Home Front Girls

what, I ask you? We haven’t had a sign of a single bomb yet.’
    ‘And let’s hope we don’t,’ Lucy said quietly. Without another word she turned and left to go to her department, thinking what a self-centred young woman Annabelle was.
    At morning break-time they all sat together again in the canteen and Dotty treated herself to a slice of toast with a thin layer of margarine spread on it to go with her cup of tea. She was actually finding the canteen quite handy. At lunchtime you could get a warming bowl of soup for a penny and it certainly beat trying to cook herself anything when she got home, dead on her feet. They had all been surprisingly busy as people were trying to get their Christmas shopping done early before the rationing came strictly into force.
    ‘Where are you today?’ Annabelle asked Lucy as she joined her and Dotty at the table. Thankfully, she herself had been in the lingerie department again.
    ‘I’ve been in childrenswear,’ Lucy beamed. She had loved working in there and only wished that she could afford to buy some of the lovely garments they stocked for Mary. Most of their clothes came from jumble sales, not that Lucy was complaining. There were some rare bargains to be had if you were prepared to look carefully enough, and she was proud of the fact that she had always managed to keep her little sister well turned out.
    ‘Oh you poor thing, how ghastly.’ Annabelle looked horrified but Lucy shook her head.
    ‘Actually I love working in there. I’ve asked Mrs Broadstairs if I could stay there permanently if it’s possible.’
    Annabelle stared at her as if she had lost her marbles. She had never had a lot to do with children, having no brothers or sisters, and nor did she wish to.
    ‘But how could you possibly enjoy serving brats?’ She shuddered dramatically. ‘All those runny noses and tantrums.’
    Lucy chuckled. ‘There is a little more to children than that,’ she assured her. ‘My Mary is a little sweetheart and as good as gold.’
    Annabelle frowned as she took a packet of Players and a box of Swan Vesta matches from her bag. ‘Don’t you feel resentful of the fact that you have to care for her? After all, at your age you should be out dancing, going to the cinema and enjoying yourself.’
    ‘Not at all,’ Lucy said evenly. ‘Family is family at the end of the day and you do what you have to do.’
    ‘Well, rather you than me,’ Annabelle retorted, lighting her cigarette. ‘I don’t think I shall ever want children.’
    ‘Really?’ Dotty gazed at her in amazement. Surely every girl dreamed of getting married and starting a family? Not that she thought there was much chance of that happening to her. She had never even had a boyfriend and doubted that she ever would. But now, sensing the tense atmosphere, she hastily changed the subject, telling them: ‘I’ve been in the fabric department.’ Her eyes were shining and she looked really pleased. ‘Ooh, you should just see some of the material they have in there,’ she went on. ‘It’s really beautiful. They’ve got such a selection too. There’s raw silk in all the colours of the rainbow and satin as well as lace and the more everyday materials. It almost makes me wish I could sew, but I’ve never been very good with a needle. I prefer to write myself.’
    ‘What sort of things do you write?’ Lucy asked with kindly interest.
    Dotty flushed. ‘Oh, just stories and poems really,’ she said self-consciously. ‘And I’m not that good at it . . . I just enjoy it.’
    Again, Annabelle raised her eyebrows. It seemed that anything that didn’t involve going out and having a good time was of no interest to her.
    ‘I shall have to get you to show me some of your stories sometime,’ Lucy said. ‘I love to read when I get a spare minute. I often go to the library.’
    ‘Oh? What sort of books do you like?’
    Lucy shrugged. ‘Anything I can get my hands on really, although I do love a good soppy love story and of course the classics – Jane Austen, Mrs Gaskell, Dickens – any of those. In fact, I’ve read The Olde Curiosity Shop three times. That’s one of my very favourites.’
    ‘Mine too,’ Dotty admitted, but their conversation was stopped from going any further when Annabelle butted in with, ‘Well, give me a trip to the cinema any time. I’m going to the Gaumont tonight as it so happens to see that new Clark Gable film with my friend Jessica. Don’t you think Clark Gable is just the