The Woolworths Girls (33 page)

Ruby had invited Maureen as well, as she was worried the woman would feel lonely with Sarah staying at number thirteen to care for Maisie, but Maureen assured them she understood and was taking herself off to the pictures with her neighbour, so they weren’t to worry. All the same, Ruby did worry, as Maureen was family now, even though Sarah had not heard from Alan since Christmas. Whatever was that lad playing at? There was so much going on in their lives that Ruby’s head was in a spin. She didn’t know what to think.

‘Authorities, Mrs Caselton? I don’t want anything to do with no authorities. It’s them what put me behind bars to begin with,’ Lenny said as he piled his fork with cabbage, which his own sister had grown in Ruby’s garden.

‘What put you behind bars, young Lenny, was that Tommy Whiffen forcing you to tell lies on his behalf. Now, you can stay here tonight and then tomorrow we will walk down to the police station and you can hand yourself in. We can show them what you’ve written and let the police look into this sorry mess and sort it out once and for all.’

Lenny dropped his knife and fork onto his plate with a clatter. ‘What? Me go back to prison? No, I’m sorry, Mrs Caselton, but I ain’t going back there – not for a million pounds.’

‘No one is offering you money, Lenny. If you go back to prison for now, then this Tommy Whiffen won’t be wanting to harm Freda. You will be safe as well. Once the police know the truth, the right person will be locked up and then you will be set free. Now, eat your dinner up before it gets cold. We need to get you a haircut so you look presentable for tomorrow. Your clothes are washed and ironed, and you can keep the bits you’re wearing now.’

Lenny bent his head over his dinner and muttered, ‘Yes, Mrs Caselton.’

Freda looked at her brother and wondered. What was Lenny thinking right now?

‘Sit yourself down, Sarah. You look all in. Your dinner will be warm before too long.’

Sarah kicked her shoes off and rubbed her ankles. ‘Thanks, Nan. I worked through my lunch hour. What with Maisie off and us being short-staffed, I just had a sandwich with Betty in the office. How is Maisie?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine, love. She hasn’t come home since this morning. It’s nearly seven o’clock. I hope she’s all right.’

‘Do you think we should go out and look for her, Nan?’

‘How would we know where to start?’

Sarah shook her head. ‘I have no idea. Whenever she wasn’t going to work, she went out with me and Freda, unless she went to Woolwich to buy fabric at the market. I don’t think dressmaking is on her mind today. Do you think she’s done something silly?’

Ruby shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t think so, love. She’s made of stern stuff is our Maisie.’

‘But she’s been so down since Joe joined up, and it was only yesterday that she collapsed in Woolworths. We shouldn’t have let her go out on her own.’

‘We had no choice in the matter, Sarah. She made it quite clear she didn’t want our help. We couldn’t very well follow her, could we? We will just have to wait for her to come home. I only hope she isn’t too late. I’m fair exhausted after last night and Lenny turning up like that. Young Freda’s been right embarrassed about what happened. I told her not to be so daft. She really should have told us everything sooner. We may have been able to help her. She’s not got a shift tonight, so I suggested she take Lenny to the pictures. It’ll cheer him up before he goes back to prison. It’s a shame, though, as Nelson has really taken to the lad.’

Sarah almost choked on her cup of tea. ‘What? He’s going back to prison? How did you manage that, Nan?’

Ruby went to the sideboard and pulled out pages of paper covered with Lenny and Freda’s handwriting. ‘Read that while I get your dinner. I’ve explained to Lenny that if he goes back to prison, we can get the police to sort the mess out and I think they might let him out. It’s obvious the lad was set up, and there’s enough on that paper to lock Tommy Whiffen up for a very long time.’

Sarah scanned the sheets of paper, and although she was surprised at what was written there, she couldn’t help think that Nan was rather optimistic that Lenny would be let out of prison so quickly.

Sarah was just finishing off a knitted bootee when there was a sharp knock at the door. Ruby, who had been dozing in her armchair, jumped and dropped the newspaper she’d still been holding. ‘It must be Freda and Lenny. Why didn’t they use the key that’s hanging inside the front door?’ she said as she pulled herself to her feet and headed towards the hall.

‘We took the key off the string, Nan, in case Mr Hitler broke in. Remember?’ Sarah grinned to herself. They’d pulled Nan’s leg for ages about that. ‘Don’t forget the blackout.’

‘Goodness, Vera, whatever are you doing banging on my door at this time of night? It’s nearly ten o’clock.’

Vera hurried into the room gasping for breath. ‘I thought you ought to know. It’s Maisie. I ran all the way here.’

‘My goodness, Vera. Calm yourself down and take a few deep breaths. Now, what about Maisie? Has there been an accident?’

‘No, much worse.’

Sarah felt her head spin as she rose to her feet. Whatever had happened, she had to get to her friend as soon as possible. ‘Where is she, Mrs Munro?’ Sarah wanted to scream with impatience as Vera eked out the dramatic moment, putting her hand to her heart and breathing deeply.

‘Maisie Taylor is at the Prince of Wales with a couple of soldiers and she’s the worse for drink.’ Vera looked from Sarah to Ruby to make sure they had both absorbed her scandalous news.

‘When you say she’s the worse for drink, exactly what do you mean, Vera?’ Ruby demanded.

‘What I mean is that if someone doesn’t sort her out, I think she will be in a sorry state tomorrow and may not know whose bed she wakes up in.’ Vera looked like the cat who’d got the cream.

‘Now’s not the time to gloat, Vera. Maisie doesn’t know if she’s coming or going at the moment. She needs friends, not people who are going to question her morals.’

‘Hear, hear, Nan. I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to find my friend and bring her home where she is welcome.’ Sarah headed for the front door, only stopping to slip her feet into her shoes.

‘I’m right behind you, love. Vera, I’ll thank you not to come gloating at my front door, thank you very much.’

‘I came to tell you she was in trouble,’ Vera moaned as she followed them out of the front door.

Sarah and Ruby could hear a piano playing loudly as they crossed the road to the Prince of Wales public house. Sarah was reminded of the night of the Woolworths Christmas party, when she first danced with Alan, how he’d held her in his arms and sung softly in her ear. They’d been back to the pub a few times while they were courting, and each time Sarah felt the pub held a special place in her heart. Somewhere she would visit when she was a grandmother and could tell her grandchildren about the day she fell in love with their granddad.

Stepping over the threshold of the busy pub, Sarah expected to be shocked by whatever it was that Vera had seen Maisie doing. Instead, she found her by the piano swaying in time to the music. Granted, alongside her were a couple of soldiers, but there was nothing untoward happening. Trust Vera to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Maisie spotted her friend by the door and called her over: ‘Come and ’ave a drink and meet me friends Henry and Ollie. They used to work with my Joe. They all enlisted at the same time. Small world, innit?’

Sarah pushed through the crowd, and as she approached Maisie, she could see that her friend had indeed enjoyed a few drinks but was still in control of her faculties. Henry and Ollie shook her hand politely and offered her a drink. Sarah declined. The pub was too smoky and noisy for her liking. Henry found a chair, which she gratefully accepted.

‘We were sorry to hear about Joe,’ he told Sarah. ‘He was a nice bloke, salt of the earth so to speak. When we met his missus in here, we didn’t like to leave her alone in case she felt poorly, like. We didn’t know where she lived, and she made it clear she didn’t get on with her mother-in-law. Not that many of us liked her much either.’

Sarah warmed to Henry straight away. What a gentleman he was. ‘Maisie lives with my nan now.’ She indicated to where Ruby was sipping a glass of port and talking with Ollie. ‘I think we need to get her home to her bed. The poor love is still in shock. She only heard about Joe yesterday. We have no details of what happened. Would you know?’

Henry shook his head. ‘Sorry, love, I wish I could help you. We haven’t seen Joe since we enlisted. I reckon he went off to France and probably copped it over there. Ollie and me was sent off to be drivers up north. We drew the lucky straws.’ He looked sad. ‘A bloody shame about Joe. I ’ope my missus never has to go through what his wife is going through right now.’

Sarah nodded. Perhaps her Alan was consoling another man’s wife just like Henry and Ollie were.

‘Would you like me and Ollie to walk you ladies home? She’s a bit maudlin and I can see that you ain’t in any position to steer her in the right direction much.’

‘That is very kind of you. Thank you, Henry.’

Henry turned to where Maisie was leaning against the piano and humming to the music. ‘Come on, my dear, time we were getting you home.’ He reached out to take her arm.

Maisie pulled away. ‘I want to sing a song,’ she said in a slightly slurred voice. ‘You’ve all gotta sing along with me.’ She leant over and whispered into the pianist’s ear. He nodded and changed the tune to something Sarah recognized. It was a sad song of lost love. ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’.

Maisie stepped in front of the piano and made lots of shushing noises until all fell quiet. After a few bars everyone started to sing, but above them all Sarah could hear Maisie’s plaintive voice. She could see the haunted fear in her friend’s eyes as Maisie realized she would never again see her Joe.

Maisie started to sob and sank to her knees, but still she sang clear and loud of the man who had gone from her life forever.

‘. . .
I’ll see you in my dreams . .
.’

Henry and Ollie helped Maisie to her feet, and Sarah picked up her bag and coat. More than ever she prayed that she would not have to endure the heartache that her friend was experiencing at this moment. ‘Wherever you are, Alan, and whether you want to come home to me or not, please stay safe,’ Sarah prayed.

‘Where is he? Where’s that lad got to?’ A red-faced Ruby rushed to the bottom of the stairs. ‘Freda? Get yourself down here now.’

Freda appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, rubbing her eyes, as Ruby slammed a blackened kettle on the stove. ‘Is there anything wrong, Mrs Caselton?’

‘Get yourself into the front room and tell me if you can see that brother of yours.’

Ruby followed Freda and watched as she pulled back the heavy blackout curtains, allowing early morning sunshine to flood the room. ‘Oh my God! But he was here last night. I saw him go to bed.’

They both stared at the settee, where Lenny’s blanket had been neatly folded on top of a pillow. Apart from that there was no evidence that he had been staying at number thirteen.

‘The few bits and bobs that he had have all gone. He’s scarpered,’ Ruby said sadly. Her initial anger had gone and was replaced with sadness that Lenny hadn’t hung around long enough to clear his name.

Freda shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry. He never gave me any idea he would do this. He seemed happy enough at the pictures last night, and even when we went for a bag of chips afterwards, he chatted away like he usually does. What an idiot.’

‘Fear’s a strange thing, Freda. No doubt alone down here in the middle of the night, he had second thoughts. Fear can do funny things to the mind. Perhaps we were expecting too much of him to face the police and most likely go back to prison.’

‘I’m embarrassed that Lenny has caused so many problems. He has left me in the same state as before he appeared and inconvenienced people that I think of as my family. I love him dearly, but right now I could ring his blooming neck.’

Ruby thought for a moment. ‘But Lenny hasn’t left us in the same situation.’ She pulled open the drawer of the sideboard and removed the sheets of paper upon which the brother and sister had so patiently noted everything of importance about Tommy Whiffen and his gang. ‘With this we can still have the bugger locked up and then you and your Lenny will be safe to go home.’

Freda took the papers from Ruby’s hand and placed them back into the sideboard, firmly closing the drawer. ‘I know you mean well, Mrs Caselton, but I think it’s too late for that. The police will want to know why we entertained an escaped prisoner under your roof. They won’t care that you think he is innocent. They may not even be interested in what Lenny wrote. Then where will we be? They could charge you and me for hiding a criminal, and perhaps Sarah as well, and that isn’t a good thing in her condition, is it?’

‘Blimey, I hadn’t thought of it that way,’ Ruby said, and sat down to think about the situation. She’d only come downstairs to let Nelson into the garden and wake the boy. She was still in her old dressing gown, and her hair hadn’t seen a comb or her face a lick of soap and water.

‘Well, I did, and what’s worse is I fear Tommy and his gang may know that Lenny has been in the area and come looking here. Think what they would do if they found the statement. We should burn it. It will be safer for all concerned.’

‘No, I’ll put it somewhere safe for now. You never know – it may just come in handy one day. Let’s get some breakfast on the go. Sarah will be up soon and wanting to go into work. They are so overstretched there she has cancelled her day off and offered to go in for the morning. In her condition!’

‘I don’t think Betty will have her come to harm. What about Maisie? Will she be down?’

Ruby sighed and thought of how they’d managed to get her home last night with the help of the two soldiers. If she woke up early, chances are she’d have such a heavy head that breakfast would be the last thing on her mind. ‘Come on, let’s get into the kitchen and I’ll tell you all about last night.’

Ruby reached for a large cast-iron frying pan that sat on a shelf behind the stove. Striking a match, the gas came alive with a loud pop. ‘We can have an egg and some toast for our breakfast, if you want? Can you fetch the bowl of eggs from the pantry?’