Home Front Girls

affection by licking every inch of her he could reach.
    Meanwhile Miranda looked on happily. Lucy had been so quiet and depressed since she had lost Mary that it was wonderful to see her smiling again.
    As always she fussed over the girls and raced about fetching them tea and biscuits and Dotty couldn’t help but be a little envious. Miranda was much as she had always liked to imagine her own mother might have been, and often she couldn’t help but think that Annabelle took her for granted.
    ‘I ought to be thinking of getting back now,’ Lucy said eventually as the light outside began to wane. ‘I don’t want to be out in the open on the way home with Harry if there’s another air-raid warning tonight.’
    They all became solemn then. The warnings had been so frequent of late that a lot of people were now choosing to sleep through them in their own beds and ignore the sirens. Sadly it had cost some of them their lives when the Germans had dropped their bombs on the city. Almost every night, Miranda had found herself in some church hall with the other WVS volunteers, tending the sick and catering to the homeless, and she was glad to do it. At least while she was busy she did not have time to fret about her husband. There was still no news from him, but each day she managed to persuade herself that no news was good news and that he was safe wherever he was.
    ‘I shall run you and Harry home tonight,’ Miranda told Lucy now. ‘It’s too far for you to walk.’
    ‘Oh no, I can’t let you do that,’ Lucy objected. ‘Petrol is too precious to waste on that.’
    ‘No, it isn’t.’ Miranda fetched her car keys from the pot on the dresser then told her, ‘Come along, young lady. I won’t take no for an answer so let’s get Harry into the car. There’s a dry towel he can sit on here. And isn’t it tomorrow you lot are all going to see Gone With the Wind at the Rex?’
    When the girls nodded she went on, ‘Then in that case I don’t mind looking after Harry, if you’re worried about leaving him on his own.’
    ‘Thank you, but I’m hoping that Mrs P will volunteer,’ Lucy explained. ‘I’m going to have to ask her if she’ll let him out in the day for me while I’m at work too,’ she confided, ‘Between you and me I don’t think she’ll object too much. She used to have a dog of her own when we first moved next door to her and she really loved him. Sadly he died of old age a couple of years ago and I know that Mrs P was heartbroken and really missed him, so I’m hoping that she’ll enjoy having Harry about. She doesn’t have anyone else to spoil at the minute.’
    Her face became sad then and they all knew that she was thinking of Mary, so Miranda said hastily, ‘Come along then, let’s get him home to meet her. The light will be gone before we know it and I don’t fancy driving through the streets without my headlights on after dark.’
    When she dropped Lucy and Harry off some time later right at their front door, Lucy impulsively leaned over and kissed the woman on the cheek, making a warm glow spread through Miranda. Annabelle, Dotty and Lucy were all as different as chalk from cheese and made unlikely friends, and yet she had watched the closeness between the three girls grow and had rejoiced in it. Miranda felt that Dotty and Lucy were good for her daughter. Lucy was a sensitive, kind girl, while Dotty was shy and rather lacking in confidence, but full of surprises.
    She pecked Lucy on the cheek then drove away, her thoughts already on what the night ahead might hold for them.
     
    ‘Well, bless my soul!’ Mrs P exclaimed when Lucy marched Harry into her kitchen a short while later. ‘Who have we here then? An’ who does he belong to?’
    ‘His name is Harry and he belongs to me,’ Lucy told her proudly. ‘We’ve sort of adopted each other.’
    Mr P, who was reading his newspaper in the chair at the side of the fireplace, looked at Harry over the top of the glasses perched on the end of his nose, then smiled and disappeared back behind the paper again.
    ‘Ah, bless him,’ Mrs P said, dropping onto her knees and stroking his long silky ears. ‘Ain’t he just the loveliest little thing yer ever did see, our Fred?’
    ‘I’m glad you think that,’ Lucy said sheepishly. ‘Because I have a big favour to ask of you. I was wondering if you would pop round and let him out into the yard during the day for me while I’m at work?’
    ‘I can do a lot bloody better than