Under the Apple Tree (7 page)

and I don’t blame her. But she understands the need.’ The

Mayoress leaned across the little table. ‘You see, the kind of

person I need will be someone who can respond to an

emergency — who can work on her own initiative, and who is

practical and won’t mind going out of the office and giving a

hand wherever it’s needed. Someone who can organise

anything from the evacuation of small children to collecting

scrap metal. It takes a very special kind of person to do all

that’s going to be required in these coming days and

months, Judith - not the sort of girl who just wants to sit at

a desk in a nice warm office all day.’

‘And you really think I could do all that?’ Judy asked,

with a little twinge of excitement.

The Lady Mayoress gave her a steady look. ‘You were

bombed out on Friday night, weren’t you? You and your

family lost everything. Yet you still made your way to the

Guildhall - your place of duty - having first made sure that

your family would be cared for at an Emergency Centre.

You even stopped on the way to help others who needed it,

and you then stayed at your post all day, despite the dangers

- there could have been fallen masonry or unexploded

bombs anywhere in the Guildhall Square - to make sure

that everyone from the offices knew the situation here.

Today is Sunday morning, and you’re here again, ready to

start work. That’s how I know that you’re the sort of person

I need.’

Judy glanced round the room once more. ‘But I’m not the

only one, madam. All these others …’

The Mayoress smiled again. ‘I also like the look of you,

Judith. I think we can get along - and that’s important too.

Now, what do you say? You don’t have to agree, and if you

do say yes and then find you’re not happy with the work — I

warn you, it’ll be hard, with long hours, and not always as

clean and pleasant as you’ve been accustomed to — then I

won’t hold you to it. You’ll be able to return to normal staff

duties. But will you at least give it a try?’ She tilted her head a little and lifted her fine eyebrows.

Judy bit her lip, longing to say yes, yet still held back by a

sense of loyalty to her workmates. She looked over at Miss

Marsh again and the supervisor caught her eye, said

something to her companions and came swiftly across the

room.

‘Well, Judy? Has the Lady Mayoress explained what she

wants?’

‘Yes, Miss Marsh. I don’t know what to say. There’s all

the work of getting the office together again, and—’

‘Say yes,’ the older woman advised her. ‘It’s an opportunity

for you, Judy, and I believe you’ll be good at it. I can

manage with the rest of the girls, and the male clerks, and

we may be able to take on extra staff as well. But the

Mayoress needs someone with Council experience as well as

initiative, and in you she’ll have both.’

Judy felt her skin colour. ‘Well, if you really think so …’

‘I do. I’ll be sorry to lose you, Judy, but we all have to use

our abilities where they’re most needed, and the WVS does

an excellent job. They’ll be needed even more as this war goes on. Now, you’ll have to excuse me, I must get back.’

She bobbed her head at the Lady Mayoress. ‘Let me know if

there’s anything else you need, madam.’

Left together, the Lady Mayoress and Judy looked at

each other. Judy smiled awkwardly and said, ‘Well, it looks

as if that’s settled then, madam. And - and thank you for

asking me.’

The Mayoress held out her hand. ‘I’m very pleased to

have you on my team. Now, I told you that I was stealing

two girls from Miss Marsh, but I haven’t told you who the other one is. It’s Laura Godsall - I think you know her, don’t you? She’s rather senior to you and will be my

secretary, but to all intents and purposes you’ll share the

work between you. We don’t have “hierarchies” in the WVS, we like women to be able to use their own individual skills so if you have any ideas of your own, or think things could be done differently, you must say so. Now, I’ve been given

the office next door for my own use, so come through and

we’ll get started.’

‘Yes, madam.’ Still feeling rather bewildered, Judy

followed the Mayoress through to a smaller room where she

found another desk and two of the dining tables. Laura

Godsall, a tall girl a year or two older than Judy, with long

blonde hair rolled up in a thick pleat over her forehead,

Betty Grable style, was sitting at one with a pad of

notepaper in front of her.

‘Here’s Miss Taylor come to help us,’ the Mayoress said

briskly. ‘You know each other already, and I’m sure we’re

all going to get along famously. Now, what’s been going on

while I’ve been out of the room, Laura?’

‘I’m trying to make lists of all the things we need to do,’

Laura said. She had a low, rather musical voice, and Judy

remembered that she sang in one of the church choirs in the

city. Her father was a vicar. ‘If we appeal for more

volunteers, we need to be able to give them jobs to do

straight away. The tea-and soup-stalls all have a rota, but

we need more people for the Emergency Centres, and more

Evacuation Helpers. Mrs Daysh was in here just now from

the Clothing Fund; she says they’re desperate for more

clothes—’

‘You see why I need help!’ the Mayoress said to Judy.

‘There’s an enormous amount to be done. Now, as Laura

says, the first thing we must do is find more volunteers.

That means plenty of notices to be put up, and we can’t get

them printed - the printers have got far too much to cope

with - so I think you’d better spend some time making them

by hand. Big, bold and simple, there’s no time for anything

fancy. We’ll get them into all the Emergency Centres and

First-Aid Posts, and everywhere else we can think of. I’ve

managed to get hold of some large sheets of paper - here,

spread them out on the table. Now, I must get down to the

Clothing Store. We had a new consignment in last week that

I don’t think has even been unpacked yet. I’ll take Mrs

Daysh with me and we can sort them out at once.’

She was” gone, leaving the two girls with a pile of paper

and a box of crayons between them. They looked at each

other and Judy grinned a little ruefully.

‘Well, I suppose it’s important work.’

‘It is,’ Laura assured her briskly. ‘Even if it does feel a bit like being back at school. Let’s see how many we can get

done by lunchtime - and what’s the betting that by then

she’ll have thought of something else for us to do!’

As it turned out, by lunchtime the Mayoress had thought

of quite a few things for them to do. Most of the women

who were already volunteers had gone straight to the

Emergency Centres, but some had come to the hotel with its

new offices to ask for orders. Laura and Judy, by now

inundated with requests for help, were kept busy matching

them up, and Judy soon lost any sense of embarrassment at

asking a well-dressed woman to take a frail old lady to the

lavatory, or sending a young mother with three small

children of her own to look after a crowd of bedraggled

urchins who didn’t seem to have any parents at all.

‘They wouldn’t volunteer if they didn’t mean it,’ Laura

remarked as she helped an efficient old lady to unload a pile

of woollen jumpers that someone had sent in. ‘It’s like the

Mayoress says - if you’re in the WVS you’ve got to be

flexible. Ready for anything. I can’t see anyone offering if they’re not prepared to do whatever they’re asked to do.’

‘Well, I hope we get lots more offers from these notices,’

Judy said, printing wanted - volunteers for the WVS out

for the hundredth time. ‘It’s been busy enough before, it’ll

be even worse now, especially if we get more raids like

Friday’s.’

‘D’you think we will?’ Laura paused in her sorting.

‘D’you think they’ll bomb us that badly again? I don’t know

how much more people will be able to stand.’

‘We’ll stand as much as we’ve got to,’ Judy said grimly.

‘We don’t have any choice, do we? And the Germans aren’t

going to stop because they feel sorry for us. They’ll hammer

and hammer and hammer till they think we’ll give in.’ She

drew a thick black line under the words and looked up.

‘We’ll get more raids all right, Laura. They haven’t finished

with Pompey yet - but what they don’t know, is that

Pompey hasn’t finished with them.”

Back at home at last, Judy stretched her toes out to the fire

and took a cup of tea from her mother. ‘Thanks, Mum. I

really need this. It was a horrible journey back. There’s any

amount of streets still blocked, the bus kept having to go a

different way. Some people said they were further away

from home when they got off than when they got on!’

‘It’s a shame you’ve got to go all the way out to Southsea,’

Cissie said, offering her a tin of broken biscuits before

settling a saucepan on the coals. ‘I hope they manage to get

the offices back into town before long.’

Judy shook her head. ‘They won’t go back now. You

haven’t seen the damage, Mum. We’ll be out at Southsea for

the duration, that’s what Miss Marsh says.’ She nibbled a

piece of Rich Tea. ‘Anyway, what sort of a day did you

have? Did you manage to get the rations sorted out?’

Polly nodded. ‘We’ve got temporary books, and we’ve

registered at the Co-op where Mum gets her rations.

They’ve opened up a grocery store not too far away, being

as the big one’s been bombed. Had to queue half the day but

at least we’ve got a bit of food in the place now. And we got

a bit more coal too, since we couldn’t manage to get all ours

out, but the woman was a bit funny about that, said it didn’t

take any more to warm five of us than one. I told her, we’ve

got to have something to cook on while there’s no gas, and

we’ve got an invalid in the house too, and she gave way in

the end but she didn’t like it.’

‘She only give us enough for a couple of hours a day

anyway,’ Alice observed. ‘I could have practically carried it

home in my pockets.’

Judy smiled. She was tired and cold after the long journey

from Southsea, and it was good to be back with the family

again. ‘I feel as though I’ve been working forever,’ she said.

‘It doesn’t seem like Sunday at all today. Did you manage to

get to church?’

‘Yes, we did, and so did just about everyone else in

Pompey,’ Polly told her. ‘Our church was full and I reckon

all the others must have been as well - the ones that are still standing, anyway. The vicar told us there was - how many

churches did he say got bombed, Mum?’

‘Well, there was the Wesley down Arundel Street, and

the one in Elm Grove, and Kent Street and Lane Road - oh

yes, and Immanuel too, all Baptist places they were. And the

old Unitarian in the High Street, that’s nothing but a pile of

rubble now, they say.’

‘What, old John Pound’s church?’ Dick said, glancing up

from his armchair. He was looking a bit better now,

although still with a slight greyish tinge to his face. ‘I never heard that. Well, that’s a proper shame - bit of history, that

church was. It was where old John Pound the cobbler

started up his Ragged Schools. Many a time I’ve looked at

the old wall tablet that said about how he used to take

kiddies in off the street and teach ‘em their letters while he

mended shoes. Used his own money to feed ‘em too, he did,

and put shoes on their feet and clothes on their backs. I call

that a real shame.’

‘I don’t think he actually mended shoes in the church,’

Judy began, but was silenced by a glance from her mother.

She bit her lip. It hardly mattered anyway. The tragedy was

that so many buildings had been bombed, whether they

were fine old churches or tiny terraced houses. The city was

having its heart torn out.

‘Tell you what,’ she said. ‘I’ve got a new job!’

The others stared at her. ‘A new job? Why? Have you been promoted? You never told us about this, Judy.’

Judy laughed. ‘I didn’t know, that’s why! And it is a kind

of promotion, I suppose, in a way. The Lady Mayoress has

asked me to work for her, helping with the WVS. You know

she’s high up in it, and she says they’re going to be even

busier now, helping in all sorts of ways. She needed some

more staff, so she asked Miss Marsh if she could have me

and Laura Godsall.’

‘But surely they’re all volunteers?’ Cissie said. ‘Does that

mean you won’t get paid?’

‘No, I’ll get the same wage as before. She’s allowed some

paid staff, you see, so that she’s always got people who know

what’s what. And we’re stopping out at the Royal Beach

because the WVS works with the Local Authority - it’s

something like the way the Wrens help the Navy and the

ATS help the Army, that sort of thing - but we might find

ourselves doing all sorts of jobs. I think it sounds

interesting,’ she said and finished her tea while the others

gazed at her.