I'm In The Mood For Love (Dunkirk Love Story)

Chapter Twelve:

"What is up with you" Katherine asked me as she sipped on her tea.

My brain was still racking over what Harry had told me last night. My brain seemed to not process the information, not allowing it to function properly. Probably making my friends think they have done something wrong. But they should not? I thought in my head. Well they cannot exactly mind read my thoughts can they?

I looked at my scone that had my favourite filling. Clotted cream and Jam. That is how I had my scones and it never made sense to me why people put jam and then cream. The content of the sliced scone remains the same, simply jam and cream. However, it is the order these are assembled that makes the difference; in a Devon tea it is cream on the scone then jam; in Cornwall, jam first followed by the cream. Does this make a difference to taste? To me, it did – it made all the difference; making it much better to eat and more elegant.

"Rose?" Betty nudged me as it broke me from my thoughts.

"Sorry" I mumble as I look to them both. "I am just extremely tired from last night."

"Well perk up love" Katherine grinned. "Because me and Jack decided to meet the boys at the river around 2pm, for a little fun. Like we did before the war."

"I was not here before the war" I smiled, gently reminding them. "So what does 'fun' entail? Please enlighten me."

"Oh sweet Rose" Betty grinned. "You shall find out soon enough. But first we need to get our swim suits."

"We are close to my house." Katherine began as she placed her tea on the table. "So we could get some swimsuits from my house to make it easier."

"Sounds like a plan" I grinned as I began to eat my scone.

Once we had finished in the small café on the outskirts of the town, we paid and left to go to Katherine's house. As we arrived, we were home alone.

"Let's put the record player on" Betty squealed as she sat on the sofa.

Katherine walked over to the record player. She put the tonearm and needle on the record; then as if by magic, the music started to play. Katherine and I started to slow dance around the living room, with Katherine leading our dance. We all started to sing along to Vera Lynn's track of 'We'll meet again', feeling extremely patriotic and raring to go. Katherine brought some swim suits down for us and we all picked one.

As we changed, there were a few times we had fallen over, trying to get our costumes on. Once we were changed we all turned to each other and grinned, looking at how fabulous we looked. Then we put on our dresses we had on, over the top.

"So how is Harry?" Betty teased me, causing me to go bright red.

"Harry is well" I blushed. "But I am sure you can ask him yourself."

"Oh when will you two hurry up and confess your feelings" Katherine giggled as she looked to Betty.

I went quiet and I blushed even more.

"Oh my days!" Betty gasped.

"What the heck!" Katherine squealed.

"You guys made it official?" They screamed in union and I nodded my head in reply.

They indulged me in a huge hug and they screamed even more. I laughed at their crazy behaviour and reaction to me, finally being with Harry.

"I knew you guys would get there eventually" Betty smiled as we turned off the playing record.

"No more talk of that" I smiled, thinking about what Harry had told me last night. "We should get going."

We began to walk through the town, laughing and reminiscing on the times before they went away, just as the war began.

"Oh my goodness!" Betty laughed to herself. "You remember that time when we were climbing the trees outside the mayor's house and Rose fell out, causing us all to get caught except from Rose, because she had fallen behind the flower beds. "

"That hurt!" I laughed "I do not remember that being funny at all. I had bruises come up for weeks. Grandmother wanted to know where they came from. I could not tell her though so I –"

Before I could say anything else, the church bells began to go off. The girls and I ran to the centre of the town, where I saw Harry standing on the other side with the rest of the boys. Before I got the chance to call out for him, an army truck came through.

It pulled up and then turned around, allowing the men to get out. My heart was racing. My palms were all sweaty. Then I saw someone who I never thought I would ever see again.

"Oh my" I gasped as I saw James walk out.

He was frail and a lot thinner than I remember him being. But that was not too much of a shock due to him being in a camp. I looked to him and I ran up to him, enveloping him in a huge hug. Completely breaking down into his neck.

"Hey little Rose" He whispered my nickname he gave me.

James was always like a father to me. He was so lovely and always treated me with so much respect, treating me as if I was his daughter. As I pulled away, I saw John scream 'Daddy' and run up to him. My heart broke even more, that this child had missed his father so much.

I turned around and saw Harry gripping on my waist. I smiled to him and then held onto his hand. Looking around my grandfather was staring intently at me and Harry as we walked to the side. I frowned at him and he finally diverted his eyes and walked away, presumably back to the shop.

When me and Harry walked through the crowd. I hit into Lark. Looking up, he glared to me. Somehow, I felt somewhat brave and grabbed on his top to pull him down close to my ear. My lip went close to his ear.

"Go near Alice again and I will kill you" I snapped. "Leave them alone and let them be happy!"

I stamped on his foot and walked away to see Harry smirking at me.

"What?" I asked trying not to smile.

"You are actually quite scary when you are mad" He answered as I looked moved into him.

I grinned to him and then he kissed my forehead. Looking towards the others who were following behind, my mind wondered to James being back. I was so happy he was safe and back. Yet I could not help but feel more sympathy towards him because I feared he would be fighting yet another huge battle at home. A place that is supposed to be a sanctuary.