Home Front Girls Read Free

that you head for the nearest shelter.’
    Annabelle had never seen her father in this mood before, and realising that for now at least he was not going to be swayed, she turned on her heel and marched off to fetch her new coat and the hated gas mask. She detested having to carry it everywhere with her and saw little point in it anyway. Word had it that the Germans would be targeting the factories on the other side of the city, so she didn’t see why she should have to lug the damn thing everywhere. For a moment, a sense of the enormity of what was happening to them all overwhelmed her in a wave of fear about the future. Then she pulled herself together and brushed her feelings to one side.
    Blasted war – I’ll be glad when it’s over and things can get back to normal, she thought, and in no time at all she had slammed the door and was making her way through the icy, darkened streets.

Chapter Two
     
    ‘Come along, Miss Kent. Get this lot tidied away now. An untidy counter will not do, now will it?’
    ‘No, Mrs Broadstairs,’ the mousy-haired girl muttered as she hastily shuffled the gloves the customer had tried on into pairs. The woman had been difficult to say the very least, trying on nearly every pair of gloves available and then leaving without even buying any – a fact of which Mrs Broadstairs was acutely aware. Not that she was surprised. Dorothy Kent was a timid little thing, hardly suited to serving the public in her opinion, with barely any social graces at all, but then if Mr Bradley felt that Miss Kent was up to serving, who was she to argue?
    Percival Bradley, the manager, ruled his shop like a sergeant-major – not that he could do any wrong in Mrs Broadstairs’s eyes. She had been in awe of the man, and more than a little enamoured of him, ever since the day she had started at Owen Owen as his assistant. Unfortunately, he never seemed to notice her – which was a shame as she’d been widowed for the last four years and now felt ready to look for a suitable replacement – and Mr Bradley more than fitted the bill. As far as she was aware, he had never been married, although she couldn’t understand how he’d managed to escape the net. Nearing sixty, he was still a fine figure of a man, and seeing as she wasn’t far behind him in age, her chances of finding a new husband were narrowing significantly, although she prided herself on being as smart as a new pin. Unfortunately, up to now, all her best attempts at flirtation had come to nothing, and each time this happened she tended to take her frustrations out on the shop girls – as she was doing now with young Dorothy.
    As well as being Mr Bradley’s assistant, Mrs Broadstairs was also responsible for deciding which girls would work in which departments, especially the new employees. It was a task at which she excelled. Usually she could tell within minutes which department a particular girl would be best suited to. Not that it always worked out as she would have liked any more. Now that they were so short-staffed, the girls had to go where they were most needed for much of the time.
    The girl was fumbling in her haste to tidy the counter and after tutting, Mrs Broadstairs swept away.
    Dotty, as she was known, sighed with relief. This was only her second month at Owen Owen and she was still doing her best to fit in. It was her first job and although there was an element of excitement in working for a living, it was still all rather strange too. Dotty had had a lot of adjusting to do over the last few months. She had been dumped in an orphanage on the other side of the city by her mother when she was a very new baby, and had stayed there until just before her eighteenth birthday. Her welfare worker had then found her lodgings in King Edward Road in Hillfields, and had also helped her to get this job so that she could become independent and pay her own way.
    Dotty could clearly remember how excited she had been when her welfare worker had told