George had been watching the conversation between Timothy and Anna. He couldn’t really understand what had been going on. He couldn’t help himself and had started to let the jealous side of his nature to expose themselves. He had started to run through all sorts of scenarios through his head. Had they once been in a relationship before Timothy and Maggie, or worst still had it happened during. In a normal frame of mind George would have thought this completely out of the question but for some reason seeing them together he couldn’t help but be jealous of any man that had ever been in Anna’s life. It was true that this afternoon he had told her that it didn’t matter that he didn’t know anything about her but now it wasn’t just that, now he didn’t want to know anything about her past because he knew that as bad a thing as jealous was he just couldn’t stomach the thought.
Now Anna was coming towards him with a look that he knew was about to rock his world.
“We need to talk”. Those few words were always the last words any man would want to hear, and hearing them out of Anna’s mouth right now, George had to fight his instinct to quickly run all the way home.
“Are you okay, what is it you look pale, are you feeling sick?” George stammered. He knew that this wasn’t the case and tried to catch Timothy’s eye from across the other side of the room. George wondered what it was that Timothy had said to her to make her look so off-colour. There was a number of times in the past that George had wanted to clout Timothy for some of the things that he had said to Maggie. He always claimed that he said those things out of love, but where did he get off by upsetting Anna, what was his excuse this time, was it love?
“We need to go somewhere quiet, things are a bit difficult to talk about in such a... flamboyant atmosphere.” Anna could see the look of dread in George’s eyes. Was she really doing the right thing, this wasn’t only her own secret, there were other people involved, as Timothy had put it. Then George put a reassuring arm around her shoulders and gave her a sheepish grin.
“Any excuse to get me alone, hey Anna?” George joked.
Anna didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Was George trying to make her feel better or was he so oblivious to her feelings. In most circumstances Anna wouldn’t had dared mentioned any of her family issues but considering George was off to finish his training tomorrow she felt like she didn’t have too much to lose.
As they walked out of the room Anna could feel lots of eyes on them. Anna wanted to scowl at Timothy but she thought she saw him looking at her with sympathy. What was it that he wanted, she never really found out why he had waited until now to reveal what he thought.
Elizabeth was looking quizzically towards her brother an her friend, what was going on, what was it that Timothy knew and why wasn’t anyone telling her, after all she was the one who had organised this blossoming relationship didn’t she then have a right to know what was going on. She was about to stride over to Timothy and demand an explanation but before she had a chance William was at her side.
“Lets just leave it for now, my love”, William insisted.
“But leave what! Is what I want to know? Don’t you think I deserve an explanation from someone?” Elizabeth demanded.
“No” William said with a firmness in his voice. He was aware of Elizabeth interest in other people’s affairs when they got married. He thought it was just a common interest in gossip like most girls but with Elizabeth it went further. William was trying to help her with these tendencies but when it came to family matters it was more difficult.
“But George is my brother and Annabel is my friend”, she whinged.
“And still that does not give you any more entitlement to know about every little detail of their private lives. Really Elizabeth why do you need to know everything about everybody else’s lives, is our life not interesting enough for you.” William could see that Elizabeth was shocked by his words, he too was shocked by his bluntness but he was tired by all the drama of today’s events and he was hopeful of an early night with his wife but he could see now that tonight may be just as eventful as the day.
Elizabeth was shocked that William would accuse her of that and so to avoid any further conversation about her she said.
“Would you just look at that girl, does she not realise that she is making a spectacle of herself. Really someone needs to talk to her and stop her from embarrassing poor Timothy” and she marched off on to the dance floor in the direction of Maggie.
“Oh yes, poor Timothy”, William said. William knew that Elizabeth loved him but it was trying to see the way Elizabeth and Timothy flirted in their own unique way. He knew it was because they were very much akin to each other and that they both felt like they didn’t quite belong in this modern world. It was August 1939 and with women working and going to university pursuing their own careers it was difficult for Elizabeth to fit in when all that she said she desired was to be a wife and mother. William was never sure if this was what she wanted or if it was said to her often enough by her mother that now she just believed it to be true. In any case he certainly didn’t mind trying to help her to become a mother, although he would never admit it to any of his friends or really anyone for that matter but he thought that it would have happened by now. It may be the fact that Elizabeth always seemed to be over-excited all the time, there was always something to stress about. He knew this too was inherited from her mother. Watching her make a beeline for her younger sister he could help but feel sorry for Maggie in most situations, not poor Timothy.
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