she forced herself to carry on sitting there. The savings that Joel had left behind to tide her and Mary over were dwindling fast now, and Lucy knew that she would have to find a job – any job, even cleaning public lavatories if that was all she could get – or how were they to live? Her thoughts moved on to Mary – poor little scrap. Already it was apparent that there was something not quite normal about her. The health visitor at the clinic had told Lucy quite callously that Mary was ‘backward’. Lucy hated that term. Mary was very slow in her development, admittedly, but Lucy still had high hopes that the little girl would catch up with other children her age, given time. Still, at least she had found someone who was prepared to care for her sister, if and when she found a job. Their kindly neighbour, Mrs Price, affectionately known as Mrs P, was an amazon of a woman with a heart to match, and since the Ford family had moved in next door to the Prices, the woman had been a godsend. The two younger Price children, Barry and Beryl, had been evacuated to the country a couple of months earlier, and now the big woman was happy to pour all the love she usually reserved for them onto Mary.
Momentarily forgetting her nervousness, Lucy grinned as she thought back to the day she had been told that Mary was ‘backward’ and Mrs P’s indignation.
‘Silly buggers,’ she’d declared angrily. ‘What do they know? Happen the poor little mite is just a bit slower at graspin’ things than other kids her age, but she’ll catch up – you’ll see.’
Lucy’s thoughts were dragged back to the present and the nervousness returned with a vengeance as the door opened and the striking blonde reappeared. She whispered to Lucy as she sailed past in a gust of Chanel No. 5, ‘Looks like I just got myself a job,’ but Lucy had no time to do anything other than nod before the stern-faced woman appeared again.
‘Miss Ford,’ she barked.
Lucy shot to her feet and almost stumbled in her haste to follow the woman into a room where a gentleman with the most enormous bulbous nose she had ever seen was sitting at a desk waiting to interview her.
Ten minutes later, she left the place in a daze. She was to start as a shop assistant at eight o’clock sharp the following Monday morning.
‘So ’ow did it go, sweet’eart?’ Mrs P asked when Lucy went to pick Mary up half an hour later.
‘I got the job,’ Lucy informed her.
‘Well, what yer lookin’ so glum for then?’ Mrs P raised an eyebrow as she jiggled Mary up and down on her plump knee. ‘That’s good, ain’t it?’
‘Oh yes,’ Lucy assured her hastily. ‘I suppose I’m just feeling a little . . . Oh, I don’t know – nervous, I suppose. Most of the girls who work there seem very glamorous and pretty. I just wonder how I’ll fit in. And are you quite sure that you won’t mind caring for Mary whilst I’m at work?’
‘Huh, I’ve hardly got a lot else to do to pass the time, have I? An’ this little soul is as good as the day is long. It’ll be a pleasure, so don’t you go frettin’ about that. As fer you fittin’ in . . . . Well, yer as good as any o’ them an’ better than most, I don’t mind bettin’,’ Mrs P replied as she eyed the girl up and down.
Lucy really was an extremely attractive girl, although she appeared to be completely unaware of the fact. She was tall and slim with lovely shoulder-length auburn hair that turned to fiery red in the sunshine, and big green eyes that looked almost too big for her heart-shaped face. Given smarter clothes and with a little bit of make-up on, Mrs P was certain she could have been quite striking. But then she supposed the poor kid didn’t get an awful lot of time for titivating as most girls her age did. She was too busy caring for Mary and keeping her home running, which was a crying shame as far as Mrs P was concerned.
In actual fact, the Ford family were a little bit of a mystery and very
Maggie Ryan, Blushing Books