Part Two

10

A week had passed since Doris’s wedding, and Doreen would be leaving Cliffehaven on the noon train. Danuta was out on her district nursing rounds and Sarah was upstairs doing her packing, but the kitchen was far from quiet as the three girls chattered away at the breakfast table, Archie banged a spoon against the high chair, and Charlie teased Cordelia who wasn’t in the best of moods this Saturday morning, and had switched off her hearing aid.

Peggy rushed to retrieve the morning post, and amongst the letters for Sarah and Jane, she found a lovely postcard of Lake Windermere, and an airmail from Ruby which she would read once the house was quiet again and she could fully concentrate on it. She handed Doreen the postcard across the breakfast table.

‘It sounds as if Doris and John are having a lovely time now his back has improved,’ she said with a smile in her voice. ‘I’m so glad things are going well. She was terribly worried about him, you know.’

Doreen flicked over the card and read the neat handwritten message. ‘Let’s hope they carry on that way. Doris is still a terrible snob despite having mellowed because of John, and I dread to think what her plans are for poor Stanislaw.’ She grinned. ‘He’s a nice chap, isn’t he? And he’s clearly very smitten with Danuta.’

Peggy nodded and then sipped her tea. ‘It’s such a shame about his legs, though. His future prospects don’t look bright when it comes to finding work, and although he appears to have money, I doubt it will last very long the way he spends it.’

She eyed her sister over the rim of her teacup. ‘Talking of nice chaps. What’s this new fellow of yours like?’

Doreen chuckled. ‘I knew you couldn’t resist asking, Peg, and I’m amazed you’ve left it this long. But walls have ears,’ she added, shooting a glance at her girls who were just finishing their cereal. ‘I’ll tell you later.’

‘That means Mum doesn’t want to talk about Mr Kent,’ muttered Evelyn to her sister, who giggled. ‘Mr Kent has a beard,’ she informed Peggy with a grimace and a flick of her plaits. ‘Yuck.’

Peggy raised a brow and tried very hard not to laugh. ‘You don’t like beards then, Evelyn?’

The girl’s neat plaits swung as she shook her head. ‘But Mummy does. I saw her kissing him. Yuck and double yuck.’

Joyce tried unsuccessfully to smother her giggles.

Doreen went red and busied herself with Archie, who had most of his breakfast down his front. ‘Now you’ve finished you can get down from the table and go outside to play,’ she said, sounding flustered. ‘That’s not the sort of thing we talk about at breakfast.’

Evelyn gave a world-weary sigh and rolled her eyes at Charlie, who was grinning. ‘Don’t you just hate being treated like a kid? We never get to hear the really interesting stuff.’