Where the Heart Is (22 page)

Katie noted this information, recognising that it confirmed what she had already guessed, namely that Gina’s family was rather well-to-do. Not that Gina gave herself any airs and graces–far from it.

As they said ‘goodbye’ to one another on Sloane Street, standing by the private garden that belonged to Cadogan Place, Gina told Katie, ‘I’ll get a taxi and call to pick you up at a quarter to seven. If we get to the Savoy and they aren’t there waiting for us then we can ask the cabby to drive up to Green Park and then turn round and take us back.’

Katie agreed, then turned to leave, only to hear Gina saying almost awkwardly, ‘Oh … I expect you know that the Saturday night dinner dance at the Savoy is rather dressy, only there’s nothing worse than arriving somewhere and feeling one is wearing the wrong thing.’

Once Gina’s comment would have reduced her to a silence of tongue-tied hot-faced self-conscious embarrassment, Katie acknowledged, but now she was able to say easily and comfortably, ‘I remember how elegantly dressed the women always were when I used to accompany my father to the Savoy. He’s a musician and a conductor. I haven’t been since I came back to London but I dare say, if anything, people are making even more of an effort.’

There! In a couple of sentences she had acquainted Gina with her parents’ and her own status, and assured her that she wasn’t going to embarrass herself.

‘Oh, yes, absolutely,’ Gina agreed, looking relieved. ‘Of course the American women–the diplomatic and high-ranking military wives–are incredibly well dressed. No rationing for them, although our lot do their best to hold their end up. The last time I was there an awful lot of old
family jewellery was on show, even if it was being worn with pre-war evening gowns.’

There was no real question over what she would have to wear, Katie admitted once she was back in her room in her billet. After what Gina had said, there was only one dress that could be worn, and yet it was with great reluctance that she removed it from her suitcase where it was carefully packed away in layers of tissue paper. Tissue paper that had been smoothed down by Jean’s maternal hands, the dress itself a gift of love from Luke’s aunt Francine and from Jean herself.

Tears trembled on Katie’s eyelashes when she lifted it from its resting place. It was so beautiful, the most beautiful dress she had ever worn, the memories that went with it so precious to her, each one folded every bit as carefully into her heart as Jean had folded the dress.

The pale grey silk taffeta shimmered in the stillbright sunlight, causing more tears to blur Katie’s vision. She had been wearing this dress the night she had first met Luke, not knowing who he was then other than the grim, hostile but oh so handsome dark-haired young corporal who had done so much to protect the Grafton Dance Hall from catching fire after a bomb had been dropped on the building next door to it. She had had no idea then that he would turn out to be the son of the couple with whom she was billeted, the ‘Luke’ his mother spoke of with such love and pride.

Luke. Katie sank down on to her bed, letting the dress slip to the floor as she covered her face
with her hands and let the tears flow. She had tried so hard not to give in to her emotions, to remember how much others were called upon to bear because of this war, to tell herself that whilst Luke was safe and well, she had nothing to cry for other than her own foolish broken heart, and that truly loving someone sometimes meant putting them first and being hurt when your love was not returned. She knew she could no more have held Luke to an engagement he no longer wanted than she could have lied that she no longer loved him. He had wanted his freedom and, much though that hurt her, she had to accept that. He had claimed that he was breaking their engagement because he couldn’t trust her, but Katie felt there was more to it than that and that at some stage whilst he had been away from her he had either stopped loving her or realised that he had never loved her at all.

By the time she was bathed and dressed, her dark gold hair brushed, and the neat little matching bolero that went with her gown nestling against the wide white sash emphasising her slender waist, Katie had a brave smile pinned to her lips, but her heart still felt sore.

Peggy Groves, who was coming into the house as Katie was leaving, having seen the taxi pull up outside from her bedroom window, paused to say admiringly, ‘Oh, I say, don’t you look glam. I hope you’re going somewhere nice.’

‘The Savoy,’ Katie told her, before darting outside and hurrying over to the cab just as Gina was about to get out of it.

‘You’re prompt,’ Gina smiled approvingly, her eyes widening slightly when she saw Katie’s gown. ‘What a beautiful dress, and how perfectly it suits you, Katie.’

‘It isn’t actually mine. It belongs to … to my ex-fiancé's aunt. She is, or rather she was, a singer–she’s married now. She’s the most generous person. Even though Luke and I broke up, she insisted that I was to have this dress, which she’d loaned to me whilst I was billeted with Luke’s parents, and Luke’s mother sent it on to me.’

‘They obviously thought a lot of you, Katie, and with good reason.’

‘I loved Luke’s family,’ Katie told Gina truthfully. ‘I still miss them and I think I always will. Your own dress is lovely too.’

‘Well, it’s pre-war, I’m afraid, although I’ve always loved it. I wore it for my twenty-first birthday party.’

The burgundy silk was perfect with Gina’s dark hair and eyes, and Katie saw that Gina was wearing a very pretty pair of pearl and diamond ear clips, which matched the pearl necklace she always wore.

‘Well, at least we shan’t have to ask the cabby to drive past and then bring us back,’ Gina announced when the cab turned into the Savoy. ‘The boys are already here waiting for us.’

Indeed they were, and looking very handsome and masculine in their Royal Navy uniforms, Katie had to admit as the doorman came forward to open the taxi door for the girls, prompting the captain to step towards the cabby, obviously intent on settling the bill.

Katie looked at Gina, who gave a small nod of her head, obviously approving his good manners.

Katie could see that both men were impressed by the girls’ appearance, their approval giving her confidence a boost as she thanked Eddie for the corsage he presented her with, whilst the captain did the same to Gina.

Of course, they had to retire to the cloakroom to pin the corsages to one another.

‘So sensible of them to choose white so that they wouldn’t clash with what we are wearing,’ Gina smiled.

To Katie the Savoy was almost a home from home. She had come here regularly with her father when he had worked here, although in those days she had been dressed very plainly in something businesslike, not a beautiful evening gown. So many times on those evenings her feet had tapped eagerly as she longed to dance. Luke had been a very good dancer. It was a family gift the Campions, including Jean shared, although Sam had always claimed that he had two left feet.

‘Cocktails first, don’t you agree?’ Eddie was suggesting, as he led the way to the already busy cocktail bar.

The captain, Leonard, might be quieter than his more outgoing cousin, but he still had an air of authority about him that others plainly recognised, falling back a little to make room for the naval officers

Not that Leonard and Eddie were the only two men in the room in uniform–far from it. Katie had become used now to the sight of so many
different uniforms in the capital, but tonight somehow it seemed that rather more of them were American than had previously been the case.

Not to be outdone by the men’s smart uniforms, the women were all wearing elegant dresses, many of them, as Gina had already said, looking a little pre-war in style, but very elegant none the less, reminding Katie of pictures she had seen in her mother’s copies of
Vogue
as a young girl. A woman in her forties, walking past proudly on the arm of her partner–a colonel in the army–was wearing a beautiful dull yellow silk satin gown that was very 1930s in style, its colour perfectly complimenting her diamond-set topaz jewellery.

Sequins were very much in style, brightening up the plainness of the otherwise very simple black evening gowns worn by many of the older women, whilst Katie heard one young girl still in her teens confiding to her friend as they walked past them that her dress–a lovely pale pink embossed silk over net petticoats, had been made from ‘Granny’s coming-out frock”.

As she sat and watched the other diners, Katie was relieved to see that, like her, Gina was quite content with one cocktail, and she suspected that the captain rather approved of this, although Eddie tried to persuade each of them to have another.

Over their cocktails they talked generally about Bath and how sad it was that Hitler’s Luftwaffe had bombed such a historical city. Leonard and Gina quickly discovered a mutual interest in Georgian architecture and the books of Jane Austen, and were soon chatting animatedly. Watching them, it struck
Katie that Gina’s natural confidence and warmth were bringing the captain out of his shell, whilst the captain’s knowledge on a subject so dear to Gina’s heart plainly had her warming to him and enjoying his company.

Eddie, though, obviously bored with their discussion, livened up the conversation when he remarked drolly that he felt honoured that Katie had sacrificed her petticoat on his behalf.

‘I would have returned it to you if I’d been able to, of course, but unfortunately the nurses whisked it away. I don’t think they approved of me sleeping with it under my pillow,’ he added teasingly.

Katie couldn’t quite stop herself blushing.

‘Ignore my little cousin, Katie,’ the captain told her. ‘He’s been at sea too long and has forgotten how to behave.’

It was obvious from the way they spoke to one another that the two men were close, and that couldn’t help but soften Katie’s heart towards them. There was nothing that warmed Katie’s heart more than family closeness and shared love, and soon she felt relaxed enough not to be at all selfconscious when Eddie continued to tease her.

Eventually they were shown through for their dinner and, as both girls had expected, virtually every table was taken. It touched Katie’s heart a second time to see so many Americans in military uniform eating their dinner, with its somewhat meagre portion of meat, with every evidence of enjoyment, when she knew that in their own country there was no rationing. Their good manners couldn’t be faulted, even if Luke had been
antagonistic towards the American soldiers he had come across in Liverpool.

As fish wasn’t rationed Katie opted to have Dover sole, a mouthwatering treat, and one of her favourite dishes, which was every bit as good as she had anticipated it would be.

The Peach Melba she ordered for dessert might have been made with tinned peaches rather than fresh, but it was still a deliciously sweet treat at a time when anything containing sugar, which had to be imported, was on ration.

Katie wasn’t entirely surprised when Leonard and Gina, who had been conversing together for several minutes, leaving her to be entertained by Eddie’s jokes and flattery, announced that they had discovered a connection between their families, a third cousin of a second cousin twice removed sort of thing. It struck Katie that Gina and Leonard would be very well suited to one another. Eddie, of course, was much more lightweight. Fun to be with, but Katie suspected that it would be a foolish girl indeed who lost her heart to him.

However, her impression of Leonard as a kind quiet man of great moral strength and devotion to those he loved was shattered later on in the evening when she and Eddie were dancing and he made a casual reference to Leonard’s children. Indeed, Katie was so shocked that she almost missed a step.

Eddie, who had earlier praised her for her dancing, asked, ‘Are you all right?’

‘I was until you mentioned Leonard’s children. I had no idea he was married and neither has Gina.
I hadn’t thought of him at all as the kind of man who would ask a girl out to dinner when he already has a wife.’

Normally she would never have been so outspoken, but her concern for her friend and her indignation on her behalf had overrun her normal reticence.

When Eddie’s reaction to her outburst was to start laughing, she felt even more protectively angry on Gina’s behalf until Eddie told her ruefully, ‘I’m sorry, but the very idea of Leonard doing anything remotely improper is just so ridiculous.’

‘But you said he has children,’ Katie defended herself.

‘Yes, he does: a boy of three and a little girl of two, but as for their mother …’ Eddie paused. ‘The whole family was rather surprised when Leonard announced that he was marrying Odile, a French girl he’d met when his ship was deployed to St-Nazaire in 1938. Of course, when war broke out Leonard brought Odile to England, but she never really settled here, and shortly after little Amy’s birth she sent Leonard a “Dear John” letter, telling him that she’d met someone else and that she was leaving him. However, before he received that letter, she was killed in a road accident in this other chap’s car. They were both killed, in fact.’

‘Oh, how dreadful.’

‘Yes it was,’ Eddie agreed, for once sounding and looking serious. ‘Leonard was never a life-and-soul-of-the-party type, but after that he withdrew even more into himself. Your friend is the first girl he has been out with since, and I only managed to
persuade him to come to London with me and take you both out because he agreed that we must repay your kindness to me.’

Katie’s eyes widened as a new thought struck her. ‘You’re matchmaking,’ she accused him.

‘Just call me Cupid,’ Eddie grinned, adding, ‘To be honest, when I came to in that gutter and heard the two of you talking the way you were, I knew immediately that you were just the kind of girls Leonard needed to meet, although I had a devil of a job persuading him to agree.’

Now it was Katie’s turn to be amused. Eddie was surely a very unlikely matchmaker, but on the other hand there was no doubting his affection and loyalty for his cousin.

‘What a risk to take,’ she laughed. ‘How could you know that Gina and Leonard would get on so well together?’