Home Front Girls

doing menial and mucky jobs like that somehow. She was always so fastidious.’
    ‘Well, someone has to do it,’ Laura pointed out. ‘And keeping up the standards of hygiene in a hospital is as important as doing the actual nursing. I’ve no doubt she’ll be able to do more with the patients eventually. But will she be staying at Haslar? I know a lot of VADs have been shipped abroad to nurse the troops.’
    ‘She hasn’t said anything about a move,’ Dotty shrugged, then, ‘Is there anything I can do for you this morning while you’re at work? One-handed, that is.’
    Laura chuckled as she fastened her coat. ‘Nothing at all. The cleaning lady will be in as usual, so you just relax. I’m sure Robert said he was dropping by to see you on his way into work so that will break the morning up for you. Bye for now.’
    And with that she went off, leaving Dotty to pace the floor like a caged animal and curse her broken arm. She had never realised before how frustrating it must be for the men who had lost limbs in the war, and she felt guilty for complaining. After all, she was only temporarily incapacitated. They would have to learn to live with their disabilities for the rest of their lives. Annabelle had written to tell her horror stories about some of the men on the wards and Dotty felt tearful every time she thought of them, poor things.
    Now she tried to think more cheerful thoughts, and first on the list was her visit to Coventry. She had really missed her friends, even though Laura and Paul had made her feel more than welcome. Laura’s children were adorable too. Simon was seven and a real little imp, always up to mischief, but lovable with it, and his five-year-old sister Elizabeth, affectionately known as Lizzie, was a real little sweetheart, never happier than when Dotty was reading her a story.
    Her stay with the Parsons family in Whitechapel had been a time of adjustment for Dotty. Leaving her home town had not been easy, and discovering who her birth mother was had been a bittersweet experience. After all the years of dreaming, she had finally found her mother, but the chance for them to really get to know each other on this new, more intimate footing, had been cruelly snatched away from her. And then there was Robert and her admission of the love she felt for him. He had made it more than clear that he felt the same way about her, but was too much of a gentleman to rush things. With his inbuilt sensitivity, he was happy to give Dotty time to come to terms with everything that had happened.
    As in Coventry, the spirits of the people of London were low. It seemed that the war was escalating, with the German forces dominating and Dotty wondered where it was all going to end. Her broody thoughts were interrupted then as Mrs Wiggins, Laura’s daily help, breezed into the room wielding a tin of wax polish and a large yellow duster.
    ‘’Ello, me owld duck,’ she said cheerfully and Dotty instantly perked up. No one could stay sad around Ada Wiggins for long. Born and bred within the sound of Bow bells and proud of it, she was like a ray of sunshine. She was short and plump with a wicked sense of humour, and Dotty had taken to her at first sight. Today Mrs Wiggins was clad in her customary flowered wraparound apron and she had a headsquare tied turban-like around her steel-grey hair with one metal curler sitting on her forehead. Sometimes she put Dotty in mind of Mrs P. A Woodbine dangled from the corner of her mouth, something she wouldn’t have dared do had Laura been at home. But she had already sussed that Dotty could be trusted not to tell on her. Her husband, Jim, worked on the London docks and her family were all grown and long flown the nest. ‘I don’t really need to work,’ she had confided to Dotty shortly after the girl had arrived there, ‘but it gives me a bit o’ pin money to do as I like wiv, which is no bad fing is it, dearie?’
    ‘Absolutely not,’ Dotty had agreed, trying hard to keep a straight face, and their friendship had grown from there. The woman fussed over Dotty like a little round mother hen. It soon transpired that Mrs Wiggins had worked for Laura for years and they thought the world of each other, which was hardly surprising as the housekeeper kept the house clean as a new pin with never a word of complaint. She would even meet the children from school if Laura was tied up in the office, and then she would look after them till their mother or father arrived