to that, Jock Menzies conceded, but even so, he felt obliged to warn the silly wee thing of the hopelessness of it all. ‘Maybe it was, but they’ll no’ let you go to Glasgow. No’ without a pass.’
‘Then I’ll stick in a request for one.’
‘An’ you’ll no’ get it. Glasgow’s out of bounds unless you live by there or need to travel through it. There’s been a lot of trouble in some parts.’
‘What sort of trouble?’
‘Well, like razor fights and beatings-up and sailors getting their pockets dipped. And there’s the street women, Jane.’
‘Jock! I wouldn’t be looking for a prostitute, would I? But if I can’t get a pass then I’ll have to think of some other way, won’t I? I’ll get there, though. I will.’
‘… and away round the corner to Jimmy McFadden’s with the loaves for baking,’ Rob had said. Find that baker’s shop and she had pinpointed the tenement block. Oh, glory be! Just as she had been giving up it had happened. This morning the outlook had been bleak, then with one small word it had changed. For the first time since that awful May morning she was free to hope again. An ordinary conversation had yielded the words she most wanted to hear and had become special and was meant to be. Somewhere in Europe, Rob was alive. It was as certain as day following night.
‘Oh, Jock,’ she whispered. ‘Isn’t everything wonderful?’
For the rest of the watch her head was full of cotton wool, her thoughts far away across the Clyde, and Jock said thank goodness he wasn’t young and in love or there’d be no work done at all, and didn’t she know there was a war on and couldn’t she at least try to get one subtraction right?
‘And just what,’ Lucinda demanded as they waited on the quarterdeck for the Ardneavie-bound launch, ‘has got into you? You’ve had a silly look on your face all day, you knocked over a mug of tea and called Chiefie Wetherby ducky, and now you look as if you’re going to go off pop at any minute. You haven’t been at Jock’s rum, have you?’
‘No, but I do have something to tell you,’ Jane exulted, ‘though it’s going to have to wait till everybody’s here.’
‘Meanie. Not just a tiny hint?’
‘Well, it’s about Rob, but I’m not saying any more till Vi and Lilith’s lot are all here. You’ll never believe it, though. I can hardly believe it myself!’
She was first off the launch and first up the jetty, with Lucinda almost running to keep pace with her.
‘Kendal dear, do slow down.’
But such news could wait no longer. Good news was for sharing. And when she told them, they would help her to get to Glasgow, with or without a pass.
‘Oh, Lucinda, do hurry,’ she laughed.
Life was good again and nothing was so certain but that all would go well for her. Of course it would.
‘… so you see, that’s how it happened.’ Jane laughed, as they sat at supper. ‘Now all I’ve got to do is get there. The rest will be a piece of cake.’
‘But Glasgow’s a big city and Jock was right,’ Lilith cautioned. ‘One or two parts are a bit rough.’
‘I’ll be all right. You’re worse than my mother, Lilith. And I’ll find my way easily. Jock used to live there and he told me exactly where McFadden’s shop is and how to get there – even the number of the tram and the stop I’m to get off at.’
‘I suppose you know how Ma’am feels about it?’ Fenny added her doubts to the rest. ‘And if you got there, where would you sleep, Jane. You can’t get to Glasgow and back in a day.’
‘I’d get a bed at the YWCA. Or why shouldn’t I stay with Rob’s mother? Who’s to say she won’t put me up?’
‘I still think you shouldn’t go alone,’ Vi insisted. ‘Glasgow has been bombed the same as Liverpool has. I know what it’ll be like. There could be whole streets without a soul in them. You’d be scared rotten on your own after dark.’
‘Why should I be? And it’s light until ten o’clock, now.’ What harm could come to her? Hadn’t Rob lived there, tenements, bomb damage and all. What then could be so wrong with it? ‘Please don’t spoil it,’ she pleaded. ‘Please be glad for me.’
‘We are glad for you, queen; all of us. We’re all real chuffed. But promise you’ll be careful. And don’t expect too much,’ Vi begged. What could she say? How was she to tell her that the news could be bad, that all Rob’s mother might be able to tell her could be exactly what Jane didn’t want to hear. ‘Promise you’ll not build your hopes too high.’
Mother of God, don’t let her be hurt any more. She’s so excited, so happy. Don’t take it away from her.
‘Of course I’ll take care.’ Jane jumped to her feet. ‘Look, I’m sorry but I’m just not hungry. See you all later, uh?’
‘Oh, dear.’ Lilith shook her head. ‘What’s it going to do to her if she hears something that isn’t good? What if she finds he’s not just missing but dead? It would destroy her.’
‘D’you suppose I haven’t been thinking that?’ Vi retorted. ‘But I’ll bet you anything you like she won’t get a pass, and then what’ll we do? There’ll be no living with her if that happens.’
‘Then we’ll have to find another way,’ Fenny said quietly. ‘We’ve got to help her. It’d be too cruel if we didn’t.’
‘And I agree.’ Lucinda spoke up clearly. ‘Jane could do it without a pass. Once she was off duty she could catch the late-afternoon ferry and be in Glasgow before it got too dark. Surely between us we could cover for her.’
‘And what about when she’s adrift in the morning, when she doesn’t turn up for her watch?’
‘Then she’ll have to fix it first with her opposite number. If nothing went wrong she could be back here in time to go on late duty.’
Lilith frowned. ‘If nothing went wrong.’
‘Well, I say we leave it,’ Fenny insisted. ‘After all, we don’t need to worry until Ma’am says no to the pass. We don’t have to think of anything till then, do we?’
They agreed, all of them, that they did not. Only when Jane’s request was refused need they puzzle over ways and means, they said. And after all, there was a chance that Miss St John just might give Jane a pass.
‘Do you think it would do any good to set up the table?’ Lilith asked.
‘I don’t think so.’ Vi remembered that not so very long ago the glass had given Jane the answer she had least wanted to hear. ‘The way things have turned out, it might be best to leave well alone.’
‘You could be right. The state she’s in at the moment wouldn’t help any. She’s so charged up, the glass would take off like a rocket. I’ve never seen anyone so excited. The
