Bobby did so, and blinked at what was inside. It was a dress – a dress for someone just her current size. But it wasn’t one of the ugly, shapeless maternity dresses that were all the shops felt women in the later stages of pregnancy ought to shroud themselves in. This was silk – parachute silk, she supposed – dyed royal blue and trimmed with ribbon. It was huge, and it was fit for a ballroom.
‘Mary, it’s beautiful,’ she breathed.
‘Well, you want to look nice for the palace, don’t you? A girl likes to look her best no matter what size she is. Now, now, don’t make a fuss,’ Mary said with a smile as Bobby fell on her neck. ‘Just be sure to bring me and Reg a healthy grandchild next month. Then I’ll call myself repaid in full.’
Reg stepped forward to shake his brother’s hand.
‘I’m right proud of you, lad. Right proud of you,’ he said, with no sign of wanting to give over his firm pumping of Charlie’s hand. ‘So would our old man be.’
‘Thanks, Reggie. That means a lot.’
‘Now then. Before you go to this fancy do at the palace I’d better give you the benefit of my years as a newspaperman, writing about the nobs and their swank,’ Reg told him with authority. ‘You don’t want them laughing in their toff sleeves when you start quaffing from the finger bowl like some country oik.’
Charlie smiled. ‘Go on.’
‘If you meet an archbishop, it’s “Your Grace”. If you meet a prince or princess, it’s “Your Highness”. If you meet a king or queen – and I’m pretty sure you will – it’s “Your Majesty”. And if you meet the Duke of Devonshire, tell him he still owes me that five bob.’
‘I think I can remember that,’ Charlie said, laughing. ‘Anything else?’
‘Aye. If there’s food, you start from the outside and work your way in with the cutlery. And if it’s real silver, stick it in your sock right quick before the butler gets his greasy kid gloves on it.’
‘It pays to be related to socialites, doesn’t it?’ Bobby said with a smile.
Reg approached her now to say goodbye. ‘Look after yourself, lass. Take good care of that baby while you’re down south. They’re proper heathens down there, tha knows.’
‘I will. Thanks, Reg.’
He looked a bit awkward. ‘You know, young Florrie showed me your bit in her comic. Good, that was.’
‘You mean “Lindy Gulls the Hun”?’
‘Aye. Nice little tale for the bairns. Florrie was about bursting showing it off to all her pals.’ He paused. ‘Good fee, I suppose?’
‘Um, yes,’ Bobby said. ‘Girl’s Ownpay eight pounds a story. They’ve given me a contract for five, and I hope more to follow.’
‘A lot more than I could ever afford to pay. Shame, that.’
Bobby frowned. ‘Reg, are you saying… do you mean you’d have liked me to write forThe Tykeagain?’
‘Aye, well, maybe I were a bit hasty,’ Reg said, blushing fit for anything. ‘I mean, you’re a canny lass, head screwed on and that. You’ve dealt with a lot this past few month, and you in the family way an’ all. I reckon it’s not for an old dinosaur like me to say what you can do and what you can’t. I reckon you know well enough for yoursen.’
‘So you’re saying… what are you saying?’
‘It’s left me in the lurch, young Scott going for a soldier like that. Costing me a fortune in freelance writers to keep the mag running. So if you wanted to do a bit of writing, four or five articles a number at ten bob a week, just when you can fit it in around the babby…’ He rubbed his neck. ‘I know it’s not much,now you’re getting big cheques from the real papers. But we do miss you atThe Tyke, and if nothing I can say is going to stop you writing, well, I’d rather you were doing a bit of that writing for me.’
‘Reg, really?’
‘Aye, keep it in the family, like. I mean, it’ll go to you and Charlie one day, the mag. Happen it’ll even make you money, when this ruddy war’s over. Best to keep your hand in, if you’ll be in the editor’s chair one of these days.’
Bobby beamed at him. ‘Reg, I’d love to. I’d really love to.’
To Bobby’s enormous relief, the train that took them from Leeds to London was a corridor train with a lavatory at the end of each carriage. She made sure to claim a seat near it, so she would be able to make a dash there if there was an urgent call of nature.
Marmaduke was incredibly wriggly at the moment. Bobby supposed he was reacting to her excitement about the trip to the capital. It was rather uncomfortable, though, like the cramps she used to get with her monthlies. She hoped he would settle in time for the ceremony tomorrow morning.
‘May I see the invitation again?’ she asked Charlie, who was reading a book beside her.
‘If you like.’ He fished it from one of his pockets.
