The Pepper Girls Day 40

Sandra Savage

Lexie smiled. For the first time in a very long while she felt free. All the longing she’d had for this ugly man had disappeared

The older woman flinched. Charlie had said nothing to her or, as far as she knew, to his family. They all thought that he and Lexie were together and even planning to become engaged. Mrs Fyffe steadied herself. “Is it final?” she asked. Lexie nodded. “And is there anyone else involved in the parting?”

Lexie looked up at Mrs Fyffe, her young eyes bleak and miserable.

Whatever was happening in her life, Mrs Fyffe pondered, it wasn’t making Lexie very happy. She hung her head and stared at her hands. “Yes.” “Do you want to tell me about it Lexie?” she asked gently.

“His name’s Robbie and I’ve known him since school, but he’s been at sea in the Merchant Navy for two years and well, we’ve met again...”

Her voice began to falter as her unhappiness at her longing for the man enveloped her.

“And I can’t help it,” she hurried on before Mrs Fyffe could stop her, “I can’t stop thinking about him and wanting him and... I don’t love Charlie anymore, I love Robbie Robertson.”

Feelings

Tears of loss and disillusionment spilled on to her cheeks.

Mrs Fyffe waited till Lexie calmed down and poured her a cup of tea.

“Here,” she said, “drink this.” Lexie slowly sipped the sweet tea. “And does Robbie know how you feel?” “That’s the problem Mrs Fyffe,” Lexie said. “We were meant to meet but he didn’t turn up and well, now he’s gone back to sea and I don’t know what to do anymore.” The tears came again. Mrs Fyffe’s heart went out to the girl. She knew how she felt.

The love of her own life had been lost and she’d gone on to marry Mr Fyffe.

Bert was alright, she knew, but didn’t make her feel the way Michael O’Brian had.

Even after all this time, she would have given anything to see Michael O’Brian again.

“I understand, Lexie,” she said, “but sometimes life doesn’t always work out the way we want and we have to accept things as they are.”

Lexie knew Mrs Fyffe was trying to help, but nothing she said could change the deep desire that had formed in her heart for Robbie Robertson.

Only seeing him again would do that and she prayed nightly that he’d come back to her.

She felt a bit better having spoken to Mrs Fyffe, but it had changed nothing – not her decision to break up with Charlie, nor her longing for Robbie.

But Lexie wasn’t going to have to wait much longer for Robbie Robertson.

Two weeks later, while doing some Saturday shopping for her mother, she saw him.

He was coming out of Wallace’s Tearooms, his arm firmly around the shoulders of a giggling girl.

Lexie froze on the spot, her heart thudding in her chest and her legs turning to jelly as she watched.

Scruffy

Then he saw her and after whispering something to the girl, crossed the road towards her. “Lexie,” he said, grinning, “fancy meeting you again.”

Lexie felt she would die. There was so much adrenalin rushing through her system, she could hardly breathe.

“What’s the matter,” Robbie asked, “cat got your tongue?”

Lexie glanced at the girl waiting on the other side of the street then turned back to the ‘love of her life’.

Only this time, instead of the handsome, manly and captivating sailor she saw before, here was a scruffy, pockmarked individual with greasy hair and he smelled of sweat!

How she’d ever thought she loved Robbie Robertson, she couldn’t begin to imagine. Lexie suddenly found her voice.

“I think your girlfriend’s getting anxious,” she said, nodding in the direction of the fretting girl, “and I don’t have time to hang around. My fiancée’s waiting for me. Charlie Mathieson,” she added, “I think you know him?”

Robbie Robertson’s face twisted into a sneer.

“You’d better hurry up then, lassie, can’t keep Charlie boy waitin’.”

Lexie smiled. For the first time in a very long while she felt free.

All the longing and desire she’d had for this ugly man had disappeared, just as quickly as it had come upon her, but life for Lexie would never be the same again. She had truly grown up.

She watched as Robbie turned his back on her and crossed over to the girl, repositioning his arm around her shoulders before walking out of Lexie’s life for good.

On her return with the messages, Euan noticed immediately the change in Lexie and wanted to know the reason why.

No more

He breathed a sigh of relief on the news that Robbie Robertson no longer figured in her life and was ‘no more’ as she’d put it.

“And what about Charlie?” he asked, “is there a way back for him?” Lexie smiled and shook her head. “I may have got it wrong with Robbie,” she said, “but it showed me that what me and Charlie had was wrong too.” Euan listened to Lexie’s grown-up reasoning in astonishment.

Where was the little girl he knew? Gone now, he surmised, replaced by a young woman who now knew the difference between puppy love, real love and desire.

He’d be able to report back to Annie that Lexie was fine – until the next time she fell in love, that is.

Wee Billy had been kept in hospital for another two weeks, till he was over the worst of his whooping cough and no longer infectious to Mary Anne. Billy Dawson had been distraught on hearing about the bairn and went to the infirmary with Nancy and Billy after his shift finished, while Josie minded Mary Anne.

He saw the difference in his son-in-law and how Nancy was once more responding to his attention.

The dark cloud of wee Billy’s illness had produced a silver lining and Billy hoped that the couple would now grow stronger together. (More tomorrow.)