Home Front Girls

think we’re going to be giving the stuff away or something?’
    ‘Well, you know what they say – the early bird catches the worm, and according to the Home Service, some people have been queuing all night in London to get the best bargains,’ Lucy said. ‘Think of it this way – if we’re busy, the time will go quicker.’
    ‘Trust you to look on the bright side,’ Annabelle bridled as she hung her coat up and checked her hair in the mirror above the sink. They then all darted off on their separate ways, wondering if they would even have time for their breaks or their lunch-hours.
    ‘Miss Smythe, there is another customer waiting to be served,’ the head of the perfume department barked at Annabelle an hour later.
    ‘I am well aware of that fact,’ Annabelle snapped back. ‘But unfortunately I haven’t yet mastered the art of serving more than one customer at a time!’
    ‘Why, really !’ The woman was enraged. ‘I shall be reporting you to Mrs Broadstairs,’ she sputtered.
    ‘Well, before you do that, why don’t you get behind the counter and help me to serve?’ Annabelle suggested tartly, enraging the irate woman even more. Even so, she joined Annabelle and between them the queue of people waiting to be served did start to go down a little more quickly.
    There was no chance of a morning break but at last the girls were given permission to go for a shortened lunch break and they all met up in the staff dining room.
    ‘My God, I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Dotty said as they stood at the counter waiting to be served with beans on toast. ‘I’ve actually had two ladies almost come to blows over a length of reduced material that they both made a beeline for this morning. I had to use all my wits to calm them down.’
    ‘It hasn’t been much better in the children’s department,’ Lucy said.
    ‘Nor in perfumes and cosmetics,’ Annabelle chipped in. ‘I ran out of Elizabeth Arden’s Blue Grass within an hour and the customers have really been having a go at me, as if it was my fault! I’ll tell you, at one point I was ready to walk out – and blow the job!’
    They all saw the funny side of it then and carried their trays to the table with grins on their faces. After all, the worst of the sales rush should be over now, shouldn’t it?
     
    It was on the third day back at work that Lucy informed them that Joel was home.
    ‘He’s meeting me from work this evening so we could all go for a cup of tea again, if you like,’ she suggested.
    ‘Unfortunately I can’t,’ Dotty apologised. ‘I have Miss Timms coming to see me at the flat tonight and I don’t want her to arrive and for me not to be there.’
    ‘But I could come – I don’t have anything planned,’ Annabelle told Lucy hastily.
    ‘Right, we’ll do that then,’ Lucy agreed, and for the rest of the day Annabelle found that she could think of nothing else.
    When they left the store they found Joel waiting for them with a worried frown on his face. ‘I’ve had to leave Mary with Mrs P,’ he informed Lucy. ‘She’s got a terrible cough on her so I think we should head straight home.’
    ‘But I invited Annabelle to come to the café with us.’ Lucy said, then a thought occurred to her and she turned to her friend. ‘Why don’t you come home with us and have dinner? That would be all right, wouldn’t it, Joel?’
    ‘Of course it would.’ He was painfully aware of Annabelle standing next to him and was secretly thrilled at Lucy’s suggestion. ‘I’m sure we can rustle up enough for another mouth.’
    And so they set off side by side for the bus station and when their bus came in Lucy watched Joel slip into the seat next to Annabelle.
    ‘So, Lucy tells me that you’ll be off soon then?’ Annabelle couldn’t keep the concern from her voice and Joel stared at her in the dim light. Could it be that Annabelle was as attracted to him as he was to her? But then he dismissed that idea. What would a girl like her want to waste time on the likes of him for? She was from a different class. The way she spoke, the way she dressed, the way she held herself, and everything else about her told him so – and yet . . .
    He nodded and cleared his throat. ‘Yes, I will. We haven’t been told officially, but it looks like we’re going to be shipped out to either Norway or France – and then God knows when I’ll get home again.’ He refrained from saying if ever – but it was a fear he had. What would happen