Grace hummed happily under her breath as she and the other girls working in Lewis’s exclusive À La Mode Gown Salon got their department ready for the store to open, the Tuesday after the family’s visit to Wallasey.

The gowns were kept in the long row of floor-to-ceiling cupboards that filled one wall of that area of the store. The entrance to the Gown Salon was framed by silk curtains, and the carpet was thicker and a different pattern from that on the rest of the floor. All the girls working in the Gown Salon were expected to dress appropriately and were allowed to buy at a special discount the white silk blouses they all wore with their plain black skirts.

On very special occasions and for very special would-be purchasers the curtains framing the entrance could be closed. Three velvet upholstered and extremely uncomfortable chaise-longues were provided for customers, in addition to two large cheval mirrors.

It wasn’t unheard of for naughty schoolchildren with nothing better to do to try to peep round the curtaining to watch customers parading in front of the mirrors in the gowns they were trying on, although the head of the salon, Mrs James, was very swift to ensure that they were given stern warnings and shooed away.

On one never-to-be-forgotten occasion, Grace had actually found her own twin sisters concealed behind the curtains, their presence given away by their familiar giggles as they tried to demonstrate to one another the ‘walk’ of a particularly demanding client who had been trying on gowns. Luckily Grace had spotted them before anyone else, and even more luckily she’d ensured that the lollipops they had been sucking did not end up stuck to the heavy curtains.

Just thinking about that incident now made her smile and shake her head.

‘You’re in a good mood this morning,’ Susan Locke, another salesgirl, commented as she came hurrying in, looking over her shoulder to check that she couldn’t be overheard before she added, ‘Thank heavens Ma James isn’t here yet to dock me wages for being late.’

‘She said on Friday that she’d have to see a dentist. She’s been having really bad toothache,’ Grace told her.

‘That explains why she was in such a bad mood all day Saturday, when you was having your day off, you lucky thing.’ Susan pulled a face. ‘I hate having Monday for me day off like I had this week. Listen, do you fancy coming out for a bite of dinner wi’ me today?’

‘I’d love to but I can’t. I’ve got to go down to haberdashery and see if I can find a bit of something to make a sash to freshen up me polished-cotton frock, only I’ve been invited by my cousin to the Tennis Club dance in Wallasey at the weekend.’

‘You can’t wear a cotton frock to a posh tennis club dance,’ Susan told her knowledgeably. ‘I’ve served some of them wot’s come in here looking for frocks for that kind of thing and they allus go for summat fancy and silk. In fact, I know exactly what you should wear. That green silk you was modelling for that chap wot came in the other week. Suited you a treat, it did, and he certainly thought so as well.’ She gave Grace a meaningful look. ‘If you ask me, that tale he gave about wanting to see it on you on account of him wanting to buy it for his sweetheart and you looking like you was the same size as her was all so much malarkey. We used to get one chap coming in here that regular with that kind of tale, you could set your watch by him. Allus came in when the new stock arrived, he did, and wanted to have us try on them frocks what had the lowest necklines. Ma James used to have him out of the salon as quick as a flash if she was here when he came in. He had me trying on this red crepe one Christmas. Came up to me and patted me on the backside, he did, when no one was looking. Aye, and peered down me front as well. Dirty bugger.’

Grace laughed.

‘Listen, I meant what I said earlier about you borrowing that green silk frock,’ Susan told Grace in a hushed voice later in the morning when they were in the small room at the back of the salon where the girls had their tea breaks and ironed the gowns. ‘You wouldn’t be the first to do it by a long chalk. Borrowed one meself the Christmas before last, I did, when the chap I was seeing then wanted to take me to his office do. There was one girl even borrowed her wedding frock and no one the wiser.’

‘I couldn’t do that,’ Grace protested, firmly refusing to be tempted by the memory of how perfectly the green silk had fitted her and how wonderful she had felt in it.

Her parents would have been horrified and shocked by Susan’s suggestion, deeming it dishonest.

‘Why not? It’s not like it’s stealing or anything,’ insisted Susan. ‘You just take it wi’ you when you leave on Saturday after work and bring it back on Monday. Perk of the job, if you was to ask me, but if you don’t mind going to a posh do looking daft in a cotton frock and having all them other girls there laughing at you then that’s your funeral, isn’t it, especially wi’ all them frocks just hanging there doin’ nowt. That green silk could have been made for you, Grace. Fitted you like a glove, it did, and there’s not many would have the waist for it, nor the colouring. Mind you, I have to say that I’m surprised that cousin of yours would invite you to a posh do like that, from what I know of her.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Grace demanded uncertainly.

‘Well, when she’s bin in here wi’ her mother she’s been all hoity-toity and keen to let us know how much better than us she is, hasn’t she? I must say I was surprised when you first introduced her as your cousin, you being such a decent ordinary sort and her being so full of herself.’

Susan’s comment made Grace feel too uncomfortable to respond. It was true that there had been times, especially since they had grown up, when Bella had made her feel that she considered Grace’s side of the family to be inferior to her own, but Grace had always dismissed this as Bella simply not understanding how hurtful she was being and not really meaning any harm. In fact, it was because of this attitude on the part of her cousin that she had been so pleased when Bella had invited her to the dance. Family meant a lot to Grace and she wanted to get on with her cousins and be close to them.

It was St John Ambulance tonight and, as always, the thought of going to her first-aid class delighted her. As a little girl Grace had dreamed of becoming a nurse but the training to become a proper nurse, at a teaching hospital like Liverpool’s Mill Road or the Royal, rather than merely working at one of the infirmaries that took on girls to care for the long-term ill, was costly and lengthy, with the uniform costing twenty-one pounds up front and a probationer nurse’s wages only eighteen shillings a week for the first year. It would also have meant her having to live in at a nurses’ home, so she wouldn’t have been able to help out at home with her wages or an extra pair of hands, and so she had felt it her duty to take the job at Lewis’s, for which a kind neighbour whose cousin worked there had put her forward.

It was gone six o’clock before her work was finally over for the day and she was free to leave. The warmth of the still sunny August evening made her feel that she would rather walk home than sit on a bus, even though that would take her a good half-hour.

Their house was the end one of a terrace, which meant that there was a side passage that led to the gardens at the rear of the houses, and as Grace opened the gate into their own garden she heard her mother calling out from the kitchen.

‘Is that you, Grace, love?’

‘Yes, Mum.’ Grace went to join her.

‘Just look at these cups,’ her mother told her, gesturing towards the solid-looking plain pottery cups she was drying. ‘I know it’s daft but I felt that envious of Vi’s lovely china when we were there. Proper bone china it is too, and so pretty. It reminded me of a little doll’s tea set we used to play with when we were kiddies. It belonged to our nan’s sister, our great-aunt Florence. She kept in it a corner cupboard in her front parlour and she’d let us play with it when we went to visit her. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted that tea set, Grace.’

Jean laughed. ‘Of course, Vi wanted it as well and there were some fair words said between us as to who should have it. In the end it went to Great-aunt Florence’s own granddaughter. Of course, now Vi can afford to have proper china of her own.’

Grace frowned as her mother gave another small sigh. Personally she had thought her auntie Vi’s china nothing to get excited about but she could see that her mother felt differently.

‘I can’t see Dad and Luke being happy with them fiddly little handles,’ she pointed out.

Jean laughed again. ‘No. And that’s exactly what I told myself as well. I’m just being daft, like I said. Even if I had the money I wouldn’t go wasting it on summat that would only end up broken.

‘Run down to the allotment, will you, love,’ she told Grace, changing the conversation, ‘and tell your dad to bring up another lettuce, and some tomatoes? I want to use up the rest of this beef and we might as well have it cold with it being such a warm evening.’

The allotments weren’t very far away and, as Grace had expected, when she got there she found her father deep in conversation with several of the other men, all of them looking serious enough for her to hesitate about interrupting. But on the other hand Mum wouldn’t be too pleased either if they didn’t get back soon, and with the lettuce and tomatoes she had asked for.

Whilst she stood there undecided her father looked up and saw her. Saying something to the other men, he came over to her.

‘Mum sent me down to tell you that she wants a lettuce and some toms for tea, Dad. Is everything all right?’ she asked him as she walked with him towards his plot. ‘Only it looked like you were all talking about something serious.’

Grace knew she was lucky to be part of a family in which her parents encouraged their children to talk to them rather than one that observed the traditional ‘children should be seen and not heard and speak only when they were spoken to’ rule. Since all the talk of war had started, her mother and father had included her and Luke in their discussions about what was going on. But even so, there was something in her father’s expression now that made Grace wonder if she had perhaps overstepped the mark.

‘I’m sorry if I shouldn’t have asked,’ she began, only to see her father shake his head and put his arm around her shoulders in a rare gesture of fatherly affection.

‘It’s all right, lass, you’ve done nowt wrong. It’s just that there’s bin a bit of news that’s teken folk a bit aback, and we were just discussing it.’

‘What kind of news?’ Grace asked, assuming he was going to tell her about yet another new instruction from the Government.

‘Seemingly Russia has announced that it’s entering a non-aggression pact with Germany, and we all know what that means,’ he told her heavily.

For a minute Grace was too shocked to say anything. Her throat had gone dry and her heart was pounding.

‘That means war, doesn’t it?’ she managed to ask eventually.

Her father nodded sombrely. ‘It looks pretty much like it. Now, do you think your mum will want a few radishes as well?’

Grace recognised that her father did not want to continue to discuss the shocking news.

War! Was it her imagination or as they walked back home together was there really a brassy tinge to the evening sky and a brooding sulphurous prescience of what was to come?

‘My brother reckons that we’ll be at war before the month’s out, and he says that his unit have been put on standby alert ready,’ Lucy, one of the other first aiders, was telling everyone importantly when Grace arrived at the St John Ambulance Brigade station at the local church hall for their regular Tuesday evening meeting. Originally when Grace had joined the St John Ambulance Brigade, like all the other young cadet members, her ‘responsibilities’ had included running errands and doing other jobs for local elderly people, and generally making herself useful. Grace still called to see Miss Higgins, a spinster in her late seventies who lived in the next street, knowing that as well as liking having someone to run her errands, the elderly lady enjoyed the opportunity to talk about her youth and to gossip about her neighbours.

Now, as a fully qualified first aider, Grace got to wear a navy-blue drill overall and an armband printed with the words ‘First Aid’, in addition to being issued with a steel helmet, but tonight it was so warm that she had removed the helmet whilst she and the girl partnering her prepared their ‘patient’ for her ambulance journey to hospital, having been on hand when she was ‘rescued from a bombing incident’.

A splint secured the patient’s leg, and several bandages had been applied to her torso. Moving the deliberately unhelpfully inert body of their patient in the heat of the enclosed space of the church hall had left Grace’s face flushed and damp, and now she sat back a little anxiously on her heels, awaiting the inspection of her work by one of the senior nurses from Mill Road Hospital, who had volunteered to come to teach the volunteers all the basics of first aiding.

Sister Harris’s approving ‘very nice Campion’ had Grace’s face glowing for a far more satisfactory reason than the heat of the church hall.

‘I hate this bit,’ her partner groaned when, their work inspected and passed, they set to carefully removing and rewinding the bandages. ‘Do you think it’s true, like Lucy says, that it’s going to be war now, Grace?’ she asked worriedly.

‘I hope not, Alice,’ was all Grace could say, but she couldn’t help dwelling on the concern she had seen in her parents’ eyes over tea and her father’s keenness to listen to the BBC news, and the heaviness she had heard in her father’s voice earlier when he had told her about the developments in Russia.

‘If there is then I don’t know about you but I’m going to make sure I do my bit. I’ve got a cousin who’s thinking of joining the WRNS and I’m considering going along with her. They’ve got the best uniform of the lot, she reckons, and she should know, her dad being in the navy. You’ve got a brother, haven’t you? What service is he going for?’

‘Luke’s going into the Salvage Corps, like our dad,’ Grace told her automatically and then flushed. There was something in the other girl’s expression that made her feel defensive and protective on her brother’s behalf, although Alice hadn’t come out and said anything.

‘It’s every bit as dangerous as joining up,’ she felt obliged to say.

‘I dare say it is,’ the other girl agreed but she didn’t meet Grace’s gaze, and Grace noticed how, as soon as their patient was back up on her feet and the bandages and splint had been returned to their correct places, Alice didn’t linger to chat, going instead to join some of the other girls.

‘Campion, I’d like a word.’

Grace looked apprehensively at Sister Harris. Was she too going to quiz her about her Luke’s plans?

However, when Sister Harris had drawn her into a quiet corner of the hall what she did have to say was so surprising that it drove all thoughts of Alice’s comments out of Grace’s head.

‘You’ll have heard the news about Russia, no doubt,’ Sister Harris began, barely waiting for Grace to nod before continuing. ‘No one wants war but since it looks like we’re going to have it, it makes sense to be prepared. Captain Allen tells me that you work in Lewis’s?’

‘Yes, Sister.’ Captain Allen was the retired army captain in charge of their St John Ambulance Brigade unit.

‘Have you ever thought of enrolling to train as a full-time nurse?’

Hearing Sister Harris saying those words, and so matter-of-factly, was such a shock that Grace couldn’t speak. But then she managed to overcome her feelings to say as calmly as she could, ‘I did think I’d like to do nursing when I was growing up but …’ She hesitated, unwilling to say to someone who plainly had come from a family that had been able to afford her training that she hadn’t wanted to burden her parents with that kind of cost.

‘Well, maybe now is the time to think of it again,’ Sister Harris told her firmly, without waiting for a full explanation. ‘You’re an excellent first aider, quick to learn and good at doing what you should when you have learned. The nursing profession needs girls like you, Campion, especially now. I happen to know that the Government is very keen to get new nurses trained up, and in fact we have been asked to put forward the names of young women who we think might be suitable candidates for such training.’

Was Sister Harris actually saying that she felt she was good enough for her to recommend? Grace could hardly believe it. Her chest felt tight as her heart swelled with pride and delight.

‘So I’ll put forward your name, shall I? It will mean a lot of hard work but I’m sure we all want to do our duty and give what assistance we can to the Government.’

‘Well, I …’ Now Grace could feel her heart lurching sickening downwards as her excitement came up hard against the reality of her situation. She could see that Sister Harris was looking irritated and impatient. Flustered and embarrassed she burst out, ‘I’d love to, really I would, Sister, but it’s my family.’

‘You mean that your parents wouldn’t give their permission?’ Sister was frowning now. ‘I find that very hard to believe under the present circumstances, Campion – not to say positively unpatriotic.’

Horrified, Grace blurted, ‘Oh, no, I mean … well, the truth is, Sister, that …’ Her voice dropped and she looked over her shoulder, checking she wouldn’t be overheard. ‘Mum and Dad have four of us at home, and my sisters are still at school, so …’ Grace bit her lip, floundering, not wanting to say that it was out of the question for her to expect her parents to go without her financial contribution to the household, never mind find the money required to buy the uniform and the books she would need before entering the Probationary Training School, but to her relief Sister Harris immediately realised what she was trying to say and the sternness faded from her expression.

‘Ah, I see, Campion. Well, my dear, it’s there for you to think about and I would be delighted to recommend you. If you should see a way to undertaking the training the cost would be around twenty pounds for your uniform and your books, you’d be paid eighteen shillings a week during your first year, and of course you’d be living in.’ She patted Grace on the arm. ‘My advice to you is to have a word with your parents and tell them what I’ve told you. It would be a pity if the nursing service were to lose the opportunity to acquire a girl like you.’

Her praise left Grace feeling slightly dizzy.

Ten minutes later, when Grace stepped out of the church hall, she was surprised to see Luke waiting for her.

‘I thought you were going to an ARP meeting tonight with Dad,’ she said.

‘I was – I did – but I thought I’d come this way and walk back with you.’

Smiling at him, Grace tucked her arm through his. They were close in age and close emotionally as well, and she sensed immediately that he had something on his mind but she also knew him well enough to wait to let him tell her in his own time what it was. It was no mere impulse that had brought him round this way to walk home with her.

‘There were a lot of them that was there tonight saying that their lads had had letters and that, telling them to report to their units …’

Grace gave a small shiver. She didn’t need Luke to explain to her what that meant – not after what her father had told her earlier. The whole country must surely know now that although no official declaration of war had been made, things were moving towards that with increasing speed.

They were walking only slowly and Luke was dragging his feet a bit, scowling and scuffing the side of his shoe in a way that she knew would have drawn a rebuke from their mother. Something was definitely wrong.

‘They were painting out the name of Edge Hill Station when I cycled past it earlier on me way home from work. Mr Smethwick that’s in charge of the ARP unit said that the Government has given orders that anything that might identify a place to the Germans had to be got rid of.’

Abruptly Grace stopped walking. ‘It’s going to happen, isn’t it?’ she asked in a hushed voice. ‘We are going to be at war with the Germans.’ She gave a little shiver, then told him sadly, ‘There were some kiddies in Lewis’s at dinnertime, brought in by their teacher. They’d been to choose gas masks for themselves, ready to be evacuated. I heard the teacher saying that the school had thought if they were getting them from Lewis’s it would be a bit of a treat and it wouldn’t scare them so much. Thank goodness the twins are old enough not to have to go. I reckon it would break Mum’s heart if they did.’

‘I can’t say anything at home but I fair hate listening to other chaps talking about how they’ll do their bit for the country, Grace, whilst thanks to Dad all I’m going to be doing is skulking here at home like a ruddy coward.’

‘Luke, that’s not true,’ she protested, genuinely shocked. ‘Of course you’ll be doing your bit. And, anyway, as for Charlie, he said himself that the only reason he’s joined the TA is because it means he can stay at home and show off to pretty girls in his car.’

Luke squeezed her arm and then told her with elder brother directness, ‘If I was you I’d think twice about going to that Tennis Club dance with Bella, Grace.’

‘I can’t not go now,’ she protested. ‘Not when I’ve said that I will. Besides, I think it will be fun.’

‘Well, all I can say is that you’ll need to watch out. If you ask me Bella’s up to something. She might act like she’s all sugar and spice but you and me know what she’s really like. Remember how she always managed to get you blamed for things she’d done when we were kids?’

Reluctantly Grace nodded. ‘But that was years ago,’ she told him, ‘and I dare say she only did it because Auntie Vi can get so cross.’

‘A leopard doesn’t change its spots,’ Luke insisted.

Grace looked up at her elder brother, her heart filling with pride. Luke might tease her sometimes and pretend that having three younger sisters was a nuisance but Grace knew how protective of them all he was.

‘You’re the best brother in the world, do you know that?’ she told him, hugging his arm.

‘You won’t be saying that when everyone’s calling me a coward for not joining up. If Dad has his way I won’t even get to do my six months’ training. He’ll have me straight in the Salvage Corps and on reserved occupation duties,’ Luke told her angrily.

‘That’s because he wants to keep you safe. Dad lost his older brother in the last war,’ Grace reminded him.

‘But that should be my decision, Grace, not Dad’s,’ said Luke fiercely. ‘And, anyway, it will be a different war this time. Everyone says so.’

They had drawn level with a lorry being unloaded opposite a small school. Grace glanced semi-curiously at the activity and then froze before turning to look beseechingly at Luke, hoping he would tell her that she had mistaken what she had just seen, but instead he told her grimly, ‘They’re unloading cardboard coffins. They were telling us at the ARP class tonight that the Government has given orders that emergency mortuaries are to be set up and stocked with them, just in case.’

‘Here’s that cousin of yours.’

Susan’s whisper, accompanied by a sharp nudge in the ribs, had Grace straightening from picking up a stray thread from the carpet and turning to see Bella coming towards her. She was wearing a pretty pale blue linen summer dress and jacket, and a neat little hat trimmed with white flower petals.

‘Oh, there you are, Grace, good,’ Bella announced, immediately sitting down on one of the chaises, and then crossing one slim leg over the other. ‘Oh, no, just look at that dirty smudge on my sandals.’ She bent down and kicked off her sandal. ‘Take it somewhere and clean it off for me, will you, Grace? I’m meeting Alan in ten minutes and I don’t want him seeing me looking all grubby.’

Grace was just about to pick up the sandal when Susan said in a loud voice, whilst grimacing warningly at her, ‘Grace, don’t forget that the manageress said you were to go and pack up that frock for Mrs Lynsey ready for tonight’s post, will you?’

Grace, who knew perfectly well that she had no such task and that Susan had made it up because she did not approve of her cousin expecting her to clean her shoes, hesitated.

Bella said irritably, ‘Hurry up, do, Grace. I haven’t got all day.’

‘We don’t clean shoes here, love,’ Susan informed her, obviously unable to hold back her irritation any longer. ‘You want to tek them sandals down to the shoe department if they need cleaning, although if you was to ask me a bit of spit on your hanky would do the job just as well.’

In different circumstances the look of outrage on Bella’s face would have made Grace laugh aloud, but Bella had a spiteful side to her and Grace felt alarmed on Susan’s behalf when she saw the narrow-eyed glare Bella was giving her friend.

‘It doesn’t show, Bella, and I don’t think for one minute that Alan will notice it, not when he’s got you to look at,’ Grace flattered her.

Bella preened and tossed her head. ‘I’m sure you’re right, Grace, but of course one wants to look one’s best. Actually, that’s why I’m here. I just wanted to have a word with you about Saturday night.’

‘If it’s been cancelled because of what’s happening—’ Grace began, trying not to sound disappointed.

‘Cancelled? Of course it hasn’t! It’s the big dance of the season. How could it possibly be cancelled? No, what I’ve come in for is to tell you that I want you to make sure that you keep this cousin of Alan’s occupied so that me and Alan get a bit of time to ourselves. Alan’s told me that there’s something very important that he wants to tell me.’ Bella looked smug and triumphant. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what that’s likely to be.’

She looked down at her left hand meaningfully, and then jumped up from her seat exclaiming, ‘Oh, is that the time? Alan will wonder where on earth I am. It’s lucky that my boss was called away after lunch otherwise I might not have been able to sneak out when Alan rang to say he wanted to see me. I only just had time to ring Mummy and tell her that I’ll be bringing Alan home to tea with me. Now remember, Grace, I don’t want you showing me up, so for heaven’s sake wear something decent. Oh, yes, and Mummy said to tell you that it makes much more sense for you to go home instead of staying overnight.’

As soon as Bella had left the salon, Susan told Grace firmly, ‘You’ve got to borrow that green dress, and put that ruddy madam of a cousin of yours in her place. Snotty piece.’

‘Susan …’ Grace protested weakly.

‘Well, she is and you know it. If I was you I’d refuse to go to her ruddy Tennis Club dance.’

Grace sighed. The truth was that now, after seeing Bella, her initial excitement had quite gone and she was wishing that she could get out of going, whilst knowing that she could not. If she tried, then Auntie Vi would get on to her own mother and that just wouldn’t be fair.

‘Who’s this Alan she was going on about, then?’ Susan asked.

‘His name is Alan Parker,’ Grace explained. ‘He’s the son of a councillor that Uncle Edwin has got friendly with.’

‘A councillor, eh? There’s posh then.’ Susan pulled an unkind face. ‘Your Bella is obviously expectin’ to get a proposal and a ring out of him come Saturday, and I reckon that she won’t be too fussy about how she gets them.’

‘A lot of couples are getting engaged on account of what’s happening with Germany,’ Grace pointed out, trying not to show how uncomfortable Susan’s assessment of her cousin was making her feel.

Susan was the closest to her age amongst those working in the Gown Salon. Grace liked her and had welcomed Susan’s overtures of friendship when she had first come to work there. She had quickly discovered that Susan was intensely loyal to those she cared about, but she was also extremely forthright and could be blunt to the point of unkindness.

‘Mebbe so,’ Susan allowed. ‘But I reckon that if that cousin of yours gets engaged it will be because it suits her and not because her chap is going off to war. She’s that kind. And if you can’t see that then that’s because you’re too soft-natured for your own good.’

‘I know what you’re saying,’ Grace admitted. ‘But there is another side to Bella. Look how kind she’s been, inviting me to this dance.’

‘Kind? Huh, not her. She’ll have some reason for doing it that suits her, you wait and see,’ Susan prophesied darkly. ‘Anyway, after the way she’s just bin looking down her nose at us, I reckon there’s all the more reason for you to borrow that green silk frock. Show her a thing of two, that would. It’s obvious she reckons she’s the bee’s knees. Well, put you in that frock and it won’t be the only thing around wot’s green, I can tell you that. She’ll be choking on her jealousy.’

‘Susan!’ Grace felt bound to protest.

‘It’s the truth. Twice as pretty as her, you are, or at least you could be. Only you can’t see it.’

Bella smiled smugly as she surveyed her own reflection in the mirror of Lewis’s powder room. She had just finished reapplying her new ‘Paris Pink’ lipstick, her skin was creamily flawless, thanks to a fluff of Yardley face powder, and she had dabbed plenty of Ma Griffe scent on her wrists and her handkerchief before leaving home.

No one seeing both her and Grace in the Gown Salon five minutes ago would ever have guessed that they were cousins. Grace looked so drab and plain in her white blouse and black skirt, and with her hair tied back and only the merest hint of lipstick. Bella knew her cousin would be the perfect foil for her own beauty on Saturday night. There was nothing like a plain friend to make a girl look even better and so encourage her chap to recognise how lucky he was. Bella looked down at her left hand, her smile widening. She could see Alan’s ring on her finger already. In fact she had as good as picked it out from the rings on display in the window of Wallasey’s most exclusive jewellers. Not one but three bright shiny diamonds of a satisfyingly impressive size.

Mrs Alan Parker!

‘Mr and Mrs Edwin Firth request the pleasure of your company at the Marriage of their Daughter Miss Isabella Firth with Mr Alan Parker.’

Bella exhaled happily. Alan was everything she wanted in a husband. His father was an important and very well-to-do local businessman; his mother was the chairwoman of all the most important Wallasey women’s committees. They had no daughter of their own so naturally, she, their daughter-in-law, would be adored and spoiled. Alan’s parents would buy them a smart detached house not far from their own, and she would live the life of a new young wife whose husband had the time and the money to indulge her every whim.

She was so glad now that she had held back last year when the son of the most well-to-do man where they had lived before moving to Kingsway had started dropping hints that he wanted to propose to her. David had been all very well in his way, but his family’s position could not compare with that of Alan’s.

Not that it had all been plain sailing exactly. There had been the small matter of the girl Alan had already been seeing when they had first met – an ‘accidentally on purpose’ bumping into him as she left the tennis court – but Bella had soon seen off Trixie Mayhew, who had gone all pale-faced and quiet when Bella had taken her to one side to confide in her that she felt Trixie ought to know that Alan had told her how attracted he was to her but that he felt he couldn’t ask her out because he was already seeing Trixie. Naturally Bella had known that Trixie was the kind of girl who wouldn’t want to stand in the way of the man she loved’s longing for someone else. And of course when Alan had turned to her for comfort when Trixie had told him that she didn’t want to see him any more, and had refused to say why, Bella had been more than ready to give him that comfort.

Bella knew that it would shock girls like Trixie and her cousin Grace to learn how determined she was to make sure that Alan proposed to her. But that, of course, was why girls like them ended up with the husbands they did, whilst girls like her got the pick of the crop. And now if she had judged the situation correctly, and she was sure that she had, Alan had taken the hints she had been dropping and was about to propose. And not before time! She had been beginning to get a bit impatient. After all, they had spent the whole summer as a couple, and she had made it clear what she wanted and expected, losing no opportunity to make him aware of how fortunate he was to have a girl like her and what a perfect wife she would be.

Now her goal was in sight. Surely the reason Alan had telephoned her at work so unexpectedly to ask her to meet him could mean only one thing? He wanted her to choose her ring before Saturday so that he could ‘surprise’ her with it at the dance. She had pretended to appear casual on the phone, suggesting that he meet her outside Lewis’s instead of letting him pick her up from her office. After all, she didn’t want him thinking that she was desperate!

Daintily Bella sauntered out into the street. She was late, of course, but not so late that Alan would have grown irritated, and so it caught her off guard not to find Alan waiting for her as they had arranged.

Her smile changed abruptly to a small tight frown. She looked briefly down Ranelagh Street. It was unthinkable that Alan should have stood her up or gone off in a huff. She was a girl who was worth waiting for, and she had been at pains to make sure that Alan knew that, just as she had been at pains to make sure that he realised how many other young men wished they were in his shoes.

Alan was the kind of man who needed to know that his peers envied him, and Bella had been more than willing to assist him in this vanity.

The sound of a car horn followed by Alan calling out her name caught her attention, her eyes widening slightly as she saw him waving to her from the driving seat of a brand-new cream MG Roadster, its hood down.

‘I say, Bella, hurry up, will you?’ he called out impatiently. ‘I’ve already driven past here twice.’

The drivers of the other cars in the street were all turning to look and, by no means averse to this attention, Bella made a pretty show of looking bashful, whilst at the same time ensuring that everyone was aware of how elegant and smartly turned out she was as she hurried towards the car.

‘Goodness, Alan, fancy calling out to me like that in the street. Everyone was looking at me,’ she told him as she got into the car and closed the door.

‘What do you think of her?’ he demanded excitedly, ignoring her comment.

What Bella thought was that she was irritated and put out to discover that his reason for wanting to meet her was because he wanted to show off his new car, and not because he wanted to take her to choose an engagement ring, but she was far too wise to say so. Men needed to be indulged at times, and this was definitely one of those. And besides, being sweet and nice now, and encouraging his obvious good mood, would pay off later when she pressed home the point that it would be both convenient and expected of them to announce their engagement on Saturday.

‘A real beauty, isn’t she?’ he enthused, oblivious to what Bella was thinking. ‘Dad gave me the keys this morning. Said he’d been going to keep her as a surprise for my birthday, but he’d decided I might as well enjoy her now whilst the weather’s so good. She’s got the sweetest-sounding engine you’ve ever heard.’

‘A new car for your birthday – your father is very generous, Alan.’

‘The old man can afford it,’ he told her with a careless shrug, a gesture that made him look exactly like his father. Both the Parker men were of average height and solidly built with light brown hair, pale blue eyes and ruddy complexions.

The draught from the motion of the car was already tugging at her hat. Bella frowned and looked pointedly at Alan, waiting for him to comment on how pretty she looked before she was obliged to remove it. When he didn’t, she turned stiffly away from him to remove her hatpins and place her hat on her knee.

‘I’ve had a word with Grace. Just to remind her about the dance on Saturday, and that she’s partnering your cousin.’

‘Seb? Oh yes. He’s such a dull fellow. He actually went off to spend the afternoon in the library. Lord knows why. It’s a bit of a bore having him hanging around all the time, but the old man is pretty keen on making a bit of a fuss of him, seeing as his father has done so well for himself. Of course, he isn’t my first cousin or anything. It’s his stepmother who’s Dad’s cousin but Dad reckons the connection is worth hanging on to.’

Bella shook her head. She wasn’t particularly interested in Seb Atkins, who looked at her sometimes in a way that she didn’t like one little bit. Men were supposed to admire and adore her, not look at her as though she bored and irritated them.

‘I dare say there won’t be many more Tennis Club dances if it does come to war,’ Alan told her.

‘All the more reason for us to make the most of this one then, with a special celebration of our own,’ Bella told him softly, putting her hand over his as he reached for the gear shift.

‘Thought we’d take this pretty little baby for a bit of a spin, go try out her paces,’ Alan told her, annoyingly ignoring the opportunity she had just given him to suggest that they take advantage of the dance to announce their engagement.

‘A spin? I’ve already told my mother that you’ll be coming home with me for tea,’ Bella protested, not liking this change to her carefully arranged plan, which had involved discussing their engagement in front of her parents as though it were already a fact.

Bella had learned as a child that the best way to get round her father’s ever-ready veto of anything that involved him spending any money was to simply behave as though the issue had already been discussed and agreed. She had never ever asked, ‘Please may I have ballet lessons?’ but had stated instead, ‘When I start my ballet lessons …’ It was a trick she had borrowed from her mother and it worked.

Since so far Alan had been oblivious to her hints about their getting engaged, she had changed her tactics and begun to talk about their engagement as though it were an accepted fact and the question not so much ‘if’ as ‘when’.

As a soon-to-be-engaged couple it was natural and wise that they both spent time with one another’s family. Irritatingly, Alan’s parents had not yet extended their invitations beyond casual visits to their home to a proper formal tea party, as Bella felt they should have done, a mistake for which they would pay once she was married to Alan. However, her own parents, especially her mother, were much more up to the mark, and Mummy had been briefed that Bella was expecting Alan to ‘have something special to ask me very soon’.

‘Your mother won’t mind if we change our minds,’ Alan told her carelessly, adding, ‘Trixie would have jumped at the chance to come with me.’

‘Trixie?’ Bella questioned sharply. ‘When did you see her?’

‘She’d called round to see my mother. Something about her own mother and the WVS.’

Bella thought she had successfully seen off the other girl weeks ago, so Alan’s casual comment about seeing her was not something she wanted to hear, especially not when the place where he had seen her was his own home. It was unthinkable that Alan’s parents could possibly prefer Trixie as a daughter-in-law to her. And certainly impossible that Alan should think of her as his wife!

‘Yes, you’re right, I’m sure that Mummy will understand,’ Bella allowed graciously, before adding in a mock-little-girl voice, ‘Of course, I shall expect to be properly rewarded for sharing you with your new car when I thought I was going to have you all to myself.’

The words might be little-girl lisped and sugar sweet but the look she was giving him was pure Salome and she could see from his smile that he recognised that.

‘I’m so glad that you won’t have to go and be part of this horrid war – if it does happen,’ she told him, changing the subject.

‘My father’s made sure that there’s no way I’ll be called up if it does,’ Alan boasted. ‘With him being a Master Builder and me working for him, we’re both in reserved occupations, and besides, Dad has plenty of contacts, thanks to him being on the council, and plenty of work coming in as well, what with people wanting shelters put up and walls and that reinforced just in case. I can’t for the life of me understand chaps like Seb who go and volunteer when they don’t need to.’

Bella nodded her head and tried not to look as bored as she felt. The means by which the money was earned to pay for her new dresses and everything else her family enjoyed was not something that interested her, and once she and Alan were married she intended to make sure that he understood that.

A couple of hours later they were deep in the Cheshire countryside, and Bella was beginning to feel increasingly bored with Alan’s monologue about the attributes of his new car.

‘I want to talk about us, not your car,’ she protested, pouting. ‘You haven’t told me how nice I look or said you love me, not once since you picked me up.’

‘Of course I love you,’ Alan told her carelessly, suddenly braking and pulling the car off the main road and on to a rutted cart track that had plainly not been used in a long time. Several yards down it, he stopped the car beneath the branches of a full-leafed oak tree.

‘Alan,’ Bella protested as she realised that they were enveloped in dense greenery and hidden from sight.

‘Come on,’ he told her, as he reached over and put his arm around her. ‘Don’t act all coy on me now, Bella, not when you’ve been throwing out such tempting hints. You’re far too pretty for a chap to be able to resist, and you know it,’ he added, bending his head to kiss her.

‘Say you love me first,’ Bella pouted, holding him off.

‘Of course I love you.’

Satisfied, Bella allowed him to kiss her, mentally imagining how she would show off her ring at work.

But when Alan started to fondle her breasts and then to unbutton the front of her dress, she tensed and tried to push him away. He was breathing hard, a glazed expression in his eyes, his face flushed. She had never realised before quite how much he looked like his father.

‘No,’ she told him, but he ignored her, pushing down her brassiere to squeeze and press her naked breast whilst he kissed her so roughly that her mouth hurt.

This, though, was the price she must pay to be Alan’s wife; the price every woman paid to get the husband she wanted, Bella told herself. Men who were as popular as Alan was needed a bit of an inducement to help them to recognise which girl they should choose.

Not that she intended to let Alan go ‘too far’. Her mother had warned her about the dangers of that when she had told her the story of her own two sisters and how one of them had ended up married to a man with no money and no prospects, whilst the other had not married at all.

A well-to-do husband was the goal every woman needed to achieve if she wanted a comfortable life, and it was in part so that she could have the chance to do that that her mother had nagged her father into moving to a better part of Wallasey, Bella knew. So if getting that husband meant pretending she was enjoying Alan’s intimacies when she wasn’t, then that was exactly what she would do.

Alan’s hand was on her thigh now, and edging towards the hem of her skirt. Bella trapped it where it was, preventing him from moving it, but he pulled away and then touched her again, this time catching her off guard as he pressed his hand into the V between the top of her legs. Shock and revulsion jolted through her. His hand felt heavy and hot and unpleasantly damp, even through her clothes, and she shuddered to imagine what it would feel like if he was actually touching her flesh.

Thinking about being engaged to Alan and showing off her ring produced the most deliciously exciting tingling feeling right through her body but enduring his physical touch made her freeze.

‘Come on,’ she could hear him demanding thickly. ‘Come on, Bella … Let me.’

‘Don’t be silly. You know that I can’t until we’re properly engaged.’

To Bella’s relief he released her immediately. Even better, he shifted back to his own half of the car instead of leaning all over her.

‘Engaged?’

‘Yes. You know, Alan, I do think that we really ought to go public soon. My parents keep dropping hints and I know that my father is expecting a visit from you. After all, you’ve said how much you love me, and you know that I love you. Of course we must get engaged.’

Determinedly Bella stressed the word ‘must’, straightening her clothes at the same time to underline her meaning.

Alan’s face was still flushed, and there was an unfamiliar and very stubborn look in his eyes. Bella gave a small gasp as, without a word, Alan started to reverse the car back out on to the main road. Things weren’t going the way she had expected and planned at all. Bella quickly dismissed her unease. What was there to feel uneasy about, after all? Alan must want to marry her. How could he not do when, as her mother was always telling her, she was so very pretty.

Even so, Alan was behaving very selfishly and she had a good mind to tell him so, but she was also aware of how often her own mother allowed her father to get away with the same kind of selfish behaviour, and then made him pay for it later. There could be no question, of course, about Alan not proposing to her and that was all that really mattered. There would be plenty of time for him to learn the error of his ways once she had his ring on her finger, Bella decided determinedly.