by Rosie Clarke
Lizzie smiled but didn’t comment, though she was fairly sure that Mr Carter had tried another supplier after listening to Bert Oliver’s tales and discovered that he couldn’t sell the stock the way he could sell the stylish hats he bought from her.
‘Well, I’m delighted to have you back,’ Lizzie said. ‘I shall give your order priority and it will be ready by next Monday – will that suit you?’
‘Wonderful,’ he said. ‘If you continue to design such lovely things I’m sure you will soon be a huge success.’ He tipped his hat to her and went back through the showroom.
Ed came over to her when they heard the shop bell go and knew Mr Carter had left. He scratched his head and looked at her with respect.
‘That was masterful, Lizzie. I thought we were selling them for twenty-one shillings each?’
‘A little lesson for him,’ Lizzie said and gave him a wicked look. ‘He left us in the lurch, Ed, and he’s realized that a hat priced at around a pound or so here is a lot better than he will get from most places for that price. It seems that he has overcome his moral objections in favour of his pocket.’
‘Perhaps Oliver has relented and told him the truth. John Carter is one of Oliver’s oldest customers and if he believed what he’d been told – well, I was surprised when he walked in.’
‘I’m just glad he did,’ Lizzie said. ‘But we’ll keep the price at twenty-two shillings now, for a while anyway.’
‘You know what Sebastian Winters used to say – he told you not to sell your work too cheaply. If he had his way, he’d be selling your lines at ten guineas a go in his West End store.’
The mention caused Lizzie a pang of grief, because it seemed so long since she’d seen Sebastian, and she hadn’t forgotten that awful dream when he seemed to cry out for her, but she kept her smile in place as she said, ‘That reminds me; isn’t it time his manager came for an order? I hope we aren’t going to lose him too…’
‘Oh, no, that would be more than his job is worth,’ Ed said with a knowing look. ‘Mr Winters would have something to say when he got back, and no mistake.’
Lizzie agreed and they began to plan the order for Mr Carter.
The mystery of why he’d come back to them was solved the next evening when Aunt Miriam came to their house armed with a bag of sweets and some cake she’d made for the children. She was obviously looking forward to having the care of them for the first time, and it wasn’t until Betty was bathed and in her cot that she remembered to tell Lizzie.
‘I happened to see Mr Carter on Monday,’ she said as Lizzie and Beth were putting on their coats. ‘I told him the truth – that Ed was just working for you and living in the flat because his house was burned down. And that you lived here with Beth and your children, and I hinted that Bert was overworking and might say things he didn’t mean… did I do right, Lizzie?’
‘Aunt Miriam, you’re a darling,’ Lizzie said and gave her a big hug. ‘Mr Carter came and placed a huge order yesterday – the biggest he’d ever given me.’
‘Well, I never,’ Aunt Miriam said and glowed with pleasure. ‘I shall have to see if I can happen on a few more of the old customers, Lizzie. Now off you go, and enjoy yourselves. The children will be fine with me, and you’ve shown me where the shelter is in case we get a raid.’
They thanked her and left, feeling excited and laughing over what Aunt Miriam had done.
‘I’m sure she waylaid him after he’d been visiting with Harry’s uncle,’ Lizzie said and hugged Beth’s arm. ‘She did us a good turn, Beth. That order was the only one on our books when he placed it, though two smaller ones came in later – just repeat orders by the phone, but it means we shall keep going for another week or two.’
‘Was it getting that bad, Lizzie?’
‘Not quite,’ Lizzie said ruefully, ‘but if more customers stop coming it could be soon. Ed would put money in if I asked, but that could go the same way if things didn’t pick up.’
‘Oh, Lizzie, all your bright dreams – smashed by a vindictive old man…’
‘No, you mustn’t call him that,’ Lizzie said. ‘He’s hurt and he’s lonely – and probably frightened. He’s finding it difficult to cope these days. He took on all those Government contracts, but so many of his staff have left for one reason or another – and he couldn’t find anyone as skilled at cutting as Ed. Aunt Miriam said he’s gone back to cutting himself, which means he’ll have to work longer hours to get the paperwork done. I imagine he was bitter about that and he took out his anger and frustration on me.’
‘Well, I still think it was mean of him – but good for Aunt Miriam; if she has her way we’ll get most of the customers back again…’
‘Let’s forget our troubles for now,’ Lizzie suggested. ‘The men we’re going to be looking after tonight have suffered more than we can even guess, Beth. We’ve had bombs, rubble and dirt everywhere, but some of these men have been to hell and back. We’ve got to be bright and cheerful and make them feel relaxed. At least the constant raids have stopped now, so we shan’t have to make a dash for the shelters…’
*
Lizzie looked round the crowded room. There were far more servicemen here than there had been when she’d come the first time, but that was more than a year ago and the war had only just started. Everyone had been optimistic then about the outcome, but recently the news in the papers hadn’t been good. The Allies were fighting on several fronts and if something went well in one area, it was sure that somewhere else there would be nothing but bad news.
‘Hello, darlin’,’ a soldier with a cheeky grin came up to Lizzie as she took her place behind the serving counter. ‘I’ll ’ave a cup of rosy lee and one of them sausage rolls…’
‘All right.’ Lizzie smiled back. ‘Do you like milk and sugar in your tea, sir?’
‘As much sugar as you can spare,’ he replied, giving her a wink. ‘Afore the bleedin’ war I had four teaspoons in a mug like that, but now I ’ave to make do with one if I’m lucky.’
‘Well, tonight you can have two,’ Lizzie said and poured two heaped spoons of sugar into his mug and then passed it to him with a plate and a sausage roll.
‘Cor lovely,’ he said as he took a sip and then arched his brows at her. ‘This is me lucky night – don’t suppose you’d make it even better and let me walk you home?’
‘No, I’m afraid not,’ Lizzie said but laughed softly to show she wasn’t offended. ‘Enjoy your tea, soldier.’
‘Me name is Alfie, darlin’,’ he winked and went off chuckling.
Lizzie was amused, because she knew that wouldn’t be the last time she was chatted up that evening, but it went with the job and she could handle cheeky but friendly young men like Alfie.
It was getting on for nine thirty when Mary walked in. Lizzie saw her first and was surprised when she walked up to one of the airmen at the piano and spoke to him. He nodded and started to play an American jazz number. Almost immediately three airmen got up and started to jitterbug with one of the girls who had come with them.
‘What does she think she’s doing?’ Beth hissed to Lizzie as she brought a fresh pot of tea through from the kitchen. ‘She was asked to help out not to be in charge of the entertainment.’
‘Leave her alone,’ Lizzie murmured. ‘At least she’s here.’
‘Wonder where she got that outfit…’
‘I think she remodelled it from old clothes,’ Lizzie said, eyeing the bolero and skirt with appreciation. Mary had added a strip of contrast material to the flowered skirt to give it length and bound the short sleeves of the bolero with the same contrast braid. ‘She obviously has some talent with her needle…’
Beth sniffed and went off to pour tea for three young sailors who had entered together. Lizzie smiled as Mary came up to her.
‘I’m glad you came, Mary. Do you want to take over from me and I’ll go to the kitchen and help out? We need more sandwiches. You’d think some of this lot hadn’t eaten in a month.’
‘Th
ey eat better than we do most of the time,’ Mary said, eyeing the food caustically. ‘Yes, all right. All I have to do is pour tea and hand out the food, isn’t it? Is it rationed?’
‘Only the sausage rolls – we give one per person, otherwise there won’t be enough to go round, but there are plenty of corned beef and pickle sandwiches. We had some large tins donated to the club…’
Mary came round the counter and started to serve almost straight away. Lizzie went into the kitchen where she discovered a huge pile of washing up. Janet, who was the only one working in there, shot her a grateful look as she started on the washing up.
‘Thanks for that, Lizzie. No one likes doing it and I usually get stuck with the lot when we’ve finished.’
‘That’s a bit unfair on you,’ Lizzie said. ‘I don’t mind giving you a hand when I come in, Janet.’
‘Most of the girls think they’re here to flirt with the men and they take the first opportunity to go off with whoever takes their fancy.’ Janet sniffed in disapproval. ‘Some of them have got husbands or boyfriends serving – and I can’t stand that. Our men have enough to cope with; they don’t want one of those Dear John letters.’
‘No, that must be terrible when they’re out there in the thick of it. Have you got someone over there, Janet?’
‘My husband and two brothers,’ Janet said. ‘We don’t know where any of them are, because they can’t tell us. Me and Jim arranged a bit of a code before he left, so I know when he talks about a seaside holiday that he’s somewhere nice and warm.’
‘The censor doesn’t blue-pencil that then?’
‘No…’ Janet laughed. ‘We’ve got several code words that we recognize but no one else would. I think Jim is with the Desert Rats, because he talked about the nuisance in the attic and we had rats once.’
‘I think that’s a brilliant idea,’ Lizzie said amused by their ingenuity. ‘Do you fancy a cup of tea? We should both have a sit-down for a moment, and then I’ll take those sandwiches through.’ Just then they heard the wail of a siren and automatically looked up at the ceiling, but neither of them made a move to evacuate the building. There was a cellar that some people used during an air raid, but a lot of the men and girls simply chose to ignore the warning.
‘I’d like that,’ Janet said a little shyly and pulled a chair out. The music was still playing in the front room so obviously their guests had carried on in spite of the siren. ‘You make hats, don’t you?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Lizzie said and explained where the showroom was. ‘Why don’t you pop round and see me?’
‘I should love to, but I think your hats would be too expensive for me. I usually get all my clothes from the market, you see. It’s all I can afford. Jim and me have got three kids. Mum looks after them one night a week to let me come here and I work a few hours while they’re at school – but Jim wouldn’t like it if he knew. His Army pay doesn’t cover all we need these days. I don’t tell him, because it would hurt his pride.’
‘What sort of work do you do?’ Lizzie asked.
‘I do a bit of housework for someone,’ Janet said. ‘It’s just a few hours in the middle of the day, but the six shillings a week I get helps to buy the kids things they wouldn’t otherwise get.’
Lizzie was thoughtful, then, ‘Come and see me, Janet. I might be able to find you something that pays more than six shillings… if you ever decide to make a change.’
‘That’s very kind,’ Janet said. ‘But I couldn’t leave poor old Mrs Jones in the lurch. I do a bit of shoppin’ for her and give her house a tidy up – and I see to the laundry for her.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of asking you to leave her,’ Lizzie said. ‘I think that’s really nice of you, Janet.’
They heard the all-clear sound. It seemed the warning had been a false alarm again. Her tea drunk, Lizzie took the fresh sandwiches and went back to the room where the soldiers, airmen and a sprinkling of Navy men were enjoying themselves. Beth threw her a look of relief when she arrived.
‘Thank goodness! I want to pop to the toilet, but I couldn’t get away. Take over for me, please, Lizzie.’
‘Where is Mary?’
‘She went off with a solider just after the siren went,’ Beth scowled. ‘She wasn’t interested in helping, just in having some fun. I thought she was supposed to be grieving for her baby – and worried about her husband! The first chance she got she was off!’
Beth hurried away and Lizzie was kept busy serving tea and offering the sandwiches. Most of them went in a few minutes and all the sausage rolls had gone. There wasn’t much left in the kitchen and they would be down to toast and margarine soon, perhaps with a smear of jam if the men were lucky. When she glanced at her watch she saw it was nearly ten o’clock and the club was due to close in another quarter of an hour. Lizzie decided not to offer toast, because the club was gradually emptying. The men knew that ten o’clock was their time and the doors would be locked at ten fifteen.
‘Night, miss,’ Alfie said as he pulled on his cap and headed for the door. ‘Sure I can’t see you safely home?’
‘My friend and I will be safe enough,’ Lizzie replied. ‘Thanks all the same.’
‘See you tomorrow then…’
‘I only come once a week. Perhaps next week?’
His face fell and he shook his head. ‘I’ll be back on holiday then,’ he quipped and she knew that he meant he was returning to the fighting.
‘Oh, well good luck then,’ Lizzie said and he offered a hollow grin, looking a bit scared.
By the time Beth returned the club was empty, the last servicemen going out of the door.
‘Janet says she’ll lock up,’ Beth told her. ‘I offered to help clear up, but she said you’d done most of the washing up and the rest could be left until the morning, when the next shift comes on.’
‘We’d better get our coats then,’ Lizzie suggested. ‘We don’t want to miss the last bus home…’
‘No, Aunt Miriam might not want to come again if we’re too late back.’ Beth hugged her arm. ‘I really enjoyed this evening, Lizzie. It was nice just being out of the house and talking to different people.’
‘Yes, I enjoyed it too. Janet is lovely, isn’t she? She never asks to come out and serve, just gets on with the work in the kitchen.’
‘I wish Mary was a bit more like her.’
‘You shouldn’t be annoyed with her, Beth. She came for a while and that must have taken some courage.’
‘Huh. If you ask me she just came to flirt and enjoy herself.’
‘Is that so bad? Isn’t it better than her sitting at home feeling miserable?’
‘Not when she still has her husband….’ Beth sighed. ‘Take no notice of me, Lizzie. I’m not a big fan of Mary, even if she is my sister.’
Lizzie shook her head but didn’t argue. Mary envied Beth her children, and Beth didn’t trust her sister. It was an unhappy state of affairs for a family, but Lizzie knew better than to interfere.
They’d just reached the house when they heard the siren go again, and this time it was for real, almost before they could fetch the children down to the Morrison they could hear the loud explosions and whooshing noises that told them the bombs weren’t far away. Most of them would be falling in the docklands, but as one tremendous explosion seemed to shake the house they knew that it must have been in the next street.
Aunt Miriam scrambled into the shelter with them, which made it a tight fit, but Lizzie had refused to let her leave once they’d realized that the raid was genuine.
‘Bert will be worried half to death,’ she said as the hours ticked by before the all-clear sounded. ‘He’ll think something’s happened to me…’
‘What will you tell him?’ Lizzie asked. ‘He won’t like it if he knows you were here with us…’
‘I’ll tell him I was on my way home and went down the Underground,’ Aunt Miriam said. ‘I don’t like lying to him, Lizzie, but I’m not giving up coming here, and he’s brought it on himself…�
�
It was light when Miriam was eventually able to leave and walk home. Lizzie and Beth put the children back in their cots and put a kettle on the range to boil. Lizzie had kept it for heating the water and some cooking even after she’d bought a gas cooker, and now she was glad of it, because the thing you wanted most after a raid was a cup of tea, and the last thing you dared do was light the gas.
‘What a night,’ Beth said after they’d drunk their tea. ‘I don’t know about you, Lizzie, but I’m going to get half an hour’s shut-eye.’
Lizzie nodded but she made no move to follow her friend upstairs. It had been a close thing, the nearest they’d come to being on the wrong end of one of Hitler’s bombs. For several minutes she just sat staring into space, tears on her cheeks.
‘Where are you, Sebastian?’ she asked of the empty room. ‘I need you so much…’
Chapter 8
Lizzie popped round to see Tilly at her home on that Sunday afternoon. She took some fairy cakes she’d made as a present for Tilly’s daughter Sally and a pretty dress that she’d run up in the workrooms from a few odd pieces of velvet.
‘Oh, Lizzie, it’s so lovely to see you,’ Tilly greeted her with a kiss and a big smile. ‘I really miss you at work – and I’ve been meaning to come and see you about something…’
‘It’s lovely to see you too,’ Lizzie said. ‘I knew it was your little Sally’s birthday soon – I hope I’ve judged the size of the dress right?’
Tilly ripped the paper off and exclaimed in delight. ‘I know this will fit her and she’ll love it,’ she said and hugged Lizzie impulsively. ‘Her granny has taken her to the park to see the ducks this afternoon or I’d have tried it on her. It was so kind of you to make this for her.’
‘I enjoyed doing it,’ Lizzie said. ‘I had some pink velvet left over that I bought from Arthur Stockton and a few bits of lace – and it’s difficult to buy anything new for children in the shops.’