‘Oooh, yes,’ Florrie breathed. ‘I wish Bobby could stay too, then we could do her hair to match.’
‘I’ll be home on leave before you know it,’ Bobby said. ‘I’ll tell you all about life in the Air Force and we can make up some games about it.’
‘And will you let me wear your WAAF hat?’ Jess asked eagerly.
Bobby smiled. ‘All right. But you must be very careful with it, and you’ll have to take turns with your sister.’
‘Will Uncle Charlie come home to play too?’ Florrie asked. ‘Then I can wear his hat and Jess can wear yours.’
Bobby experienced a pang as she thought about Charlie. She had rushed over to the cow house when she had seen Gil deliver that morning’s post, but once again there had been no letter.
‘I sincerely hope so,’ she said, forcing her voice to stay bright. She didn’t want either the girls or Mary to pick up on her worry. ‘I’m not sure how keen he’ll be on a game of Beauty Salons though, Florrie.’
Jessie giggled. ‘I bet he’d play if we asked. He’d look so funny wearing lipstick, wouldn’t he, Florrie?’
‘Which of our valiant forces friends are to be at the ceremony then?’ Mary asked as she applied some rouge to Bobby’s cheeks. ‘Are those young Canadians joining us?’
‘Chip and Sandy are. Ernie couldn’t get leave from his instructor post.’
‘You’ve heard from him?’
Bobby felt her colour rise, and wondered why that should be.
It was a fair question. She and Ernie were friends, after all. Mary knew she had other male friends as correspondents – Don for one and Piotr for another, although perhaps the fact they were both married added a degree of respectability. Even so, Bobby had wondered if a letter from Ernie might arrive at some point.
She hadn’t heard a word, however, although he always asked to be remembered to her in the letters he wrote to Teddy and Topsy. He was down in the south-east somewhere now, Topsy informed her, a long way from Silverdale.
Bobby couldn’t deny she missed his warm smile and teasing jokes, but after how they had parted, it was something of a relief that he hadn’t tried to engage her in a private correspondence. Before, she would have welcomed it, even been the one to begin it, but it didn’t feel quite proper now.
‘No, but he writes to Teddy,’ she said in answer to Mary’s question, hoping her heightened colour had been sufficiently disguised by rouge. ‘Topsy’s hopping mad about him not getting leave. She wanted him and Piotr to be at the head of the guard of honour. I imagine her father’s friend at the Air Ministry got an earful about it.’
‘She thinks the world revolves around this wedding of hers,’ Mary said, smiling. ‘The fact the Air Force have got a war to fight probably hasn’t even occurred to her.’
‘Silk gowns and guards of honour,’ Lilian said with a wistful sigh. ‘That’s exactly the sort of wedding I always pictured.’
‘Oh, them’s nobbut frills,’ Mary said dismissively. ‘It’s not how you do it, it’s the husband you find yourself lumbered with once it’s done. Pout please, Bobby.’
Bobby puckered obediently so Mary could apply some lipstick: rose pink to match the flowers on her dress. It was rather nice to be dressed and brushed like a favourite doll.
Mary stood back to examine her handiwork. ‘All done except for styling your hair. What a shame it isn’t the fashion to wear it loose, as girls did at weddings when I was young. You look as blooming and bonny as any film star, young Bobby.’
Bobby blushed. ‘Don’t be daft.’
‘Yes you do. It’s just a shame our Charlie couldn’t get leave to see you.’ Mary smiled. ‘Mind you, he’d not be satisfied until Topsy had agreed to make it a double wedding.’
‘What will your wedding be like when you marry Uncle Charlie, Bobby?’ Florrie asked as she ran the brush through Bobby’s hair.
‘I’d like to have the date confirmed before I start making plans,’ Bobby said. ‘It’s probably dreadful bad luck.’
‘Why are so many wedding things supposed to bring bad luck?’
Mary laughed. ‘You’ll find out when you’ve a husband of your own, Flor.’
‘What will you do?’ Lilian asked Bobby. ‘I suppose you and Charlie have talked about it.’
‘Charlie says he doesn’t mind how we do it so long as it’s done and legal. At any rate, it’ll have to be a simple affair. We won’t have long to organise everything.’ Bobby was quiet for a moment. ‘Mary is right though. As nice as it is to celebrate, it’s only window dressing, isn’t it? It’s Charlie that’s important – Charlie and me. As long as we can be together, I don’t care a fig about the rest of it.’
Mary smiled. ‘Well said, my love.’
