The Bomb Girls

by Daisy Styles

  Too weak to reply, Agnes just squeezed Lillian’s hand before she was whisked away for treatment.

  Lillian watched her go.

  This would never have happened if I hadn’t clocked on for work hungover, she raged at herself.

  Because of her stupid carelessness she had caused a horrific explosion that might have killed two of the people she loved most in the world. She jumped at the touch of Malc’s hand on her shoulder.

  ‘Leave this with me, Lil,’ he said. ‘I’ll talk directly to Mr Featherstone, see if I can’t soften him up a bit.’

  Lillian gaped at him in disbelief.

  ‘I nearly took out the entire workforce – I don’t want you “softening things up”. I deserve what’s coming to me and if that means dismissal, so be it.’

  ‘Don’t be a bloody fool, girl!’ Malc replied angrily. ‘You’re meeting trouble head on, so let’s play for time.’

  Lillian looked him squarely in the eye.

  ‘Who are you most worried about, Malc – you or me?’

  The noise of the explosion alerted the people of Pendle to an accident close by but nobody quite knew what or where. Tommy Carter, his thoughts full of Elsie, heard it when he was tucking into his breakfast in his mum’s two-up, two-down in the middle of a terraced block next to the mill where his parents had worked all their lives. He jumped to his feet in alarm and, grabbing his coat against the snow that had started to fall, he ran down the street towards a crowd who had gathered at the local shops.

  ‘What is it? What’s happened?’ he yelled.

  ‘Accident up at Phoenix,’ a neighbour replied.

  ‘The Phoenix!’ Tommy exclaimed, and without pausing to ask another question he tore up the hill out of town.

  It didn’t take Tommy long to reach the moors where by now the snow was falling fast. Recognizing a local girl hurrying home, he stopped to ask her what had happened.

  ‘Explosion on’t cordite line,’ she answered breathlessly. ‘Lucky it didn’t take out the bloody lot of us!’

  With fear and panic rising in him Tommy sprinted even faster up the snowy slopes until eventually the Phoenix loomed up, cordoned off by soldiers and bomb experts.

  ‘No entry!’ a soldier called as Tommy approached.

  Gasping for breath, Tommy stood wondering what to do next. He didn’t know where Elsie lived; he didn’t know what section she worked on; he didn’t even know her last name! What he did know made him tremble with emotion: she was the sweetest, most innocent girl he’d ever met, with gentle green eyes that had captivated him all night long.

  ‘I’ve got to find her,’ he muttered under his breath.

  Seeing Tommy’s frantic expression, a passing overseer said, ‘Can I help, lad?’

  ‘I’m looking for a lass that works here,’ Tommy replied.

  ‘Name?’

  ‘Elsie.’

  ‘And which Elsie would that be?’ said the overseer patiently.

  Feeling foolish, Tommy shook his head. ‘I dunno … I only met her last night.’

  ‘The bomb squad have shut down the factory till they get the all-clear, so there’s only two places she can be,’ the overseer told him. ‘Either in her digs or in th’ hospital.’

  He led the stunned Tommy into the hospital complex where he pointed to a noticeboard.

  ‘Check the casualty list,’ he said. ‘You might find her there.’

  Tommy’s eyes quickly scanned the list; there were at least three Elsies. He couldn’t go searching the hospital wards looking for an Elsie with green eyes! Shaking his head in despair, he turned to see two girls hurrying up the hospital corridor, one small and delicate with silky blonde hair caught up in a ribbon, the other tall and slim with tumbling auburn hair flying around her anxious face.

  Recognizing them as local girls, Tommy stopped them in their tracks.

  ‘S’cuse me, do you know a little lass called Elsie?’

  Emily, who’d had eyes for only one thing the previous night, didn’t recognize the gawky, uncomfortable boy before her, but Alice did.

  ‘Weren’t you dancing with her last night?’ she asked gently.

  ‘Aye, I was. I’ve come to see if she’s alreet,’ he said awkwardly.

  ‘She was injured in this morning’s blast,’ Alice told him gravely.

  Seeing Tommy pale with shock, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along beside them.

  ‘We’re on our way to see her now – come with us.’

  They found Agnes and Elsie a few beds apart. Agnes’s hands were bandaged but she was wide awake and frantically beckoned them towards her when she saw them. Elsie was fast asleep.

  ‘They’re going to be fine,’ the ward sister assured them. ‘Both of them have burns to the face and hands, Elsie’s also slightly concussed. She must have fallen and hit her head.’

  As Alice and Emily hurried over to Agnes, Tommy sat down beside Elsie’s bed and stared into her sleeping face. She looked so young and innocent, and the cuts on her bruised cheeks only enhanced her loveliness as far as Tommy was concerned. Peering around to make sure nobody was watching him, Tommy raised Elsie’s right hand and pressed it tenderly to his lips.

  ‘I’ll be right here when you wake up,’ he said softly.

  A few beds away Agnes was deeply agitated. ‘You know who caused the blast?’ she whispered.

  ‘Lillian,’ Emily whispered back.

  ‘She’s just told us,’ Alice added.

  ‘She’s not told anybody else, has she?’ Agnes dropped her voice. ‘You know she could be fired on the spot for gross negligence.’

  ‘Malc thinks he can liaise between Lillian and Mr Featherstone,’ Alice told her.

  Emily laughed harshly.

  ‘He’s as much to blame as she is. It was him that kept her up most of the night.’

  ‘Last time I saw Lillian, she was having fun with some handsome Canadian,’ Agnes recalled.

  ‘I think Malc made her an offer she couldn’t refuse,’ Alice said with a knowing smile. ‘You know what a sucker she is for lace knickers and nylons!’

  Agnes giggled then quickly stopped.

  ‘Ouch! It only hurts when I laugh!’

  When the ward sister saw Agnes grimacing in pain she called out sharply, ‘Ladies! Can we keep our patient as calm as possible, please?’

  When Elsie woke up and saw the blurred shape of a man’s head and shoulders she immediately thought it was her dad come to take her back to Gateshead.

  ‘No, Dad, no! I’m fine,’ she said as she struggled to sit up. A blazing pain shooting across her temples sent her falling back against the pillows. ‘Ow!’ she groaned.

  ‘Have a sip of water,’ Tommy said, and he supported her whilst she drank from a glass he was holding.

  Elsie peered up as she took the proffered water. ‘It’s you!’ she said softly, not quite believing her eyes.

  Tommy settled her back onto her pillows and stroked hair off her damp forehead.

  ‘Don’t fret yourself, lass,’ he said gently. ‘You need to get some rest.’

  Elsie gazed up at him, her green eyes wide with happiness.

  ‘You came all this way to see me?’

  ‘It’s not exactly miles, is it?’ he joked as he continued to stroke her forehead.

  With a contented smile, Elsie closed her eyes and sank back into a deep sleep.

  ‘You’re my lass,’ Tommy whispered. ‘And I’m going to look after you.’

  Whilst Emily and Alice were paying their hospital visit Lillian was being led by Malc into the Phoenix, which, to their surprise, had already been given the all-clear and was now back in full production.

  ‘We were so lucky not to have more damage,’ Malc said as they walked along side by side. ‘I thought we might have been out of action for months.’

  ‘I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,’ sighed Lillian miserably.

  ‘What I’m trying to say before we meet Mr Featherstone,’ said Malc, dropping his voice to an urgent whisper, ‘is
the damage was contained to your section, and there were, thank Christ, no bombs on the overhead conveyor belt otherwise we’d be talking about a wipe-out.’

  ‘Agnes must have seen it coming otherwise she’d never have yelled a warning before the explosion,’ said Lillian. ‘Poor kid, she put us first as usual and got badly hurt in the process.’ Lillian’s shoulders slumped as she put her head in her hands. ‘God! I hate myself!’

  ‘Lillian!’ cried Malc as he grabbed her hands and shook her. ‘Pull yourself together!’

  Lillian swallowed hard and nodded.

  ‘Remember what I told you?’

  ‘Don’t mention the black-market booze,’ she said dully.

  ‘And don’t keep yapping on about being up half the night either,’ he reminded her. ‘Ready?’

  Lillian’s stomach lurched in fear. Nodding her head, she muttered a low, ‘Yes.’

  ‘Right then.’

  Straightening his tie, Malc walked ahead of Lillian and opened Mr Featherstone’s office door.

  ‘Let’s face the music,’ he muttered as he ushered her in.

  Usually a retiring man not prone to raising his voice, Mr Featherstone was virtually incandescent.

  ‘You know the first rule in a munitions factory: no metal anywhere about your person!’ he roared when he’d heard the sorry tale.

  Ignoring Malc’s words of advice, Lillian stuck out her little chin and spoke firmly and clearly.

  ‘I take total responsibility, sir.’

  Malc rolled his eyes; this wasn’t the way he’d planned on playing it.

  Before Lillian totally shot herself in the foot, he quickly said, ‘Nobody can doubt the magnitude of Lillian’s mistake, it was gross negligence without a doubt, but like all the girls on the floor she’s under a lot of pressure.’

  ‘None of them have managed to cause an explosion so far!’ Mr Featherstone snapped.

  Malc glared at Lillian, willing her to keep quiet.

  ‘The point is, if we withdraw Lillian from the workplace we lose an experienced Bomb Girl who right now is vital for the war effort,’ Malc said calmly. ‘If she can assure us that this kind of thing will never happen again, I believe we should put her back on the cordite line rather than suspend her or, worse still, send her to a tribunal.’

  Mr Featherstone drummed his podgy fingers on his desk.

  ‘It’s the example she’s set to the other girls. What if they all forgot to remove their clips? We could be blown to kingdom come!’

  Lillian spoke quickly before Malc could speak for her.

  ‘I can see that, and I will certainly apologize to my colleagues for my actions,’ she said staunchly. ‘I hope that what has happened has given us all a shock and we will all be doubly careful from now on.’

  Seeing the strain in her face and the tears in her dark eyes, Mr Featherstone nodded slowly.

  ‘It’d be a pity to lose an experienced Bomb Girl, that’s for sure,’ he conceded. ‘But you’ll be under close scrutiny for a very long time.’

  Lillian humbly bowed her head.

  ‘Thank you, Mr Featherstone.’

  As the shifts changed hands, a crowd of munitions girls hurried through the canteen, where Alice and Emily were sitting having a cup of tea. To their surprise, they heard Lillian thumping loudly on one of the dining tables. As they stopped to stare at her, Lillian hopped onto the table in order to face her workmates.

  ‘Many of you will be wondering what caused the explosion on the cordite line,’ she said loudly. ‘Well … it was me,’ she blurted out. ‘A hairgrip fell out of my hair, just one little spark … you know the rest. I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I let that happen.’ Her voice faltered but she forged on. ‘I want you to know I am truly, truly sorry and it will never happen again.’

  ‘Have you been fired?’ a woman called out.

  Lillian wiped away the tears welling up in her eyes.

  ‘No, I’m back on the bomb line as from tomorrow, under close observation.’ Her voice broke into a sob. ‘I’m so … so sorry,’ she mumbled, utterly shamefaced.

  Seeing Lillian distraught, Alice and Emily quickly helped her step down from the table.

  ‘You’ve said enough,’ Alice said firmly. ‘We know you’re sorry. It’s going to be okay,’ she added kindly.

  On either side of Lillian they took hold of her trembling hands.

  ‘Come on, Elsie and Agnes are waiting to see you in the hospital,’ said Emily with a wink.

  The girls couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw a radiant if somewhat woozy Elsie sitting up in bed, with Tommy on a chair beside her holding her hand. Agnes smiled conspiratorially as her friends approached.

  ‘These two love birds have got something to tell you.’

  Elsie looked shyly at Tommy, who smiled and nodded.

  ‘Go on,’ he urged. ‘Tell ’em.’

  Looking like she would burst with happiness, Elsie said, ‘We’re getting wed!’

  ‘But you’ve only just met!’ gasped Alice.

  ‘And you yourself said you’ve never been to a dance before, never even met a man before!’ Agnes called from her sickbed.

  Despite her bandaged head, Elsie replied with a blissful smile, ‘You’re right, I’ve never really met a lad before,’ she said as she grasped Tommy’s hand.

  Even at such a serious moment, Lillian couldn’t help but crack a joke. ‘Bloody hell! Were you brought up in a convent?’

  Elsie burst out laughing.

  ‘There were lads at school but mi dad said he’d kill me if he caught me talking to ’em.’

  Tommy’s face flushed with anger.

  ‘How could anybody hurt a little flower like you?’

  Elsie gave a dismissive shrug.

  ‘That’s all in the past,’ she said bravely. ‘What I’m trying to say is that I’d never properly talked to a lad till I talked to you last night.’ She blushed as she added, ‘We’ve only just met but I know I’d be happy to spend the rest of my life talking to you.’

  Overcome, Tommy wiped tears from his soft brown eyes, as did Elsie’s friends, though tenacious Alice questioned the young couple further.

  ‘You’re very young,’ she cautioned Tommy.

  But he threw back his skinny shoulders as he replied, ‘I’m twenty-four, older than Elsie. I may look like a streak of –’ He stopped short of saying the swear word for fear of offending his new fiancée. ‘Sorry, love.’

  Elsie gave a girlie giggle.

  ‘Don’t fret, pet. I’ve heard a lot worse than that in mi time.’

  ‘Before I joined the Lancashire Fusiliers I worked down’t pits and when war’s over I’ll go back down’t pits, God willing,’ he said fervently. ‘Who knows what’ll happen to any of us? None of us are safe, whether it’s here in a bomb factory or on’t front line. I could take a bullet, whilst you take a bomb blast.’ Still holding onto Elsie’s hand, he rose to his feet to face Elsie’s friends square on. ‘I love this beautiful girl with all my heart and I’ll take care of her and protect her all my life!’ he declared.

  ‘Oh, God!’ Lillian exclaimed as she started weeping afresh. ‘I’m going to be stretchered out of here if you carry on talking like that.’

  Weak as she was, Elsie struggled to sit up higher.

  ‘Tommy’s right. There’s a war on,’ she said through a mist of tears. ‘We might have a year, we might have a lifetime, but I’m going to snatch every minute of happiness whilst I can.’

  It was at this point that even Alice conceded, leaning over and kissing Elsie.

  ‘I want to hug you!’ she grinned.

  Elsie pointed to her wounds.

  ‘Mebbe later,’ she joked.

  Lillian smiled as she mopped up her tears.

  ‘Who’d a thowt our little Elsie would pip us all to the post!’

  CHAPTER 11

  The War Office

  Emily’s free afternoon came at last and she couldn’t help herself; she’d thought of nothing but Freddie ever since that into
xicating night. After finishing her early morning shift she dashed back to the digs where she sneaked into the bathroom to make up her face and change into her best skirt and blouse. Hoping to avoid seeing her friends who might prick her conscience, Emily cautiously opened the bathroom door and peered out, only to find Alice leaning against the wall waiting for her.

  ‘You’re meeting him, aren’t you?’ Alice said accusingly.

  Emily wriggled in embarrassment.

  ‘Bill’s not going to put up with you two-timing him, Em,’ Alice added.

  Emily threw up her arms in a mixture of frustration and guilt.

  ‘I know!’ she cried. ‘It’s a rotten thing to do but I can’t get Freddie out of my head. Anyway, we’re only going for a walk on the moors.’

  Alice’s gaze swept down to Emily’s high-heeled shoes.

  ‘In those!’ she laughed.

  Emily looked at her feet and laughed too.

  ‘Borrow my wellingtons,’ Alice urged. ‘And my hat and scarf.’

  ‘No, Alice! I was hoping to look a lot sexier than a land girl!’ Emily joked.

  Alice rolled her eyes.

  ‘Okay, freeze to death,’ she said.

  Emily gave a loud sigh as she kicked off her court shoes.

  ‘All right, I’ll borrow your wellies, but a definite no to the hat and scarf!’ she giggled.

  Alice needn’t have worried about Emily catching cold. The minute Freddie laid eyes on her he clasped her tightly in his arms.

  ‘It seems like forever since we last met,’ he murmured as he kissed her.

  Pressed close to him, Emily smelled yet again that intoxicating mix of pines and limes. Smothering any remaining inhibitions, she laid her face against his chest where she felt the thud of his beating heart.

  ‘What shall we do, Bomb Babe?’ he whispered.

  Smiling mischievously, Emily bent and quickly rolled a snowball.

  ‘Build a snowman!’ she laughed.

  Catching her mood, Freddie stooped to roll a snowball too.

  ‘Hey, just cos I’m Canadian doesn’t mean to say I’m an Eskimo!’ he joked.

  Feeling wild and reckless, Emily whizzed her large snowball at him, he whizzed his back at her and before long they were rolling in the snow, not feeling even remotely cold as, once again, they were locked in each other’s arms. Emily tasted ice and snow as Freddie hungrily kissed her, pressing her mouth open with his tongue. Startled, she pulled away from him and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. This was all going a bit too fast.