That evening there was just Bel, Polly, and Arthur sitting round the kitchen table drinking tea, while Agnes pottered about getting the supper ready. Arthur had brought a big bundle of broad beans back from his friend Albert’s allotment and Agnes was cooking them up into a stew, made with some bacon bits, black pudding and dumplings. Joe was out with the Home Guard, Pearl was working in the Tatham, and little Lucille had been nagged into submission and was now finally fast sleep in her cot.
‘Poor Gloria,’ Bel said, fetching the cutlery and the plates and setting the table. They had all listened in disbelief as Polly had told them about the shocking events of the day: how Hannah had told Rosie that Jack was out of his coma, and how Gloria had rushed off to the hospital to see him, only to return to work a few hours later looking like she’d had the stuffing knocked out of her.
‘She looked heartbroken. When she told us what had happened, none of us knew what to do or say,’ Polly said.
‘That’s so awful,’ Bel repeated.
‘But there’s always a chance Jack’ll get his memory back, isn’t there?’ Arthur said, his face full of concern.
‘Mm,’ Polly said, but neither she nor Bel seemed convinced of a happy ending to this particular love story. ‘She’s been through so much. It makes you wonder how much more she can take,’ Bel spoke her thoughts aloud as she finished setting the table. ‘She’s as tough as old boots, but even old boots wear out eventually when they’ve been scuffed too many times.’
‘I know,’ Polly agreed, bending down to give Tramp and the puppy a stroke. The two dogs were positioned under the table in the hope that they might get some titbits once supper had been served.
Bel sat down next to Arthur. ‘You knew Gloria and Jack in younger days,’ she asked, looking at the old man’s sad face, ‘… when they were a couple, didn’t you?’
Arthur nodded. ‘Aye, I did.’
‘What were they like?’ Bel asked, curious to know more. Arthur puffed out air, and thought for a moment.
‘That was quite some time ago,’ he said, ‘must be well over twenty years ago, more …’ he paused, collecting his memories of that time.
‘I knew Jack much better than I knew Gloria because I worked so closely with Jack in the yard – but Gloria always struck me as a nice girl. They just seemed like a normal, happy courting couple. Flo always said she thought they made a good match.’
‘Which is why,’ Polly chipped in, ‘I can’t understand why Jack was lured away by Miriam.’
‘Well,’ Arthur said, ‘you know, Miriam is a very determined and a very complex woman.’
Agnes came into the kitchen from the scullery and opened the heavy lead door of the range, letting out a waft of hot air and delicious smells. Lifting the pot out of the oven, she placed it carefully on a mat in the middle of the table.
‘In what way?’ Bel demanded, as she went to get a ladle so that she could start doling out the piping hot stew.
‘Well, she’s from a different world to us,’ Arthur said. ‘Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, always getting what she wanted. She could’ve had her pick of rich, eligible young men, but she had her mind set on Jack.’
‘Like mother, like daughter, then,’ Polly chipped in bitterly, thinking how Helen had spread a load of malicious lies to try and break her and Tommy up. And what’s more, had nearly succeeded.
‘Aye,’ Arthur said, ‘but believe you me, Helen’s not a patch on her ma – luckily for her she’s a pale imitation of Miriam.’
Agnes was now sitting at the head of the table looking puzzled. ‘What did this Miriam do?’ she asked, curious.
Bel and Polly looked at each other.
‘You tell her, Pol,’ Bel said.
‘Well, to put it in a nutshell, Ma, Miriam seduced Jack one night after he’d had a tiff with Gloria,’ Polly explained.
Agnes looked shocked and tutted hard to show her disapproval.
‘But worst of all,’ Polly continued, ‘she made out that she was in the family way, so Jack had to marry her.’
‘And was she?’ Agnes asked. ‘In the family way?’
‘No,’ Polly said, ‘that’s the point, she’d made it all up, but by the time Jack walked her down the aisle it was too late.’
‘But worse still,’ Bel butted in, ‘she made out she’d had a miscarriage and said she had lost the baby.’
‘And what about poor Gloria?’ Agnes asked, aghast.
‘She met and married some beastly guy called Vinnie. She had two boys with him and has spent her life in misery – coupled with bouts of being used as a punchbag,’ Polly said.
‘Until she met Jack again.’ Bel brought Gloria’s story up to date.
‘I don’t know,’ Agnes said a little wearily. ‘People’s lives seem so complicated these days.’
Arthur nodded. Both he and Agnes had only ever loved and married the one person. When they had been taken away from them, they had accepted their lot, and made the most of being on their own, bringing up their children – or in Arthur’s case, his grandson – the best way they could.
‘I really feel it for Gloria – and for little Hope,’ Bel said. She had become quite attached to the child since becoming her daytime carer.
‘By the sounds of it she’s going to grow up without ever knowing her dad. Or him ever knowing her.’
Hearing a noise they all turned to see Pearl standing in the doorway of the kitchen. She had finished work earlier than normal and had been standing in the semi-darkness listening to their chatter. She had not meant to earwig in on the conversation, but hadn’t been able to stop herself.
‘Well, that won’t be the end of the world, will it, pet?’ Pearl said, stepping into the room and dumping her gas mask on the sideboard. ‘There’s plenty of bairns grow up just fine without a father about. Look at you, Bel – and you, Polly. You two didn’t fare too badly, did you?’
Bel huffed her exasperation, while everyone else suddenly became extremely interested in their bowls of stew.
‘You know, Ma,’ Bel said, looking at her mother, now grappling around her bag for her packet of fags, ‘a little bit of compassion every now and again wouldn’t kill you.’