The door bell rang as Lily and Cherie were finishing an early supper. Alice was having hers in bed and Lizzie had not yet returned from Rena’s. Mrs Flitt went to see who it was. ‘Shall I say it’s too early?’ she asked. ‘It’s not yet six.’
‘It won’t be a customer,’ Lily said. ‘It’ll be Lizzie back from Rena’s.’
But it wasn’t, it was Betty and Henry, standing hand in hand on the doorstep. Mrs Flitt brought them through to the kitchen; Betty was looking radiant and Henry flushed and cock-a-hoop with excitement.
‘We’ve had ’banns read,’ Betty announced. ‘Third time’ll be tomorrow. Now we can get married!’
‘But first,’ Henry beamed, ‘we’ve got a treat in store for you.’
‘Oh, what?’ Lily asked. ‘We could do with summat good to happen.’
‘Why, is something wrong?’ Betty said anxiously.
Lily shook her head dismissively. Now wasn’t the time to tell them of her fine, Alice’s illness, or even Lizzie’s pregnancy. ‘Oh, nowt that won’t keep,’ she said airily. ‘Tell us about you two!’
‘Well, I’d like you to be my witness, Lily. Please,’ she said imploringly. ‘You will, won’t you, and I’d like one of ’girls to be my maid of honour.’
Mrs Flitt gave a strangling croak which became a dry coughing fit as Lily glared reprovingly.
‘But I wouldn’t know who to choose,’ Betty went on, unaware of her slip. ‘So I’d like you to choose for me, Lily. I don’t want to upset anybody.’
Lily nodded. ‘Cherie, then,’ she said, knowing that the others couldn’t in any case. ‘You’d like that, Cherie, wouldn’t you?’
‘Oh, yes!’ Cherie clasped her hands together in her joy. ‘Would I be able to wear ’muslin gown? I know we’re onny supposed to wear our frocks here and not outside, but it’s all I’ve got!’
‘No,’ Betty said. ‘You’ll have new.’ She turned to Henry adoringly. ‘Henry said he’ll pay for new clothes for us; you too, Lily.’
‘That’s very generous of you, Henry,’ Lily said breathlessly. ‘How very thoughtful.’
‘But that’s not all.’ Henry beamed even more widely than before. ‘So that nobody feels left out we’ve arranged a treat for all of you. You too if you like, Mrs Flitt.’
They waited expectantly. ‘What we thought,’ Henry continued, ‘well, Betty told me that none of you had ever been to see the sea, except for you, Lily,’ he added. ‘And so we thought that we’d hire a carriage and tomorrow go off for the day after we’ve heard the banns read. We’ll go to Bridlington.’ He looked at Lily and Cherie eagerly. ‘What do you think?’
‘All of us?’ Lily asked, her eyes wide in amazement.
‘Yes,’ Betty said. ‘There’ll be plenty of room in ’carriage. Where are Lizzie and Alice anyway?’
‘Lizzie will be back in a minute, she’s onny gone to Rena’s, and Alice has gone for a lie down.’ Lily put on a show of unconcern. ‘She’s feeling a bit off colour.’
‘That cough still bothering her?’ Betty asked. ‘A breath of fresh air is what she needs.’
‘I think you’re right.’ Lily smiled, though she felt very tearful at Henry’s open-heartedness. He couldn’t have known how despairing she felt, or how much she needed this demonstration of human kindness.
The bell rang again, but this time they heard the door open and Lizzie’s voice calling out, ‘I’m back.’
She burst into the kitchen, and she too had an ecstatic grin on her face. ‘Oh, hello!’ she said, seeing Betty and Henry, and then she glanced at Lily, her eyes sparkling and obviously bursting to tell her news.
‘Go on, then,’ Lily urged. ‘Tell us, and then you can hear about Betty and Henry.’
‘Rena’s tekking me on,’ she crowed. ‘We’ve been nattering away for ages and going over ideas ’n’ that.’ She turned to Betty. ‘I’m pregnant.’ She lowered her voice slightly as she remembered Betty’s lost baby. ‘I was that desperate,’ she said. ‘And Lily asked Rena if I could go there and work for my keep. And she said yes!’ she shrieked, and they all laughed. This wasn’t the acerbic sceptical Lizzie they were familiar with.
They exchanged the details of the trip to Bridlington, and as they were discussing it the kitchen door opened and a white-faced Alice stood there in her night shift with a shawl around her shoulders. ‘I heard a noise,’ she said in a breathy voice. ‘What’s going on?’
Lily got up and went towards her, putting her arm round her and drawing her into the room. ‘We’re planning a surprise, Alice,’ she said softly. ‘Henry and Betty are tekking us all to ’seaside, and because Cherie is going to be an attendant at their wedding, and Lizzie is going to work for Rena … well, you’ve been chosen to tek ’first look at ’sea when we get there.’
She glanced at them all in turn, an entreaty in her eyes, begging them to see what she could see and to give Alice this last chance of happiness. It was Lizzie who broke the short poignant moment.
‘We’ve decided,’ she invented, in a croaky voice, ‘that when we get to Bridlington we’ll all shut our eyes and you must keep lookout for ’first glimpse of ’sea, and then you shout out and tell us.’
Alice’s pale face took on a wondrous glow which lit up her dark sunken eyes and they all saw how her thin chest heaved as she took a breath. ‘Oh! Can I? Really? Can I really be ’first to see it?’
They all nodded and murmured and tried to put on brave smiling faces as they acknowledged and came to terms with the inevitable which they hadn’t recognized before.
Mary and Sally arrived a little later, after Betty and Henry had left, and brought another young woman with them. ‘This is Olga,’ they told Lily. ‘She’s foreign but classy. Doesn’t like working out on ’streets.’
Olga was older than the others, late twenties, Lily thought, and had a strong accent. She was quite exotic-looking with dark hair and eyes and a long sharp nose. She was dressed reasonably well, not shabby or unkempt, but wearing a colourful skirt and blouse and a long red scarf tied round her head and floating over her shoulder.
‘I earn plenty money here, yes?’ she asked Lily, and Lily told her that she probably could, and gave a sigh of relief that neither she nor Cherie would be called upon tonight. Here is a woman who has chosen this life, she told herself, and hasn’t been forced into it through poverty.
At ten o’clock the next morning, Henry and Betty arrived in the square, Henry driving a fourwheeled two-horse brougham and Betty waving to them from the plush leather interior. He wore a dark green top hat which he lifted in greeting as they all crowded in the doorway.
He jumped down to help them all in and apologized that the vehicle was only an old Clarence. ‘A Growler,’ he said. ‘But I knew there’d be plenty of room for everybody, and though it’s a bit noisy it’ll be comfortable.’
Mrs Flitt had come to see them off but declined to accompany them. ‘I’d be sick,’ she said. ‘All that shekking about. No, I’ll stop at home and have a clean through while you’re all out.’
Lily smiled at her, knowing that the real reason was because she wanted Alice to have more room. They’d brought pillows and a blanket in case she wanted to sleep on the way home.
‘Won’t you come, Mrs Flitt?’ Betty asked. ‘I’m going to sit up on top with Henry.’ But still Mrs Flitt said no and urged them off whilst the weather was still fine.
‘It’s bound to be foggy out near ’coast,’ she intoned.
‘No, it’s not – not always,’ Lily said, ‘but it might be cooler. Have you all got your shawls?’
They had, and Lizzie was also wearing a black and red skirt, with a separate top and matching jacket, which Rena had given her. ‘Look,’ she said to Lily. ‘I can move ’buttons on ’skirt as I get bigger.’ She seemed to have accepted the fact of her pregnancy, now that her future was more secure.
‘Come along then, ladies.’ Henry urged them to get inside. ‘Let’s be off.’
They all waved to Mrs Flitt as the carriage jerked forward and they fell about laughing. ‘Oh, I just can’t wait,’ Alice said. She had a bright pink spot on each pale cheek. ‘I can’t wait to see the sea. Could we have a paddle in it, do you think, Lily? Have we brought a towel?’
‘Yes.’ Lily laughed. ‘Of course you can. Today you can do whatever you want.’
Alice gazed eagerly out of the carriage window as they approached the town and the others, even Betty riding next to Henry, squeezed their eyes up tight until they heard Alice’s shout of delight that she could see the sea. ‘It’s so big,’ she exclaimed. ‘Look how big! And look at those enormous waves! And there are people in the water! Swimming!’
They’d all opened their eyes and Lily was choked with emotion as she thought of her childhood home further down the coast, and then thought with bitterness of Billy Fowler who had ruined her life.
It was a warm September afternoon, with a slight onshore breeze which ruffled their hair. The sands were soft and golden with quite a few visitors walking beside the briny ocean, which was a rippling triple shade of blue, green and brown.
Lily, Lizzie and Alice took off their boots and held up their skirts as they paddled in the water, whilst Cherie and Betty chased about on the sands; then they all sat on blankets to enjoy the picnic which Henry and Betty had packed for them. Henry had beamed at them all and said that after he and Betty were married they must do this again. After they had eaten, Betty, Henry and Cherie went off arm in arm to walk by the quayside and harbour, whilst Alice, Lizzie and Lily lazed about on the blanket, running sand through their fingers and lifting their skirts to their knees to feel the sun on their bare legs.
On their way home in the evening, Alice, cuddled in a blanket, leaned against Lily’s shoulder. ‘I’m so happy, Lily,’ she whispered. ‘This has been ’best day of my life. I feel tired, but really, really well. I think I shall get better now.’
Lily stroked her cheek and hair, and glanced across at Lizzie who was biting her lip and Cherie whose eyes were filling with tears. ‘You will,’ she said softly. ‘All that fresh air has done you good. There’s nowt like sea air to give you energy.’
‘Yes.’ Alice smiled contentedly. ‘And to be in ’company of friends. I feel – I feel as if I’m wi’ folks who care for me. I’m not bothered now about having a man to look after me or my own little house, like I used to long for. It’s enough now that I’ve got good friends like you, and Lizzie and Cherie. And Betty too; wasn’t that kind of her to ask Henry to bring us?’ Her eyelids started to flicker and Lily shushed her gently and bade her sleep, telling her that they’d wake her when they arrived back in Hull.
Dusk was falling as they arrived in Leadenhall Square and the street women were sitting on their doorsteps. Some of them wandered up to the carriage to see who was in it and one or two jeered and made remarks to Henry, who simply smiled and bade them good evening and wasn’t in the least affronted. He opened the house door for them, and then he and Betty departed with fervent thanks following in their wake.
‘Mrs Flitt,’ Lily called. ‘We’re back.’
The kitchen door opened and a figure was backlit by the lamp inside. ‘Not Mrs Flitt.’ Jamie’s voice came bellowing out. ‘I thought I’d given her ’sack! Where do you think you’ve been all day?’