‘Thanks, Basil,’ Rosie said as the old man touched the tip of his tweed flat cap and disappeared out into the yard.
Rosie breathed in the still air, aromatic with the smell of polished wood. This was not going to be easy. She turned and faced five serious faces.
Gloria, Dorothy, Angie, Martha and Hannah were sitting in the high, light drawing office, where the ships they worked on began their life. The rows of wooden tables around them were littered with pencil sharpenings, bottles of Indian ink and rolled-up tracing paper. One table had a large drawing weighed down by two heavy round rulers. At the far end of the room there was a rudimentary ship’s model, made to scale.
Angie took off her headscarf and started fanning herself with it. The drawing office was always warm and quiet, even when it was cold and noisy outside, but today the sun had been out all day and there had been little wind, making all of the yard’s offices warmer and stuffier than normal.
‘Eee, this all feels a bit serious,’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ Dorothy agreed, ‘like when you’ve been told to go and see the boss and you know it’s not about a rise.’ She copied Angie and took off her red checked headscarf, allowing her dark hair to fall onto her shoulders.
Martha, whose short hair didn’t necessitate a headscarf, rolled up her sleeves and wobbled a little on the wooden stool that wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate her.
‘Is everyone who works here as small as you?’ She looked at Hannah.
‘Mmm,’ the group’s little bird said. ‘Thinking about it, there’s no one particularly big. Although there are quite a few tall people.’
‘It’s you that’s big, Martha,’ Dorothy declared. ‘Not them that’s small.’
Just then Polly walked through the door. Or rather, waddled. Her sensible flat shoes tapped on the linoleum floor.
Angie laughed loudly.
‘Yer’ve got company now, Martha. ’Ere, Pol, come and sit next to Martha!’
They all settled themselves at the table.
Rosie looked at Gloria, who was also perched on one of the stools, looking equally uncomfortable, although it was not because the hard wooden seat was too small.
‘Right, now that we’re all here,’ Rosie said, ‘I guess we better get started.’
‘And the lesson today is …’ Dorothy spoke in a deep, headmasterly voice.
‘Actually, it’s not me that’s taking the class today—’ Rosie said.
‘It’s me,’ Gloria interrupted. ‘You’re all here because of me.’
Polly shuffled around on her stool. ‘Is everything all right, Glor?’
‘Is it about Jack?’ Martha asked.
Gloria smiled at Martha and nodded. ‘Yes, yer right, Martha, it’s about Jack.’ She took a deep breath. ‘But it also involves yer all.’
‘Eee, Glor, yer’ve gor us worried now. I’ve got butterflies in my stomach,’ Angie said.
‘What – like when you’re with Quentin?’ Dorothy jibed, shoving Angie a little too robustly and nearly pushing her off the stool.
Angie looked daggers. ‘No, Dor, not like when I’m with Quentin. Yer dinnit get butterflies when yer out with a friend, ’cos otherwise they wouldn’t be a friend, would they?’
‘Methinks you protest too much,’ Dorothy said.
Rosie sighed. Sometimes she did feel like she was the teacher and they were her naughty pupils. She looked at Gloria, who gave her a look that said she wanted Rosie to take over.
‘A while ago,’ Rosie started, ‘quite a while ago – can you remember when I went off to Guildford after Peter sent me that telegram?’
‘And you came back a married woman,’ Hannah piped up.
‘That’s right. Well, when I left for the day, you might recall that Gloria had to leave for a little while.’
‘Aye, I remember. Billy the yard foreman came strutting over, saying yer had to have a word with management,’ Angie said.
‘Because Rosie had just dilly-dallied off to see her lover,’ Dorothy added.
‘The thing is,’ Gloria said, ‘it wasn’t management who wanted to see me.’
Everyone thought back to that afternoon just a few days into the New Year more than eighteen months ago.
‘Who wanted to see you?’ Polly asked.
Gloria took a deep breath. ‘Miriam – it was Miriam who wanted to see me.’
‘Oh my God!’ Dorothy gasped.
‘Because?’ Martha said.
‘Because she’d found out about you and Jack?’ Hannah said, clasping and unclasping her hands. She didn’t like the way this was going. She hated anything bad happening to her friends. They were her security blanket.
‘Yes, she had,’ Gloria said.
‘Hang on,’ Dorothy said. This was huge and she wanted to know every second of what had happened. She couldn’t believe Gloria hadn’t told them all before now. ‘So, what happened after you walked off with Billy? Where was Miriam?’
‘At home,’ Gloria said. ‘Billy told me to go to the main gates. Harold was there.’
‘And what did he say?’ Martha asked.
‘Oh, he just said it was nothing to worry about – that I was needed elsewhere and pointed over at the company car.’
‘Blimey, Glor, yer must have been wetting yerself,’ Angie said.
Gloria let out a sad laugh. ‘I was a bit. Especially when I got in the car and we started driving towards Roker and I guessed where we were going.’
‘What? So, you went to her house?’ Martha asked, shocked.
‘I did,’ Gloria said. ‘The door was open in expectation of my arrival. Miriam was there to greet me, gin and tonic in hand.’
‘Blimey, sounds like something out of the books yer read,’ Angie said, turning and looking at Dorothy, wide-eyed.
‘It did feel a bit unreal,’ Gloria admitted.
‘But if she’d found out about you and Jack,’ Polly said, ‘why didn’t she just have it out with Jack? You wouldn’t have thought she’d have wanted the other woman there as well.’
‘That’s exactly what Jack said when I walked in ’n he saw me.’
‘What? He didn’t know you were coming?’ Hannah asked.
Gloria shook her head.
‘What did yer say?’ Angie said, thinking of her own mother. There was no way her dad would be asking her mam’s fancy bit round to the house for drinks and a chat.
‘I apologised,’ Gloria said, ‘for any hurt ’n upset I’d caused.’
Everyone stared in disbelief.
‘It was the right thing to do,’ Gloria defended herself. ‘And Jack apologised about not telling her before. We’d been intending to tell her …’
‘And did she knar about Hope?’ Angie said.
‘Oh yes, she knew about everything,’ Gloria said. ‘Actually, I felt relieved that it was all out in the open.’
The women understood. They all knew Gloria hated lying about anything.
‘But then it soon became obvious that for Miriam, having everything out in the open was not an option.’ Gloria sighed. ‘Looking back, I was so naïve. I should have realised she’d have moved heaven ’n earth to save herself the humiliation of everyone knowing that her husband had left her fer another woman.’
‘So, how did she manage to silence you?’ Hannah asked, her expression deathly serious.
‘That’s where it gets a bit complicated,’ Gloria said, glancing nervously over to Rosie.
‘How so?’ Polly asked.
‘Well,’ Rosie took over, ‘Miriam had employed a private investigator.’
‘A private investigator?’ Dorothy’s voice was raised.
‘Eee, it really is like one of Dor’s books,’ Angie said.
‘So, what did this private eye find out?’ Martha asked.
‘A lot of things that she could use against me,’ Gloria said.
‘What, to keep yer trap shut?’ Angie asked.
Hannah looked puzzled.
‘Mouth,’ Martha interpreted, ‘to keep her mouth shut.’ There were still some expressions Hannah struggled with or hadn’t heard before.
‘So, what did she find out?’ Hannah asked.
‘Well,’ Gloria said, ‘she found out that yer aunty Rina was in debt. That she wasn’t getting her money back from those she was giving credit to.’
All eyes were on Hannah. It seemed a long time ago since Rina had been a credit draper.
‘Miriam threatened to get Hannah sacked,’ Rosie chipped in.
‘In the hope,’ Gloria added bitterly, ‘yer would end up penniless ’n in the workhouse.’
‘Well, I hope you told her that Aunty Rina and I are made of sterner stuff!’ Hannah had gone red. ‘And that even if we had ended up in a workhouse, it would have been like a palace compared to where my mama and papa are.’ There were tears in Hannah’s eyes.
Polly put her arm round her workmate’s skinny shoulders and gave her a cuddle.
‘The thing is …’ Rosie said, her eyes focused on Han-nah; she’d never seen her so riled ‘… it wasn’t just you that she’d discovered things about.’
They all looked at Rosie.
‘Did she find out about Lily’s?’ Polly asked the question everyone was thinking.
‘No,’ Rosie said, ‘thank goodness that was something she didn’t find out.’
‘And she can’t have had anything on me?’ Polly asked.
‘No,’ Gloria said, ‘but she did threaten to spread a rumour that you were seeing someone ’n that the rumour would find its way over to Gibraltar – that it wouldn’t be good for someone working with explosives, and who also had a tendency towards dark moods.’
‘What a total cow!’ Dorothy exclaimed.
‘I could think of worse words,’ Angie said.
Polly put a hand on her bump. ‘How horrible.’ She looked back at Gloria. ‘But she can’t threaten that now, can she? There’s no way in a million years Tommy would ever believe anything like that now.’
She looked down at her bump. ‘And definitely not with me like this.’ She let out a light laugh. ‘I think it would be a physical impossibility.’
Everyone chuckled, enjoying the break in the mood.
‘So that leaves me, Ange and Martha,’ Dorothy said.
There was an awkward silence.
Neither Gloria nor Rosie could find the right words.
Angie glanced at Dorothy, a worried expression on her face.
‘I’m guessing that if this investigator person went snooping around my way, they might’ve found out summat about my mam?’
Gloria and Rosie nodded.
‘That she’s having it off with some bloke down the street …’
Gloria and Rosie nodded again.
Everyone was silent, not knowing what to say.
‘We weren’t sure if you knew,’ Rosie said.
‘Well, I’ve gor eyes in my head,’ Angie said. ‘And I dinnit think my mam’s been that discreet. It’s a good job my dad’s not the sharpest. Plus, when he’s not working, he’s clapped out in the chair with a bottle of beer. I doubt he’ll ever find out unless someone tells him.’
‘But if he did find out, I’m guessing he’d go mad?’ Rosie asked.
Angie nodded, her face grim.
Everything fell quiet again. No one wanted to imagine the possible scenario that could ensue if Angie’s dad was told of his wife’s infidelity.
Rosie waited a short while before addressing Dorothy.
‘And she found something out about your mum, too, Dor.’
‘Yer mam’s not gorra bit on the side ’n all, has she?’ Angie asked.
Dorothy shook her head but didn’t say anything.
None of the women had ever seen the group’s joker so serious.
Gloria and Rosie looked at each other.
This time Gloria spoke.
‘Apparently,’ she said, ‘yer mam didn’t divorce yer dad before she married yer stepdad.’
Another taut silence.
‘That’s right,’ Dorothy finally conceded. ‘My mother is what the law would call a bigamist.’
Everyone continued to stare at Dorothy.
‘And, like I’m sure Miriam was told,’ Dorothy stated, ‘being married to two blokes is illegal.’
‘What? Yer can get done fer it?’ Angie was shocked.
‘You can,’ Dorothy said. ‘You can get sent to prison.’
The women were all quiet, digesting everything they had just heard. The irony that it was the two comics of the gang who were hiding such serious secrets was not lost on them.
Rosie flashed Gloria a look.
‘So, that’s why Jack can’t come back,’ Rosie said, not looking at Martha. ‘If he does, she’ll spill the beans and the consequences will not be good.’
‘I think you might have forgotten my mam,’ Martha suddenly piped up.
Now it was Rosie and Gloria’s turn to look surprised. Never in a month of Sundays had they expected Martha to know the truth about her parentage.
‘What, Mrs Perkins?’ Angie said in disbelief. ‘I can’t imagine yer mam deeing anything wrong.’
Martha smiled. Her mother was pretty much perfect in her workmate’s eyes.
‘Not that mam,’ she said, ‘my other mam.’
‘What, your biological mother?’ Hannah said. They all knew Martha was adopted. It had been obvious from the moment they had met both her parents. Either that or the apple had fallen many miles from the tree.
‘Yes,’ Martha said.
Gloria and Rosie sat back, shocked but relieved that Martha knew the truth.
As they listened to her tell the women about her ‘real mam’, a woman who didn’t deserve the title of mother, the one who was almost folklore in these parts, they couldn’t help but admire Martha even more than they already did.
Afterwards, it was decided they all needed a drink.
Hannah, who had been left in charge of the keys, locked up the drawing office and within five minutes they were all sitting in the Admiral.
‘Blimey,’ Angie was staring at Martha, ‘it’s amazing yer here – I mean, that she didn’t poison yer as well as the rest of the babs.’
‘I think she might have tried,’ Martha said, taking a sip of her shandy.
‘Really?’ Polly said. She had been particularly affected by Martha’s revelations. How could a mother do that to a child?
Martha nodded solemnly.
‘But nothing stops our Martha,’ Dorothy said, squeezing one of Martha’s muscular arms.
Polly looked at Gloria.
‘Does Helen know?’ Something told her she did.
Gloria nodded. ‘Yes. She was there that day – at the house.’
‘What? When you and Jack were there?’ Dorothy said, outraged.
‘No, not in the same room as us,’ Gloria said. ‘We didn’t know it at the time, but she was earwigging at the door.’
‘Was it her that told Miriam about you and Hope?’ Dorothy asked.
Gloria nodded. ‘She saw Jack when he came to visit me in hospital – that time after Vinnie laid into me in the yard.’
‘Blimey, that seems ages ago,’ Martha said.
‘Before Helen and I became close,’ Gloria said, not wanting everyone to apportion blame. It had taken a long time for Helen to win their trust.
‘I can’t believe you’ve been keeping this to yourself for so long,’ Hannah said. She had always known that Rosie and Gloria were behind her aunty Rina getting a job at the café, but not why they’d done so.
‘Me neither,’ Angie said.
‘Me too,’ Dorothy agreed.
‘So that was why Jack never came back for Arthur’s funeral,’ Polly said. It had struck them all as odd. The two men had been very close since Jack was a boy.
‘I can’t believe we didn’t realise there was something up before now,’ Polly said.
‘We thought something was up,’ Angie said, nodding over at her best friend.
‘But not that you were being blackmailed,’ Dorothy said, still shocked.
Everyone took a sip of their drinks.
‘So, that’s it,’ Hannah said, her hand around a glass of lemonade. ‘Jack has to stay in Scotland for ever and ever.’
‘Hopefully not for ever,’ Gloria said. ‘I’m sure something will happen.’
‘Yeh, like a ten-ton weight drops on Miriam,’ Angie said.
‘Is it all right to tell Bel?’ Polly looked round the table.
‘Course it is,’ everyone agreed. ‘She’s one of us.’
‘Yeah, even though she’s in the office,’ Angie said.
Polly looked at Martha. ‘You sure?’
‘Of course. I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.’ Martha looked at Gloria. ‘And I really would be all right if it all came out and everyone knew about my real mam. I’ve got broad shoulders.’
Angie spluttered on her gin and tonic. ‘Eee, yer have too, Martha. Dead broad.’
‘No, but honestly, I’d be fine,’ Martha reassured them again.
‘But it’s not just you, is it?’ Gloria said. ‘It would be awful for yer mam ’n dad. There are some wicked people out there. The kind that like to make other people’s lives a misery. Back-stabbers. Gossipmongers.’
‘Yes,’ Hannah agreed. She knew Mr and Mrs Perkins well. They were a lovely couple, but their shoulders were not as broad as their daughter’s. They would not do well with that kind of attention. ‘They would be looked at wherever they went. Everyone would treat them differently. People can be very cruel.’ Hannah’s words hung in the air. Hitler had taught them that the human capacity for cruelty and prejudice seemed to know no bounds.
They were quiet.
Rosie sipped on her brandy. She felt like she needed it.
‘I could try and have a word with my mam,’ Angie vol-unteered. ‘But I don’t think she’d listen to me. And I don’t think she’d stop seeing this bloke.’ She had been thinking about her mam since her date with Quentin. ‘I think she might even be in love with him.’
Dorothy looked at Angie.
‘You’ve never said that before.’
Angie just shrugged her shoulders. She wished she could tell Quentin all about what had happened.
‘I’ve had a go at my mother about …’ Dorothy looked around. The pub was starting to fill up, and a load of platers had just plonked themselves on the table next to them. She lowered her voice. ‘About you-know-what. But she just gives me short shrift, says no one will find out – that it doesn’t matter. She says she hasn’t seen my real father for God knows how long and she’s not doing anyone any harm.’
‘Does your stepfather know?’ Polly said. She wished more than anything she could tell Tommy about everything. God, she missed him.
‘No,’ Dorothy said. ‘And I think that’s what’s really at the bottom of it all. The fact that Frank doesn’t know.’
‘Oh dear,’ Martha said gravely.
Dorothy looked at Gloria.
‘Sorry, Glor. I feel that my blummin’ mother is stopping Jack from coming back.’
‘Aye, and mine,’ Angie chipped in.
‘And mine,’ Martha added. She had just taken a big mouthful of shandy and now had white froth on her upper lip. Hannah got out a hanky and wiped it off.
‘It’s no one’s fault,’ Gloria said. ‘If anything, it’s my fault fer falling in love.’
‘You can’t blame falling in love,’ Polly defended.
‘Nah, there’s only one person to blame in all of this,’ Angie said.
‘Yeah,’ Dorothy agreed. ‘Helen’s vindictive, callous cow of a mother.’