The Ops Room Girls

by Vicki Beeby

  The Ops Room Girls

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One Oxford, December 1939

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Copyright

  Cover

  Table of Contents

  Start of Content

  To my mum, the original Cowley girl.

  Chapter One

  Oxford, December 1939

  Evie Bishop glanced at the clock above the stock room door for what must have been the hundredth time. Half past four. She had never known time to move so slowly. She lowered her gaze to the Dorothy L. Sayers mystery propped on her knees but couldn’t force her jittery mind to focus on the words. Discarding it, she went to rearrange the tinned vegetables on the high shelves behind the shop counter, carefully turning each one so the label faced outwards. What seemed like an age later, another look at the clock showed her only five minutes had passed. It felt like she would never reach the end of her shift and finally be able to visit her mentor, Cornelia Gould, to learn her fate.

  The bell above the door jangled. She turned, and her heart gave a lurch of shock when she saw who had walked in: Julia Harris. Julia – tall, elegant, swathed in furs – strode up to the counter and looked down her aquiline nose at Evie. ‘My word, it’s Evie Bishop.’ Julia’s voice had the same drawling, bored tone that had tormented Evie throughout her days at Oxford High School. ‘I thought you were set for a glittering career at Somerville.’

  Evie opened her mouth then shut it again. It was pointless explaining to a spoilt girl like Julia that being offered a place at a prestigious Oxford college was one thing, being able to afford to go was quite another. Her insides squirmed. Her visit to Cornelia Gould could change all that. For Cornelia would tell her if she had won the scholarship that would allow her to take her place. It had been her shining goal for years. Years when she’d worked into the night solving equations by dim lamplight and spent every weekend reading physics and Latin texts in between serving customers at Henderson’s. The one thing that had kept her going was the hope of studying for a maths degree at Oxford.

  Julia, unconcerned by Evie’s silence, continued with her taunts. ‘Fancy seeing the teachers’ pet end up a grocer’s assistant. Just goes to show – breeding will out.’

  That’s rich, coming from a girl who would never have got into Oxford High if her father hadn’t paid for her place. Evie, painfully aware that Mr Henderson, working in the stock room next door, would be able to hear every word, bit back the tart retort and forced a smile. ‘What a surprise to see you here, Ju—’ She caught the narrowing of Julia’s eyes and hastily amended the name. ‘Miss Harris. You don’t usually shop at Henderson’s.’

  ‘I should think not. We’d never buy our groceries from Cowley.’ The way she pronounced the name made it synonymous with pigsty.

  Evie fought to keep the smile from fading. For a brief moment she was the poor scholarship girl at her grammar school again, blinking back the tears as Julia sneered: ‘We don’t want to sit with her. Who knows what we might catch?’ It was only the beacon-like hope of her place at Somerville that enabled Evie to keep her chin up. ‘How can I help you?’

  ‘Well, I just happened to be passing, when I remembered I’m running out of soap.’

  Just passing? Likely story. Evie turned to the shelves to inspect the depleted stock of scented soap. ‘We have Palmolive at four pence.’

  ‘I’ll take a dozen.’

  Evie was tempted to hurl the lot into Julia’s face. So that was her game – stockpiling goods rumoured to be rationed before long. No doubt Julia had paid similar visits to shops all around Oxford. Others may suffer deprivation as the war shortages bit, but not the likes of Julia Harris. Evie gritted her teeth as she wrapped the soap in brown paper then rang up the amount on the till. ‘Four shillings, please.’

  Julia drew a leather purse from her handbag and counted out the coins, handing over enough money to feed Evie’s family for a week. Then she looked Evie up and down with a contemptuous curl of her lip. Evie burned with mortification, painfully aware of her hand-me-down clothes and every darned hole and patch. Before Evie knew what she was about, Julia pulled an extra sixpence from her purse and pressed it into Evie’s hand. ‘A little something for your trouble.’ Then, with a toss of her perfectly waved blonde hair, she left.

  Evie shoved the four shillings in the till and slammed the drawer shut with a force that made the tins rattle on their shelves. She clenched her fist around the sixpence until it dug painfully into her palm. She wished she could afford to fling it after Julia, but, if added to the amount she already had saved, it would be enough to buy the book on vector geometry she’d seen in a second-hand bookshop last week. It was one of the required texts for her degree course. Her stomach gave another twinge of anticipation. If she had won the scholarship, she would reward herself with it.

  She tucked the coin into her pocket then hesitated. Last night, she had been woken several times by her father’s hacking coughs reverberating through the thin walls. Stan Bishop had never fully recovered from the mustard gas attack that had ended his active service in the Great War, and the sudden cold snap had made him worse than ever. The money would buy cough mixture. For a moment she fought an inward battle but really, there was no choice. She’d visit the chemist on the way to Cornelia’s.

  The stockroom door opened, and Mr Henderson emerged, holding a couple of battered tin cans. He paused in the doorway, shuffling his feet. From the look of pure pity he shot her, Evie was certain he’d heard every one of Julia’s poisonous words. ‘Don’t pay any attention to Miss High-and-Mighty there,’ he said. ‘You’re worth a thousand of her.’

  Some of the tension eased from Evie’s shoulders. ‘Thanks, Mr Henderson.’

  ‘Look, I’ll manage alone for the rest of the afternoon. You can leave early for a change.’ Mr Henderson glanced down at the cans in his hands as though he’d forgotten he was holding them. ‘The keys fell off these tins of corned beef. I can’t sell them, and my wife can’t stand the stuff. You might as well take them.’ Damage to Mr Henderson’s stock was a regular occurrence, especially at times when Stan Bishop was too sick to work.

  Twenty minutes later, Evie raced up Hollow Way on her bike, the bottle of cough syrup rattling against the corned beef tins in her basket. The icy air blasting against her face dispersed the last of her anger, leaving just one thought hammering at her consciousness: had she won the scholarship? If she had, she could forget about all the humiliations Julia and her ilk had piled upon her over the years. It would all have been worth it. She allowed her thoughts to drift to what life might be like at Somerville. She saw visions of herself strolling through Oxford in a scholar’s gown, laughing and talking with a group of friends. More images flooded her mind: a library full of books she could freely choose from; sitting in a sunny quad, studying with other young women. Funny how friendship featured in her dreams as
much as study, but Julia had seen to it that Evie’s school years had been friendless, and she’d felt the lack keenly.

  Trying not to dwell on her loneliness, she turned her thoughts to what she could do if she got her maths degree. Be like Cornelia, maybe, and follow an academic career. If she got work at Oxford, she’d be able to take care of her parents, make up for all the sacrifices they had made to allow her to stay on at school past the age of fourteen. She would even be able to take them on holidays by the sea. Her mother had often spoken wistfully of how good the sea air would be for Stan. Their wish for his recovery was the one thing they agreed upon.

  Evie tightened her grip on the handlebars. Her mother had made her feelings plain ever since Evie had passed her Higher School Certificate with Distinction last summer, and Evie knew the arguments off by heart. With your head for numbers you could get a good job in a bank, especially now the young men are getting called up. This was usually followed by: You’re a Cowley girl, Evie, and Cowley girls don’t go to university. I rue the day Miss Gould took an interest in you, filling your head with nonsense. And the knock-out blow: Your father and I made huge sacrifices to keep you in school. It’s time you paid your way. In vain had she argued that an Oxford degree would set her up for a far better career, that she would be able to support her parents if only they could wait a few more years. In her heart she knew it wasn’t the money that bothered Dora but the feeling that in mixing with men and women from a higher class, Evie would be doomed to rejection and disappointment. She acted like it was 1840 instead of nearly 1940 and refused to accept that in this day and age a good education would help Evie break through the class barrier. Her father had supported her, though, encouraged her to follow her dreams. ‘God knows we had dreams of our own, Dora,’ he would say. ‘Let’s not be the ones to destroy Evie’s.’

  But what if she hadn’t got the scholarship? Evie tried to shut out the thought as she sped through the dim twilight, the frost nipping her gloveless fingers. She turned right into Barracks Lane and the rows of terraced houses gave way to fields. Without it she couldn’t afford to take her place at Somerville. All her sacrifices – all her parents’ sacrifices – would be for nothing. She had a horrible vision of sitting in a dreary office, surrounded by ranks of other women, heads bowed over soulless, repetitive tasks. Suddenly she didn’t want to see Cornelia, didn’t want to learn her dream had died, but already the silhouette of Magdalen Tower loomed ahead. Magdalen Bridge then the High Street passed in a blur, and before she could work out how to slow time, she was outside Cornelia’s house on Charles Street. She propped her bike against the wall and walked to the back door on trembling legs.

  The cook opened the door, enveloping Evie with the aroma of baking bread. ‘Miss Gould says you’re to go straight to the library.’

  Evie’s throat was so tight she couldn’t force out any words of greeting. Instead she gave the cook a tremulous smile and walked through the passageway, her footsteps clicking on the polished wood floor in time with the tick-tock of the grandfather clock beside the front door. She rapped on the library door and walked in.

  It was Evie’s ambition to possess a room exactly like this one day. Bookshelves bulging with leather-bound books lined the room from floor to ceiling. Blackout curtains covered the large window, but the bright lamps and glow from the blazing fire gave the room a cheerful feeling. As always, Evie was struck by the mingled scent of beeswax and lily of the valley. Cornelia Gould sat behind a gleaming walnut desk, peering through her wire-rimmed spectacles at a book. A few tendrils of steel-grey hair had escaped from her bun, softening her sharp features.

  The moment Evie stepped through the door, her mentor sprang to her feet, her face creasing in a broad smile. ‘Oh, my dear. I’m so thrilled for you.’

  Evie could hardly hear Cornelia through the pounding in her ears, but then her brain registered the words she’d been longing to hear ever since the elderly lady had offered to help her study for the Oxford entrance exam. ‘You’ve got the scholarship.’

  Evie could hardly take it in. ‘Are you sure?’

  Cornelia nodded, her blue eyes bright. ‘Absolutely. I had the news from the Dean herself. They were most impressed with your application. You’ll get the official letter and forms to complete in a few days, but that’s just a formality.’

  Evie felt light-headed and breathless. ‘I can’t believe it’s actually happening.’

  ‘Believe it, my dear. You’ve earned this. I knew from the first moment I saw you, poring over a maths book when your mother came to clean my house, that you had the ability to go far.’

  Evie bathed in the encouragement she never got from her mother. Images flooded her mind of herself walking purposefully over Magdalen Bridge, a book of advanced mathematics under her arm, her scholar’s gown fluttering in her wake. ‘Thank you.’ She gave a half gasp as tears sprang to her eyes. Her next words were forced out between sobs of joy. ‘Thank you! I could never have done it without you.’ She gave Cornelia a smile that was so wide she thought her cheeks might split. ‘I’m going to be a Somerville bluestocking!’

  * * *

  Her smile remained glued to her face throughout her shift the next day. After she’d shut the door on the last customer and switched the sign to ‘Closed’, she picked up a duster and vigorously polished the shelves, humming ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’. She was standing on a stool, stretching to reach around the tins of bicarbonate of soda on the top shelf, when the telephone shrilled in the stock room. The ringing stopped, followed by the gruff rumble of Mr Henderson’s voice. She couldn’t hear the words, but something about his tone burst the bubble of her happiness. She paused and stepped down from the stool, straining to hear.

  She heard the clatter of the receiver being replaced and the heavy tread of Mr Henderson’s footsteps. Evie hastily resumed her dusting.

  ‘You’re needed at home,’ Mr Henderson said.

  Evie looked up, startled, to see Mr Henderson leaning in the doorway, a look of sorrow in his eyes.

  Her mouth went dry. ‘What’s happened?’ But she already knew the answer.

  ‘It’s your father. He’s been taken ill.’

  * * *

  Evie dropped her bicycle down in the front yard and dashed through the door. The house was in darkness and so cold the back room fire must be out. She knocked her knee against the bannister as she groped for the hall light switch.

  ‘Mum? Dad?’ she called, rubbing her throbbing knee.

  A murmur of voices drifted from upstairs, and Evie would have gone up, but the kitchen door swung open, silhouetting a stout, squat figure against the sudden light.

  ‘Evie, dear, is that you?’

  Evie’s seeking hand finally found the light switch and she turned it on to see their neighbour, Mrs Wilkins, in the doorway.

  ‘Oh, Evie, thank goodness. Your mother asked me to wait here for you.’

  Evie clung to Mrs Wilkins’ hand. ‘How is he?’

  Mrs Wilkins shook her head, her jowls wobbling. ‘He was sweating and coughing fit to burst when I saw him. Looks like pneumonia to me.’

  Evie made to climb the stairs, but Mrs Wilkins held her back. ‘The doctor’s with him. Wait until he’s finished.’

  They retreated to the tiny kitchen. Evie, straining to hear what was happening upstairs, hardly took in what Mrs Wilkins was saying. Mrs Wilkins made her a cup of tea, and Evie gulped it down, wincing as it scalded the back of her throat.

  ‘How did he get home?’ She had to say something just to pass the time before the doctor finished.

  ‘Foreman brought him. Would have taken him to the hospital, but your father refused point blank. You know what he’s like.’

  Evie nodded and took another sip. Then came the creak and groan of floorboards above her head and the heavy thud of feet upon the stairs. She clattered her cup and saucer upon the counter, slopping tea in the saucer in her hurry, and flung open the kitchen door in time to see Dr Beale on his way to the door.

&n
bsp; ‘I’m sorry.’ Dr Beale looked at Evie with compassion. ‘There’s nothing more I can do. It’s just a matter of time.’

  Chapter Two

  ‘No!’ Evie pushed past the doctor and ran up the stairs. When she reached the front bedroom, she put her hand to the doorknob, but suddenly hesitated, afraid of the deathly silence within.

  Then she heard her father break into a fit of coughing and she pushed open the door.

  Her mother was there, bending over the bed, murmuring soothing words to ease her father through the paroxysm. When Evie trod on the loose floorboard just inside the door, her mother spun around, her mouth working.

  ‘You,’ she spat. ‘I hope you’re satisfied. He wouldn’t be in this state if he hadn’t felt the need to work day and night to fund your schooling.’

  Stan’s coughing eased, and he drew a gasping breath. Evie’s mother immediately bent over the bed. Evie, her heart in her mouth, stepped closer.

  It was as though she saw her father’s true appearance for the first time. Yellowing skin stretched over jutting cheekbones and jaw. A sheen of perspiration glistened on her father’s brow, and the hollows beneath his eyes and cheeks were shaded with an ominous grey blue.

  ‘Oh, Dad,’ she whispered.

  Her mother turned on her, mouth a thin, quivering line, but Stan reached up and grasped her hand.

  ‘Leave us, Dora. I—’ He broke off for another fit of coughing. ‘Go on, love,’ he whispered when he regained his breath. ‘I’m dying for a cuppa.’

  Dying. Tears pricked at Evie’s eyelids. Dora also flinched and their gazes locked, united in a moment of pain.

  Then Dora straightened. ‘Don’t you dare tire him out.’ She stalked from the room.

  Stan groped for his daughter’s hand. Evie caught it, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks at the feeble grip. Her father had always been her strength. His steadfast belief in her had been her mainstay. Had kept her going at those times when the rest of the world had seemed against a girl from Cowley ever making it as an Oxford scholar.