The Bannister Girls by Jean Saunders Page A

eyebrow.
    â€˜All right, what’s going on now? Let me guess. We’re to be billetted with soldiers. I said it would happen. Why would they allow us to get away with it, when smaller houses than ours have to have their quota –?’
    She stopped her laconic surmising as she saw the excited look on Rose’s face. It was a while since she had seen herlook so animated, even if it probably wouldn’t last very long. Ellen sat upright from her sprawling position on the sofa.
    â€˜What’s happened? Tell me at once!’
    Angel’s voice shook as she answered. ‘Oh, Ellen, do you remember that nice Mr Strube with the greengrocer’s shop in the village? We always called him Mr Roly-Poly German Sausage when we were small, and Mother said we weren’t to be so rude –’
    â€˜What about him?’
    â€˜Well, you know all the fuss there’s been lately about Germans living in Britain when we’re at war with them. Last night Mr Strube’s shop was broken into, and everything was smashed up, and the vegetables were thrown into the street. It wasn’t discovered until morning, though I can’t think how people could have missed hearing the noise. Early this morning, when the postman was doing his rounds, he saw the mess and sent for the police, and they found poor Mr Strube.’
    â€˜What do you mean, they
found
him?’ Ellen was struck by the little break in Angel’s voice, and by the curious fact that Rose seemed to be enjoying herself hugely.
    â€˜He’s dead, Ellen!’ Angel said in a hushed voice. ‘He was beaten to death by the thugs who broke into his shop. Who would want to do that to such a nice harmless old man?’
    Rose stopped smiling as Ellen opened her mouth in astonishment at this news. And before Ellen could reply, Rose was suddenly screeching.
    â€˜I’ll tell you who could do it! All those who believe in justice, and want to be rid of every rotten German who’s lived off our country for years. One of them killed my Ronnie, and I’m
glad
that your Mr Roly-Poly Sausage-man is dead, do you hear? I wish I’d been there to help them finish him off—’
    She stopped abruptly, her voice ending in a strangled scream as Ellen leapt up and struck her hard across the side of her cheek. The blow was so spontaneous that Rose lost herbalance and fell to the ground, while Angel looked on in horror.
    Rose had given no sign of this reaction in the car, but Angel should have known. She should have guessed … apart from that one outburst on the way here, Rose had been too calm for too long. She had to crack sometime…
    Clemence walked quickly into the room, shocked to see what appeared to be an undignified scuffle between two women as Ellen dragged a sobbing Rose to her feet.
    â€˜Leave me alone,’ Rose blazed at her. ‘You don’t understand. You can’t possibly understand. You’re turning into a shrivelled up old maid, Ellen, and if you’d ever been capable of loving a man as I loved my Ronnie, you’d hate all Germans, however sweet and bouncy a shopkeeper might be. They’re our
enemies
. Can’t you see that?’
    â€˜Rose is quite right,’ Clemence said crisply. ‘It’s all over the newspapers. Any one of them could be a spy, and none of us will feel safe in our beds while there are Germans living and working among us. For their own safety as well as ours, the government will have to detain them until the end of the war. They should have used their own common sense and got out as soon as war was declared. The Germans lost no time in ridding their own country of undesirable aliens!’
    Angel stared at her mother, and for once, she and Ellen were totally of the same mind.
    â€˜Mother, you can’t be serious!
Prison
? There are dozens of Germans, waiters and barbers and shopkeepers who have lived here for years and years. This is their home. Why
should
they