All the Sweet Promises. Elizabeth Elgin
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that tenement is a slum now, and the old Pavilion little better than a flea-pit. I –’
‘Jock! The Pavilion, you said?’
‘Aye. The local picture house. Flora and me saw our first talkie there. Now, that was something to remember.’
‘And are there many Pavilions in Glasgow?’ Her heart thudded dully, her mouth was suddenly dry.
‘Aye. It’s a popular name for picture houses and dance halls. But why d’you ask?’
‘Oh, it’s just that someone I knew – I know – had a Pavilion near where he lived. You see’ – she took a deep, steadying breath – ‘it was someone I was close to, but I never knew where he lived – well, not his actual address.’
‘But he mentioned the Pavilion?’
‘Yes, Jock, and he lived in a tenement, too.’
‘So do a lot of bodies in Glasgow. If there’s one thing that place is no’ short of, it’s tenements.’
‘I know,’ Jane shrugged. ‘It was just a thought. I do so want to find where he lives, though. I want desperately to see his mother.’
‘Sounds important, lassie.’
‘It is. He flew from the aerodrome near our village and he went missing, you see, and it’ll be his mother they write to when there’s news of him.’
‘And was he special, this young man?’
‘Is, Jock. Very special. I’d give anything to know he was safe.’
‘But shouldn’t you have heard something by now? A letter, maybe?’
‘I don’t think so. My parents didn’t approve of him. Sometimes I think they’d even hold back a letter if they thought it had come from him. It’s terrible of me to think my own mother and father would do such a thing, but I’m an only child and we’ve never seen eye to eye over Rob.
‘Oh, I don’t mean there was something wrong with him. They didn’t really have anything against him. But he was a pilot, you see, and they thought no good would come of my seeing him. Aircrews don’t have an easy time. So many of them get killed or go missing. They were only thinking of me, I suppose.’
‘Poor wee Jane.’ Jock thought with sadness of his own daughter, very little younger, and wondered for how much longer they could protect her from the taint of war. ‘Did this laddie no’ mention anything at all that might have helped? His school, or his church, perhaps?’
‘No, Jock. I’ve thought and thought but there’s only one other thing, though you’ll not have heard of it. Glasgow’s a big place, after all …’
‘Try me.’
‘If I said Jimmy McFadden’s, would it mean anything to you?’
‘The bakery on the corner?’
‘Oh, Jock! It does! You know where it is!’
‘Whisht now, will ye?’ Jock had whispered as heads turned. ‘Don’t let Chiefie hear ye! Try to look busy, hen, even if we aren’t.’
‘But I can’t believe it,’ Jane hissed, picking up a pad and writing in the date. ‘The Pavilion and Jimmy McFadden’s bakery. It’s got to be where Rob lived. You don’t know him, or his mother? Rob MacDonald? His mother is a widow and he’s got two brothers in the army.’
‘No, I don’t know the family, but there’s an awful lot o’ they MacDonalds about, remember.’
‘I suppose there must be, but it seems you might well have grown up in the same tenement.’
‘I doubt it. That area is all tenement blocks. Finding someone among that lot is like looking for a needle in a haystack, though some of the buildings have been knocked about in the bombing and there’s bound to be a lot of them boarded up now. That might narrow down the field a wee bit, but you’d still have one hell of a job finding where he lived. I’ll give you that for nothing.’
‘I’ll find it.’ She was light-headed with joy. One minute they had been talking about the weather, the next she had discovered the picture house and the bakery, the only places Rob had ever mentioned. ‘It all seemed so hopeless, but now – well, I’ve at least found the haystack.’
‘You’re no’ intending looking? That area’s no place for a young girl like yourself.’
‘It was good enough for Rob.’
There was no answer 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.’