The Girl on the Beach by Mary Nichols Read Free Book Online

Grace said when she voiced this thought. ‘Mrs Walker might aspire to be something she is not but that’s her problem, nothing for you to worry about. For all you know, you might be the daughter of an earl and can be amused by her pretentiousness.’
    Julie laughed. ‘Oh, you have cheered me up.’
    ‘Good.’
    Grace was right. Harry was outside the following evening when she left work to go home. He fell into step beside her. ‘I can’t bear to be at odds with you,’ he said. ‘So I told my parents we are going to be married in a register office with a handful of witnesses and have a meal in a hotel afterwards and that’s all.’
    ‘And did they agree?’
    ‘I didn’t give them the chance to agree or disagree. I said that’s what we were going to do. They have accepted it. Has that put your fears at rest?’ He stopped walking and twisted her round to face him. ‘So, will you marry me now?’
    ‘Yes, Harry. And I love you all the more for being so understanding.’
    He kissed her, there in the street, to the wolf whistles of those passing by. He grinned back at them. ‘She’s going to marry me.’
    ‘Lucky dog!’
     
    Harry found a house to rent in Bermondsey, after the previous occupants had decided to leave London for somewhere safer in the event of war. It was at the end of a terrace and had a patch of garden at the back, reached by a narrow alley which ran down the backs of all the houses. Downstairs there was a sitting room and a kitchen which contained a sink, a cold tap and a bath covered with a plywood top when it was not in use. Water was heated in a boiler beside the kitchen range. The lavatory was outside but at least it flushed. Upstairs were two bedrooms. Julie was thrilled with it.
    Here was her very own home, one she could decorate and furnish just as she pleased. They bought kitchen equipment, a table and chairs, a three-piece suite, a bedroom suite and a few rugs for the floor, helped by Harry’s parents, because, as his mother said, ‘I don’t want my son to have to live in squalor.’ Julie would have liked to refuse the largesse but she was realist enough to know that would be cutting off her nose to spite her face and hurt Harry. She would do nothing to hurt him, however much it dented her pride. She borrowed Miss Paterson’s sewing machine and made curtains and runners and cushion covers and then set about making her wedding dress.
    There was some consternation when it was discovered that, as she was not yet twenty-one, she needed parental permission to marry. Grace Paterson saved the day by asking the governor of the orphanage to sign as her guardian. For Harry’s sake she relented over the register office wedding and they were married in church in March 1938, witnessed by Harry’s parents, his brother, his sister and brother-in-law and Grace Paterson. It was the first time Julie had met Roland and Mildred. Roland, who arrived in the uniform of a pilot officer, was like his brother in looks and gestures. Mildred was a younger and prettier version of her mother and heavily pregnant with her first child. Her husband, Ian Graham-Mellcott, was several years older than Millie, tall and thin and descended from some titled family, which Mrs Walker took great pains in informing Julie when they were introduced, though the man himself made little of it.
    The simple ceremony was intensely moving and Julie, standing beside Harry in her white taffeta dress and a little headdress of orange blossom and lace, was glad she had changed her mind about a church service. Saying hervows before an altar made the day more special, if that were possible. The three-course meal they had in the hotel afterwards was no grander than the everyday luncheon at the Chalfonts’ mansion, but everyone was jolly and smiling and toasted the newly married couple in sparkling wine.
    Afterwards, glowing with happiness, Harry and Julie took a train to Southend. It was here they had met and it held special memories for