After the War is Over

After the War is Over Read Free Page A

Book: After the War is Over Read Free
Author: Maureen Lee
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glass,’ Constance, who was married to Frank, had said earlier. ‘It must be something to do with their caveman instincts.’
    ‘Did cavemen have pubs?’ Adele Grant queried idly.
    ‘Oh, you know what I mean,’ Constance snapped.
    Adele, Iris and Constance’s mother-in-law, plump and motherly, was one of Iris’s favourite people. She had no close family herself, and Tom’s mother had proved a perfect substitute for her own, who had died not long after she was born. Her father had gone to meet his maker a short time afterwards, and Iris had been raised by a rather distant aunt and uncle until she had left home at eighteen. She had only seen them about half a dozen times since.
    It was Adele who’d had the idea of making a special dinner to welcome her daughter-in-law home. She must have been saving her meat coupons for several weeks in order to buy the tender sirloin steak, and Lord knows how much the two bottles of ten-year-old French wine had cost – or where it had come from. Despite the war having ended, rationing was still very much in force.
    ‘It’s been an exceptionally pleasant homecoming,’ Iris said. She had expected to spend it alone with Tom. ‘And this is a wonderful sight: the lights and the glowing water.’ She nodded at the window. Perhaps it was the full moon that made the water shimmer the way it did. During the day, the view was nothing to write home about: cranes, a ship or two with goods being loaded on or off. But at night, with lights burning on the ships, the docks and the street itself, it was quite enchanting. ‘I still can’t get used to there not being a blackout,’ she said.
    ‘I can’t understand why it took so long for you to be demobbed.’ Constance always managed to sound a touch bad-tempered, suspicious almost, as if Iris had been getting up to no good in Plymouth since the war had ended, which to a large extent was true, though Constance had no way of knowing.
    ‘The camp couldn’t be closed down overnight,’ Iris said patiently. Constance might be bad-tempered, but she had a good heart. ‘There was still work to be done, meetings to be held, furniture and equipment to be transported to other camps, put in storage or sent somewhere to be sold. I got my Heavy Goods Vehicle licence,’ she said proudly, ‘and drove lorries all over the country.’
    ‘Did you really, darling?’ Adele remarked, impressed. ‘How clever.’ She patted Iris’s knee. ‘I’m ever so glad you managed to be home for Christmas. Don’t think of trying to get food together for a meal on Christmas Day – you and Tom must come to us.’
    ‘And to us on Boxing Day,’ Constance put in. ‘Beth and Eric are really looking forward to seeing you. They badly wanted to come tonight, but I told them it was only for grown-ups.’
    ‘Thank you both. And I’m really looking forward to seeing my niece and nephew again.’
    Downstairs, the front door opened and the husbands came in singing the Eton Boating Song. All had gone to exclusive schools, but not as exclusive as Eton.
    Adele laughed. ‘They sound a bit the worse for wear. Three inebriated doctors! They should be ashamed of themselves.’
    The visitors had gone. ‘Were they all right?’ Tom asked anxiously. ‘I hope Constance didn’t get you down. She can be awfully abrupt.’
    Iris was pushing the armchairs back into their proper places. Instinctively she closed the curtains. ‘She was fine, if a bit blunt. Not that I mind. Your mother was lovely, but then she always is.’ She sank into one of the chairs with a sigh.
    Tom gave the fire a poke and came and sat in the next chair. ‘I wish I could have gone in the forces too and we could have both come home together.’ A broken leg as a child had left him with a slight limp and he’d been rejected by all three services. He was a very ordinary, dependable-looking man, with straight brown hair and a whimsical smile. He wore horn-rimmed glasses. His patients loved him, but Iris wasn’t

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