Home Front Girls

by Rosie Goodwin

  The meal was like nothing she had ever eaten before, and as one delicious course followed another she began to relax a little as she found that Robert was remarkably good company and very easy to talk to.

  ‘Do you live in London?’ she dared to ask over their hors d’oeuvre, which were mushrooms cooked in garlic sauce. Dotty was certain she had never tasted anything so delicious before in her whole life.

  ‘Yes, I have a flat in Knightsbridge,’ he told her. ‘It was my mother’s but I inherited both the flat and the magazine when she passed away last year. It’s a bit big for me really, but I suppose I’m too idle to look around for something a little smaller.’

  ‘Do you live alone then?’ Dotty asked in surprise before she could stop herself. She had imagined he would be married. He was far too nice not to be, and he had seemed so relaxed in Laura’s company that perhaps there was something between them?

  ‘Yes, I do,’ and then he grinned as if he could read her thoughts. ‘There aren’t many women who would want to take me on full-time with this.’ He jiggled his withered arm. ‘And besides, to be honest I’ve always been too busy to think of getting married.’ He peered at her. ‘But what about you? Do you have a boy friend?’

  ‘Oh no,’ Dotty told him quickly and when she fell silent and lowered her eyes, he looked at her curiously. She was very timid and obviously lacking in confidence, which was a shame as he found her quite charming. Sort of unspoiled, which he considered was a rare thing these days.

  The main course came then and once again Dotty loved it. Beef cooked in red wine sauce with a variety of vegetables and crispy roast potatoes. The waiter popped the cork on the champagne and Dotty giggled as she sipped at it and the bubbles went up her nose.

  Dessert was a pear flan with whipped cream and then they ended the meal with coffee. By then Dotty had drunk two glasses of champagne and her eyes were sparkling.

  ‘Thank you so much for a lovely day and a lovely meal,’ she sighed. She was so full that she was sure she wouldn’t be able to eat another thing for at least a month. The meal she had just had was certainly a far cry from the penny bowls of soup she usually had in the works canteen.

  ‘It was my pleasure,’ he assured her as he beckoned to the waiter for the bill. ‘And the next time you come to see us, we shall do it again.’

  ‘Next time?’ Dotty raised her eyebrows questioningly.

  ‘Oh yes, Laura and I will want to see you every three or four months at least, so that we can discuss what sort of stories we’d like you to write.’

  Dotty felt a tingle of excitement, although she noticed that he had mentioned Laura again. They left the restaurant and once outside he glanced at his watch before saying, ‘You have forty minutes before your train leaves. We’re only about ten minutes away from Euston: would you like to walk there or would you rather take a taxi?’

  ‘I think I’d rather walk,’ she answered. The champagne had made her feel quite tiddly and she thought the fresh air might do her good. ‘But if you point me in the right direction I’m sure I shall find the station by myself,’ she added. ‘I wouldn’t want to put you out.’

  ‘It won’t be putting me out. In fact, I’d rather like a bit of a stroll myself to walk some of that lunch off. Come on – put your arm through mine. I don’t want you falling on these slippery pavements.’

  She shyly slipped her arm through his, and as they were walking towards the station it started to snow.

  ‘I’ve been expecting this for days,’ he remarked. ‘I’m just glad it didn’t come in time to stop you getting here. I’ve really enjoyed today.’

  ‘So have I,’ she said, and she meant it.

  Once inside the station he guided her to the right platform. ‘The train should be in any time now,’ he told her. ‘Would you like me to wait with you?’

  ‘Not at all, I shall be fine. You’ve wasted quite enough of your time on me today as it is.’

  ‘I don’t consider I’ve wasted a single second,’ he told her sincerely. ‘And I hope this will be the start of a long working relationship. Goodbye, Dotty, I’ll be in touch soon.’

  He turned and walked away then and she stood there and watched until he was swallowed up by the crowd.

  It had been a truly unforgettable day.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As February 1940 drew to a close the worst storms of the century swept across the country and many areas ground to a halt as people found themselves snowed in and cut off from the world. The buses and trams in Coventry were having difficulty getting about, which gave Annabelle an excuse not to turn in to work, much to her mother’s annoyance.

  ‘Come on, Annabelle,’ Miranda urged one morning after entering her daughter’s bedroom and shaking her shoulder. ‘You still have time to get to work if you get a move on.’

  ‘I’m not going,’ Annabelle ground out, snuggling further down under the blankets.

  ‘But you’ll get the sack at this rate. You’ve missed two days already this week.’

  ‘So what? I hate the damn job,’ Annabelle snapped. ‘There are loads of staff can’t get in. They’ll understand. Hardly anyone is venturing out to shop anyway,’ she finished lamely.

  Miranda sighed as she straightened up. She knew better than to argue with Annabelle when she had made her mind up about something. The girl had seemed depressed and distracted for a couple of weeks, now that she came to think about it – ever since the day the letter from Lucy’s brother had arrived, as a matter of fact. Annabelle had told her nothing of what the letter had contained, apart from that Joel had been shipped out, and now she wondered if Annabelle had feelings for him? He certainly didn’t sound like the sort of young man her daughter usually favoured, though. She had never made a secret of the fact that she wanted a rich husband who could keep her in the manner she had become accustomed to, and Miranda really couldn’t see Joel being rich.

  Sighing, she went downstairs to the kitchen where she filled the kettle and put it on to boil as she stared through the window at a mountain of snow.

  Upstairs, Annabelle took Joel’s letter from beneath her pillow and read it through again even though she now knew it off by heart.

  Dear Belle, he had written, and the abbreviation of her name made her smile. Hardly anyone had ever shortened her name before and she quite liked it when he did it. I thought I would just drop you a line as promised. I hope you are keeping well and not suffering too much with the bad weather. I am now in . . . The word had been censored and was unreadable but Annabelle had a funny feeling that he might be in France. The letter continued:

  I hope you had a good Christmas. Mine was pretty grotty as you can imagine, being stuck here away from the family, but then I shouldn’t grumble as the rest of the chaps are all in the same boat. I’d like to think that we might get leave again soon but it doesn’t look likely for the foreseeable future.

  Anyway, I’ve never been much of a one for letter-writing, and there’s not much more to tell, but I just didn’t want you to think I had forgotten you. I hope you are keeping your eye on Lucy and Mary for me.

  Kind regards,

  Joel

  Annabelle folded the letter and slid it back beneath her pillow. It was quite a formal letter really; he had even signed it kind regards, but she was still pleased to think he had remembered her. Sighing, she burrowed back beneath the blankets.

  As Miranda read the newspaper in the kitchen she shivered, and not only from the chill air. It was bad news, and now with the bad weather to contend with as well, her spirits were at an all-time low. Annabelle’s tantrums didn’t help, not that she wasn’t well used to them. She had been forced to admit that she and Richard had spoiled Annabelle shamelessly, and now that he was away at war it was she who was paying the price. She rose and spooned some tea leaves sparingly into the teapot, aware that the meagre ration she had left was supposed to last them for the rest of the week. Perhaps if she took a cup up to Annabelle it might coax her daughter out of bed and put her in a better
mood? She could but try.

  Lucy and Dotty meantime had just met up outside Owen Owen and were heading for the staff cloak room.

  ‘No sign of Annabelle again then?’ Lucy commented as she glanced around. The place was nowhere near as busy as it usually was in the morning. Almost half of the staff hadn’t managed to make it in.

  ‘Doesn’t look like it,’ Dotty replied. ‘I bet there were no buses running again.’

  ‘Hmm, though I don’t think Annabelle needs much of an excuse to miss work,’ Lucy joked. ‘We’re lucky compared to most, according to the paper. Some villages are completely cut off and they’re having to drop food for the villagers and the livestock by plane.’

  ‘It must be awful for them,’ Dotty said sympathetically. ‘But anyway, are you still prepared to come and have a look for a typewriter with me during our lunch break? They should have cleared the main roads by then and I’ve seen a nice one in the window of a pawnshop a couple of streets away. It’s an Olivetti.’

  ‘Of course I’ll come with you,’ Lucy told her. ‘I’ve got to pick up a few more things for Mary as well to take with her next week.’ Her face fell. It was only a matter of days now before Mary was evacuated, and she could think of nothing else. It was like a great black cloud hanging over her as she fretted about how the child would cope. ‘I need to pick her up one of those little cardboard suitcases from Woolworths,’ she went on glumly. ‘The ones I have would be far too big and heavy for her.’

  Dotty patted her hand. She knew that there was nothing she could say that would make Lucy feel any better, and she felt sorry for her.

  ‘We’ll do that then. But now we’d better get to work. With so many staff off they’ll probably have us running from one department to another today.’

  By morning break-time both the girls were fed up.

  ‘Talk about going from one extreme to another,’ Dotty said as she paid for a cup of tea and headed towards their table. ‘There we were at Christmas and New Year run off our feet, and now the store is almost empty. It’s like a ghost town.’

  ‘That’s hardly surprising, is it?’ Lucy answered. ‘I mean, who is going to venture out in this weather unless they absolutely have to?’

  ‘I know what you mean, but I haven’t been idle although there aren’t many customers,’ Dotty said. ‘Mrs Broadstairs has had me tidying all morning. I think I’d sooner be serving.’

  ‘Me too,’ Lucy said despondently. ‘But at least we can get out for a while at lunchtime.’

  Once in the pawnbrokers, Dotty stroked the keys of the Olivetti typewriter with a wide smile on her face.

  ‘It’s almost brand new,’ the shopkeeper said persuasively. ‘And an absolute bargain at the price I’m asking for it.’

  ‘I’ll take it,’ she told him, and she and Lucy left the shop with the typewriter packed into a sturdy cardboard box.

  ‘We’ve still got time to get to Woolworth’s,’ Dotty said. ‘But we’ll have to take it in turns to carry this, if you don’t mind. It’s heavier than it looks.’

  Once Lucy had purchased the little cardboard suitcase from Woolworths they hurried back to Owen Owen. It had started to snow heavily again and Dotty cursed breathlessly, ‘Damn weather. When is it going to stop?’

  Once back in the staff cloakroom they put their purchases away in their lockers then hurried up to the staff dining room with just enough time left to snatch a cup of tea before they were due back at work.

  ‘Why don’t you come round tonight after work?’ Lucy suggested during their afternoon break. She was feeling very down in the dumps.

  Dotty shook her head. ‘I won’t tonight, if you don’t mind. I’ve got my typewriter to get home and if this snow keeps coming I might not be able to get back from your house later on.’

  ‘You could always stay the night and we could travel to work together in the morning then,’ Lucy suggested, but still Dotty refused. She wanted to get home and practise on her typewriter.

  That evening the buses were running very late, so it was gone seven o’clock by the time Lucy arrived to pick Mary up from Mrs P. It felt strange to think that this would be the last week she would need to do it.

  ‘Ah, yer look all in,’ Mrs P said as she stepped through the door. ‘Come an’ have a warm by the fire an’ a nice hot cuppa, eh?’

  Mary gratefully did as she was told, and noticing the package she was carrying Mrs P remarked, ‘You got her suitcase then?’

  ‘Mm, I did, but there were only two left.’ Lucy glanced towards Mary who was sitting staring into the flames in the fire and her heart ached as she wondered where she might be this time next week. They were going to make her a special tea on Saturday for her birthday and she had invited Dotty and Annabelle, but she doubted Mary would understand that it was her birthday.

  ‘I made her cake today,’ Mrs P told Lucy as she passed her a mug of tea. ‘An’ though I shouldn’t say it I’m quite pleased wi’ it, though I’d have liked to have had a few more currants to go in it an’ I had to use that horrible dried-egg stuff.’ She grimaced. The rationing was hitting hard now and everyone was having to do without certain foods, eggs being one of them.

  ‘Still, I’ve no doubt it will do once I’ve put a bit o’ me special pink icin’ on it,’ she went on more cheerfully with an indulgent glance at Mary. The woman was going to miss the child almost as much as Lucy would, but she was trying not to think about it at present.

  ‘I’m going to pack her case tonight,’ Lucy said. ‘Just to make sure that I’ve got everything.’ Every spare penny had been spent on the things that Mary would need to take with her, because Lucy wanted her to go with everything brand new. Mrs P secretly thought it was a complete waste of money. The way she saw it, the clothes that Mary already had were perfectly respectable, but then, knowing how upset Lucy was about her little sister going away, she had refrained from voicing her opinion. Best let the poor lass deal with it in her own way.

  ‘That might be a good idea,’ she said tactfully. ‘Then if you’ve forgotten anything you’ll have time enough to get it.’

  Later that night, when Mary was tucked up in bed, Lucy began the heartbreaking job of packing her small case, ticking off each thing as she carefully folded it.

  2 vests

  Spare pair of knickers

  Nightdress

  Petticoat

  2 pairs stockings

  6 handkerchiefs

  Blouse

  Cardigan

  Skirt

  Boots

  Shoes

  Wellington boots

  And finally a wash-bag containing a brush, comb, toothbrush, soap, flannel, ribbons, and anything else that Lucy felt the little girl might need, including her teddy bear.

  By the time she was done, tears were rolling down her cheeks unchecked. All that was left to do now was count down the days until it was time for Mary to leave.

  Thankfully, for now at least she had a reprieve, as she got home from work the next evening to find Mrs P grinning like a cat that had got the cream.

  ‘You’ve had a visit from a woman from the Red Cross today,’ she told Lucy with glee. ‘I went to the door an’ explained you were at work an’ I had young Mary, so she asked me to pass on a message. Seems half the trains ain’t runnin’ what wi’ the weather bein’ so bad, so the long an’ the short of it is, Mary won’t be goin’ next week. The lady told me she’d let us know when the next lot of evacuees are goin’.’

  ‘Really?’ Lucy’s face lit up and suddenly she felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders – for now, at least.

  Everyone said that Mrs P had done Mary proud on Saturday when they came to celebrate the child’s fifth birthday. The cake was delicious and Mrs P had even found some candles to put on it although Lucy had to blow them out as they all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Mary. She was off with the fairies in a world of her own as usual, and Annabelle wondered why they had bothered. The poor little mite clearly didn’t even know where she was, l
et alone what day it was.

  Once the party was over, Mrs P insisted on keeping Mary so that the three girls could go to the pictures together. They set off for the Gaumont to see Gulliver’s Travels.

  On the way back to the bus station, Annabelle almost spoiled the night when she asked, ‘Any news about when Mary might be evacuated yet?’

  Dotty scowled a warning at her. Annabelle could be very thoughtless. But Lucy answered civilly enough. ‘No, not yet.’

  By now, the snow had finally stopped; the big thaw had set in and everywhere was slushy and dirty. It was still bitterly cold too, but gradually the country was churning back into life as roads reopened and people could get back into work again.

  After the film, which they’d all enjoyed, the three girls went their separate ways, feeling all the better after the break from routine.

  Two weeks later, Lucy returned home from work one evening to find Mrs P close to tears. She guessed instantly what was wrong. ‘You’ve had a visit from the Red Cross, haven’t you?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, luvvie – or should I say you did. It was the same woman that came to say Mary’s going was delayed, an’ guessin’ that you’d be at work she came to leave the message with me. They want you to have her up at the school playground for ten o’clock next Monday mornin’. They’ll take the little ’uns by coach to the station, and they’ll journey on by train from there.’

  Lucy had known it was coming, but the news still knocked her for six. She wondered again how the child would cope with being sent away, but of course she had no answer to that question and even if she had, there was nothing she could do about it.