Linda had almost forgotten the reason why there was a new lock on the shed. True to his word, Terry had made sure the boxes were collected only a few days after they’d been delivered and she hadn’t had to see any of it. June had been intrigued by the shiny new lock for about three minutes and had then lost interest. It was as if it had never happened.
That meant she wasn’t particularly pleased when Terry made his announcement a few weeks later. ‘I’ve said they can use our shed again.’
‘Who?’ she asked, at first misunderstanding.
‘Best you don’t know any names,’ he said at once. ‘What you don’t know can’t hurt you. And it’ll only be for a few days, like before.’
Then it dawned on her what he was on about. ‘Must we, Terry? You know I didn’t like it last time.’
‘But you liked the extra money in the bank,’ he pointed out. ‘That’s all saved away for our moving-house fund. This way we’ll be able to add to it.’
‘I know, I know.’ Linda couldn’t deny it. ‘But do we really have to? Maybe there’s another way to save up. Now June’s that bit older, perhaps I could get a part-time job …’
‘No. Absolutely not. No wife of mine is going to go out to work. We always said I’d be the provider. June needs you at home, not out messing around in an office or shop. We don’t want her looked after by strangers – who knows what habits she’d pick up? My family are at the other end of the country and it would take too long to get her to yours. No, you can’t be leaving her at this tender age.’
Linda sighed and twisted the tea towel she was holding round and round in her hands. ‘I know that’s what we always said. I don’t want to have anyone else look after her, not really. I’m just trying to think of a way we don’t have to put ourselves at risk.’
‘Life’s a risk.’ Terry put his arms around her. ‘Sometimes you just got to take a chance. And this will be worth it, believe me.’
‘What? What’s different this time?’ Linda had picked up on his tone of voice, the one he always used when he was trying to avoid telling her the full story.
‘Nothing. Not really. It’ll be a bit more stuff, that’s all. It will all fit, there’s no problem with that. Don’t you start worrying over nothing.’
‘It’s not over nothing, is it? You just said it was more stuff. Do you know what it is?’
‘Best we don’t ask,’ he said seriously. ‘It won’t be stolen, it won’t be dangerous. It’s not going to explode or anything. It’ll just be luxury goods to bring people a bit of pleasure that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.’
‘Because they couldn’t afford to pay the full price, you mean.’ Linda broke away from him and started to pace around the kitchen.
‘Something like that, yeah.’ Terry didn’t think that was so bad. As long as that was all it turned out to be. His contact had floated the idea that they could do even more business if Terry was willing to take care of other goods, but hadn’t specified what. Terry hadn’t agreed but hadn’t said no either. He reckoned he would think about it if this next job went as smoothly as the first. That had been money for old rope. If they wanted another baby they’d have to save up fast and it wasn’t going to be easy on his wages, reasonable though they were. They had standards to maintain.
Linda tried to think it through rationally, but she was afraid. She’d put her anxieties to the back of her mind but now they broke out. What if the boxes were found? What if Terry was sent to jail? That would bring everything crashing down and what would she do then? She couldn’t bear to return to Battersea. Everyone would know she had failed and blame her for daring to leave her old life behind. She loved her new life and wasn’t prepared to sacrifice it. But she also wanted the new house and a baby to go in it.
‘Stop it, love.’ Terry reached for her, preventing her from pacing any more. ‘You’re working yourself up and you don’t need to. I’ll take care of everything and nobody will be any the wiser. It’s not yet anyway.’
‘When will it be?’ she asked. She didn’t know if she was glad it wasn’t tomorrow or if it would be better quickly over and done with.
‘They’re not sure. Something to do with the tides. Probably end of next week. They’ll let me know. Then maybe you can arrange to be out for a few hours.’
‘A few hours? How much are we talking about?’
‘I told you, only what will fit in the shed. It won’t take that long, I only said that so’s you’d have time to go somewhere and not see anything.’ For the hundredth time he cursed his wife’s quick wits. Usually he loved that about her but sometimes he wished she’d just let something pass without questioning every aspect of it.
Linda nodded, only slightly pacified. She wasn’t really convinced. ‘Promise me you’ll be careful.’ She shut her eyes, trying to get rid of the feeling that something would go wrong. ‘Promise me that you’ll walk away from all this if it starts to get dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt.’
‘Nobody’s going to get hurt.’ Terry was pretty sure it wouldn’t come to that. Not for a pile of boxes.
‘Promise me.’
‘All right, all right, I promise. It’s all going to be right as rain. You won’t know they’re there and if you take June with you then she won’t ask awkward questions. And we know where she gets that from.’ He smiled at his wife, teasing her.
‘It’ll serve her well,’ she said. ‘She won’t let anyone walk all over her. I was thinking, maybe I’ll go up to see Mum. I haven’t been for ages and when she last wrote she said Hazel’s got a lovely new engagement ring. That would be a good reason to turn up. June will like that too.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ said Terry. He didn’t like to see her down in the dumps. This would solve everything.
‘Oh my good God, whatever is that noise?’ Cora could hear it even before the door to the Parrot house opened and the music grew twice as loud.
‘Come on in,’ said Jill. ‘I’m sorry about this. It’s Richie’s latest favourite. Someone called Elvis Presley. Awful, isn’t it?’
‘I don’t know what to say.’ Cora stepped inside and Jill hurriedly closed the door. ‘You can’t call it music, can you? It’s just noise. I don’t know what he sees in it.’
Jill led her through to the small but immaculately clean back kitchen, where she had her latest wedding plans laid out on the table. ‘Here we are. It’s a bit better in here. He’ll get tired of it soon and then we’ll all be able to think straight again.’
Cora sat on one of the ladder-back chairs and then turned as Kathy came into the room. She couldn’t help noticing how smart the girl was, with her dark wavy hair just long enough to lie on her starched white collar, which matched the elegantly thin white belt around her tiny waist.
‘Hello, Mrs Butler. Mum, I’m going out with some of the girls from work later, so don’t worry about me if I’m not back at the usual time.’ With a smile she was gone.
‘Lovely girl, your daughter,’ sighed Cora. Sometimes she wished one of hers worked in an office so they could look like that. Not that Alison would be anything like as stylish as Kathy – but when she brought back her bloodied aprons to be washed, Cora shuddered to touch them. ‘Hard worker too. Mind you, our Hazel has been going non-stop with only one day off a week. If she runs around much more she’ll be too thin for her wedding dress.’
‘Oh no, we can’t have that. All these dresses have to be exactly right and I can’t be altering them at the last minute,’ Jill said. ‘We’ll have to feed her up more. I’ve got a book of McCall patterns and they’re very careful about getting the size right. So none of our girls is allowed to change shape in any way until after the second Saturday of September.’
They started going through the lists of what was to be done and when, checking everything was going to plan. September was still six months away but there was so much to do in between. Finally they had done as much as they could and sat back to take a break. Jill went to the kettle and filled it.
‘We had a letter from our Linda this morning,’ Cora told her. ‘She’s coming up for a day at the weekend and bringing June. They haven’t been to visit us for ages. Maybe I can bring them over so they can see the material. June’ll be thrilled.’
‘That’s a good idea.’ Jill set the kettle to boil. ‘Must be hard having her living away like that.’
‘I can’t complain,’ Cora said. ‘She’s bettered herself. She’s done well. She’s never been no trouble to me. I look at her and I think I done all right. Hazel too. Wish I could say the same for Alison but there’s always one.’
‘She’s not so bad,’ Jill replied, pouring the boiling water into the teapot. ‘If she stood up straight and had a different haircut it would do wonders for her. Kathy’s good with hair – shall I ask her?’
‘No, no, that would be a waste of her time,’ Cora assured her. ‘I wouldn’t want to impose. God knows I’ve tried suggesting improvements but it just falls on deaf ears. She’s not interested.’
Jill wanted to get off this awkward subject. ‘You heard any more about that family that did a moonlight flit? Has anyone seen anything of them since?’
‘No, not that I know of.’ Cora shook her head. ‘Turns out one of them worked in the shop next to the butcher’s so Alison knew him a bit. He’s never shown his face since. Left his boss high and dry. He’s trying to get a new assistant but no luck yet. Some people have no consideration.’
Before she could go on, the volume of the music rose still further.
‘Right, I’ve had enough,’ said Jill, setting down her cup. ‘Excuse me, Cora. I need to go and have a word with that young man upstairs. Just because he’s mad about rock and roll doesn’t mean we all are.’
Cora sat and listened as the music abruptly stopped but Richie carried on singing ‘Hound Dog’. Then there was a yell of, ‘Oh, Mum!’
‘I’ll give you crying all the time in a minute,’ Jill shouted. ‘You’ll have something to cry about if you carry on like this. I’ll take that record player away and tell your father, then you’ll be sorry.’ The voices faded.
Cora nodded. That was only right and proper. She wished Jack had been around to help her with the girls, but she’d had to do everything. It would have been nice to share the trials of three growing children. Maybe he would have been able to sort Alison out. Then she thought it was unlikely. The girl was impossible.