The Mersey Daughter (Empire Street #3)(100)
‘I remember.’ His voice was full of uncertainty, not knowing what was coming next.
‘My brother gave it to me. I don’t have much else of his. He’s missing, presumed dead,’ she said quietly. ‘We were very close. So, while I don’t have a chap, I have lost someone, or I probably have. The not-knowing is the worst.’
‘Oh, my darling girl.’ His arms were around her in an instant, stroking her back, his beautiful shirt absorbing her tears. ‘I’m sorry. It’s rough, isn’t it? My best friend is missing, has been for months, and it’s torture. I do understand.’
‘Yes.’ She lifted her head once more. ‘There, now you know. I don’t tell everyone, only Kitty and Marjorie realise, but there we are, it’s part of everyday life now. Too, too grim. Maybe one day we’ll know for sure and then at least we can grieve properly.’
He reached into his pocket, drew out a pristine linen handkerchief and wiped her eyes. ‘Yes, that would help.’ He kissed her softly on the forehead. ‘Don’t cry, my beautiful Laura. Not when we’ve just found each other.’
She sighed. ‘I can’t believe it. All those weeks, months, I thought you were setting out to make my life hell.’
‘No, Laura.’ His voice was deadly serious now. ‘It was selfish of me to commandeer your presence so often, but I never wanted to make your life hell. The very reverse. We’ll have to work out something once I’m out of here, but once I’m fully better, I want to make your life as wonderful as you deserve it to be. What do you say?’
Laura felt her sorrow fade away and a bubble of happiness rise within her. ‘Yes, Peter,’ she said. ‘Yes, with all my heart.’
Then, in case there could be any doubts left, he kissed her again, as strongly as he dared, and she responded with all the passion that had built up inside her since realising on that fateful night of the fire that here was the man she would love for the rest of her life.
Epilogue
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
December 1941
Kitty Callaghan got to her feet in the swaying train carriage and reached up for her case. She swung it down and took it through to the corridor, which was packed with passengers who’d had to stand all the way from London. Now they were almost into Lime Street Station. The journey had taken twice as long as it used to do before the war, but nobody was complaining. There had been many longer than this and Kitty reflected she was home earlier than she’d expected to be.
The train pulled up at the platform and she scrambled down, bowled along by the crowds disembarking. She had told nobody she was coming, deciding that she would surprise them, and after all there was always the chance that her leave would be cancelled at the last minute or the trains wouldn’t be running. She couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing them, not after she’d been away for the best part of the year. Gazing around the familiar station, she could see men and women in uniform hugging wives, girlfriends, children, husbands, boyfriends. Until recently that might have been her. But the person she would have wanted to welcome her back wasn’t here – would never be here again.
She straightened her shoulders in resolution. Even if this wasn’t how she had imagined her homecoming, she was still glad to be back, despite it being for such a short while. She hadn’t admitted to herself how much she’d missed everyone. She’d worried about Tommy, of course, wondering if he was behaving himself, worried he’d be ill again. Although Danny was old enough to look after himself, she’d worried about him too, as he’d been far from recovered when she’d last seen him. His letters assured her he was getting better by the day and that his new job suited him, so she’d tried to put his underlying heart condition out of her mind, as there was nothing she could do about it. All the same, she was keen to see him, to check for herself how he really was.
As for Jack – she had gasped with delight when she’d got the letter telling her he was getting married to Rita at last. It had almost distracted her from her own sorrow to hear such wonderful news. She’d been too young to understand what had gone on when the couple had first got together in their teens; she only knew she had missed her big brother when he’d moved away, and then Rita had married Charlie. Later on, when the age gap between herself and Rita didn’t matter any more, she realised how unhappy her friend was in her marriage and that she still carried a candle for Jack, even if she did her very best to hide it. She’d willingly helped her by passing on his letters – never judging them, as some self-righteous people might well have done. Now finally they were getting married. God knew they deserved their happiness after what they had both suffered, Rita in particular. Kitty hadn’t shed any tears over the deaths of Winnie and Charlie. She knew without any shadow of a doubt that Jack would make her friend happier than her first husband ever had.
Stepping out of the station entrance she gasped again, this time in shock. She had heard about the destruction visited on the city centre by the Luftwaffe’s raids, but nothing could have prepared her for the actual sight of it. It was like another world. She’d seen bomb damage in London, of course, but the harm done to Liverpool was like a dagger in her heart. A wave of deep sadness washed over her, that her beloved city should have endured all this. How would it ever be put back together? For a moment she shut her eyes, not wanting to believe that the familiar streets of her childhood were so drastically changed.