Winter on the Mersey(109)
This was all assuming that Sid would get back and not want anything more to do with her. She had no way of telling how he would react – she’d have to pick her moment, if she told him at all. She’d have to be canny about it. But this time, she was determined. Yes, she’d had her fun and been caught out, but her baby would not suffer because of it. She was a good mother. She would just have to prove it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
It was the day they’d all been waiting for. Germany had finally surrendered and it was official: the Allies had won the war. Kitty sang to herself as she surveyed her kitchen, the dull ache that still plagued her arm and ribs all but forgotten. She was going to celebrate, along with everyone else in Empire Street, and with however many friends and family came to join them. Her job now was to make a cake to suit the occasion, with no notice and no chance to pool rations as they were unprepared for the event. Still, this was what she was good at.
She’d spent the morning in the city centre, which was abuzz with the news. Wireless broadcasts had brought the joyful confirmation that the fighting in Europe was over, and Kitty wasn’t the only person keen to buy flags to hang in celebration. She’d had to queue to get any, but everyone was so good-natured that she hadn’t minded.
Now Tommy was outside with the ladder, insisting that he didn’t need her help and he wouldn’t fall. She knew she had to let him get on with it. He’d always be her little brother, but he was taller than her now, and to be fair she was in no state to stretch up and tie flags to the guttering at the front of the house. She was almost better, but that would be taking things too far. Tommy had proved himself by helping to rescue Georgie, and she had to accept he was well on his way to becoming a man – a sensible and responsible one too.
‘Need any help?’ asked Frank, coming in through the open back door. ‘Don’t you go lifting anything heavy, Kitty.’ He set down a wooden box on the table. ‘Can you make use of any of this?’
Kitty stared at the contents of the box in delighted astonishment. ‘Where did you get this? Eggs and butter – that’s exactly what I need, but they’re as rare as hen’s teeth.’
‘Seth and Joan have just arrived, bringing Michael and Megan to join in the fun,’ he said, stepping behind her and giving her a warm hug. ‘They rightly guessed that we’d all be gathering for a party.’
Kitty relaxed and leant against him for a delicious moment. ‘Let me guess, Dolly has sent them down to the victory garden to get them out of the way.’
Frank laughed and breathed in the beloved scent of her, all the more precious because for a minute or two back in March he had feared he’d never be able to savour this closeness; that Kitty would remain forever trapped under the rubble of the bomb site. He shut his eyes and enjoyed the moment, then he released her. ‘Of course. Nancy’s taken them.’
‘Nancy?’ Kitty couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice, as she carefully unpacked the eggs and the big pat of creamy butter. ‘Does she even know where it is?’
‘Apparently so,’ said Frank wryly. ‘Georgie wanted to help his cousins and Nancy volunteered to help out. Everyone else is making sandwiches in Mam’s kitchen – it’s like a factory assembly line over there.’
‘I can imagine,’ said Kitty, reaching for her biggest mixing bowl, remembering all the times the women had joined forces to produce a family meal out of what felt like thin air. ‘When I’ve got this into the oven, I’ll pop across and see if there’s anything more I can do.’ She weighed her flour and expertly tipped it into a sieve without getting any on the table. Then she set about separating the eggs. ‘What about Sid? He won’t be able to control three lively children when they’re out and about, will he?’
Sid’s return had been the talk of the street, ever since the day the emaciated young man had stepped from an ambulance a few weeks earlier, a shadow of his former swaggering self. He was severely malnourished, and the word was that dysentery and other diseases had spread through the camps just before he’d been freed. He certainly needed building up again. He’d hardly been seen out, and nobody knew what he and Nancy had said to each other. After the incident when his mother had come round blaming Nancy for Georgie’s disappearance, she had begun taking her ration books to another shop. It wasn’t that Violet or Ruby had asked old Mrs Kerrigan to shop elsewhere, but she clearly felt uncomfortable. As for Nancy herself, she had given nothing away, but ever since that dreadful day she had been noticeably less demanding and thoughtless towards her family and friends.
‘He’s still at his mother’s as far as I know,’ Frank said, watching with fascination as Kitty cracked eggshell after eggshell, neatly pouring the whites into a small bowl while retaining the yolk unbroken in the half-shell, before finally tipping it into a teacup. He waited for her to finish the last one then said, ‘Kitty, come here a minute, you’ve got flour on your nose.’
She stepped towards him and he brushed her face gently and then kissed her hungrily, more strongly than he’d ever dared to do for fear of hurting her. Now she kissed him back, passionate in her desire for him, and it was several minutes before they parted, gasping but laughing, full of pleasure that they could finally express how they’d felt for so long.
‘Kitty,’ said Frank, ‘shall we make this a double celebration today?’