A Brighter Tomorrow by Maggie Ford (read with me .txt) 📕

knock, her eyes opening wide with surprise and pleasure at seeing her standing there.

‘Gor bless me, it’s you, young Ellie! We ain’t seen you fer ages. ’Ow are yer? All right?’

‘I just thought I’d pop in to see how you all were,’ Ellie said, and seconds later was ushered into the back room, where the entire family was gathered, the remains of Sunday breakfast still littering the table with its tea- and food-stained cloth.

To her delight, Ronnie was there, but without his fiancée. He was lounging back on his chair when Ellie entered. Seeing her, he got to his feet almost as if she were a lady and he a menial. He looked so tall, so handsome that Ellie’s heart did a little flip despite herself; but it settled immediately, knowing he had a steady girlfriend now. No doubt he’d shortly be leaving to go and meet her.

It came to Ellie that if she had struck earlier instead of being so set on finding her father, and had settled down to normal life, she might now be his fiancée instead of this girl he now had. But at the time she had not wanted anything to get in the way of her search. It was ironic that at this moment it no longer seemed that important. Just the same, she couldn’t help asking him if he had ever found out anything through the News Chronicle, where he worked.

‘No, not yet,’ came the easy reply. ‘But yer never know, something could come up one day.’

As she had anticipated, it wasn’t long before he was up, taking his leave of her to get himself spruced up ready to meet his fiancée.

After he had gone, it no longer seemed all that important for her to stay. With a promise to pop in more often, she too left, aware that she had missed her chances with him. At seventeen, she should have had a boyfriend, but she had no one. All because of this stupid obsession of hers!

Twenty-Six

This was the right time to visit Dora – she was sure of it as she left Ronnie’s house: Sunday, a day of rest for most people, mid-morning, Mrs Lowe either taking her ease or at church – so long as Dora hadn’t been required to go with her, in which case she’d wait for them to return home.

An attack of the collywobbles began to start up in her tummy as she approached Old Ford Road. By the time she gained Doctor Lowe’s house and surgery, they were really having a go. At the small flight of steps up to the front door Ellie hesitated. It would be better to go round the back, past the surgery entrance. She’d tap on the kitchen door. Mrs Jenkins would be there, preparing the Sunday lunch. No church for her.

Ellie’s knock was tentative. Even so, she had hardly removed her knuckles from the figured-glass portion before the door burst open as if in a fit of anger to reveal Mrs Jenkins ready to give a piece of her mind to whichever unwelcome caller this was on a quiet February Sunday morning.

‘What do you…’ The harsh voice trailed off as the woman frowned down at her in surprise. ‘You!’ Another pause, then: ‘What d’you want, coming here?’

Collywobbles gone, Ellie lifted her head in defiance. ‘I’ve come to see Dora.’

‘Oh, you ’ave, ’ave you. Then you can just go away again, miss. She don’t need to see you.’

‘I rather imagine that to be my business, Mrs Jenkins.’ She spoke in the nicest accents, the way Michael had taught her. ‘Is my sister at home?’ She said it as if Dora was part of the family.

Mrs Jenkins blinked, but her round face remained hard. ‘She usually goes to church with Mrs Lowe, but she’s been a bit poorly.’

All pretence fell from Ellie with her alarm. ‘Poorly?’ All sorts of awful illnesses raced through her mind. She should have come here much sooner. ‘How poorly?’

‘She’s had a bit of a cold all week. She’s getting over it now but Mrs Lowe thought it was best she didn’t go out this morning.’

That was a relief. Ellie regained her confidence if not her artificial airs. ‘Then it’s a good job I’m here. I’d like to come in to see her, Mrs Jenkins.’

There was a short hesitation as the woman glanced over towards the big, plain clock on the kitchen wall. ‘Well, they won’t be home for another half-hour so I suppose you can. She is your sister. But you’ve got to be gone before they get back.’

With this she moved aside, still not quite friendly, but resigned to letting the girl in. ‘You stay here. I’ll go and get her, then you can go into the parlour to talk. But not for long, mind.’

Dora looked washed-out when she came into the room. She hadn’t done her hair and it hung loose almost down to her waist in a mass of gleaming auburn almost like a shawl about her shoulders.

Her nose still looked sore from constant blowing into a handkerchief and when she spoke, saying how good it was to see Ellie, her words were thick.

‘You should have written to me that you had a bad cold,’ Ellie scolded as they sat on the sofa in the parlour, careful not to disturb the cushions in case Dora’s employers noticed and asked questions. ‘I’d have been round here straight away if I’d known.’

‘I didn’t feel much like writing,’ Dora said quietly, ‘much like doing anything really.’

‘You could have been at death’s door and I wouldn’t have known.’

‘Nothing like that,’ Dora said quickly. ‘Mrs Lowe was very kind to me and Doctor Lowe was on hand to give me some medicine and keep an eye on me in case it got worse. I couldn’t have been in better hands.’

‘And I wasn’t needed.’

‘I didn’t mean it like that, Ellie,’ came the plea. ‘I’ve wished so many times that you was here. I even wished we was all together back