Home for Christmas by Annie Groves Page B

the front door, calling out from the hall as she did so, ‘Don’t worry if I’m late back in the morning. If there’s a raid overnight I may end up having to stay over.’
    ‘Good luck,’ Olive called back, slicing the Spam, ready to fry it up, her face breaking into a relieved smile as she heard Tilly exchanging greetings with Sally in the hall.
    ‘It’s me, Mum,’ Tilly called, coming into the kitchen. ‘We were given permission to leave early because of the bomb damage making it difficult for people to get trains and buses,’ she explained. She kissed Olive’s cheek before removing her outdoor clothes, taking her hat and coat back into the hallway to hang up.
    ‘Dulcie’s feeling bored, cooped up here all day so I suggested that she goes to St John Ambulance with you tonight,’ Olive told her daughter as she removed a bowl of cold boiled potatoes from one of the shelves in her small narrow larder.
    ‘Oh, yes,’ Tilly agreed, smiling at Dulcie, ‘although we’ll have to make sure that everyone knows you’ve got a real plaster on your ankle so that no one tries to take it off.’
    ‘Get that jar of relish out of the cupboard for me, will you, please, Tilly? Agnes shouldn’t be long now,’ Olive said, putting the bowl of potatoes on the oilcloth-covered table.
    ‘I saw Kit this morning, Mum,’ said Tilly, doing as she was asked. ‘And guess what? He’s joining the bomb disposal lot.’
    ‘What, him? He’d run a mile if he heard a firework go off,’ Dulcie scoffed.
    ‘Oh dear, his mother will be distraught,’ Olive sighed sympathetically, ignoring Dulcie’s unkind comment. ‘I must go round and see her. It can’t be easy for her, now she’s by herself. Oh, good, that will be Agnes now,’ she announced as she heard the front door open.
    Agnes forced a smile as she walked into the kitchen. She’d seen Ted very briefly for only a few snatched minutes when he’d arrived at work, but he hadn’t said anything to her about his mother other than that she hadn’t liked sleeping in the underground, but that he was trying to persuade her to come back because he felt it was safer for them. Agnes hadn’t mentioned her fears that his mother might not have liked her because that seemed selfish when Ted already had so much to worry about, but she couldn’t help worrying, all the same.
    Within fifteen minutes of Agnes’s arrival they were all sitting down to their evening meal of Spam fritters, their hotness making up for the coldness of the potatoes, and Olive’s home-made relish adding some flavour to the blandness.
    For pudding there were stewed apples from the apple tree in the garden, and custard followed by a fresh pot of tea, whilst they listened to the news on the wireless. Then it was time for the girls to clear the table and wash up before Tilly and Agnes went upstairs to change into their St John Ambulance uniforms.
    Knowing the girls would be out, Olive had volunteered to be on WVS duty herself during the evening, at their own local church hall, manning the tea urn, which provided welcome refreshment for all those in the area who worked in the emergency services.
    By Sunday morning after church, after a Saturday of almost nonstop day-and-night bombing, people’s sombre and often exhausted expressions showed what they had been through.
    Even so, Tilly was making an effort, wearing her best coat, with its pretty velvet collar and cuffs, the rich darkness of the fabric setting off the equally rich darkness of the curls escaping from her hat – trimmed up with a new ribbon and a flower Olive had made from some spare scraps of fabric from her last year’s new coat.
    While Tilly looked like a young girl on the brink of womanhood, Dulcie was wearing a far more ‘grown-up’ outfit. Her coat was ‘pretend’ Persian lamb cut in a dashing A-line, the dark grey fabric complimented by a small stand-up black collar and deep turned-back black cuffs. The coat had pockets concealed in its seams,