Broken Rainbows Read Online Free PDF Page B

She’ll need a taxi to bring down her things. Tell her to book it. I’ll pay the driver when she gets here.’
    â€˜I’ll drop her off before I start work, and as for things, a carrier bag will hold all her possessions with room to spare.’
    â€˜You’re not the only one to have had a visit from Mrs Llewellyn-Jones. She came round here this morning.’
    â€˜Don’t tell me she wanted to billet Americans on you too?’
    â€˜She tried, but I wouldn’t have it. You know, she actually had the gall to suggest that a war widow, like me, should welcome the opportunity to have an American officer living in my home. I told her absolutely not, and reminded her that Charlie’s posted missing, not killed.’ She pushed the sugar bowl towards Bethan.
    The Presumed dead that had been on the telegram still burned in Bethan’s mind. She knew it was useless to remind Alma that Charlie had been missing for over fourteen months. When a letter from the War Office had arrived the regulation three months to the day after the first telegram, to inform Alma that Charlie had been declared officially dead and she could wind up his affairs, she had burned it, and continued to talk about him and make plans for their future as though he was about to walk through the door at any moment.
    â€˜So, Mrs Llewellyn-Jones went away disappointed for the second time in two days,’ she murmured, thinking of the argument she’d had with her over the Clark girls.
    â€˜As disappointed as I could make her. Where does that woman get her cheek from? She told me that with a kitchen this size in the shop I didn’t need an upstairs living room or kitchen and it was my patriotic duty to turn them into bedrooms, then if you please, I could house two Americans. I told her all my rooms were earmarked – my living room for sitting in after a hard day’s work, one bedroom for the girl I intended to hire, the other for Theo and me, and my kitchen was staying exactly as it was.’ Alma looked to the playpen she’d set up in the corner next to the door that led into the shop, where Theodore, her nine-month-old son, a miniature version of Charlie, right down to his white-blond hair and deep blue eyes, was sitting contently playing with a wooden spoon and battered baking tin.
    â€˜I’m surprised she didn’t suggest that the three of you should share.’
    â€˜She did. She even hinted that live-in help would prove to be an ideal chaperon for me and these officers, and silence tongues before they wagged, but I pointed out that if Charlie is being held prisoner by the Germans, he will need peace, quiet and his own bedroom to rest in when he’s released.’
    â€˜I wish I’d thought of that one.’
    â€˜She has only billeted this colonel on you, hasn’t she?’
    â€˜And his aide, his cook and his driver.’
    â€˜Bethan, how could you! You’re too soft for your own good. Seven evacuees if you include Lisa, Maisie’s daughter and now four Yanks.’
    â€˜It’s Andrew’s fault for buying a house that size.’
    â€˜It’s yours for not using the word “no” more often.’
    â€˜It’s difficult, Mrs Llewellyn-Jones is Andrew’s mother’s best friend.’
    â€˜That’s no excuse for allowing her to treat your house like a hostel for every waif and stray who wanders into the town.’
    â€˜You’re probably right.’ Bethan glanced at the clock. ‘What do you want me to tell Mary about the job?’
    â€˜That it’s hard work. She’ll start at six every morning and probably won’t stop or get much in the way of a break until the shop closes at six at night. Sunday and one half-day off a week. I’ll pay her a pound a week while she’s on a two-week trial, and put it up to thirty shillings if she can cope, but warn her that I’m looking for a general worker who could find