Lucy warmed to him immediately. He looked like everyone’s favourite grandad although he was very smartly turned out in a dark grey suit, a crisp white shirt and a pale blue tie. He was slightly shorter than her and plump, with wispy grey hair and startlingly blue eyes.
‘So come along then,’ he said pleasantly.’ I’ll show you where everything is so that you can get your bearings. Over on this side are the suits, and over there are the shirts and ties . . .’
Seeing that Lucy was now safely in her colleague’s capable hands, Mrs Broadstairs turned back towards the lift, abruptly telling Annabelle, ‘Right, we’ll go and get you settled now. You will be working in the lingerie department for the rest of this week.’
Mrs Broadstairs was experienced enough to know that Annabelle would be perfectly suited to this department. Women who shopped there were usually looking to be a little extravagant and they liked to be surrounded by young attractive women, so Annabelle would certainly fit the bill.
Once in the lingerie department they were met by Miss Williams who, along with Miss Norton, had that particular department running like clockwork. Tall and slim, she looked to be in her late thirties and was known for being fairly strict with her staff. As she was keen on telling them, ‘There is a place for everything and everything has its place.’
She was exactly as Annabelle had imagined a spinster to be – tall and thin with a nose so sharp it could have cut butter, and she was impeccably dressed in a smart two-piece costume that was, however, quite old-fashioned. Her hair, which was fair, was pulled back into a tight bun on the back of her head and large rimless spectacles were perched on the end of that knife of a nose.
Despite the daunting floor manager, Annabelle was actually secretly pleased to be in this particular department.
At least she had nice things to look at here. It would have been awful to have been stuck in household wares or somewhere boring like that.
Her eyes flicked appreciatively over the display stands and came to rest on a young mousy-haired girl who was busily dusting the tops of the glass counters as if her very life depended on it. The girl offered her a nervous smile but Annabelle stuck her nose in the air and turned her attention back to what Miss Williams was saying, wondering how such a dowdy-looking girl had ever got to work in such a glamorous department. They really must be short of staff!
And then a customer emerged from the lift, and forgetting all about Annabelle, Miss Williams almost pounced on the woman with a smile so wide that her plain face was quite transformed, trilling, ‘Hello, madam, how may we help you?’
Crikey, she could be quite attractive if she’d take a bit of trouble with herself, Annabelle thought as she crossed to examine a pretty lace bra that had caught her eye. It was on a stand quite close to the counter that the mousy-haired girl was dusting and now she looked at Annabelle and said shyly, ‘Hello, I’m Dotty.’
‘Annabelle Smythe,’ Annabelle introduced herself imperiously and Dotty was completely bowled over by her. The girl was so beautiful that she might have been a model out of one of the magazines she was so fond of. In fact, Dotty wondered if perhaps she was a model come to model some of the lingerie.
‘Worked here for long, have you?’ Annabelle asked now. She was bored already.
‘Not very long,’ Dotty admitted. ‘But it’s quite nice here.’
‘Hmm, well I could certainly think of better ways of spending my time,’ Annabelle said petulantly. By now, Miss Williams had passed the customer over to a senior member of the sales staff and was bearing down on Annabelle again.
‘Right then, Miss Smythe. Let me show you around so that you are properly acquainted with where everything is when the time comes for you to serve the customers. Over here we keep the knickers, ranging from cotton to pure silk, and over there are the brassières. Later on I shall show you the correct way to measure a customer for those. You would be shocked at how many women don’t wear the correct size. And over here . . .’ Her voice droned on as Annabelle reluctantly followed her about. It looked set to be a very long day.
At last it was time for the morning break. To Annabelle, who was usually still in bed at this time, the morning had passed interminably slowly. As she entered the lift, Dotty followed her in, but Annabelle didn’t bother to speak. She just wanted to go home. And when she did she would tell her father how unreasonable he was being. She was even prepared for him to cut her allowance if it meant not having to come back to this place again. There had only been four customers who had actually bought anything all morning, although the foot traffic through the lingerie department had been quite heavy. But that didn’t mean that Miss Williams had allowed her to stand idly about. The blasted woman had had her in the stock room for the last hour unpacking the underwear that had been delivered to the store the day before, and after the break she had informed Annabelle that she must transfer it all to the correct places on the shop floor.
‘Do you think you will like working here?’ Dotty plucked up the courage to ask when the lift started to rise.
Annabelle glared at her as if she had taken leave of her senses. ‘How could anyone like working?’
Dotty gulped and wished that she had kept her mouth shut, and the rest of the ride to the top floor was made in silence.
When the lift stopped, Annabelle found herself in a large staff dining room. It was nowhere near as nice as the restaurant that the customers used, but she made her way to the counter all the same and ordered a cup of tea. Then she stood indecisively looking around. Tables covered in plain oilskin cloths were dotted all about the room, but she saw that the place was saved from looking drab by the panoramic views of the city from the windows. The rest of the staff were sitting in little groups chatting and laughing, and she suddenly felt like a fish out of water; all her confidence fled.
Seeing that Annabelle was looking uncomfortable, Dotty decided to forget her haughty attitude in the lift and suggested, ‘Why don’t you come and sit with me? We could go over there – look. There’s a table by the window.’
Annabelle followed her gaze and shrugged; she didn’t have any better option and there was only one other girl sitting there. As they walked towards her, wending their way through the tables, Annabelle saw that the girl was actually quite pretty, or at least she could have been if she’d known how to look after herself. She had quite striking green eyes and her hair was a lovely auburn colour, but she had pulled it back into a ponytail; she seemed to be the only person sitting alone in the whole room.
‘Would you mind very much if we joined you?’ Dotty asked politely as they neared the table and the girl smiled.
‘Actually, I’d be really grateful if you would,’ she admitted. ‘I’m feeling a bit strange sitting here all on my own but I only started today and I don’t know anyone.’ She beamed at Annabelle.
‘So how are you finding your first day?’ Annabelle asked eventually, although she wasn’t really that interested.
‘I’m quite enjoying it actually, but I’m not so sure my floor manager is that pleased with me,’ Lucy confided. ‘There’s so much to remember and I keep putting things in the wrong places. He sent me downstairs for something earlier on and I actually got lost trying to find my way back. The store is huge! Still, it’s early days, isn’t it? I dare say I’ll get the hang of it, although I never realised there was so much to shop work. I thought the assistants just stood about all day until there was a customer to serve.’
‘Oh, there’s much more to it than that,’ Dotty piped up. ‘We aren’t allowed to be idle for a second, especially since they are so short-staffed. I’ve been here for two months already, but I’m still only allowed to serve a customer if the rest of the senior staff are busy.’
‘Well, I think it’s disgusting!’ Annabelle rubbed her sore feet under the table. She had to grudgingly admit that Mrs Broadstairs was right when she said that high heels weren’t a good idea for work. Her feet were throbbing already and she still had the biggest part of the day to get t
hrough. ‘I certainly don’t intend to spend my days dusting and stocking shelves,’ she huffed.
Lucy and Dotty exchanged an amused smile. Both of them were just grateful to have jobs, but it certainly didn’t appear to be the same for Annabelle. They watched as she took a cigarette from her bag and lit it, then she stared at them through a haze of blue smoke as she asked, ‘Do you both live locally?’ She felt she ought to at least make an effort to be friendly.
The girls nodded in unison but before they could answer, Annabelle went on, ‘I live in Cheylesmore with my parents and I don’t mind telling you, this job wasn’t my idea!’ She sniffed indignantly. ‘Daddy has cut my allowance so I had to get a job. And all because of this bloody stupid war! It’s all a waste of time, if you ask me. After all, nothing’s even happened yet, has it? No bombs – nothing! And half of the kids who were evacuated are coming back already. I mean, what’s the point of them staying away anyway? I reckon it will all be over in no time and then we can get back to normal – and the sooner the better, I say!’
‘I’d like to think you were right but I’m not so sure,’ Lucy replied pensively. ‘I was reading in the newspapers that some of our ships are already being sunk by magnetic mines out at sea. I’m afraid this is only the beginning and I think things will get far worse before they get better.’
‘Hm, and in the meantime we have to suffer.’ Annabelle took another long drag of her cigarette. ‘They’re ruining the city in the meantime, digging up shelters for everyone. Have you seen the trench one they’re working on in Cox Street on the corner of Grove Road? It will shelter two hundred people when it’s finished apparently, but it’s a right old eyesore! Then there’s another being dug in Bird Street on the old bowling green that will accommodate six hundred and forty-five people when it’s finished. That’s to name but a couple, not to mention the ugly Anderson shelters that are appearing in people’s gardens everywhere.’
‘I suppose it’s just a precaution in case they’re needed,’ Lucy said sensibly, but Annabelle just shook her head.
‘I disagree. Why would the Germans want to bomb the city centre? If they do drop any bombs, they’re going to aim for the factories on the outskirts of the city, surely?’
The conversation was stopped from going any further when Dotty nervously pointed to the large clock on the wall above the counter. The catering staff, who were robed in long white coats and hairnets, were now collecting the dirty pots and the majority of the staff had already disappeared off back to their departments. ‘I think it’s time we were going, otherwise we’ll be late.’
‘Oh for goodness sake,’ Annabelle groaned. ‘I haven’t even had time to go to the ladies yet!’ Even so she ground her cigarette out and followed the other two back to the lift with a martyred expression on her face.
It was almost lunchtime when Annabelle was approached by a customer as she was arranging a nightdress on a mannequin.
‘Is that pure silk, my dear?’ the middle-aged woman asked her imperiously. The fur coat she was wearing looked like mink and Annabelle saw that her handbag and shoes were of the finest leather. Annabelle glanced about. She had been told that the senior staff would serve the customers, but as none of them appeared to be about she couldn’t see the harm in helping the woman.
‘Yes, it is,’ she answered, flashing a bright smile. ‘Would Madam like me to take it down so that you can see it?’
‘I’ll take over from here, Miss Smythe.’ One of the senior assistants had appeared at her elbow from nowhere and Annabelle glared at her resentfully as she ushered the customer away. From the look on the assistant’s face, anyone might have thought that Annabelle had committed a cardinal sin, but what was she supposed to have done? Just left a customer standing there unattended? She frowned as she glanced at the clock. Roll on lunchtime!
She was secretly pleased when she found Lucy and Dotty already sitting at the same table they had shared during the morning break when she entered the staff dining room some time later, and after buying some sandwiches and a cup of tea she joined them.
‘How did your first morning go?’ Dotty asked pleasantly as Annabelle sat down.
‘Huh! Apart from almost getting my head bitten off when I started to serve a customer, all right I suppose,’ Annabelle grumbled, then pointedly ignoring Dotty, she looked at Lucy and asked, ‘How about you?’
Lucy smiled. ‘Really well, considering I was dreading it. I think I might like working here. One of the girls on my floor told me they do staff outings from time to time. They all went to Southend for the day in the summer apparently, and the store laid on the bus and everything.’
Annabelle shrugged. It would take more than a promise of a day at the seaside to raise her enthusiasm. She had always been privileged to spend her holidays abroad with her parents, and after that a day out to Southend sounded positively dull, although Dotty, she noted, looked quite excited at the prospect.
‘I was actually allowed to serve my first customer today,’ Dotty told them now with a wide smile.
Lucy grinned. ‘That’s nice,’ she said. ‘And the other girls on my floor have been really helpful. I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it eventually.’
Annabelle wished she could be so optimistic but held her tongue while Lucy and Dotty rattled on. They seemed to be getting on like a house on fire but then she had to grudgingly admit that they were nice, even if they weren’t the types she usually mixed with.
She noticed in the lift after lunch that some of the other girls spoke to both Lucy and Dotty, and wondered if perhaps she shouldn’t make more of an effort – but then why bother? she asked herself. She didn’t intend to come back here again.
*
‘I have never been so bored in my whole life!’ Annabelle complained as she took a seat at the table in the canteen during the afternoon break and lit another cigarette. ‘I don’t think a day has ever passed so slowly.’
‘Actually, I’m still quite enjoying it,’ Lucy responded. Up until now she had spent her days cleaning the house and caring for Mary, so it was a pleasant change to have something different to focus on. She just hoped that caring for Mary would not be too much for Mrs P.
‘I like working here too,’ Dotty admitted shyly.
‘Then you must both be crackers!’
Lucy and Dotty giggled. They had felt at ease with each other from the first moment, and seeing as both of them had led rather sheltered lives, they hoped that a friendship might develop between them.
Observing that Annabelle had now lapsed into a fullyfledged sulk, Lucy asked Dotty, ‘Do you live with your parents?’
‘Oh no. I was brought up in an orphanage and I’ve just got my own little place in Hillfields. It isn’t much at the moment,’ she added hastily, ‘but I’m trying to do it up in my spare time. How about you?’
‘Well, my parents are gone too and until he was called up I lived with my older brother and my little sister in Tile Hill.’ Lucy sighed as she thought of her brother so far away. They had been very close and she missed him dreadfully. ‘A neighbour is looking after my little sister now so that I can come to work.’
Even though Annabelle had appeared to be disinterested she had obviously been listening to the conversation because she now asked, ‘But why hasn’t your little sister been evacuated?’
‘Because she isn’t quite old enough, and anyway even if she was, Mary is . . . well, she is sort of special. You know, not quite as bright as other children her age.’
‘What – you mean she’s backward?’
Lucy bristled. ‘No, she isn’t!’
‘Ah, poor little thing,’ Dotty said quickly, seeing that Lucy was offended. ‘It must be very hard on you having to care for her and keep a home going all on your own.’
‘Not really.’ Lucy glared at Annabelle as she answered Dotty politely. ‘Mary is a beautiful child and both Joel, that’s my brother, and I think the world of her.’
This time it was Annabelle who rose from the table first, telli
ng them, ‘Right, I’m off to the ladies before we have to go back to the treadmill. Bye for now.’ In fact, she doubted she would ever see either of them again because when she got home that evening and told her father how boring the work was, he would surely relent and not make her come here again.
‘I don’t think Annabelle is too happy to be here,’ Lucy remarked as they watched her totter away on her high heels.
‘Mm, I know what you mean, but needs must when there’s a war on. Personally I’d rather be here than stuck in my flat on my own. I’ve been a bit lonely since I left the orphanage, to be honest.’
‘Then you must come round to meet Mary one evening,’ Lucy said kindly.
‘I’d like that, thank you.’ Dotty blushed and Lucy thought how different she looked when she smiled. Dotty wasn’t pretty in a conventional sense but her skin was flawless, like peaches and cream, and when she smiled her eyes twinkled.
Glancing at the clock, they both rose and hurried towards the lift feeling that a new friendship had just been born.
Chapter Five
Annabelle arrived home to find her mother tackling a large pile of ironing. She looked as if she had been crying, which didn’t help Annabelle’s bad mood one little bit.
‘I’ve had the most awful day you could ever imagine,’ the girl complained bitterly as she kicked her shoes off and slouched into a chair. ‘Is there a cup of tea going, and what’s for dinner? The sandwiches they sold in the works canteen tasted like bloody sawdust.’
‘In answer to your questions, no, there isn’t any tea in the pot and I haven’t even thought of what we’re going to have for dinner yet,’ her mother replied. ‘And please don’t swear, Annabelle. It really doesn’t become you. Why don’t you put the kettle on? I could do with a hot drink too. I’ve been washing and ironing all day.’
‘Then you shouldn’t have let Daddy sack Mrs Fitton,’ Annabelle said nastily as she dragged herself out of the chair and headed for the sink.
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