‘Aye, so you won’t forget what you’re really good at.’ He summoned a rare smile. ‘Stand up, will you? I’d rather say my goodbyes now than in front of the rabble.’
She did so, and Reg reached over the desk to shake her hand.
‘Good luck, Bobby. You’ve been a right decent worker. Doubt I’ll ever find better.’ He looked a little awkward. ‘And… well, you’re a good lass. Come back to us when it’s done, won’t you? You and that brother of mine. Like I said before, we’ll always have a home for the pair of you here.’
Bobby smiled. This was the closest Reg had ever come to admitting he valued her not only as a reporter but as a member of his family. She knew he would be embarrassed beyond belief if she hugged him, however, and contented herself with shaking his hand heartily.
‘I’ll miss you too, Reg,’ she said.
‘Aye, well, no need to talk soft about it. Go get some breakfast, eh?’
Bobby started to go, but Reg put a hand on her shoulder.
‘And don’t forget what I said,’ he told her. ‘Keep that writing brain of yourn working hard, like your pal Miss Lawrence did.’
‘Don Sykes said something very similar the last time I saw him.’
‘Don always recognised summat in you it took me a long time to see. Too long a time.’
‘What was that?’
Reg smiled. ‘A newspaperman.’
Bobby met his eye. ‘Is there any point keeping my skills honed though, Reg, if I’ve got no job to come back to?’
‘I thought you might say that,’ Reg said. ‘Look, I can’t promise I’ll take you back – wish I could. I don’t even know if we’ll still be here. But if there’s still aTykeand there’s still a Reg Atherton responsible for it… well, we’ll see where we are, eh?’
Topsy’s wedding was to take place at the Anglican church in the village, St Peter’s, that afternoon. Bobby had offered to help her prepare, but Topsy had wanted no one with her on the morning of her wedding but Mrs Hobbes.
‘Someone ought to tell that girl it’s only the groom it’s bad luck for her to see before the ceremony,’ Mary observed as she, Lilian and the two Parry girls helped Bobby get ready.
Bobby’s maid of honour dress was a smart floral one that Topsy had loaned her. The fact she had something new and pretty to wear rather than her best, but increasingly shabby, blue crepe was creating at least a little festive atmosphere in her heart. She was doing everything she could to banish preoccupation about her imminent departure so she could fully share in her friends’ joy.
‘I think Topsy wants to make a big entrance in her silk gown,’ she said with a smile. ‘It was her grandmother’s apparently, although it’s been refashioned into something a little less Victorian. Topsy’s absolutely refused to let anyone but Mrs Hobbes see it before the wedding.’
‘Are you and the other bridesmaids not to walk down the aisle with her?’
‘There are no other bridesmaids. She only wanted me, and she didn’t want to be attended down the aisle.’
Mary smiled. ‘Topsy will do things her own way.’
‘I’m not complaining,’ Bobby said. ‘I’d hate to have everyone looking at me. It’s going to be bad enough on my own wedding day.’
‘Bobby, may I brush your hair?’ Jessie asked, giving the chestnut waves hanging loose over her shoulders an awed look. Lilian had lent her sister a little hair oil, and for once Bobby’s tresses were smooth and manageable, free from their habitual frizz.
‘No, Bobby said I could do it,’ Florrie insisted.
Lilian smiled. ‘How about if you brush Bobby’s and Jess does mine? It isn’t quite as long, I’m afraid, but it’s just as thick.’
‘Oh, yes please!’ Jessie said, clapping her hands.
They were in Mary and Reg’s bedroom, with Bobby sitting on the edge of the bed facing the mirror. Lilian sat down next to her. The two little girls clambered up behind them, brandishing a hairbrush each.
‘Now, be gentle,’ Mary warned them. ‘You know how you both shout when I pull at your knots.’
‘We will,’ Jess said solemnly as she started brushing Lilian’s shoulder-length hair.
Lilian laughed. ‘I could get used to this. My own personal salon. Girls, I shall expect regular beauty treatments now I’m to live here, in all the most fashionable styles.’
