by Rosie Clarke
Rachel had hugged her, feeling closer to Hazel than ever before. She’d always done what she could to help her after her husband’s death, because it was her duty as Hazel’s daughter-in-law, but now she genuinely felt that they were friends and it had given her a warm glow. Their new closeness had made Rachel feel less lonely for William and they had something to share – their love for the vulnerable little girl who had been so neglected and their very proper indignation at the way she had been treated.
‘Don’t you worry about that woman,’ Hazel had said stoutly. ‘If she comes near us, I’ll send her packing.’
There was a new determination and a new fierceness about Hazel that surprised Rachel. She’d always thought her incapable of doing much for herself, but now she was a lioness in defence of their Lizzie. It made Rachel want to laugh but it also made her heart sing. She’d tried all ways to make Hazel find a new life, suggesting voluntary war work and joining clubs for widows, but she’d shown no interest in any of it, complaining if Rachel didn’t visit often enough – now she was suddenly younger, brighter and filled with a new energy.
Rachel understood the change because she’d felt a surge of new life herself. Watching Lizzie run and play in the garden, washing and dressing her in pretty things, giving her good food and toys she’d found in second-hand shops, because there weren’t many new toys about, so many of them had been imported from Germany before the war, all these things made her heart soar and she knew Hazel felt the same. Lizzie had become theirs; they shared her and enjoyed her pleasure in all the love and gifts she received. It was a good life. Instead of living alone and fretting over William’s health, Rachel was able to cook, knit and sew with Hazel in the evenings after Lizzie was tucked up in bed. During the day she had her work and she was finding that her friendship with Sally Harper grew deeper as she helped her by bringing her work – and most recently a report from the private investigator they had hired. Her thoughts flicked to their meeting for a moment, as she continued to watch over her department.
‘He has found people who know her,’ Rachel had given Sally his first report two days previously. ‘However, they don’t know where she is now – she was working in a factory making uniforms for soldiers until a month ago. Apparently, she left there without giving notice and she hasn’t been seen at her lodgings since then – though it seems some of her clothes were left there and her rent has been paid so perhaps she intends to return when she can.’
Sally had nodded. ‘That must have been soon after I was taken ill by the sound of it. Do you think she gave up after she’d spoken to me and went off somewhere different?’
‘It might be that… though why go on paying rent, why not just give in her notice?’ Rachel had said thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps she was offered a better job, though it seems unlikely. They thought a lot of her where she was and she was about to be made a supervisor on the factory floor – so why would she just walk off?’
‘Do you think she had an accident or was taken ill?’ Sally had then asked anxiously. ‘It’s so frustrating that I haven’t been able to get out for months. She was always there watching me – and she must wonder what has happened to me, too.’
‘I’m sure Mr Harry Stevens will find her,’ Rachel had replied firmly. ‘You mustn’t start worrying, Sally. You’re doing all you can to find her and I’m sure it will come right in the end.’
‘Yes, I hope so,’ Sally had said, a wistful look in her eyes. ‘Though I was told she was dead, there was a little bit of me that secretly hoped she wasn’t and that she would come looking for me one day…’
‘You don’t resent what she did then?’
‘She had no choice,’ Sally had inclined her head. ‘An unmarried mother with very little money – what else could she do?’
‘You don’t know that for sure…’
‘I’m sure she wasn’t wed,’ Sally had been convinced of it. ‘If she’d had a family, they would surely have helped her keep her child.’
‘A respectable family might well have disowned her,’ Rachel had reminded her. ‘It is often the case – and by the sound of her, she was a decent, well-brought-up girl. That’s what Mr Stevens’ report says. She was managerial material, Sally. It doesn’t sound as if she was uneducated to me – and look how clever you are!’
Sally nodded then. ‘Yes, perhaps it was her family who forced her to abandon me. I never thought of that… but why did she let them…? I have so many questions! I want to know everything. I can’t lose her now, Rachel! Not without knowing her story. I was so close to discovering the truth before I collapsed…’
‘We’ll find her, dearest,’ Rachel had reassured her.
Sally had lifted her head, a look of determination in her eyes. ‘I shan’t give up looking,’ she’d said. ‘She is my mother and I don’t mind who or what she has been – I just want to get to know her.’
Rachel brought her thoughts back to the present hurriedly as she saw a little queue forming at Becky’s counter. After a brief spell in the dress department, Becky had asked to return to hats, scarves and bags and Rachel was only too happy to have her. She went over to assist her, smiling at her encouragingly. ‘You are busier than any of us, Miss Stockbridge. May I assist you?’
‘Thank you, Mrs Bailey,’ Becky Stockbridge replied. ‘We miss Mrs Jackson when she isn’t on the floor – Miss Jones had to take over her counter for a while and that meant she couldn’t help me. People seem to be buying more gloves and scarves at the moment…’
Rachel nodded and agreed. Becky’s counter was usually busy, but with winter approaching, people were stocking up in case there was a shortage during the coming months. Personally, Rachel felt that stock was improving of late, because their suppliers were working flat out to produce as much as they could. Life in Britain had become slightly easier now that many more merchant ships were managing to get through.
Two hundred thousand women were now working on the land and many thousands more in the factories. Gradually, the workforce was making up for the loss of its men and more and more women had joined the ranks of the working class, even refined young women who would never have expected to work had taken up some form of employment. Harpers had seen a steady flow from the beginning, but as the war had bit ever deeper many who would not consider a job as a shop girl had actually found employment somewhere – often on the land as that was seen as patriotic and, therefore, not common.
Rachel read the papers avidly these days and she knew that they were experiencing great difficulties in Germany now, too. Boys as young as fifteen were being asked to volunteer for armed service, which seemed wicked to her. Change was happening all over the world. Entertainers were giving impromptu shows on the front line and even in Russia a new surge for independence resulting in a Bolshevik revolution and the emergence of a harsh regime had seen the Czar and his family moved to Siberia.
From what Rachel had read recently, it seemed that the Allies were likely to win the war, even though fierce struggles were still going on in France and many other areas of conflict, but the tone was more optimistic now. As yet, she had not dared to think what the future held. An end to hostilities might bring peace and perhaps a slow return to prosperity, but it would not bring William back from his isolation hospital and it would not solve her problem about what to do over Lizzie’s grandmother.
Rachel tried not to think too far ahead. She was happier than she had expected to be during William’s absence, but the fear of losing him and her unofficially adopted daughter – whom she had rescued from ill treatment – lingered at the back of her mind. Instead, she thought about Becky and was determined to discover what had turned her against Marion Jackson.
‘That doesn’t sound like our Becky…’ Minnie Stockbridge said when Rachel explained that Becky seemed out of sorts, particularly with a girl she’d been happy working with until a few months back. ‘I wonder… you say Marion Jackson recently got married and is expecting a child?’
‘Yes – are you thinking tha
t might be the reason? I thought she might be jealous because Marion had been picked out to help with the windows.’
‘Well, perhaps that added salt to the wound’ Minnie sighed. ‘She’s had a disappointment in love, Rachel. There was a young doctor – a military man, I understand – and she met him at those first-aid classes she went to with Marion before she was married…’ She shook her head. ‘He brought her home and then came to tea a few times – and then he was posted abroad and she hasn’t heard a word from him since. I think it broke her heart.’
‘And she thinks Marion has everything she wants…’ Rachel nodded as the little mystery became clearer. Becky had met the man she’d loved when Marion was with her. Now she had lost him, while Marion was married, doing well at work and having a child. No wonder she envied Marion. It wasn’t a rational jealousy but entirely understandable. ‘I shall have to see what I can do to help her,’ Rachel said. ‘I can’t do anything about her boyfriend – but perhaps if she was promoted to the office, where I know she wants to work, it would help her.’
‘Oh, that is easy to arrange,’ Minnie said confidently. ‘The only reason Mr Stockbridge hasn’t done it already was because he thought it might look like favouritism!’
‘Well, you tell him his daughter is wasted as a shop girl. She should be doing something more deserving of her talents.’
‘I shall – and I’ll tell Becky you said it, too,’ Minnie said and beamed at her. ‘And now, my dearest friend, tell me more about your darling little Lizzie…’
Both women glanced towards Lizzie, who was playing with Minnie’s cat on the rug and smiled. Their friendship had never changed, from the time when Minnie was a frightened spinster living with her sister to now, when she was a much-loved wife and stepmother.
26
Sally emerged from her bedroom dressed for work and met Jenni in the hallway. Her sister-in-law had clearly just arrived to visit and was carrying flowers, a newspaper and a box from Harpers’ cake and chocolate department.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ she asked, frowning. ‘You don’t need to go into work yet, Sally. If you’re bored, I could bring you some of the stock lists.’
Sally smiled at her. ‘Jenni, I love you, and I thank you for your care of me – but I do need to return to work. My doctor says I’m fine now and carrying the baby well – and I have an appointment in an hour’s time.’
‘I could…’ Jenni began and then closed her mouth as she saw Sally’s stubborn look. ‘All right, I give in, love. I have to admit you do look wonderful, much, much better – and I’m in a bit of a rush. I’m off to spend the weekend with Andrew. I think he has something important to say to me…’
There was a gleam of excitement in Jenni’s face and Sally gave a laugh of pleasure. ‘You don’t mean he’s going to ask you to move in with him at last?’
‘He might be,’ Jenni admitted. ‘I was going to say I couldn’t leave London – but I could, couldn’t I? You could manage now, Sally – if you’re careful, and I would visit every other week or so. You don’t really need me now you’re well again.’
‘Do whatever makes you happy, darling Jenni,’ Sally replied and hugged her. ‘I want you to find the kind of happiness with Andrew that I have with Ben and I think you love Andrew. You had a miserable time in your marriage and I know you’ll never go back to the General; I should think you a fool if you did. I know in the opinion of many you’ll be a fallen woman, but the way I see it, you are entitled to be happy – and we’ll never criticise or think shame on you. You know both Ben and I love you very much.’
‘Ben was lucky when he found you,’ Jenni said and lit up like a candle. ‘Andrew says I should face all the old biddies down. He’s going to write to Henry and ask him to divorce me – but I think my husband would rather sue him for enticement than let me find happiness. Andrew says he can do his worst and he’ll spit in his face, but I’m not sure…’
‘Andrew knows he can prove that you had already left the marriage by the time you met him, so it wouldn’t stand up in court – and, somehow, I can’t see your husband wanting to wash his dirty linen in public. Perhaps if Andrew appeals to him man to man, he will give you a quiet divorce.’
‘I pray you’re right,’ Jenni said. ‘But I shan’t let it bother me, Sally. Our friends will still be our friends – and I’m not the first woman to live with the man I love without the ties of marriage.’
There had been a few cases of the wives of the aristocracy leaving their husbands and living with lovers in the past and it was becoming more accepted in a certain class of what was often termed the ‘artistic community’, but divorce was still considered scandalous and generally frowned on. Of course, with Jenni being American, it might well be dismissed as something ‘those dreadful Americans’ might do, but Sally didn’t say as much. If Jenni went to live in the north with her lover, much of the gossip might be avoided here in London.
‘I don’t mind what you do, love – as long as you’re happy!’
‘I would have moved in with him months ago. He wanted to avoid scandal for my sake, but now he says he can’t put up with being without me when he wakes in the morning.’ She hesitated, then, ‘But I don’t want to desert you if you need me. Of course, I’m on the end of a phone and a lot nearer than I was when I lived in America…’
‘I can manage, Jenni, honestly,’ Sally nodded. She wouldn’t have stood in Jenni’s way even if she’d felt it would be hard, but, if truth be told, she preferred being left to get on with it.
‘I could come to London once a month – and I could keep in touch with our suppliers in the north and if you let me know what you need from them, I’ll work on the discounts,’ Jenni offered.
‘Of course, you must go to him, dearest. I can talk to you on the phone and you can visit whenever you have time.’ Sally smothered a sigh. ‘I love it when Ben rings me in the evenings. He can’t always…’
‘You must miss Ben dreadfully,’ Jenni said. ‘I can’t think why he does so much. After all, he needn’t have done anything – at least until America entered the war.’
‘He wanted to – being thought a coward made him unhappy,’ Sally said. ‘He’ll always be able to look back and think he did his bit, Jenni – and I’m sure that was what he needed.’
‘After the war, I think I shall go back to America for a buying trip,’ Jenni said. ‘Europe and Britain will be exhausted and it will take time for the factories to change back to peacetime needs. I’ll need to make new contacts if we’re to continue buying some of our stock from the USA – and I think that will be our best route.’
‘Do you think it is really necessary?’ Sally asked thoughtfully. ‘We’ve had to rely on British-made goods for months now. Yes, I want to stock certain things from overseas – Italy, France and other European countries – but it is such a long way to send things and your home is here now.’
‘This shop is owned by Americans and it needs to stock American merchandise,’ Jenni said, looking annoyed. ‘It’s what it was founded on – and I think you need it, Sally, whether you realise or not.’
Understanding that she had inadvertently upset her sister-in-law, Sally nodded and gave in. ‘Of course, if that’s what you want – but it is a nuisance for you…’
‘I shall only make one trip a year,’ Jenni said, ‘but it’s the market I know – and I miss seeing American brands in the store.’
‘Yes, we had some lovely things from there before the war,’ Sally agreed. ‘I’d almost forgotten, Jenni.’ She smiled at her sister-in-law. With Jenni living up north and making buying trips there and in America, things would be as they’d been before the war and the slight irritations of working together would be forgotten – after all, two women in one kitchen never worked. ‘Let’s hope it is soon safe for you to travel again, love,’ Sally said.
The papers were reporting with a more optimistic outlook recently, but it seemed as if the conflict had been going on forever and the talk of peace in the future
seemed far away still. The headlines had mentioned that the American president Woodrow Wilson had decided to support Women’s Suffrage and Sally hoped it would happen here. Beth had been full of what a wonderful man the American president was when they last met and was hopeful that the British Government would do the same. Sally was sure they would have to come at least partway to meet the women, but she knew that certain sectors of the Government were still set against it.
After Jenni had drunk half a pot of coffee, accompanied by chocolate biscuits, she left and Sally sent for a taxicab to take her into work. Once, she would have considered it a wasteful extravagance and used a bus or walked, but Ben had told her that she and the baby were more important than the price of a cab and she was not to walk in until after the baby was born.
Sally was better now, although she admitted that she still tired more quickly than she had before her illness. However, she enjoyed a little walk and, after her meeting with a very eager salesman, who had been invalided out of the Army and was keen to get his first order for his firm, she decided she would take a bus to the park and sit for a while in the fresh air. Her little girl was well cared for and she had no reason to hurry.
Finding the bench where she’d played with her daughter and spoken to her mother the day she’d been taken ill, she looked round hopefully, as if expecting the woman claiming to be her mother would just appear and they could carry on where they’d left off. It didn’t happen and she sighed with disappointment as she caught the next bus home. It had been foolish to expect it and Sally wondered if Jenni had been right all the time and she’d imagined the woman telling her she was her daughter…
No, she was certain it had happened, even though she’d clearly been feverish. Besides, Rachel’s investigator had suggested he was close to finding her mother in his last report. Where had she gone? After following Sally for months, it seemed as if she’d just disappeared into thin air… Why would she do that? It was a mystery and one that would not let Sally rest. She needed to find Sheila Ross, because only then would she finally know the truth of her abandonment.