Home Front Girls

eventually laid her hand gently on Lucy’s shoulder as she told her, ‘I’m so sorry, Lucy. But whyever didn’t you tell us all this before? We’re your friends, we could have helped you.’ She suddenly felt very guilty as she thought of the privileged upbringing she had had while poor Lucy must have been going through hell. Her own father had cosseted and pampered her and she was ashamed of the way she had treated him. There and then she determined that she would make it up to him when he came home, God willing, if he ever did.
    Dotty meanwhile was sobbing openly. Her own childhood had been lonely, but she had never suffered as Lucy must have and she wished that she could magic all the hurt away. Of course she knew that she couldn’t, but she could be there for her and she swore that she always would be.
    Mr P too had tears on his cheeks after listening to the sad tale, and for a while he felt ashamed of being a male. It was just beyond him how any man could do that to a woman, especially his own precious wife.
    So many things suddenly made sense now. Lucy’s reaction to the chap who had come on to her at the dance hall for a start-off. No wonder the poor girl couldn’t stand a man to touch her after seeing the way her father had treated her mother. The reason why Joel had been so fiercely protective of both Mary and Lucy. At one stage both Dotty and Annabelle had been secretly concerned that his possessiveness was a little unhealthy, but after this awful confession they could understand why. And for the girl to have to carry a secret like that trapped inside; it just didn’t bear thinking about. And now little Mary was dead and they all wondered how Lucy would cope with this new loss when she had gone through so very much already.
    ‘We’re your friends, Lucy, and we’ll help you to get through this together,’ Dotty promised now and Annabelle backed her up. As Mrs P looked on tearfully, she saw the strong bond that had developed between the three girls and thanked God for it. She had a feeling that in the dark days ahead, Lucy was going to need all the support she could get.

Chapter Twenty-Three
     
    At her own insistence, Lucy travelled alone to Folkestone to identify Mary’s body. She was led into a large, bleak morgue where Mary’s body, along with a number of others, lay on cold stone slabs covered with white sheets. Some of them had name tags tied to their big toes, but others were as yet unidentified. As Lucy gazed down on her beloved girl’s ashen face, she felt as if a part of herself had died too, but she shed no tears. For now, the pain she was feeling was beyond tears.
    Mary was buried in a tiny churchyard in Folkestone overlooking the sea. The Red Cross had offered to have her body transported back to Coventry but Lucy felt that there was no point. The little girl was gone and it didn’t really matter where she was laid to rest.
    Mrs Broadstairs had been marvellous about the whole thing and told Lucy that she must take off as much time as she needed. Only the people that Lucy had made her dreadful confession knew the real truth and none of them would ever repeat it. Annabelle and Dotty fussed over her and pandered to her every need, but although Lucy was grateful to them, she felt dead inside. She told them her mother had never wanted Mary, yet from the moment the child had been born Lucy had adored her unconditionally. After all, it wasn’t Mary’s fault that she had been born and now that she was gone, as well as her mother, and with no word from Joel, the girl sometimes wondered if life was worth living. It was only the tender ministrations of Dotty and Annabelle that kept her going and she knew that she would never be able to repay them for their kindness.
     
    It was as they were going to Primrose Lodge after work one evening that Annabelle told them, ‘I’m going to be twenty-one next week.’
    ‘Really? Then we should do something special to mark the occasion,’ Dotty said excitedly.
    Annabelle reared up. ‘Huh! What is there to do? There’s warnings going off nearly every night, and even when they turn out to be false alarms you have to cope with broken sleep. Daddy promised me a big posh party but we still haven’t heard from him. It’s been months now,’ she added gloomily.
    Dotty and Lucy exchanged a glance, wondering what Annabelle was most upset about. Was it the fact that she hadn’t heard from her father and had no idea of his whereabouts, or the fact that