The Soldier's Daughter by Rosie Goodwin

leaving Briony feeling as if the bottom had dropped out of her world.
    ‘So how was Ernie?’ Briony asked as they walked to work together the next morning.
    ‘He didn’t seem too bad,’ Ruth answered, disgruntled, ‘but I didn’t get a chance to talk to him on his own. His mam stayed in the room with us the
whole
time. She was fussing over him like a mother hen.’
    ‘I dare say that’s to be expected. After all, now that she’s lost her husband she’s bound to want to spend as much time with Ernie as she can before he has to go back,’ Briony said fairly.
    ‘I suppose so.’ Ruth kicked at a stone in her path but then brightened. After all, Ernie was going to be at home for some weeks yet whilst his leg healed, and his mother couldn’t be with him every second of the day, could she?
    Surprisingly, Lois seemed to have returned to some sort of normality since Ernie had returned and was sober as a judge over the next few nights. Her daughter wondered if it was due to Ernie or the fact that alcohol was becoming hard to get hold of now. Everything was becoming scarcer and the shelves in Woolworths were half empty.
    ‘I’m fed up with customers’ havin’ a go at me ’cos we ain’t got what they want,’ Ruth grumbled one day. ‘Anyone would think that I was personally responsible for stocks bein’ low.’
    ‘Well, I suppose they have to have someone to vent their feelings on,’ Briony said stoically and Ruth grudgingly agreed.
    Since Ernie had been home, Ruth had spent every night round at his house, and as yet Briony had not managed to have any time alone with him herself. But then she supposed it was no bad thing. Even with Ruth and Mrs Brindley in the room with them, she felt as if a current of electricity were running between them – and she sensed that Ernie felt it too. And then on the second Saturday after he had returned she went round early in the morning to find that his mother had gone off to do some shopping. Ernie was sitting by the open window staring out at the Anderson shelter and strumming his fingers impatiently on the windowsill with his leg propped up on a stool.
    When she entered, his face lit up. ‘A lovely day, ain’t it?’ he said. ‘It’s just a pity I can’t get out and about. I’m going mad, stuck in here all the time.’ As he stared at her trim figure and her mane of black hair, his heart did a little flutter. Briony had always been a pretty girl, although he hadn’t taken much notice back then, but now she was turning into a beautiful young woman.
    Surprised to find that Ruth wasn’t already there, Briony smiled pleasantly and said, ‘I dare say I could put a chair out in the yard for you and help you get out there if you fancy a bit of sun on your face?’
    ‘Huh! There ain’t much left to look at out there, is there, apart from that ugly bloody shelter,’ he grumped. Briony could understand his frustration. The last few months must have been a whirl of activity for him, so he would naturally resent having to be so confined and helpless.
    ‘That’s true, it is a bit of an eyesore,’ she agreed. ‘But with the way the war is going we might be glad of it in the not-too-distant future. It said on the wireless last night that Hitler is massing boats and landing crafts ready for invasion. Do you think it’s true?’
    Ernie shrugged. ‘Who knows with that nutcase? The bloke wants to rule the world, but he won’t if it’s left to chaps like me! Thank God the factories in Coventry are working around the clock to make the planes. As long as we’ve got them we’ll give that kraut bastard a run for his money.’
    Briony shivered involuntarily, only too aware that Ernie was speaking the truth. She glanced around then and asked, ‘So where is Ruth today? I thought she would have been here by now.’
    ‘Had to go shopping with her mum apparently, and between you and me it’s nice to have a break from her. I know she means well, but what with her and me mam I feel