The Mersey Daughter (Empire Street #3)(48)
‘Would you care for a dance? I noticed you were rather good on your feet …’
Laura looked at him briefly, making one of her instant assessments, and accepted. She raised her eyebrows at Kitty and Marjorie over her shoulder as she returned to the fray.
‘How are you now, Kitty?’ Elliott glanced at her glass. ‘Gosh, you really must have been hot. Shall I get you another?’
‘No, don’t bother,’ Kitty said hurriedly. She made a fuss of refolding her bolero as a man in army uniform came shyly across and spoke to Marjorie. Marjorie exchanged a few words with him and then rose to take his hand and head for the dance floor too.
Elliott turned to face Kitty and rested his arm along the back of her chair. ‘Kitty, what is it? You aren’t yourself this evening. We had a lovely walk this afternoon and you were all right then, but now you’ve gone terribly quiet. Are you ill? You should have said, we didn’t have to come out.’
Kitty wouldn’t meet his gaze. ‘It’s nothing, honestly.’ She would rather have died than admit how she felt. What sort of person resented their friends having a good time? She must face up to the fact that Laura was so much more suitable for Elliott in every way and get used to the idea.
‘Kitty, look at me.’ Elliott was insistent. ‘Listen, we can go home if you’d rather. I don’t want you to put up with a stuffy club just for me. I don’t want you to be unhappy.’
Suddenly it was all too much and Kitty gave a stifled sob.
‘My darling girl, whatever is it?’ Elliott’s arms were round her in a second. ‘Has something happened? Was it when I went home to my parents to change – did you get a letter or something?’
All at once his warm reassurance worked its magic and Kitty felt her fears fade away. She hastened to set him right. ‘No, no, nothing like that.’ She sighed and rested her head on his broad shoulder. ‘It was something really silly. I saw the way you and Laura were dancing and I thought … well, I thought … just how good you looked together. Better than I look with you. I’m sorry, I don’t want to make a fuss.’
Elliott rocked her gently. ‘My darling girl, don’t be worried. Yes, your friend Laura is a marvellous dancer, but she’s not a patch on you. She’s fast and she’s funny and you’re lucky to have a good friend like that – I feel safer for knowing you have such lively and interesting companions when we’re so many miles apart. But you dance with your heart, Kitty. Just because you aren’t as polished as she is doesn’t mean you’re any worse. I love dancing with you – it’s another excuse to hold you close. Don’t worry about Laura, you silly sausage. She can’t hold a candle to you.’ He pulled back and gazed at her face. ‘My beautiful Kitty.’
Kitty gave a final sniff and shook her head. ‘Don’t listen to me, I’m being ridiculous. I know that now. It’s because … well, I love dancing with you too. We’ve had such a lovely time this weekend, please do forget me spoiling it like this. I don’t want to ruin your leave, it’s too precious.’
Elliott brushed her cheek with one gentle finger. ‘You could never spoil anything for me, Kitty. I’m privileged to have spent my weekend with you, I mean it. I can’t remember being so happy.’
‘Really?’ Her eyes shone with delight and just a little relief.
‘Really. I wouldn’t lie to you – I’m a doctor, remember?’ She laughed at the familiar joke as one tune ended and another began. ‘And now, Miss Callaghan, may I have the honour of the next dance?’
Kitty rose to her feet, her anxieties thrust aside like the foolish notions they were. ‘You may, Dr Fitzgerald, I would be honoured.’
Together they made their way on to the crowded dance floor and began to move, holding one another tight, in perfect rhythm, oblivious to the many envious glances all around them.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
‘I can’t bear to think you have to go back tomorrow, Jack.’ Rita found it hard to believe that the all-too- brief hours of his leave were almost over. They had had such a wonderful day on the farm and the children had been all over him, begging him not to go when they’d finally set off in the cart to return home to Empire Street. Rita had kept smiling, even though she felt exactly the same way. Michael had clearly thought that if he hugged Jack hard enough he wouldn’t need to leave. Rita only wished that were true. Now they were standing in the little back yard of the shop. Jack had managed to do the much-needed repairs to the damaged wall in the last of the fading daylight.
‘You know I’d rather be here, even if I can’t be with you,’ he said, laying down his trowel and wiping his hands on the old rag she’d found for him. ‘But those ships won’t defend themselves without the Fleet Air Arm, you know that. We’ve all got to do our duty.’
‘I’m proud of you, Jack.’ Rita looked at him longingly. ‘There won’t be a day I won’t think about you.’
‘It’s knowing that that keeps me going,’ he said, staring at her intently. ‘And you know it.’
Rita looked away reluctantly, not wanting to break eye contact, but unable to bear the longing she saw there, which so mirrored her own. ‘I do know, Jack. Stay safe for me, won’t you? That’s all I ask.’