Free No Known Grave by Maureen Jennings Page B

uppity with her. Who was she to talk anyway? “I could do with a chum,” said Polly. “It’s bloody lonely being a kept woman.” She laughed infectiously and Shirley was captivated.
    “Me too. I could do with a chum.”
    “That’s it then. We can be secret friends. We can leave each other messages.”
    “What sort of messages?”
    “You know, ‘Meet me at the pictures next Friday,’ or ‘at the butcher’s tomorrow,’ that sort of thing.”
    “I might not always be able to get away. My ma watches my every move.” Shirley remembered she’d said that with some bitterness and her new friend noticed. “You’re going to have tostand up for yourself sometime, Shirle. But if you can’t get together, just leave a message, saying, ‘Can’t make it’ and then give another time.”
    “Why do they have to be secret, Poll?”
    “It’s much more fun that way. We can pretend we’re spies. Besides, you don’t want your parents to know, do you? They might stop you from meeting me.”
    Polly was right, it was fun. The delicious excitement of finding a message in the hiding place; the nervous thrill of deceiving her mother and father when she went out. She adored her new friend and would have missed her terribly if she had not been able to see her regularly.
    The only fly in the ointment was that, as the days passed, Polly became more and more interested in Shirley’s pregnancy. She always wanted to know how she was feeling. Was she eating, was she resting? Shirley found this irksome. She wanted to talk about film stars and the pictures they’d both seen. Sometimes, she talked to her friend about her time with Rudy, brief as it was. To tell the truth, even though she went on about how handsome he was, his image was fading somewhat in her mind. She hadn’t clapped eyes on him for months, after all.
    Polly never reciprocated with her own confidences. “I daren’t, Shirle. Nobody must know. All I can tell you is that my fella is a doctor of some renown.”
    “Is he going to get a divorce and marry you?”
    Polly laughed. “He wants that – but not me. I like my freedom.”
    One hot afternoon when they were sitting by the river, Polly had winkled out of her the fact that her parents were insisting she give the baby up for adoption. Rudy might never come back, or at least not for years. Jock was adamant he didn’t want a grandchild of his to be a bastard. It will go to a good Christian home . Shirley couldn’t honestly say she was too upset about that.She didn’t really want to be encumbered by a child, especially if she was single. She’d poured all this into Polly’s sympathetic ear.
    “Don’t worry, pet. I’ll help you,” said her friend. “I know lots of people who would be more than happy to take the babe. And you’re right. You’ve seen nothing of life yet. A baby will hold you back.” She gave her a big hug and Shirley felt comforted. Polly never uttered a word of criticism.
    Shirley had reached the riverbank and she stood for a moment watching the sun as it made little butterfly shapes that danced on the water. It was another hot day and she felt sticky and uncomfortable. The river looked so cool and inviting. She giggled a little. Polly said once that she should swim in her birthday suit. Nobody would see her up here and it was such a marvellous experience. Maybe when she was thin again she’d give it a try. She sighed. Time to get back. She didn’t want her mother sending a copper after her.
    For the first time, she allowed her thoughts to dwell on what had happened to her father and brother. Her eyes filled with tears, but she brushed them away. Better not to think about things. Always better not to think about things. She started to trudge back along the path. She didn’t expect to find a message from Polly, who usually dropped one off in the afternoon. But she might as well take a look. Shirley had been the one to find the hiding place. She’d noticed a loose brick in the wall just