Across the Mersey by Annie Groves Page B

of an inducement to help them to recognise which girl they should choose.
    Not that she intended to let Alan go ‘too far’. Her mother had warned her about the dangers of that when she had told her the story of her own two sisters and how one of them had ended up married to a man with no money and no prospects, whilst the other had not married at all.
    A well-to-do husband was the goal every woman needed to achieve if she wanted a comfortable life, and it was in part so that she could have the chance to do that that her mother had nagged her father into moving to a better part of Wallasey, Bella knew. So if getting that husband meant pretending she was enjoying Alan’s intimacies when she wasn’t, then that was exactly what she would do.
    Alan’s hand was on her thigh now, and edging towards the hem of her skirt. Bella trapped it where it was, preventing him from moving it, but he pulled away and then touched her again, this time catching her off guard as he pressed his hand into the Vbetween the top of her legs. Shock and revulsion jolted through her. His hand felt heavy and hot and unpleasantly damp, even through her clothes, and she shuddered to imagine what it would feel like if he was actually touching her flesh.
    Thinking about being engaged to Alan and showing off her ring produced the most deliciously exciting tingling feeling right through her body but enduring his physical touch made her freeze.
    ‘Come on,’ she could hear him demanding thickly. ‘Come on, Bella … Let me.’
    ‘Don’t be silly. You know that I can’t until we’re properly engaged.’
    To Bella’s relief he released her immediately. Even better, he shifted back to his own half of the car instead of leaning all over her.
    ‘Engaged?’
    ‘Yes. You know, Alan, I do think that we really ought to go public soon. My parents keep dropping hints and I know that my father is expecting a visit from you. After all, you’ve said how much you love me, and you know that I love you. Of course we must get engaged.’
    Determinedly Bella stressed the word ‘must’, straightening her clothes at the same time to underline her meaning.
    Alan’s face was still flushed, and there was an unfamiliar and very stubborn look in his eyes. Bella gave a small gasp as, without a word, Alan started to reverse the car back out on to the main road. Things weren’t going the way she had expected and planned at all. Bella quickly dismissed herunease. What was there to feel uneasy about, after all? Alan must want to marry her. How could he not do when, as her mother was always telling her, she was so very pretty.
    Even so, Alan was behaving very selfishly and she had a good mind to tell him so, but she was also aware of how often her own mother allowed her father to get away with the same kind of selfish behaviour, and then made him pay for it later. There could be no question, of course, about Alan not proposing to her and that was all that really mattered. There would be plenty of time for him to learn the error of his ways once she had his ring on her finger, Bella decided determinedly.

THREE
    ‘Here you are, you two,’ Grace smiled, handing the twins a bag of broken biscuits she had bought on her way home. ‘It’s them iced gems you like and some other iced fancies.’
    ‘Now don’t you go eating those before you’ve had your teas,’ Jean warned them.
    Grace pulled a face and said, ‘Sorry, Mum, I should have waited and given them to them later.’
    ‘It’s all right, love,’ Jean assured her eldest daughter, as the twins opened the back door and hurried out into the garden. ‘It was a kind thought to treat them. You’re a good girl, Grace.’
    At her mother’s praise Grace’s eyes stung with tears. She went over to her and hugged her tightly.
    ‘Everyone’s talking about what might happen if it does come to war, Mum. One of the women from Foundation Garments was crying her eyes out in the cloakroom today,’ cos she was having to get her