‘So am I,’ Sophy said and flicked at Alice a defiant look.
‘You’d best make sure you do send something back then out of your wages,’ Alice retorted. ‘’Cos if you don’t, I wouldn’t put it past Mum to come and get it off yer.’
That observation wiped some of the confidence from Sophy’s face. It was no idle threat. She knew her mother was capable of anything; even travelling to Essex to take her wage packet off her if she believed herself entitled to it. She’d wrestle it from her new boss if necessary.
Geoff gave his brother another filthy look then without a word he pushed back his chair and stalked off. Alice shot her sister a scowl then got up too and followed Geoff out into Blackstock Road. She caught up with him in a few seconds. For a minute or two they walked side by side in silence.
‘Can’t really blame ’em,’ Alice eventually said on a sigh. ‘Truth is, I think I’m a bit jealous.’ She glanced up at Geoff but his profile remained set in hard lines, his lips clamped together. ‘We’ll get our turn,’ she said quietly, ‘I know we will.’ She touched his arm but he shook off her empathetic fingers.
Suddenly Geoff crossed the road, leaving Alice stranded on the pavement alone. ‘Where you going?’ she called after him. She had assumed they were heading home to The Bunk.
‘Nowhere,’ he snarled and kept on striding along.
With a tut of exasperation Alice ran to catch up with him. ‘No use sulking over it.’ She suddenly realised that the more Geoff fumed on it the more she accepted, in a resigned sort of way, what Sophy and Danny had done.
Her sister was going away … moving on …
Alice had always known that someday it would happen. Hadn’t they at night, whilst huddling beneath the coats to try and keep warm and muffle the noise of drunken arguments preventing them sleeping, shared whispered hopes and dreams of just such escape routes as the one Sophy was set on taking? Sophy’s time had come and she’d found the courage … and the person perhaps … to help her snatch at her new life. But her sister’s good luck had come too suddenly. It had startled her into feeling resentful because now she understood how much she relied on Sophy’s friendship, and how much she would miss her when she was gone.
But it wasn’t Alice’s way to be envious for long. It was her way to make sure that she worked towards the same opportunity. And if fate were to be less kind to her than it had been to Sophy, she’d make her own luck.
Abruptly Geoff sat down on a low brick wall that fronted a small rectangle of grass. Alice retraced a few steps and plonked herself down beside him.
‘I’m going for a new job,’ she told him, as much to take his mind off their families as to get his opinion on what she planned to do. She realised she did value Geoff’s opinion on such things.
‘Where’s that?’ he asked, without looking at her but sounding vicious. ‘Timbuctoo?’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Alice said with a giggle and punched his arm. ‘I heard that a new factory is opening round in Isledon Road to make stuff for the war. Soldering weapons like hand grenades and so on. It’s more money than I get now. Me ‘n’ Annie’s going for jobs there next week.’
‘How d’you know you’ll take to soldering?’
‘Don’t know,’ Alice admitted truthfully. ‘Don’t need to like it that much if it’s more pay. It’s worth a try.’
‘Yeah … it’s worth a try …’ Geoff echoed, staring off into the distance.
‘Don’t be mad about it,’ Alice said quietly. ‘You can’t blame them for what they’ve done. I’d do it … so would you, y’know you would.’
‘Too right I would!’ Geoff gave a hollow laugh. ‘Just wish it’d been me heard about the job back in Essex.,’ He grimaced in disappointment. ‘He don’t know nuthin’ about horses. I do.’
‘Do you?’ Alice asked interestedly.
‘Used to work with the stable boys at the local pub back home. They’d let me groom the horses and sweep out the stalls ‘n’ feed ’em. Got to take a look in some fine carriages wot pulled in there.’
‘Get paid much?’ Alice asked, ever practical.
‘Nah!’ Geoff chuckled. ‘Didn’t get paid nuthin’ at all. Got tips off the customers sometimes. Couldn’t have been more’n about seven when I started hangin’ about round there just to see and touch the horses. Love ’em, I do.’
‘You should join up for the cavalry then,’ Alice said with a grin.
‘Yeah … or the mounted police,’ Geoff suggested dryly. ‘I’m sure the constabulary’d like havin’ a kid out The Bunk on the police force.’
They exchanged a look and both burst out laughing at the farce of it. Acting the clown, Geoff fell backwards off the wall and kicked his legs in the air. They noticed a middle-aged couple strolling arm in arm along the pavement stare at them. Their obvious disapproval served only to set them off guffawing again.
‘Come on …’ Alice urged him finally, wiping her eyes. ‘’Fore we get in trouble. They don’t like Bunk kids round here. They might call the coppers to get rid of us. I’ve had a bucket of water thrown on me before to clear me out of it down Seven Sisters. Shouldn’t go about monkeying around, the rozzers tell us.’
Geoff brushed himself down and shook his head to clear it. He then stood looking at Alice, his expression slowly becoming quite solemn. ‘If it had been me got that job with the horses in Essex, would you have come with me?’
‘What … to work in a big house?’ Alice gave a thoughtful frown and a final scrub at her clumpy wet eyelashes. She stood quietly, seriously considering it. ‘Might not like being a servant and fetching ‘n’ carrying all the time. Don’t mind keeping things clean though. I like things clean and tidy. I like gardens too.’
‘So … you would’ve come, then?’
‘Might’ve.’ She raised her eyes to meet his. ‘Suppose anything’s better’n sticking around here.’
Geoff continued to claim her gaze until Alice fidgeted and said, ‘Come on, let’s go. It’s getting late and they like me to see to the kids before the neighbours turn up for the Saturday night singsong.’
Suddenly Geoff bent and pressed his lips hard to Alice’s, making her skitter back in surprise. It was her first proper kiss.
‘What’s that for, you daft ha’porth?’ she said, squinting up at him. She wasn’t sure whether to laugh it off or give him a slap.
‘You would’ve come with me, right? We’d have been courting. That’s what you do, Alice, when you’re courting.’ He sounded quite casually amused by her flustered reaction.
‘How do you know what courting couples do?’ Alice scoffed as they started to walk on. ‘How much courting have you done, Geoff Lovat?’
‘A bit.’ Geoff didn’t sound amused any more.
Alice looked up, about to find something crushing to say, but as their eyes met she found the little jibe died on her lips. Instinctively she knew that Geoff’s knowledge of what went on between men and women was far greater than hers, and she wasn’t sure why knowing it unsettled her, or made her mouth pulse as though his still moved against it. For a moment they walked in silence. ‘You know what’s really annoyed me about those two?’ Alice said, having shaken off her odd mood.
‘No … what?’
‘I left me cake. I never got to eat me cake or drink much of me tea, and I’m starving, and I paid for it.’
‘We