Wartime at Liberty's

by Fiona Ford

  Smiling in satisfaction, Evie turned away and walked over to the new range of fabrics that had come in yesterday morning. As she tidied them, Flo looked at Jean in concern. She seemed thoroughly rattled at Evie’s outburst.

  ‘You all right?’ she asked in a low voice.

  But Jean barely looked up from the packets of zips she was sorting through. ‘Fine. Although, would you mind if I just nipped to the bathroom? I’m not feeling very well.’

  ‘Of course.’

  As she watched the younger girl disappear, she checked her watch again. Henry would be here any moment and she wanted to catch him before they went into Mr Button’s office and see if she could try one last time to persuade him to tell her the truth.

  ‘Just nipping upstairs, Dot,’ she said. ‘You and Evie will be all right for a few minutes, won’t you?’

  Dot rolled her eyes. ‘She’s disappeared somewhere, but frankly I’m glad to see the back of her.’

  Flo frowned as she scanned the floor. Where had Evie got to? ‘Well, Jean won’t be long. Any problems, just call up to the office.’

  ‘Righto,’ Dot said cheerfully.

  As Flo quickly made her way upstairs she tried to prepare herself for the difficult conversations that no doubt lay ahead. If she was honest, there was a small part of her that still felt annoyed with Henry. When she had given up the job of deputy store manager last year she had done so in the knowledge that she was better off back in her beloved fabric department. She wasn’t a natural manager, and hated dealing with staffing issues such as these. To have Henry dragging her back into it, when according to him there was a simple explanation for the missing money that wouldn’t cost him his job, made her want to explode with anger.

  Swallowing back her feelings, she walked past Mr Button’s office and saw the wooden door was ajar. There were still a few moments before they were all due to meet, and perhaps he could do with a cup of tea before they began. Peering around the door, she was just about to ask as much, when the sight of two people standing on the rich red Persian carpet bent over his desk, rifling through papers, made her jaw drop.

  ‘What are you two playing at?’

  ‘It’s not what it looks like,’ Henry said.

  ‘Really, it’s not, Flo,’ Jean added nervously.

  Flo walked towards the pair of them, and saw a sheaf of papers marked ‘Private and Confidential’ in Jean’s trembling hands.

  ‘These …’ she said, plucking them from Jean’s hands, ‘belong in Liberty’s. And as for you,’ she said, rounding on her former boss, ‘I should have known you’d be involved in all of this somehow.’

  Henry laid a hand on Flo’s arm. ‘Trust me, I know this looks bad, we both do, but there is a reasonable explanation.’

  ‘Well, fire away,’ Flo spat, shaking his grasp off her arm. ‘I’m all ears.’

  ‘The thing is, Flo, it’s not easy to put into words,’ Jean began.

  ‘Well, let me put it another way,’ Flo said, feeling the anger building deep within. ‘I’m sick and tired of hearing how there’s a reasonable explanation. If it’s so reasonable then spit it out now or I’m going to the board.’

  ‘If that’s what you think is best,’ Henry said with an air of petulance as he drew himself up to his full height.

  Flo wasn’t intimidated and scowled at him.

  ‘No,’ Jean said suddenly. ‘No, Henry, you’ve done enough for me and Bess as it is, it’s time Flo knew the rest. There have been enough lies. Besides, she saw us together at The Kitty Cat Club last night; maybe she can help.’

  Henry’s face softened as he glanced first at Flo and then back at Jean. ‘She saw you both?’

  Jean nodded. ‘And she was wonderful about it. We need to tell her. It’s time.’

  ‘All right,’ he sighed, taking a deep breath before turning back to Flo. ‘Jean and I are being blackmailed.’

  ‘Blackmailed?’ Flo frowned. ‘By who?’

  ‘Evie,’ they whispered in unison.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Flo’s jaw dropped in shock for the second time that morning. As she took in Henry and Jean’s faces she could see the look of relief and despair written across both of them. Instinctively she knew that they were telling the truth.

  She wasn’t surprised that Evie had this in her. Flo had never liked the woman, but Mr Button had always trusted her and considered her to be a reputable expert; even the Board of Trade had agreed. Walking across to the window, Flo leaned against the draughty pane, the fresh air helping to cool her hot, angry face. ‘So tell me, why on earth is Evie blackmailing you?’

  ‘She’s still on the board at Botheringtons,’ Henry said.

  ‘I had a feeling that she was. Even though she insisted that she wasn’t. Mr Button doesn’t know though, I don’t think. You know how he always likes to see the good in people,’ Flo said pointedly.

  ‘She’s also still working there,’ Henry said in a low voice.

  ‘She’s working there?’ Flo echoed. ‘How?’

  ‘She’s managing fabrics. Executive departmental manager is her official title,’ Jean explained.

  Flo pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘That I didn’t know. Why did she want to work here if she had a job already?’

  ‘She’s been trying to replicate Liberty’s success with the utility prints we’ve been introducing,’ Henry said. ‘When Mr Button asked her to become involved in the Board of Trade, and then when Jean could only work part-time, everything fell into her lap.’

  Flo shook her head in disgust. She had always known the woman was trouble; why couldn’t Mr Button see it too? Then she frowned. ‘That still doesn’t explain why she was blackmailing you two.’

  ‘As you know, Botheringtons is a religious store,’ Henry explained.

  Flo nodded. Everyone knew that the Church came before business at the shop. It was part of their success; people looked to them for direction, especially now during these troubled times.

  ‘And as a result of her position on the board of Botheringtons she is also a member of the Public Morality Council,’ Jean continued.

  ‘No,’ Flo gasped. ‘What is she doing mixed up with that trumped-up group of fascists? And if she’s part of the Public Morality Council what’s she doing going round blackmailing people? That doesn’t sound very moral to me.’

  ‘She wants Liberty’s out of business,’ Henry sighed. ‘Starting with the fabric department. She let Dot think she had designs on Mr Button, all so Dot wouldn’t focus on what she was really up to, which was finding out about Liberty’s and ruining us. Botheringtons is a nice store, tied to the Church, part of a decent and upstanding community. Liberty’s is the devil as far as she’s concerned. All the passion we have for the arts, for creativity, for bohemian life and the loose morals and alternative lifestyles that apparently accompany that. She and her brother aren’t estranged; they have been plotting for a long time to drive customers to Botheringtons, and so she thought she would steal our utility fabric prints and hurt Liberty’s that way.’

  It was all so much to take in. Flo looked out of the window again, and only the shouts and jostles of the men who worked in the loading area directly below Mr Button’s office interrupted her thoughts.

  ‘There’s still something I don’t understand,’ Flo said at last. ‘And that’s how Evie managed to blackmail either of you. I mean, what did she have on you?’

  ‘Evie caught Bess and me holding hands at the first-aid night,’ Jean said in a low voice. ‘She said people like us had no place in society, that we were ill, a disgrace, and we ought to be hanged for crimes against nature.’

  Flo’s eyes widened in shock as she started piecing it all together. That must have been why the girls had been arguing with Evie during the first-aid night.

  ‘She put two and two together and told me that unless I stole the money from the fundraising night then she would tell everyone about me and Bess.’

  Flo gasped. ‘What a wicked thing to do.’

 
‘It was evil. Jean and Bess have dealt with bigotry their entire lives. To find it here at Liberty’s has been a disgrace,’ Henry growled in Jean’s defence. ‘Flo, Jean had no choice.’

  ‘But why did she need you to steal the money?’ Flo asked. ‘I can understand her wanting the patterns and details of the utility fabrics to try and destroy us, but why the money?’

  ‘Botheringtons is in a lot of trouble financially,’ Henry replied grimly. ‘She saw an opportunity to boost their coffers.’

  ‘And Botheringtons knew about this?’ Flo asked, aghast.

  ‘Us department store managers talk, and the Botheringtons lot have never liked Liberty’s, we’re too artsy.’ Henry smiled grimly. ‘I understand that unofficially they knew about the patterns but they had no idea about the money. I think Evie told them a beneficiary had given it to them.’

  ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing,’ Flo gasped. ‘And, Jean, you were the one that stole the money?’

  Jean hung her head in shame. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘And that’s also why you had those papers marked ‘Private and Confidential’ in your bag,’ Flo said in realisation. ‘You were going to give them to Evie.’

  Nodding her head again, Jean remained silent.

  ‘So what I don’t understand is how you got to be involved in all of this?’ Flo frowned as she turned to Henry.

  ‘It was the night of the fundraiser,’ Henry said with a sigh. ‘I caught Bess helping Jean steal the money and took it from them to put back. I asked them then what was going on but they wouldn’t tell me anything.’

  ‘Though Bess told you if you wanted answers you’d better go to Evie,’ Jean said miserably.

  ‘That’s right, though I had a hunch,’ Henry explained. ‘I knew Evie was on the Public Morality Council. The father of one of Stan’s friends is on it and I saw him talking to Evie about it near Liberty’s. The chap told me that Evie joined after her husband died. It wasn’t all down to a bad business deal, though that was the official line. Apparently he had been seeing prostitutes behind her back, and when she found out she decided to take a stand against immoral behaviour.’

  Flo shook her head in horror as Henry continued: ‘I did express my reservations about her when Mr Button took her on but he thought that she had done such a good job at the Board of Trade that there would be no harm having her here in Liberty’s. So that night, I went to Evie and asked her to tell me why she was getting Jean and Bess to steal money. She started laughing, and said Liberty’s was immoral. Not only did it employ lesbians, but criminals like me. Liberty’s didn’t deserve to keep its doors open, she said; she was acting in the best interests of the community by doing her damnedest to get rid of our immoral store.’

  ‘What a wicked, spiteful cow,’ Flo murmured with vehemence in her voice.

  ‘It doesn’t stop there. She told me that she knew I had been to prison, and that if I said anything then she would go straight to the authorities and let them know an ex-convict was taking care of a little boy. She said it wasn’t right that I was taking care of a child, but he should be placed in the care of the state.’

  ‘The new adoption act,’ Flo muttered miserably. The very same act that had made life difficult for Mary and David. She could only imagine how difficult it would have made life for Henry and Stan.

  ‘So what then?’

  ‘I’m afraid I was weak, Flo,’ Henry admitted, running a hand through his hair. ‘I didn’t want Jean and Bess’s secret to come out, not after they had been through so much, and I didn’t want to lose Stan, so I told her I would take the blame for the missing money and said she could have it.’

  ‘And is that why you walked towards us, clutching the box like that?’ Flo asked, everything becoming clear. ‘To make us think that you had stolen it?’

  Sheepishly Henry nodded. ‘I thought it was for the best.’

  Flo let out a loud sigh. How could all this have been going on right under her nose without her noticing? Her heart went out to Jean, to Bess, and to Henry and Stan. She thought about Celia, and how she had urged her to listen to Henry and find a way to help him.

  ‘Did Celia know about this?’ she asked.

  ‘I needed someone to talk to,’ Henry admitted. ‘Celia was there for me.’

  ‘He’s a good man, Flo,’ Jean ventured. ‘You know he didn’t do any of this, he only had my and Bess’s interests at heart.’

  Flo’s mind was reeling. This was such a mess.

  ‘You said you were innocent,’ she said, her tone abrupt. ‘When you went to prison, I mean. What really happened? I need to know everything if I’m to help.’

  Henry took a deep breath. ‘You have to understand, Flo, this is a secret I don’t share. I made my mind up for Stan’s sake that I would take the blame for this and I meant it.’

  ‘I will only use this information to help you,’ she promised. ‘You’ve got to trust me.’

  ‘It wasn’t me that stole from the factory I was working at; it was my mother. She was hard up after my dad was killed and that new husband of hers never had any money so she started nicking money from the safe at the factory where we worked. Just little bits at first, but then the amounts got larger and larger. I caught her in the office one day and took the money right out of her hands.’

  ‘A bit like at the fundraiser,’ Flo murmured.

  ‘I was trying to convince her to put it back but she wouldn’t listen,’ Henry continued. ‘We were arguing so loudly that the boss walked in to see what was going on. He saw me with the money and before Mum could stop me I confessed.’

  Flo clasped her hands to her mouth. Surely his mother would have stopped this?

  ‘Mum tried to say it was her fault, of course, and so he called the police to sort it out. While we were waiting I told Mum not to be so daft, that she had Stan, who was just a baby at the time, to think about, that it would be no use to him if she got in trouble. So I told her to let me go to prison for her; it was my way of making up for what happened with Dad.’

  ‘Oh Henry,’ Flo said, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘And Stan doesn’t know?’

  ‘He must never know. I only want him to think well of his mother. Better he thinks I’m a thug.’

  ‘But your reputation?’ Flo broke off.

  ‘Celia knew, of course. She was the one that came to see me in prison, and it was how we became such good friends. Mr Button knew me of old and I told him. We had worked late one night years ago at Bourne and Hollingsworth, shared a pint and the truth came out. When a job came up here, he personally vouched for me; he was the one that really put his reputation on the line.’

  ‘But we have to tell him everything now,’ Flo gasped. ‘I mean, if we tell him the truth he will be able to stop Evie.’

  A look of panic flashed across Jean’s face. ‘You can’t tell anyone, Flo, you promised!’

  ‘I know and I mean it,’ Flo insisted. ‘But, Jean, you must see this is the only way. You can’t let her get away with this.’

  ‘It’s not that simple, Flo,’ Henry said, his tone filled with sadness. ‘If we confront her she’ll go to the authorities and tell them that I, a convicted criminal, am guardian to a little boy. She’ll have Stan taken away from me and then she will destroy Jean and Bess just by opening her mouth and telling the world about their love.’

  ‘You saw what she was like this morning, Flo, when you mentioned The Kitty Cat Club,’ Jean pleaded. ‘The hate and venom that spouted from her mouth. You and Mr Masters are in the minority; most of society thinks people like me and Bess are sick and should be locked up. What if Mr Button thinks like her? What if word gets out? We can’t take the risk. We will be destroyed. Bess is only just coming to terms with the loss of her hand; if my brother found us again I don’t think she could take it. She’s not as strong as she looks.’

  ‘There has to be another way, Flo,’ Henry insisted.

  Flo took a deep breath and regarded the pair of them. They looked broken, she realised. Their faces we
re lined with pain, and their bodies hunched over as if they had given up. She couldn’t burden them with anything else.

  ‘We’ll find another way,’ she promised them. ‘I won’t breathe a word.’

  As the relief passed across their faces, Flo knew she had done the right thing. The bigger question was how was she going to unpick this mess?

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  The following Sunday afternoon was unusually warm for February. At home in Islington, Flo had just finished putting the final touches to the birthday party display on the kitchen table when the sound of the door knocker echoed through the house.

  ‘I’ll go,’ she called to Jean, hurrying to the door dressed in her best lemon tea dress.

  Glancing in the mirror that hung in the hallway, she briefly checked her appearance. Satisfied, she flung open the door and welcomed in the last of the guests to the little birthday party she had arranged.

  ‘Emma!’ Flo beamed at the little blonde girl balancing on Mary’s hip.

  ‘Look!’ Mary smiled. ‘It’s Auntie Flo.’

  Flo couldn’t help but get swept up in her friend’s excitement and wrapped her hand around Emma’s tiny one.

  ‘It’s very nice to see you, Emma.’

  The little girl giggled at the grown-up gesture, before promptly burying her face in Mary’s chest.

  ‘I think she’s over-excited,’ said Mary as she followed Flo inside and walked down the corridor towards the kitchen.

  ‘I don’t think she’s the only one.’ Flo laughed. ‘Come on through. Everyone else is already here.’

  As she followed Mary along the corridor, towards the kitchen, she smiled at the decorations that festooned the little house. Newspaper chains had been strung from lampshades and picture rails while homemade cards lined the mantel.

  ‘Blimey, this looks fantastic,’ Mary marvelled.

  ‘Jean and I did it all,’ Flo said, a hint of pride in her voice. ‘You should see the kitchen.’

  Right on cue Mary followed Flo into the kitchen and gasped in delight. There were Alice, Arthur, Jack, Rose, Malcolm, Dot and Jean standing proudly around the scrubbed pine kitchen table. Holding glasses of port and lemon they raised them in greeting towards Mary and the guest of honour.