Home Front Girls

all loved her too. Her death might have been a blessed release, from what Lucy told us.’
    He looked at her strangely, and knowing that she had said too much, she rushed on, ‘Lucy told us – about your mum, I mean. I think she needed to confide in someone.’
    ‘Oh yes? And what exactly did she tell you?’ He was frowning now and she felt suddenly nervous.
    ‘W-well, just that your dad was a . . . a bully and one night she couldn’t take any more so she er . . . stabbed him to death and ended up in a mental home.’
    Joel’s lips pursed into a thin line but he remained silent, and feeling extremely uncomfortable, Annabelle told him, ‘I must get on now, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
    There was no response and as she set off back down the ward she cursed herself. Why had she had to go and blab that out, about Lucy telling them her secret? Joel was obviously none too pleased about the fact that she knew, but it had just come out as she’d tried to comfort him. But what was there to be ashamed of? She just hoped that she hadn’t got Lucy into bother, but for now she had a list of jobs as long as her arm to think about, so there was no time to dwell on it. With luck, by the time she saw Joel again he would have had time for the first shock to subside. She just prayed the bad news would not impede his recovery.

Chapter Thirty-Five
     
    On St Valentine’s Day, 1941, Dotty and Robert were married in a short ceremony at Marylebone Register Office as Laura and Paul looked on. Dotty had the low-key affair she had wanted, although Laura had insisted on her having a new outfit and carrying a small bouquet of pink roses, and everyone who saw the bride commented how absolutely beautiful she looked. She wore a pale blue costume with a navy hat and shoes, and happiness seemed to radiate off her in waves as the registrar pronounced them husband and wife.
    Laura sniffed tearfully into a scrap of handkerchief as the newlyweds came out onto the steps after the ceremony, and Paul took some photographs on his Kodak Brownie camera. A professional photographer had been impossible to find in these difficult times, but that didn’t matter to Dotty or Robert. All they cared about was being together. Laura then showered them in rice and Paul whipped them all away to a restaurant at Marble Arch for a slap-up meal.
    ‘To our dear friends!’ Paul declared a toast as he raised his glass and Robert kissed his wife tenderly as he asked, ‘Are you happy, Mrs Brabinger?’
    ‘Couldn’t be happier,’ she assured him, and if a tiny part of her was wishing that her mother and her father could have been there to share this most special occasion, she hid it well. She was determined that nothing should spoil the day and thankfully nothing did – until later that night when she shyly climbed into bed with her new husband in the sumptuous hotel bedroom in the Charing Cross Road. He had promised her a honeymoon somewhere exotic when the war was over, but for now this was the best he could do and Dotty had assured him that it was just perfect. She had just been admiring the congratulation telegrams that had arrived early that morning from Miranda, Annabelle and Lucy, and was deeply touched that they had all thought of her. But now she suddenly felt nervous. She had never had anyone to tell her about what would be expected of her on her wedding night, and she was praying that Robert would not be disappointed in her. However, sensing her unease, he didn’t rush things but slid his arm about her shoulders and asked, ‘Have you enjoyed the day, darling?’
    ‘Every minute of it,’ she told him truthfully as she gingerly inched across the mattress towards him in the lovely silk nightdress Laura had bought her especially for the occasion. Dotty had never owned anything so fine in her whole life and she almost hated to crease it. She knew that it must have cost an absolute fortune, but then that was Laura down to a T – generous to a fault, bless her. Fingering the gold band on her finger, nestling next to her later mother-in-law’s engagement ring, she resisted the urge to pinch herself. Could this really be happening to her, plain old Dotty? But yes it was. She could feel the heat of Robert’s leg lying next to hers and there was something sensuous about his closeness. She had never lain with a man before, and yet from now on she would lie next to him every single night for the rest of her life. It gave her a tingly feeling just