Home Front Girls (11 page)

Annabelle’s tiredness was suddenly forgotten and she was glad of the darkness that would hide the colour that had risen in her cheeks. Her heart was thumping painfully again. I’m acting like a love-struck kid, she scolded herself, but she followed the others along the pavement all the same.

When she entered the steamy café, she blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light inside. Apart from the
Open
sign outside she might have passed it without even knowing that it was there, for the place had blackout blinds that effectively blocked all the light from leaking outside and sandbags propped all across the front of it.

Joel scurried to the counter to get them all a drink as they found an empty table, and Annabelle quickly got out her compact and powdered her nose while he was gone, much to the amusement of Lucy. Dotty, meanwhile, was fussing over Mary, who had totally captured her heart.

Soon Joel was back with a tray loaded with mugs of tea, a glass of milk for Mary and five scones.

‘There wasn’t much choice in the cake department,’ he apologised. ‘But these should keep us all going until dinnertime.’

He found himself with no choice but to sit next to Annabelle and now it was his turn to feel self-conscious, but soon they were all chatting as if they had known each other for years. As Dotty and Lucy looked after Mary, Annabelle told Joel about her father joining up and her mother’s voluntary work.

‘I think she’s doing it to keep her mind off what might be happening to Daddy,’ she confided and he nodded.

‘I can understand that. It must be really hard after being married all those years to be suddenly apart. Are you er . . . married?’

Annabelle threw back her head and laughed. ‘Oh goodness me, no. I don’t even have a boyfriend.’ She instantly wished that she hadn’t told him that in case he thought she was setting her cap at him, but he seemed to take it in his stride. He began to tell her all about what his training had involved and some of the chaps he was stationed with, and she listened raptly until Lucy coughed gently to get their attention.

‘I think the lady is waiting to close up,’ she told them, pointing towards the counter where they saw the owner standing with her arms crossed, tapping her foot. Glancing around, they were shocked to see that they were the last customers in there. They had been so engrossed in conversation that they hadn’t even noticed that everyone else had gone. They all hastily rose and bundled little Mary ahead of them until they were once more outside on the cold pavement.

‘Look, I have to go back to camp the day after tomorrow,’ Joel said. ‘So why don’t you two both come round for dinner after work tomorrow? After all, I made you miss your meal what with turning up out of the blue like that yesterday, so I’ll do the cooking to make it up to you.’

Lucy’s mouth gaped. She had never known Joel to volunteer for cooking before, but then she wasn’t going to argue.

Annabelle and Dotty glanced at each other before nodding in unison. ‘That would be lovely, if you’re quite sure.’ And so it was decided and as Annabelle headed for the bus stop she found that she had a spring in her step.

The next day she took especial pains over her make-up and set off for work feeling like a schoolgirl going on her first date. This is ridiculous, she berated herself as she stared out of the window of the bus. Joel isn’t even my type. He looks nothing like Clark Gable and he’s certainly not rich! But she still couldn’t stop herself from feeling excited at the thought of seeing him again.

The day seemed to pass interminably slowly and she found herself glancing at the large clock above the lift doors in her department every ten minutes. If Lucy and Dotty noticed how quiet she was during the day they tactfully didn’t comment on it.

‘I have to say, Joel seems quite smitten with Annabelle,’ Lucy confided to Dotty as they travelled down in the lift together following the lunch break. ‘I’ve never even known him to look at a girl before but he must have mentioned Annabelle at least a dozen times over breakfast before I left for work.’

‘Well, judging by the way she was looking at him in the café last night, I’d say his feelings were reciprocated,’ Dotty chuckled, her romantic mind working overtime. ‘Although I have to say your brother doesn’t seem anything at all like the sort of man Annabelle is always telling us she wants to snare. No offence meant, of course. It’s just that she always says she wants a rich, handsome older man who will spoil her shamelessly and keep her in the lap of luxury.’

‘I know exactly what you mean,’ Lucy responded. ‘And a young private in the Army hardly fits the bill. Still, they do say love is blind. We’ll just have to see what happens, although it won’t be easy for them, what with Joel going off to God knows where the day after tomorrow.’

Her face became solemn then and Dotty squeezed her hand. ‘Miss Timms always told me that everything happens for a reason, so let’s just sit back and see what happens, eh? If they’re meant for each other, love will find a way.’

‘Speaking of love, I’d love to get my mitts on another of your stories. It would give me something to look forward to, for when Joel is gone.’

‘That can be easily arranged,’ Dotty promised her as the lift creaked to a halt and then they parted and headed for their different departments.

Dotty had a particularly difficult afternoon. One customer made her lift down almost every bolt of material in the shop before finally deciding on a length of pale blue satin. She then spent the next hour poring over the patterns, dismissing every one that Dotty suggested would suit the fabric before finally deciding on one that Dotty was sure would be totally unsuitable. By then Dotty had gone past caring and was just glad to see the back of her. It took her almost half an hour to replace all the different materials, and by then she was thoroughly cheesed off and longing for her afternoon break, although she was still looking forward to going around to Lucy’s that evening. Anything beat sitting in an empty flat.

When they finally met up in the canteen it appeared that the other two hadn’t had a very good day either.

‘I had this one woman who had me spray at
least
eight different perfumes,’ Annabelle complained. ‘And then at the end of all that, she
still
couldn’t make her mind up and left without buying a thing! Between you and me, I just wonder if she ever intended to in the first place. And they were all expensive ones too.’

‘Well, you can’t win ’em all,’ Lucy said matter-of-factly, grinning as she spotted the tiny bit of mistletoe that had dropped into Annabelle’s hair, behind her ear. ‘It’s been manic in the children’s department too and I heard one girl say that they’ve been run off their feet in the food hall. I reckon people are beginning to hoard stuff before the food rationing comes properly into force. They’re stocking up on packets, tins and bottles and jars of things like there’s no tomorrow.’

‘That’s all down to this bloody war again,’ Annabelle said crossly. ‘They’re calling it “the phoney war” now so why is everyone panicking? It’s not as if it’s affected us yet, is it? And now we’re all going to be issued with identity cards. I mean, for God’s sake! It’s bad enough having to cart those damn gas masks about everywhere.’

‘Better to be safe than sorry,’ Lucy said sensibly. ‘I still have an awful feeling that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.’

Annabelle lit a cigarette and stared morosely down into her tea as the other two chatted about this and that.

The rest of the afternoon proved to be as busy as before, and by the time the end of their shift came around, the girls were all worn out. Then, to crown it all, they ended up having to stay behind for fifteen minutes extra to do the tidying up that they had been unable to do whilst the customers were milling about. Admittedly the cleaners came in once the shop was shut, but the staff were still expected to put everything neatly away before they left.

‘We’ll have missed the six-fifteen bus now,’ Lucy wailed as they put their outdoor clothes on in the staff cloakroom. ‘And I only have tonight with Joel too. He’ll be gone again in the morning.’

Dotty nodded sympathetically. Joel and Lucy seemed to be very close and she must be so worried about him being shipped off somewhere.

‘I’m sure he’ll write to you regularly to let you know how he’s getting on,’ she said comfortingly.

Lucy nodded although her face was grim.

They got outside to find it had started to snow, and right on cue, Annabelle groaned, ‘That’s all we need!’

‘It might not settle,’ Dotty said hopefully, although the flakes seemed to be as big as dinner plates. She glanced down at Annabelle’s shoes. The heels were not as high as she had used to wear admittedly, but they were still totally unsuitable for walking on slippery pavements. But she didn’t dare say anything. The mood Annabelle was in, she was afraid of getting her head bitten off.

Just as they had feared, they had missed their bus and the bad weather conditions made the next one late, which meant they didn’t get to Lucy’s until gone seven o’clock.

Joel sighed with relief when they all trooped into the cosy back room.

‘Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick,’ he said as he helped Lucy off with her coat.

She quickly explained as she crossed to warm her hands at the fire and kiss Mary. She then sniffed at the air appreciatively. Something smelled good and it made her stomach rumble with anticipation.

‘So, what culinary delight have we got for tea then?’ she asked with a twinkle in her eye. Her mother had used to tease Joel that he could burn water, before— She stopped her thoughts from going any further. This was his last night at home and she didn’t want anything to spoil it.

‘I’ve made us a cottage pie.’

He flushed when Lucy raised her eyebrows then admitted sheepishly, ‘Well, Mrs P did help a bit.’

‘Whoever cooked it, it smells delicious.’ Lucy ushered Annabelle and Dotty to the table. Joel had laid the cutlery on the oilskin cloth and had even managed to find a few pink chrysanthemums at the local florist. He had placed them in a vase which now took pride of place in the middle of the table.

‘If I’d known you were this domesticated I’d have given you a few more chores to do before you went away,’ Lucy teased her brother as he hurried to fetch the pie and the vegetables.

The meal was a light-hearted affair with a lot of giggling and chattering. Once it was over, and Lucy had gone off to put Mary to bed, Dotty insisted on doing the washing up on her own, which left Joel and Annabelle to entertain each other for a while.

‘The papers are full of doom and gloom today,’ he told her. ‘Have you read them?’

Annabelle had never been one for reading newspapers, she much preferred a fashion magazine, but not wishing to appear ignorant, she shook her head and said simply, ‘No, I don’t get time now I have to be out for work so early.’

‘It seems the Russians have bombed Helsinki,’ he told her quietly. ‘And the German battleship, the
Graf Spee,
has been sunk in the South Pacific. I can’t see Hitler being any too pleased about that. I’ve no doubt there will be serious repercussions.’

Annabelle tried to look interested, although she really couldn’t see why this should affect them. Finland was miles away. But of course she nodded gravely before asking, ‘What exactly have you been doing during your training? Is it really awful?’

‘It’s not exactly a picnic.’ He shook his head. ‘The worst thing for me has been having to learn how to handle a gun. I mean, it’s one thing to do target practice when you’re aiming at a board, but quite another to know that soon you may be aiming at another human being, be he German or otherwise. We’ll be using rifles too – Lee Enfields. Powerful beasts, I don’t mind telling you! The physical training is all right, although by the end of the day all you’re fit for is to collapse on your bunk. The assault courses are quite tough.’

Annabelle looked horrified and he said immediately, ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.’

Speaking to Joel had suddenly brought it home to her just how dangerous the war could prove to be. Up to now it had scarcely affected her part of the world, but what if that changed? And would her father stay safe? Joel’s words had brought the reality of the war much closer.

When the other two eventually rejoined them, Joel and Annabelle were still deep in conversation. Lucy made them all a cup of tea and they sat around the fire together to drink it.

‘I think I ought to get off now,’ Dotty said some time later, glancing at the clock on the mantelshelf. ‘The buses are going to be all over the place with the weather as it is, and I don’t want to end up walking home.’

‘Hm, you could be right. I suppose I should be making a move too,’ Annabelle agreed.

Lucy went off to fetch their coats as Annabelle selfconsciously held her hand out to Joel, saying, ‘It’s been really nice to meet you. We’ll perhaps meet again on your next leave.’

‘I hope so.’ He held her hand for a fraction longer than was necessary and Annabelle felt as if it was on fire. Then quite unexpectedly, he leaned forward and brushed her cheek with his lips, making Annabelle blush furiously.

‘The mistletoe,’ he explained, pointing to her ear, and she laughed, pulling it out of her hair. She had had no idea that it was there, and the two others had naughtily not mentioned it.

Joel then said his goodbyes to Dotty too and settled back into his chair as Lucy saw the girls to the front door. He was determined to make the most of his home comforts while he had the chance. God knew how long it might be before he was home again –
if ever,
a little voice in his head whispered, but he thrust it away. It wouldn’t do to get all maudlin on Lucy and upset her any more than she already was.