Winter on the Mersey: A Heartwarming Christmas Saga. Annie Groves

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       CHAPTER FOUR

      ‘Are you sure you don’t want to go to Lyons Corner House?’ asked Laura as she met Kitty off the train at Victoria. ‘Somewhere nice and warm?’ She was in civvies, and even though clothing was rationed and generally hard to come by, she’d somehow managed to look devastatingly fashionable as ever, with her swing coat and little matching hat on her beautifully cut blonde curls. Heads were turning as she swept along the concourse but Laura blithely paid no notice.

      Kitty had come in her Wren’s uniform. Now she no longer shared a billet with Laura, her chance to borrow her friend’s clothes had gone, and she hadn’t felt like turning up in her slightly battered tweed coat, now several years old and looking it. Besides, she was proud of her uniform. She’d worked hard to be worthy of it, and she appreciated the approving glances it won from many of the other passengers whirling around them. She took her friend’s arm.

      ‘I’d really rather go for a walk, if you don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I’m cooped up inside most of the time, you know.’

      ‘Of course, I completely understand,’ said Laura at once. ‘But surely there are plenty of places to go walking where you are? What else is there to do, frankly? Count the cows?’ She glanced down at her feet. ‘Good job I didn’t wear my high heels. I found some divine ones in Peter Jones, did I tell you in my last letter? Anyone would have thought they were just waiting for me.’

      ‘Lucky you,’ said Kitty, meaning it. ‘Just don’t try driving your lorries in them. Tell you what, if we wander across Green Park we could find a Lyons after that. I don’t want to deprive you of your teacake.’

      ‘Come on, then.’ Laura led the way, weaving through the press of people, many in uniform, some carrying kit bags over their shoulders. Some were saying goodbye to families and loved ones. Others were waiting, maybe for a long-hoped-for reunion. Despite the ever-present threat of disruption to the trains, nobody appeared to be complaining. Kitty had been lucky; she’d come up from her small local station without a problem for once. It meant she had most of the day to spend with her old friend. Almost without realising it, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders. Confiding in Laura always made her feel better and she knew the feeling was mutual.

      As they passed through the streets and headed towards the park, the crowds thinned out, but there was still a sense of bustle and activity. Kitty grinned, relishing being back in a big city. It was where she felt at home, jostling around people, being in the thick of it. Growing up on Merseyside had made her feel that this was normal, and it was where she was comfortable, despite knowing rationally that big cities were more dangerous, being targets for the enemy’s attacks. Yet she couldn’t shake off the sense that this was the sort of place where she belonged, not a quiet country town where everything went silent after dusk.

      Green Park loomed ahead, with its avenues of old trees, and as they began to wander down one of its wide paths, Laura turned to face her. ‘All right, Kitty. I know you – you would usually rush straight to Lyons or somewhere like it. What’s up? What do you have to say that’s so secret you can’t tell me where anyone can overhear?’

      Kitty laughed ruefully. She should have known there would be no fooling Laura, who might act the dizzy socialite when it suited her, but who underneath was as sharp as a tack. There was no point in beating about the bush.

      ‘Have you heard from Marjorie recently?’

      ‘Marjorie?’ Laura stopped to think. ‘I had a letter a few weeks ago; it had taken ages to get to me, and loads of it had been censored anyway. You wouldn’t think signals in Sussex could be that exciting. I was impressed.’

      Kitty shrugged. ‘Well, let’s just say if she wrote down what she hinted at to me the other day, then you wouldn’t have had much of a letter at all. It would all have been blacked out.’

      ‘Now you have got me intrigued,’ Laura said. ‘Tell all, Callaghan. Out with it.’

      Hoping that she wasn’t exaggerating, or hadn’t got the wrong end of the stick, Kitty explained what had happened. ‘So you see, she asked me to have a word with you rather than write, as she didn’t think she’d be able to get leave to see you in person,’ she finished, gripping her handkerchief in her jacket pocket in anxiety for her friend. ‘This sounds serious, doesn’t it? Can you imagine it, Marjorie going into enemy territory, probably undercover?’

      Laura came to a halt. ‘Well, I don’t know what I expected you to say, but it wasn’t that,’ she admitted. ‘I thought you were going to tell me that she’d finally fallen properly for one of her blond pilots, or she’d been chosen to learn Danish or one of those other language things she gets so worked up about. Golly, Kitty. That’s ever so slightly terrifying, isn’t it? I mean, when we first knew her, she was scared of Leicester Square on a Saturday night.’

      ‘She’s changed since then,’ Kitty reminded her. ‘She was so certain she was doing the right thing as well. Honestly, Laura, she showed no doubt at all. She knows what she’s getting into and she’s ready for it. I’m afraid for her and yet I’m proud too. That she should be chosen – well, she must be really good at what she does.’

      ‘She is, I’m sure,’ said Laura with certainty. She held on to Kitty’s arm more forcefully. ‘Look, we mustn’t worry about her. That will do no good and we can’t change what she’s decided to do or what will happen. She will be needed.’ She paused, casting her glance from left to right and back again. ‘No one around, is there? Well, I bet she is going to northern France.’

      ‘What?’ Kitty leaned closer. ‘What do you mean? What do you know, Laura?’

      Laura closed her eyes briefly and then made up her mind to share what she’d heard. ‘All totally hush-hush, of course,’ she said, as if it was even necessary to stress such a thing, ‘but it’s sort of common knowledge in certain circles that something big is going to happen. I don’t know when, and of course not exactly what, but something’s brewing.’

      Kitty raised her eyebrows. ‘Has СКАЧАТЬ