‘I know,’ Bobby said quietly. ‘Maybe when the war’s over, Reg will be able to pay better salaries. It’s the paper ration that holds us back.’
‘Huh. Churchill’s in no hurry to open a second front, is he? We could be in for a long haul yet.’ Tony fed some paper into his typewriter. ‘Well then, what do you want me to do this morning? Letters page?’
Bobby smiled at him. She knew Tony hated doing the letters, which he saw as typists’ work and therefore beneath him. Nor was it usual for him to ask what she wanted him to work on rather than selecting some piece he liked the sound of. He was offering a gesture of peace, and she felt she ought to do likewise.
‘I’ll do the letters page,’ Bobby said. ‘Why don’t you get the bus out to Redmire and interview the organiser of this new Dales Drama Festival? They’re expecting someone at ten.’
‘Thought you wanted to do that. You’re the one with theatre experience.’
‘One village pantomime and a concert party revue doesn’t exactly make me Dame Sybil Thorndike. I’ll get the women’s page ship-shape and type up the letters.’
‘Aye, all right. If that’s what you want.’
This was what Bobby had found worked best with Tony. A little give, a little take. If she showed herself willing to take on the less popular jobs sometimes, he proved more tractable in other matters.
One wrong word, however, and she knew she would have to wring every ounce of work from the man until she could appease him. Honestly, it was like managing a spoiled puppy. Bobby had never regarded her friend Don Sykes, erstwhile editor of theCourier, with so much fellow-feeling.
Chapter 12
Without Tony to do battle with, Bobby made good progress that day. By the time noon arrived, she had managed to type up the letters, sub the knitting pattern and recipe for the women’s page and finish her piece on blacksmiths. She was regarding it with satisfaction when the door opened and George Parry appeared.
‘Oh, I am sorry,’ he said when he saw her. ‘Frightfully rude of me not to knock. I thought you would have gone home. I just came to check the typewriters hadn’t been left here. It looks as though we might have some snow tonight.’
‘That’s thoughtful of you,’ Bobby said. ‘Sorry to be lingering on your property after working hours. I was just finishing off an article.’
‘Stay as long as you like,’ the captain said in his usual gallant, soft-spoken way. ‘I’m glad this old shed of ours is some use.’
‘It’s good of you to let us use it, and store the typewriters in the house. I’d have done myself an injury carrying my Remington from home every day.’
‘It’s the least I can do, when all of you have been so kind to my girls. I’m only glad there’s some little thing I can offer in return.’ He blushed slightly. ‘Speaking of which… is your brother-in-law not here?’
‘No, I sent him out to get an interview. Why?’
‘Ah. Good. Then I don’t need to feel embarrassed about giving you these.’ He took a packet from his coat, a little stiffly due to the shoulder wound he had received at Dunkirk. ‘Lilian informed me that they’d be appreciated by the womenfolk. I’ll be highly insulted if you offer to pay for them so please don’t.’
‘Oh! Stockings!’ Bobby had to restrain herself from diving over her desk to snatch the precious packet from his hand. ‘That’s really too kind of you, George.’
‘Like I said, I owe your family a lot.’ He smiled. ‘If I can’t pay you back with a few perks of the job, then what can I do?’
Bobby smiled too. ‘Well, they’ll be appreciated. It’s ever so long since I had a new pair. Thank you.’
She was grateful for the stockings, but there was also a feeling Bobby couldn’t quite put her finger on. Relief, she supposed. Relief that George had given them to her directly and not to Lilian, as he had with the knicker elastic.
She didn’t know why it should worry her. It was Lilian who minded the girls after school, so naturally it was Lilian he had most contact with of the women in the family. Bobby knew a friendship had sprung up between her sister and George Parry, but it wasn’t one she had felt she need be concerned about. Lilian was younger than Mary, and in the absence of his wife, George felt less embarrassed consulting her about the girls’ problems than he would the older matron.
That was perfectly natural, and besides, George Parry was hardly someone who would form designs on a married woman. Everyone who knew the man spoke of him as a paragon of honour and decency. Nevertheless, the idea of George giving intimate gifts like stockings and knicker elastic to Lilian and Lilian alone – even with the intention that she passed them on – unsettled Bobby. She still recalled the fur coat he had given her sister the previous summer, and how it had worried her that he would make her a present of such an expensive item. At the very least, it could give rise to gossip that might cause tension for Lilian at home. Rumours soon spread in a place like Silverdale.
‘I did wonder if I might find the girls here,’ George said, pulling Bobby from her thoughts. ‘Veronica’s in the house waiting to meet them.’
That was another thing. The captain was spoken for now, and there was no reason to worry that his friendship with Lilian might be anything other than strictly platonic. He and Veronica Simpson had been walking out for nearly a month, with every sign that things were becoming serious. The fact he had brought her home to meet his daughters seemed to confirm this.
‘Lilian was taking them shopping today,’ she told him. ‘I don’t suppose they’ll be much longer. Lil was planning to have them home before dinnertime.’
‘Oh yes, their shopping trip. It slipped my mind. In that case I’ll do my best to entertain the guest until they arrive. You’ll join us when they do, I hope?’
‘I’ll certainly stop in and say hello, if I won’t be intruding.’
‘Of course not. You and your sister are both welcome. We’re all family now.’
