Home Front Girls

Miss Timms, I’ve been such a fool. I think I’ve loved him since the first second I set eyes on him, but I was too afraid to tell him. I felt that I wasn’t good enough for him so I’ve deliberately backed off and held him at arm’s length. And now I may never get the chance to tell him. What shall I do if anything happens to him?’
    ‘Oh, my poor Dotty.’ The woman was distressed to see the dear girl so upset. ‘If it’s God’s will he’ll survive,’ she murmured, and Dotty could only pray that she was right. And then the very room trembled and they both cowered as lumps of plaster rained down on them.
    ‘I think the house has taken a hit,’ Miss Timms murmured as she spat out plaster dust.
    Dotty’s eyes stretched wide with panic. ‘Then that means that we are trapped down here,’ she breathed.
    ‘If we are, they’ll dig us out,’ Miss Timms said calmly, although her own heart was beating fast now. But then if she was to die she could think of no one she would rather be with, and suddenly the time for the truth was upon her. She didn’t want to take her secret to the grave with her.
    ‘Dotty . . . I have something that I must tell you,’ she began. ‘And I fear that once I have told you, if we get out of here alive you may never want to see me again.’
    Dotty peeped up at her, her face pale in the light from the flickering candle.
    ‘The thing is . . .’ the woman went on, ‘I know how much you have always wanted to know who your mother was – and well, I happen to know. You see, I am your mother.’
    ‘What?’ Dotty eyes were transfixed on the woman now and Miss Timms squirmed uncomfortably.
    ‘B-but you can’t be,’ Dotty breathed, feeling as if she was caught up in some sort of a dream. ‘And if you really are my mother, why did you abandon me and leave me in the orphanage all those years?’
    ‘I – I had no choice,’ the woman informed her brokenly above the roar of explosions. ‘But please let me at least explain and then you might understand.’
    When Dotty did not object she took a deep breath before going on. ‘My mother was a very strict religious woman, as I think I may have told you,’ she began. ‘I was her and Father’s only child and I had the best education that money could buy. I went to a private convent school as Mother wanted me to make something of myself and marry well.’ She snorted then. ‘Unfortunately, although I had the brains, I was somewhat of a plain Jane, so the last part might have proved to be somewhat difficult. Anyway, I left school and enrolled at a secretarial college. I quite enjoyed it, and when I had completed the course I found a job as a receptionist in an office. I soon developed a crush on one of the bosses there. I had never been in love before and was sadly lacking in confidence, but amazingly he found me attractive and before I knew it we were having an affair.’ Miss Timms sighed. ‘He was some years older than me and before too long I discovered that he was a married man and my whole world fell apart. The problem was, he kept telling me that he was going to leave his wife so that we could be together. Young and naïve as I was, I believed him.’
    She shook her head as memories rushed back. ‘Then another woman in the office began to suspect that there was something going on between us, and she privately tried to warn me off him. She said I was a fool and that nothing could ever come of it, but I wouldn’t listen to her. Of course, I was furious and told her to mind her own business. I know now that she was only trying to help me. Perhaps she had been in a similar situation herself, once. You think you know it all at that age, don’t you? And then one day I came home to find a very attractive woman in the kitchen with Mother. She was his wife and she’d gotten wind of our affair. Mother was absolutely furious and forbade me from ever seeing him again. She even locked me in my room for a few days until I agreed. But of course, she couldn’t lock me away forever, and as soon as she let me out I headed back to the office to find him. That was a big mistake. He told me that he did love me, but found he couldn’t bring himself to leave his wife because of the children. I was totally devastated, and yet I admired him for putting his children first. He was a good man, you see? And then I missed my next period.’
    Miss Timms gulped deep in her throat as a tear plopped off the end of her nose. ‘I’m ashamed to admit