The Melody Girls Read Online Free Page B

baking for me, eh? Come on in, anyway.’
    â€˜Thanks, Mrs Fernie, it’s nice of you to ask me, but I think I’d better get off home. You and Lorna, you’ve things to talk over.’
    â€˜If you’re sure, now? Come some other time, then. You’re always welcome.’
    As he murmured his thanks again, Ewen’s gaze rested on Lorna. ‘You’ll no’ rush into anything?’ he asked in a low voice. ‘You’ll think about what’s best?’
    Focusing her eyes on him at last, Lorna gave a radiant smile. ‘Of course I’ll do what’s best, Ewen. No need to worry about that.’
    â€˜No need at all,’ her mother said with meaning, and as Ewen touched his cap and slowly left them, the three women went into the flat and busied themselves making tea.
    â€˜Doesn’t it seem a long time ago since we were last sitting at this table?’ Lorna asked, avoiding her mother’s eye. ‘So much has happened, eh?’
    â€˜You won a lovely big five pound note for a start,’ Cissie remarked, studying her cake as though to decide on its dryness. ‘A very nice consolation prize, I’d say. You going to put it into your post office savings tomorrow?’
    â€˜Haven’t thought. Probably.’
    â€˜Let’s stop beating about the bush, Lorna, and get the talking out of the way,’ Tilly said sharply. ‘Won’t take long, seeing as you know what I’ve got to say.’
    â€˜Oh, Ma, you’re never going to try to stop me going to Glasgow, are you?’ Lorna asked, setting down her cup. ‘You know it’s all I’ve ever wanted, and seeing Mr Riddell this evening, it was like the answer to a prayer.’
    â€˜We were supposed to be having a discussion, Lorna. That’s what Mr Riddell said himself. Talk it over with your mother, he said. Nothing about making up your mind without a minute’s thought!’
    â€˜How can you say I’m going to do that?’ Lorna cried, her cheeks pink, her blue eyes flashing. ‘I’ve done nothing else but think about being in a band for ages!’
    â€˜Aye, this is Mr Riddell’s band we’re talking about. I can tell you’re planning to go over to Glasgow and take whatever’s going.’
    â€˜Let’s leave the lassie to think about it, Till,’ Cissie put in quickly. ‘If you go on about it now, you’ll only make things worse.’
    â€˜I’ve a right to say what I think, Cissie. I’ve a right to stop my daughter making an awful mistake.’
    â€˜All Ma wants is for me to keep on at the post office and then get married to Ewen,’ Lorna said bitterly. ‘That’d be the mistake, that would.’
    â€˜See the way her mind works?’ Tilly cried to Cissie, suddenly bursting into tears. Shaking her head, she fixed her eyes on Lorna. ‘Of course I want you to marry Ewen, Lorna! What mother wouldn’t want to see her daughter settled, instead of going off to Glasgow to play in a band!’
    â€˜Oh, Ma!’ Lorna left her chair and ran to put her arms round her mother’s shoulders. ‘Don’t cry! I’ll be settled one day, but for now, I just want to have a go at what I really want to do. I’m like Dad, that’s all. I want what he wanted, eh? If I’d been a laddie, you’d never have said a word, would you?’
    â€˜Thing is, you’re no’ a laddie,’ Tilly sighed, wiping her eyes. ‘And what’s this Mr Riddell really like, I’m wondering. Your dad was never a special friend of his, as I remember.’
    â€˜If they only met now and again, he wouldn’t have had the chance to be his friend,’ Cissie remarked. ‘I must say, I thought Mr Riddell seemed very nice. Very gentlemanly.’
    â€˜I thought so, too,’ Lorna said eagerly. ‘And did you hear him say he already had two girls in the band? When other bandleaders