Home Front Girls

fact, it was too big when Mother was alive. We rattled around in it like peas in a pod, but she wouldn’t hear of moving. I’m afraid she was a terrible snob. Not an easy woman to live with at all, to be honest.’ She glanced nervously over her shoulder then as if the dead woman might magically materialise at any moment. But then she smiled again as she took Dotty’s elbow and led her towards the back of the house. Dotty was amazed as they moved on and felt as if she had stepped back in time. The house and its contents were very dated and fussy, and all the heavy furniture gleamed as if it had been polished to within an inch of its life. She got the impression that Mrs Timms must have been quite a slave-driver.
    Miss Timms led her into an enormous kitchen, and Dotty’s eyes goggled. It was like a picture she had seen of a kitchen in the last century, but once more everything was as neat as a new pin with not a single thing out of place.
    ‘I got some fish from the stall in the market,’ Miss Timms told her, ‘and I’ve done you some potatoes that I grew in the vegetable patch in the garden and broccoli to go with them. You do like cod, don’t you, Dotty? I seemed to remember you did when you were at the orphanage.’
    ‘I love fish,’ Dotty assured her, touched at how hard the woman was trying to please her. ‘But you really don’t have to go to all this trouble every day. I can get a meal in the staff dining room at work.’
    Miss Timms sniffed disapprovingly. ‘That isn’t the same as having a good home-cooked meal,’ she said. ‘And you’re so thin. But never mind, now that you’re here I shall soon get you fattened up a little.’
    Dotty grinned, thinking that Miss Timms had made her sound like a Christmas turkey, but she didn’t object because she knew that the dear soul only meant well.
    The meal was actually delicious, and Dotty cleared her plate – much to Miss Timms’s delight.
    ‘And now I must show you your room,’ she said when she had plied the girl with soft stewed fruit from the garden and thick custard.
    Dotty followed her upstairs where Miss Timms showed her into a very pretty bedroom. A chintz bedspread lay across a large brass bed and matching curtains hung at the window, which overlooked a very neat garden, most of which was clearly being used to grow fruit and vegetables. There was a heavy oak wardrobe, a chest of drawers and a thick wool rug on the floor at the side of the bed.
    ‘Why, it’s lovely!’ Dotty exclaimed and Miss Timms beamed.
    ‘Then I’ll leave you to unpack,’ she chirped merrily. ‘The bathroom is the third door on the right along the landing. I’ve put you some fresh towels in there but do let me know if there’s anything else you need.’
    ‘I will,’ Dotty promised as the woman backed out of the room looking very happy. She must be very lonely if she’s so pleased to have me here, Dotty thought and then set about unpacking her case.
    Later that evening, Robert telephoned Miss Timms and asked if he could speak to Dotty. The woman tactfully left Dotty to speak to him in private, then came back into the hall when she heard the receiver go down.
    ‘Are you all right, Dotty?’ she asked, seeing the girl’s glum face.
    ‘Oh yes, I’m fine,’ Dotty assured her a little too quickly.
    Miss Timms stared at her thoughtfully. ‘You love that young man, don’t you?’ she asked bluntly, and when Dotty immediately lowered her eyes, her suspicion was confirmed. For months Dotty had talked of little else but Robert, but recently she had seemed very subdued and had scarcely mentioned him.
    ‘Of course I don’t,’ Dotty responded rather heatedly. ‘We have to stay in touch because of my writing, but that’s all there is to it. Robert regards me as nothing more than a friend – I think.’
    ‘And how do you regard him?’
    Dotty squirmed uncomfortably. ‘As a wonderful man,’ she admitted. ‘But we live in different worlds. And Robert is older than me too. I think he sees me as just a silly kid who has a flair for writing.’
    ‘I doubt that very much,’ Miss Timms said quietly. ‘And age and class between two people who care about each other should be no barrier at all.’
    Dotty sighed and moved away, and as the older woman watched her go her heart was heavy. Poor Dotty, life had not been kind to her, but Alice Timms hoped that from now on, she could make things a little easier for the girl.

Chapter Twenty-Six
     
    During the autumn