Home Front Girls

you? That poor chap looked like he wished the ground would open up and swallow him.’
    ‘Serves him right,’ Lucy spat bitterly, but she did slow down a little and the other two girls fell into step beside her. They glanced at each other and frowned, but wisely held their tongues. Lucy was so angry she was like a powder keg waiting to explode and they didn’t want to start her off again.
    Eventually it was Lucy who broke the silence when she said meekly, ‘I’m sorry about that. I just lost my temper, but I didn’t mean to show you up.’
    ‘It’s all right,’ said Dotty, ever the peacemaker. ‘Didn’t you like him?’
    ‘I don’t like any men . . . except Joel,’ Lucy answered. ‘They’re all only after one thing and they’re not going to get it from me! I shan’t have a boyfriend or get married – ever !’
    ‘Blimey, that’s a bit strong, isn’t it?’ Dotty was shocked. ‘You’re bound to meet someone you like and fall in love with eventually. You’re far too attractive to stay single.’
    ‘I won’t!’ Lucy was adamant. ‘If you only knew . . .’ Her voice trailed away then and she clammed up. They were approaching the bus station by now and all Lucy wanted to do was get back to the safety of her little rented house. The whole evening had been a mistake. Going to the pictures with the girls was one thing, but going to a dance was a different thing entirely and she was determined she would not do so again.
    ‘Look, I’ll see you both at work on Monday,’ she said lamely. ‘And I’ll bring all your clothes with me too,’ she assured Annabelle.
    Annabelle shrugged. She wasn’t overly worried about the clothes that Lucy had borrowed. She had plenty more. ‘Whenever, there’s no rush.’
    She and Dotty watched Lucy head for her bus-stand then, and once she was out of earshot Dotty asked, ‘What do you think brought that on? And what do you think she meant when she said, “If you only knew . . .?” Do you think she’s had a bad experience with a boy or something?’
    ‘I’ve no idea,’ Annabelle said truthfully. ‘But that’s my bus just pulled in over there so I may as well get home. The night is ruined now anyway. Goodnight, Dotty.’
    ‘’Night,’ Dotty responded as she stood there thoughtfully chewing on her lip.

Chapter Sixteen
     
    On 13 May 1940, Mr and Mrs P and Lucy huddled around the wireless to listen to the Home Service news as Winston Churchill addressed Parliament. He could offer little hope to the nation as Hitler’s devastation continued, and he spoke of ‘ blood, toil, tears and sweat ’. Yet still his determination that they would not be defeated shone through. He admitted that there would be no easy solution and did not deny that the country faced ’an ordeal of the most grievous kind ’, but he maintained that whilst every man and woman worked together and stayed firmly behind him they would achieve victory and survive. He somehow managed to make the people feel that they were all in it together and told them, ‘ I take up my task with buoyancy and hope . . . I feel entitled . . . to claim the aid of all and to say, “come then, let us go forward together with our united strength ”.’
    Once the broadcast was over Mr P switched the wireless off and began to stuff tobacco into his pipe.
    ‘He’s a good man,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ll not go far wrong wi’ him to lead us.’
    Lucy and Mrs P were thinking of all the ships that were being sunk in the Channel and of Joel and Freddy, and could only pray that Mr P was right.
     
    On the following Sunday Winston Churchill again addressed the nation, and once more Mr and Mrs P and Lucy huddled around the wireless. He called the Nazis ‘the foulest and most soul-destroying tyranny which has ever darkened and stained the pages of history ’. But he ended his speech by saying, ‘ Together we shall win !’
    Only days later, the papers reported that France and Belgium had begun to fall as the Germans swept through to the Channel coast. Boulogne had been evacuated, Arras had fallen and Amiens had been taken. As Lucy read it, a cold finger raced down her spine. The British Army had been forced to retreat to the beaches.
    ‘What will happen to them?’ Lucy sobbed. ‘There’s nowhere else for them to go now. They’ll all be slaughtered like lambs.’
    ‘I dare say they’ll send ships to try and bring back those that are still alive,’ Mrs P answered, her thoughts full of her son. Was he