Sarah exclaimed, bringing Kitty back to the present moment. ‘Would you look at that beautiful cake! I’ve never seen such a work of art – and it is a work of art, to be sure.’

      Nancy, the bride-to-be, was dumbstruck by the sight of the beautiful cake.

      ‘You have done yourself proud with this one, Kit,’ Dolly said, while Nancy threw her arms around Kitty and gave her a hug so tight it took the breath right out of her.

      ‘Gloria is going to be so jealous when she sees this cake,’ Nancy laughed. Gloria was her best friend and chief bridesmaid, and like many best friends they were always in competition with each other. The Feeny women gazed at the exquisite latticework and perfectly crafted white roses, so wonderfully sculptured with the finest icing sugar they looked perfectly real.

      ‘Mine was nowhere near as good as that, and I paid a fortune for it,’ Rita joined in, eyeing the three cakes with obvious admiration.

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