Winter on the Mersey(35)
He squeezed her hand again. ‘I can’t imagine it, Nancy. Can’t imagine not knowing you. Even though it’s only been a few weeks, they’ve been the most important weeks of my life.’
‘And mine,’ said Nancy, realising that she meant it. To think that she’d taken Sid’s clumsy courtship for the real thing, and then she’d been stuck with having to marry him. Well, she’d paid the price for that all right. And Stan Hathaway, the smooth-talking local boy made good, who’d given her the push without a second thought, after having led her on good and proper. How wet behind the ears they seemed. They’d known nothing of the world or how it worked. They were full of hot air. Here before her was a man who was worth far more than the two of them put together. Not to mention all those callow young soldiers she’d gone for drinks with since then – and sometimes a little more besides. They didn’t begin to compare to Gary Trenton.
‘Gary,’ she began, wondering if she was going to sound too forward. ‘You mean everything to me, I know that now.’
‘And you to me,’ he replied. ‘Don’t upset yourself, Nancy, I’d do anything not to upset you; that wasn’t what I meant to happen at all.’ He ran a gentle hand across her cheek. ‘Give me one of those big smiles of yours. If this is our last evening together for a while, then show me that happy face so I can remember it.’
She looked up at him from beneath carefully mascaraed eyelashes. ‘Would you really like something to remember me by, Gary?’ The rest of the room seemed to be far away, and she felt as if it was just the two of them, cocooned from the world for one intense moment.
‘Of course … ah, Nancy.’ He suddenly caught on to what she meant. ‘Nancy, really? Are you sure? I don’t want to pressure you into doing something you don’t want to, something that you might regret in the morning. I didn’t tell you to try to make you do that. You know me better than that, don’t you? I’d never force you to do anything you didn’t want to, anything you weren’t sure about.’
She held his gaze. ‘Gary, you’re wonderful and kind and a real gentleman. That’s why I liked you to begin with. I know you’d never try to trick me into bed, and that’s why I admire you.’ She knew she was blushing in the low light of the pub room. ‘But I’m sure. I’ve never been more sure of anything. That’s if … if you’d like to, that is.’ Suddenly she was afraid she’d been too bold, been too fast too soon. Yet if not now, then when? What if this really was their last evening together? The alternative, of not spending a night together ever, would be far, far worse.
Slowly he drained his pint and stood up, coming around the table and taking both of her hands and lifting her to her feet. ‘Nancy, that’s an invitation I’d be mad to refuse. I’ve wanted to hold you properly ever since I saw you, but I never dreamed I could. Oh, Nancy, my lovely Nancy.’ He leant close and gave her a tight hug, swiftly running his fingers through her soft red hair, the dull light glinting off it. Then he drew back before anyone noticed, mindful not to embarrass her. ‘You’ll make me the happiest, luckiest man in the world.’
‘Danny, I swear, if I have to sit through many meetings like that he’s going to drive me mad.’ Kitty slammed through the front door and threw down her handbag on the floor by the foot of the stairs. Her brother stood in the doorway to the kitchen, watching her. His shift had finished before hers, and he was trying to work through a pile of crosswords he hadn’t had time to do earlier in the week, but now it looked as if his peace was going to be disturbed.
‘Steady on,’ he said mildly. He wondered what this was all about. Kitty didn’t lose her temper very easily, but she’d gone and lost it now all right.
‘He’s so particular about everything. Wants exact figures for this, that and the other. Puts everyone on the spot. Won’t listen to reason.’ Kitty shrugged off her uniform jacket, which was too warm for the June weather, even midway through the evening. She’d strode back from the bus stop at a great pace, trying to walk off her annoyance, and now she was hot and bothered on top of it all.
Danny raised his eyebrows. ‘Are you talking about Frank, by any chance?’
‘You see!’ Kitty cried. ‘You knew at once who I met. Clearly he’s got a reputation for being difficult at work. You might have warned me.’ She pushed past him and made for the kitchen sink to pour herself a glass of water, to cool down. She was more flustered than she’d been for a long while, and it was all thanks to being cooped up in that stuffy meeting room with Frank Feeny. She felt he’d singled her out for extra-strict attention, cutting her no slack at all. She’d just about batted back his requests, but hadn’t been in the job long enough to be fully on top of everything, and she hated any such weakness being exposed. He really was the limit.
Danny followed her, pushing the newspapers to one side and exposing the old, well-scrubbed kitchen table. ‘Not a bit of it,’ he protested. ‘Nobody thinks like that apart from you. Everyone else respects and admires him. It’s just that he gets under your skin, then you come back here like a bear with a sore head.’
‘I do not,’ said Kitty hotly. She downed half the water in one go, then stood with her back resting against the wall. Its cool stone helped to calm her. ‘Danny, really. No one else has to sit on those training committee meetings. If they did, then they’d soon see what he’s like when it comes down to it. I don’t know why I said I’d do it.’