‘I do. I mean it more than anything. And I won’t let him, I won’t!’
Sobbing, Florrie ran from the table. They heard her thundering upstairs a moment later. Jessie looked like she might follow, but a look from Mary kept her in her chair. The younger child had always been more concerned about pleasing the grown-ups than her more wilful sister.
Captain Parry sighed. ‘I’ll go after her. I am sorry, Mary. I didn’t expect her to take on like this.’
‘Let me go, George,’ Lilian said quietly.
‘If you think that’s best. She’ll be more likely to listen to you or Mary than to me at the moment, I think.’
‘She’ll be in the attic,’ Mary said. ‘Would you rather I went, Lilian?’
‘I think she might listen to me, if I take the baby to her,’ Lilian said. ‘You serve up, Mary. I won’t be long, I hope.’
She took the smiling Annie from her high chair and disappeared.
By the time Mary had served them all, Lilian had reappeared with Annie against her hip and Florrie beside her. The little girl looked pale, but she was no longer crying.
‘Florrie has something she would like to say,’ Lil told them.
Florrie sniffed. ‘Sorry if I ruined dinner, Mary. And Dad, I’m sorry I said I’d hate you forever. I won’t really.’
The captain couldn’t help smiling. ‘Well that’s certainly a relief.’
‘But I wish you didn’t want to get married though.’
He drew her to him and planted a kiss on her curls. ‘We’ll talk about it at home, all right, sweetheart? Let’s have no more tearsnow, when Mary has been kind enough to cook dinner especially because you asked her to.’
‘All right.’
Lilian passed the girl a handkerchief before sitting down, and Florrie blew her nose.
‘Well!’ Mary said cheerily, in an attempt to shift the lingering awkwardness. ‘Another wedding on the horizon, and only just back from one. I’ll barely have time to press Reg’s suit.’
Bobby gave Charlie a significant look. He nodded, and opened his mouth to speak. But before he could do so, Rob cleared his throat.
‘Happen you’ll need to press it sooner than you think, Mary,’ he said, turning red. ‘I, um… I’ve a little summat to tell all of ye as well.’
Bobby blinked at him. She had forgotten her father had said he’d let everyone know about his plan to move out of the cow house today. But what did he mean about suits?
‘What is it, Rob?’ Mary asked.
‘Well, the fact of it is, I’ll be flitting next month. Not far, like. We’ve taken a little place on the beck. But anyhow, we’d like all of you to be there, although it won’t be much. At our age, we thought summat quiet would be best.’
‘Dad, what are you talking about?’ Lilian asked.
Rob rubbed his neck. ‘When I told you and your sister I’d a mate from t’ pub I was aiming to set up home with… that’s true enough, but I didn’t quite tell you all of it. Anyhow, now she’s given me a yes I can come clean.’
Lilian frowned. ‘She?’
‘Oh my goodness!’ Bobby said, the penny dropping. ‘Dad, you’re not saying… not Mrs Hobbes?’
‘Aye, well, she’s a fine old girl, and we rub along well together. I hope you’d never think I was trying to replace your mam, but at my time o’ life… I’d like to spend what’s left of it wi’ someoneI can look after, and someone as can look after me.’ His neck was starting to look rather sore under constant rubbing. ‘So, um, I asked and she said yes. That’s about all there is to it. The wedding’s booked at the registry in Skipton for three weeks’ time.’
‘Three weeks!’
Bobby didn’t know whether to be pleased or to run sobbing from the room as Florrie had done. She was so surprised, she didn’t know what to feel.
It was Charlie who recovered first, breaking the second stunned silence of the afternoon. He leaned across the table to shake his father-in-law’s hand.
