Bobby smiled. ‘I suppose we are. I never had a large family growing up, but I seem to have acquired one since I moved to the Dales.’
‘No, nor I,’ the captain said, smiling back. ‘Yet here we are.’
He said goodbye and left. Bobby started tidying away, pondering what the captain’s lady friend would be like. She had seen Miss Simpson on a few occasions but never been formally introduced. She wondered if the girls knew that their father’s glamorous new friend was waiting to meet them.
Before she could leave the hut, however, a deluge arrived: not only Lilian and the girls, but Reg and Mary too. The children piled in with Lil. It was a tight squeeze, and Reg and Mary were forced to wait outside at the bottom of the steps.
‘Well! What are you all doing here?’ Bobby asked. ‘I was about to lock up.’
‘Young Scott turned up with a report for me on that drama festival,’ Reg called. ‘Thought I’d see how things were getting along, seeing as Mary’s banned work talk over Sunday dinner.’
Bobby frowned. ‘Tony came to you with the report?’
‘Aye. Told him to leave it on your desk Monday morning for subbing.’
‘He might have left it on my desk this afternoon,’ Bobby muttered. She had hoped they’d taken a step forward that morning when Tony had asked her for instructions, but it seemed he still hadn’t accepted that it was her and not Reg who was responsible for approving his copy.
‘Not much room for us in there,’ Reg observed. He turned to Mary. ‘Come on, our lass. We’ll take a turn around the garden while the bairns tell Bobby their news, eh?’
‘Aye, I wouldn’t mind seeing how those chicks I gave Jess are getting along.’ Mary took her husband’s arm and they sauntered off.
‘Your father’s expecting you at the house, girls,’ Bobby said to Jess and Florrie. ‘He was just here looking for you.’
‘Florrie wanted to show you something before they went in,’ Lilian said. ‘I told her she’d have to wipe it off before her dad saw her.’
‘What is it, Florrie?’ Bobby asked.
‘Can’t you see?’ Florrie pouted like a star of the silver screen, and Bobby noticed that the child’s lips were significantly pinker than usual.
‘Oh! You got some lipstick?’
Florrie nodded eagerly. ‘Aunty Lil bought it me. Dad told her she could, only I’m not supposed to wear it outside.’
Bobby raised an eyebrow at her sister. ‘AuntyLil, is it?’
Lilian shook her head to suggest they ought to discuss the newly conferred title when they were alone.
‘Do I look grown-up?’ Florrie asked Bobby.
‘Yes, very glamorous indeed,’ Bobby said with a smile. ‘Be sure to save it for special occasions though. Lipstick’s hard to get hold of these days.’
‘When will I be old enough to wear lipstick, Aunty Lil?’ Jessie asked.
‘Not for a few years yet, I’m afraid, Jess,’ Lil said. ‘But if we do a play, perhaps a little stage make-up.’
Jessie clapped her hands. ‘Ooh, yes, let’s do a play! We can practise when you look after us. A pantomime like the one Bobby was in. I’ll be Cinderella, Florrie can be Prince Charming, you’ll be Wicked Stepmother and Annie can be…’ Jessie paused, thinking back to the plays she had seen over Christmas. ‘Um, Baby Jesus.’
‘That sounds an interesting pantomime,’ Bobby said with a laugh. ‘Now, Florrie, you had better wipe off your lipstick and run up to the house. Your dad’s got someone there who’s come especially to see you both.’
Florrie scowled. ‘It’s nother, is it?’
‘That depends on whoheris.’
‘That lady he goes out with.Veronica.’ Florrie said the name in an affected, singsong voice, as if this was the way she imagined Veronica would talk. ‘We don’t want to meet her. She’s always taking Dad away from us. And she’s trying to get him to forget our ma, I know it.’
‘Now, Flor, that isn’t fair,’ Lilian said gently, resting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. ‘Miss Simpson isn’t trying to take your mother’s place. She’s just someone whose company makes your dad happy. You want him to be happy, don’t you?’
‘Me and Jess make Dad happy,’ Florrie muttered. ‘He don’t need no one else.’
