His Diamond Bride

Christmas was wonderful, just because you were there. You gave us all presents, even Billy. He was overjoyed with that noisy toy you bought him and drove us all crazy with it, bless him! You gave Sylvia a pretty necklace, and me a purse saying it was ‘to keep my money safe’, putting your fingers over your lips. It meant the world to me that we shared a secret, even if you did spoil it a bit by saying, ‘What a sister I have!’

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but she could always take you away from me. She was the one you kissed under the mistletoe, while I looked away, then looked back. Seeing you like that hurt terribly, but I couldn’t turn away again.

And then it was New Year’s Eve, and that was when I discovered things I hadn’t suspected before, things I didn’t understand…

CHAPTER FOUR

AS THE hands of the clock crept towards twelve on New Year’s Eve, doors were flung open and the inhabitants of Crimea Street poured out into the open, carolling their pleasure up into the night sky.

‘Goodbye, ’thirty-eight. Goodbye and good riddance!’

‘Hello, ’thirty-nine. This is the year I’ll get rich.’

‘Listen to them,’ Joe murmured. ‘So sure it’s all going to get better, when in fact-’

‘Don’t be so gloomy,’ his wife advised him. ‘There probably isn’t going to be a war.’

‘They said that just before the last one,’ Joe said. ‘Some of them were still saying it the day before I was drafted into the army.’ He gazed sadly at the rapidly growing crowd, singing and dancing. ‘They never think to wonder what the next New Year will be like,’ he murmured.

‘But we know what the next one will be like,’ Dee said wryly. ‘Mark and Sylvia will be married, and she’ll probably be pregnant.’

‘The way they’re carrying on, it’ll happen the other way round,’ Helen observed grimly. ‘Look at them. I didn’t bring my girls up to act like that.’

Dee smothered a grin. Between her parents’ wedding anniversary and Sylvia’s birthday was a mere three months, but all the family pretended not to notice.

‘You wouldn’t do a thing like that, would you, Mum?’ she asked demurely.

‘That’s enough from you, my girl. Any more of your cheek and I’ll-’

‘What, Mum?’

‘And don’t you think you can snigger and get away with it. Just you be careful.’

‘Leave it,’ Joe said easily. ‘They’re young, like we were once.’

He slipped his arm around his wife’s shoulders. As she turned her head they exchanged smiles, and suddenly the staid middle-aged couple blurred and there was a faint echo of the young lovers whose passion had overcome them. Dee slipped quickly away.

She tried not to go in the direction of Mark and Sylvia, but she couldn’t resist a quick look. As she’d feared, they were locked in each other’s arms, oblivious to everyone around them, trusting the night and the excitement to conceal them.

How tightly he was holding her. How passionate his caresses, how tender his kiss. How Dee’s heart yearned at the sight of her sister enjoying so much happiness in the arms of this wonderful young man.

She turned away, giving herself a firm lecture. She had no right to be jealous. He belonged to Sylvia. She would get over him and find someone who was right for herself.

But deep inside was the fear that this might never happen, that he was the one and only and she’d met him too late. He would be her brother-in-law, lost to her for ever, and she would become a mean, miserable old maid.

This prospect was so terrible that she forced a smile to her face and began to jump up and down, as if dancing.

‘Come on, Dee,’ yelled a voice in her ear. Arms went about her, sweeping her round and round.

It was Tom, who lived three doors down. He was gormless but well-meaning and she’d known him all her life, so she willingly danced with him and managed not to look at Mark and Sylvia for a while.

They danced and danced while someone played the accordion and fireworks flared. Then the cry went up, ‘It’s nearly midnight!’

The cheers were deafening. It’s almost nineteen thirty-nine. Yippee!

Laughing, Dee made the rounds of her friends and neighbours, hugging them, wishing them joy. Now she was looking out for Mark and Sylvia again, because surely she could sneak a New Year hug with him. Just sisterly, she promised herself.

In the distance she saw Sylvia and hurried towards her, but then she checked herself, unable to believe what she’d seen.

Her sister was in a man’s arms, but the man wasn’t Mark.

Nonsense, it must be Mark! Who else could it be?

But it wasn’t Mark. It was the new milkman.

Never mind, she tried to reassure herself. Just a neighbourly embrace; nothing more.

But it was far more. Sylvia’s mouth was locked on the young man’s as firmly as it had been locked on Mark’s just a few minutes ago.

Firecrackers exploded all around her. The sky was brilliant, but inside her there was darkness. Sylvia had betrayed Mark, had turned from his arms to another man. How could she?

Turning, she could see Mark, looking around him as though trying to find Sylvia. She hastened over to him, calling his name and forcing him to turn so that he couldn’t see into the shadows, and the heartbreak that awaited him there.

‘Dee!’ he called cheerfully. ‘Come here!’

Before she knew it, he seized her by the waist, raised her high above his head, holding her as easily as if she weighed nothing, then lowered her to deliver a smacking kiss. It was the act of a friend, not a lover. Yet her heart leapt at the feel of his mouth against hers. If only it would last! If only it could be for real!

But it was over. She knew a sad feeling of irony as her feet touched the ground. This was where she belonged. Not up in the air.

‘Have you seen Sylvia?’ he asked.

‘I…no, I…thought she’d be with you.’

‘She was, but someone grabbed her and danced her away.’

‘And you’re not jealous?’

‘Because she dances with another fellow? I’m not that pathetic.’

His grin was full of cheeky self-confidence, saying that he had nothing to fear. It plainly never occurred to him that Sylvia might have crossed the line.

Only later did Dee realise that she could have seized the chance to reveal Sylvia’s treachery to Mark and break them up, perhaps claim him for herself. At the time, all she could think was that he must be protected from hurt.

‘Come on, let’s dance,’ he said, opening his arms.

It was bliss to dance with him, feeling his arms about her, knowing that the other girls envied her. News of his attractions had gone around the neighbourhood like lightning and everyone wanted to see him. Having seen him, they wanted to stay and see some more, and then to dance with him.

One or two of them tried to break in, claiming to believe that this was an ‘excuse me’ dance. Dee suppressed the inclination to do murder, swung away to another partner, but then reclaimed Mark as soon as possible.

‘You’re putting me in danger,’ he joked breathlessly as they bounded around together. ‘There are at least three men who thought you should turn to them, but you came to me. I’m flattered.’

‘Don’t be. I’m just keeping Sylvia’s property safe for her. I’m a very good sister.’

‘Her sister or mine?’

A mysterious instinct to confront the thing she dreaded made her say, ‘It’s going to be the same thing soon, isn’t it?’