Home Front Girls

by Rosie Goodwin

  ‘I don’t think badly of you,’ Dotty butted in, sensing the woman’s shame. ‘I know how much you love your children and what a rotten go you’ve had of it. Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.’ And with that she patted the woman’s arm and shot away, thinking how unfair life could be.

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was now well into June and the weather was so glorious that the girls had taken to leaving the department store during their lunch break to enjoy a little sunshine. They didn’t usually venture far and today was no exception as they strolled around the city centre, window shopping.

  Lucy was quiet as usual. She seemed to have lost all her sparkle since her mother’s death, and the other two had quickly discovered that even mentioning the poor woman was still strictly taboo.

  Dotty, on the other hand, was bubbling over with excitement. ‘I can’t wait to go to London again next week,’ she said. ‘Robert is going to take me to meet the editor who is interested in my novel. I can hardly believe this is happening to me – but then he hasn’t actually said that he’ll be publishing it,’ she had told them this about ten times in as many days, ‘only that he’s very interested and wants to talk to me. But Robert will tell me more when he comes to visit me on Thursday.’ She stopped to admire a leather handbag in a shop window. ‘I don’t know what he’s going to think of my poky little flat though,’ she confided anxiously. ‘Last time I went to London he took me to see his flat and I think his lounge alone is bigger than the whole top floor of the house where I live. And it’s so beautifully furnished. It’s full of antiques that his mother collected over the years. I imagine they’d be worth a king’s ransom, as she had impeccable taste. He might be selling it soon though,’ she burbled on. ‘He says it’s too big for him, but I have a sneaky feeling he might be getting a place with Laura.’ The thought of it made her throat tighten.

  The girls had also heard all this before too and they grinned at each other behind Dotty’s back. They didn’t say anything though; it was nice to hear her so excited about the possibility of her book being published and they hoped that it would be.

  ‘So what are you doing tonight then?’ Annabelle asked them when they had managed to drag Dotty away from the shop window.

  ‘Nothing much. I might wash my hair and have an early night,’ Lucy answered. She hardly ever went anywhere any more except to work, but she was looking forward to a week off early in July when she was planning on visiting Mary in Folkestone. The kindly lady who was looking after the child had invited Lucy to stay for a few days if she wished, and the thought of seeing the little girl again was just about all that was keeping Lucy’s spirits up at the moment. She wrote to her regularly and her kindly carer, Mrs Manners, assured her that she read the letters to Mary, not that the child would understand them, but the act obviously made Lucy feel a little better.

  ‘And what about you?’ Annabelle now looked Missquestioningly at Dotty.

  ‘I’m meeting Miss Timms after work for tea and so she can have a quick look at my book, then I shall be going home to carry on working on it. I want to try and get it finished for when Robert comes. But don’t worry – I haven’t forgotten that we’re going to the pictures later this week.’

  Annabelle sighed dramatically. ‘You two are just no fun at all,’ she drawled. ‘So I dare say I shall have to stay in as well.’ She checked the line she had drawn up the back of her leg with an eyebrow pencil then to make sure that it hadn’t rubbed off.

  ‘I really don’t know how you manage to get those lines so straight,’ Dotty commented. ‘When I tried to do it, the lines were all over the place. And your legs are such a lovely colour!’

  ‘I wash them in cold tea,’ Annabelle told her. ‘I get Mum to save the tea leaves now but it’s a terrible palaver to get them this colour, I don’t mind admitting. It was so much easier when you could just take a new pair of stockings out of the drawer.’

  The girls then hurried back to work and the rest of the day passed uneventfully.

  When they parted outside Owen Owen that evening, Dotty went back into the city centre where she had agreed to meet Miss Timms. The woman’s face lit up as Dotty came towards her and she asked, ‘How about we go into that little restaurant over there for tea? I’ve looked at the menu while I was waiting for you, and some of the meals seem quite nice. My treat, of course.’

  Dotty felt embarrassed. She would much sooner have paid for her own meal, but not wishing to hurt the kindly woman’s feelings or appear ungrateful she said, ‘That would be lovely.’

  Once inside they settled themselves at a table and ordered their food, which didn’t take long as there wasn’t a huge variety of dishes to choose from. While they were waiting for their sardines on toast to be served, Dotty took her manuscript out of her bag and handed it to Miss Timms to look at.

  Miss Timms began to read, and was soon so enthralled that she almost forgot that Dotty was there.

  ‘Miss Timms,’ Dotty whispered after a time, ‘our food is here.’

  The woman shuffled the pages back together, looking flustered. ‘I’m so sorry, my dear. I got quite carried away there and didn’t want to stop. This is really excellent.’

  Dotty blushed at the praise. She put a lot of store on what Miss Timms thought. They ate their sardines and then finished the meal off with home-made apple pie and custard, which was delicious.

  ‘I don’t think I shall be able to eat another thing for at least a month,’ Dotty declared as she rubbed her full stomach.

  Miss Timms smiled, making her appear years younger. ‘I’m rather full too,’ she beamed. ‘But now I’m afraid I shall have to love you and leave you. I’ve left our neighbour with Mother, and no doubt the dear soul will be tearing her hair out by the roots by now. I’m afraid Mother isn’t the easiest of patients.’

  She insisted on paying the bill, and once outside she asked, ‘Will you be all right getting home by yourself, dear?’

  ‘Of course. You get off, I shall be fine, and thanks for the treat,’ Dotty answered as she leaned forward to kiss the woman on the cheek.

  The woman raised her hand and touched the spot that Dotty had kissed and a wave of tenderness shot through the girl. Miss Timms really was so kind and Dotty knew that she owed her a lot. Without Miss Timms her childhood would have been very lonely and sad. She watched the woman stride away, her back as straight as a broom handle, and then she hurried off to the stationer’s, which was open until 7 p.m., to get some more ribbons for her typewriter. She just prayed that Mrs Cousins wouldn’t want her to babysit tonight as she hoped to get some serious writing done.

  Lucy arrived home to find a wonderful surprise waiting for her. It was a letter from Joel; albeit short and heavily censored, it helped her to believe that he was still safe. Or at least he had been when he wrote the letter, which she saw was well over a month ago. Without even waiting to take her cardigan off she sat down to read it, and as she saw his dear familiar writing he suddenly seemed a little closer.

  Dear Lucy,

  I hope you, Mother and Mary are all well. I am bearing up although I miss you all terribly. I am now in Dunkirk, (she only just managed to decipher this word as that and the next couple of lines had been blanked out, but then he went on), things are pretty grim here but try not to worry, one day we’ll all be together again and we’ll try and put this blasted war behind us. Old Hitler has a lot to answer for and the conditions we are living in are pretty harsh, but then it can’t go on forever, can it? Will you remember me to Mr and Mrs P and give Mary and Mum a big kiss from me and tell them that I think about them all the time. It’s only the thought of coming home that keeps us lads going. I have written to Belle too and will write again to you both as soon as I can. Till then look after yourselves.

  Love,

  Joel x

  Annabelle also received a letter saying much the same and it threw her into a complete muddle.

  My dear Belle,

  I am hoping this letter will reac
h you as I may not be able to write again for some time. Me and the other chaps are going to the front tomorrow and who knows what might happen? I never realised what it would be like to have to point a gun at someone and pull the trigger but it’s a case of kill or be killed. May God forgive me. I can’t help but think that some of the Germans are probably only here because they have to be, like our lads, and the thought doesn’t make it any easier. They are all someone’s son, boyfriend, brother or husband after all, aren’t they? I am sorry to be so morbid but I can’t write my feelings to Lucy, she has enough on her plate. Bless her. You will keep an eye out for her if anything should happen to me won’t you? I know this is a lot to ask but I feel that you, Lucy and Dotty have grown to be very close and she may have need of your friendship in the days ahead.

  We are living in tents at the moment and the food is atrocious. If I come home I intend to take us all out for a slapup meal! They are setting up the Army medical tents tonight for those that will no doubt be injured tomorrow and it’s a daunting sight as you can imagine.

  Anyway, that’s enough from me. Stay safe, pray for me and know that I am thinking of you too.

  With much love

  Joel x

  Annabelle shuddered as she folded the sheet of paper and pictured the conditions that Joel must be living in and what was before him. His life was in God’s hands now and she could only pray that he would survive to return home.

  Recently she had been able to push him to the back of her mind, but now she was forced to think of him again and she found herself wondering if their friendship might have turned into something more had he been able to stay around. In a way she was glad that he was gone. He wasn’t at all the sort of chap she usually went out with, and nothing like the sort of husband she had always envisaged for herself. She wanted someone tall, dark, handsome and very, very rich – and Joel was none of those things. And yet she was forced to admit to herself that there had been an attraction between them from the start.

  She read the letter through twice more before stuffing it into the back of a drawer. There was no point in thinking about it now. Joel might never come home for all she knew, so it was perhaps as well they hadn’t grown too close. But still it was hard to forget him as she tried to turn her thoughts to other things.

  On Thursday morning, Dotty was waiting for the train when it drew into Coventry station and she glanced expectantly into the carriages as it slowed. And then there was Robert walking towards her with an enormous bunch of flowers clutched in his good hand and her heart did a somersault.

  Without being able to stop herself she raced towards him and then stopped abruptly in front of him feeling a complete fool. What must he think of me? she asked herself. It’s hardly the way for a friend to behave. Yet deep down she knew that she thought of him as much more than a friend now, even though her feelings would never be returned.

  He hugged her to him with his short arm while holding the flowers out to her with the other.

  ‘Th-they’re lovely,’ she managed to stutter, deeply conscious of the passers-by who were smiling at them indulgently.

  ‘Not half so lovely as you,’ he answered, then it was his turn to blush as he took her arm and led her across the smoky platform to the exit.

  It was on the bus to her flat that Dotty began to wonder if she had done the right thing in inviting Robert to her home. What would he think of it? It was so different to what he was used to – but it was too late to do anything about it now.

  The smell of stale cabbage assailed them as they stepped into the hallway and she glanced at him apologetically. Unfortunately, it always smelled worse in the warm weather but there was nothing she could do about that either. The residents’ staple diet nowadays seemed to consist mainly of Spam and any vegetables they had managed to grow in the small garden at the back of the house. The sight of a lush green lawn was a rare sight now, in this area at least, as everyone was using every available inch to grow food to supplement their rations – when they could fit them around the Anderson shelters, that was.

  ‘It’s up on the top floor,’ she told him, avoiding his eyes, and they began to climb the steep narrow staircase.

  As they passed Mrs Cousins’s flat they heard the baby crying and Dotty whispered, ‘A widow lives there with her three young children. It’s very sad – she lost her home when she lost her husband, and I know that she struggles now.’

  ‘How awful for her.’ Robert looked genuinely concerned as Dotty led him up the last flight of stairs.

  ‘Phew, no wonder you’re so thin,’ he teased breathlessly as she finally put her key in the lock. ‘That’s quite some climb.’

  ‘Well, we can’t all have lifts,’ she told him with a grin and she then beckoned him into her little home.

  He looked about with interest before saying, ‘You’ve got this really comfortable, Dotty. Very cosy, in fact. You have the same flair for home-making that my mother had.’

  She looked around, trying to see it as he must but could see nothing very special about it, although she did keep it as neat as a new pin. Today she’d made an extra-special effort because he was coming. Every single thing in the room was second-hand but she had made it her own with cheerful cushions and a few cheap ornaments that she had bought from the market. The curtains had come from a rummage sale at the church hall and she had found the rug lying in front of the fire in a pawnshop.

  ‘I’ll make us some tea,’ she said, and hurried across to the tiny kitchenette to put the kettle on. She’d saved up her food coupons for the last three weeks and now the smell of a lamb casserole slowly cooking wafted around the room. The oven was a very hit-and-miss affair, working when it felt like it, and she offered up a silent prayer of thanks that it hadn’t let her down today.

  ‘Something smells good,’ he commented when she came back a few minutes later with a pot of tea. She knew that Robert had a sweet tooth so she had saved up her sugar ration too.

  ‘Oh, it’s just a lamb casserole,’ she said casually, avoiding telling him that she had been up until late the night before reading recipe books. She found a jug to put her flowers in, and once they were standing in pride of place in the centre of the table she edged her manuscript towards him, telling him shyly, ‘There you are. It’s done. I finished it late last night, and I made a copy with carbon paper. There are another couple of short stories for you to look at too.’

  He was just thinking what a remarkable young woman she was, when he suddenly remembered something. Taking a velvet box from his coat pocket, he handed it to her.

  ‘I er . . . brought you a little gift,’ he said. ‘I hope you’ll like it.’

  Dotty was flummoxed and it showed. ‘But you already bought me flowers,’ she objected. ‘There was really no need to bring anything at all.’

  ‘Even so I want you to have it. Open it, please.’

  She hesitated before taking the box from him, and when she opened it her eyes stretched wide and she was rendered temporarily speechless. Inside on a bed of silk was a gold locket on a fine gold chain. A red stone that was set into the centre of the locket glittered in the sunlight that was filtering through the window.

  ‘That’s a ruby,’ he told her softly. ‘And it belonged to my mother.’

  Now she did react. ‘Then I really can’t take it,’ she told him hastily, ‘It . . . it must be very precious to you.’

  He shook his head. ‘No, I want you to have it – and I have a feeling that if my mother could have known you, she would have wanted you to have it too. It was her mother’s before her, and seeing as I have no sisters to pass it on to, it’s a shame for it to lie in its box. You do like it, don’t you?’

  ‘Like it?’ Dotty was stunned. ‘But of course I like it! It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen – but I’m afraid it must be very valuable.’

  He shrugged. ‘It probably is, so it’s only right that it should go to someone who will treasure it, and I have a feeling that you will.’

  ‘B
ut Robert, you hardly know me,’ Dotty protested. ‘I don’t think you should be giving this away.’

  ‘But I’m not exactly giving it away, am I?’ He smiled now as he lifted it from the box. ‘I’m entrusting it to someone who will love it as much as my mother did. Now turn around while I fasten it on for you.’

  Dotty did as she was told as Robert struggled with the tiny catch. It wasn’t easy with his withered hand but at last he told her, ‘There you go. Have a look in the mirror over there. What do you think?’

  Dotty crossed to the mirror and gently stroked the gift, still feeling in a state of shock. She had never owned a single piece of jewellery in her whole life and still didn’t feel quite comfortable accepting it. But she knew that if she didn’t, she might hurt his feelings and she didn’t want to risk doing that.

  ‘I really shall treasure it,’ she told him in a choky voice. ‘But I’ll only accept it on the understanding that should you ever want it back, you would tell me. We’ll consider I have it on loan.’

  ‘Fair enough, but it will be a permanent loan,’ he told her with a twinkle in his eye. ‘I don’t think it ever looked as good on Mother as it does on you. And I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me saying that.’

  She impulsively leaned over and kissed him then; thanking her lucky stars for the day she had met him and thinking what a lovely woman his mother must have been. He looked momentarily surprised but then he lifted his mug of tea and the awkward moment passed.

  Their time together raced by all too quickly. They had the lunch that Dotty had prepared, which Robert insisted was delicious, and then at his request she took him back into the city centre to see St Michael’s Cathedral. They then had afternoon tea at a restaurant – home-baked scones with jam and cream – a rare treat indeed – before slowly making their way back to the railway station.