Free Daughter of Mine by Anne Bennett Page A

and introduce us.
    ‘Isn’t Mammy a pet,’ Tressa said, spinning around in delight.
    ‘It seems all fine for you, right enough,’ Lizzie said, but she was a little saddened for she knew she would be quite lonely when she told Steve she didn’t want to see him any more, but despite this she would wait no longer than the thirteenth. She owed him that much.
    That day, the girls were on duty until three o’clock and Tressa got dinner and sweet orders mixed up, laid tables the wrong way round, forgot the cruets and sauces and dropped so many things in the kitchen that the chef yelled at her. She didn’t seem to care; excitement had taken hold of her and her nerves were jumping about inside her body as she watched the clock anxiously, willing the time to be gone so she could go out to meet her man.
    ‘We just have three hours,’ she told Lizzie in their room. ‘Do you want the bath first?’
    ‘Why just three hours. Surely we’re not meeting them at six?’
    ‘Aye. The theatre performance is at seven thirty.’
    ‘Even so.’
    ‘They’re going to be in town anyway,’ Tressa explained. ‘They’re buying the ring today.’
    ‘Didn’t you want to choose it?’
    ‘No,’ Tressa said. ‘I wouldn’t know how much Mike would have to spend. I told him to surprise me.’
    It had surprised Steve, for he’d seen Mike part with the best part of three weeks’ wages to buy the diamond cluster he’d set his heart on.
    ‘Some price, man,’ he said as they left the shop.
    ‘Tressa’s worth it,’ Mike said. ‘Think of it, Steve. This is my passport to freedom.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Steve remarked gloomily. ‘Let’s go and sink a few pints.’
    ‘You’re on,’ Mike replied.
    That evening there was a spring-like feel to the air. There was even a little warmth in the setting sun and across the road, around St Phillip’s courtyard, Lizzie glimpsed the heads of snowdrops and crocuses peeping through the soil as the girls scurried along the road, for they were meeting the men at the Old Joint Stock.
    Judging by the glasses on the tables, Mike and Steve were finishing their third pints when the two girls went into the pub. Lizzie’s heart sank, for when Steve was drunk he was unpredictable and could sometimes be difficult to handle. But she could hardly tell Steve what to do, and more drinks were ordered as soon as they spotted the two girls and no one listened at all when Lizzie said she’d have an orange. This was Tressa and Mike’s moment and she decided she’d not spoil it by making a fuss.
    Tressa was rendered speechless by the ring and Lizzie let her breath out in a sigh. ‘Oh, Tressa, it’s gorgeous,’ and it was gorgeous, for the large diamond in the centre was surrounded by smaller diamonds that shone and sparkled in the lights of the pub.
    ‘Do you like it?’ Mike asked, made self-conscious by Tressa’s silence.
    ‘Like it? Oh, Mike, I haven’t words…Oh, thank you. I never dreamed you’d buy me something so exquisite.’
    ‘Nothing in the world is too good for you,’ Mike said, and he leant across the table and the two kissed.
    ‘Ain’t love grand,’ Steve said sarcastically and then added quietly, ‘You only have to say the word, Lizzie, and I’ll buy you a diamond twice the size of that.’
    Lizzie’s heart skipped a beat at the hopeful look in Steve’s eyes, and so though she shook her head she smiled as she did, and leant across and squeezed his hand as he turned to Mike and said, ‘I’ll not congratulate, but commiserate. Another good man down. There’s few of us bachelors left, you know.’
    He was putting on a good act for his friend, Lizzie thought. Making the best of it. I wish I could make his day now, by agreeing to be his girl, but I’d be fooling myself and not being fair to him.
    Some of the hotel staff used the pub and insisted on buying rounds of drinks when they heard the news of Tressa’s engagement, but Lizzie insisted on drinking only orange. She felt she needed her