The Clippie Girls Read Online Free PDF Page A

household had. But with him came his wife. So Letty had to be tolerated. And Grace realized that with five boys, one already in the navy, Letty would have her own anxieties to face.
    ‘“Needs must . . .”,’ Grace could often be heard to mutter under her breath on various occasions and putting up with Letty Bradshaw was one such.
    ‘But,’ Grace went on now, ‘we might not be able to oblige for much longer.’
    Letty gaped at her. ‘Eh?’ Then she spotted the little pile of luggage labels on the table and the one Myrtle was holding. ‘Tha’s not goin’ away? Not bein’ evacuated?’
    ‘No, no, but we’ve all got to carry these until we get our identity cards. And in another month or so – November they say – we’ll get our ration books.’
    ‘Ration books?’
    ‘That’s right. A lot of foodstuffs will be on ration and I’ve no doubt sugar will be one of them. So that’s why I say you’re welcome to a cupful now, but soon we’ll all be going short.’
    ‘Eh, tha’s a mine of information, Mrs Booth. Who needs t’ papers or t’ wireless when tha’s around? An’ wait till I tell my Tom he’ll ’ave to stop ’aving sugar in his tea. He’ll not like that.’
    ‘Then he’ll have to lump it, Letty, just like we all will. Myrtle, get Letty a cup of sugar, love, will you? I’ll have to sit down. I’ve been on my feet all day.’ Grace sat down in her armchair and eased off her shoes. ‘Queuing’s getting bad already.’
    ‘Hast tha had a stirrup pump and a shovel delivered?’ Letty asked, sitting down uninvited as if settling down for a nice long chat. Grace glared at her but said nothing, whilst Myrtle hid her smile.
    ‘We have. I’ve put them down the cellar.’
    ‘What a’ they for?’
    ‘If we get incendiary bombs.’
    ‘Oh, my lor’,’ Letty cried and fell back in the chair. ‘It’s really goin’ to ’appen, Mrs Booth.’
    Soberly Grace looked at Letty and was the gentlest she’d ever been with her exasperating neighbour. ‘I’m afraid it is, Letty.’
    ‘Oh, Mrs Booth,’ Letty said, with tears in her eyes as the thought that had already struck Grace came into the woman’s own mind. ‘What’s goin’ to ’appen to my lovely boys?’

Five
    On the following Monday Myrtle came home in a panic. ‘What am I going to do? They might close our school. They’re shutting all the elementary schools until further notice.’
    Grace looked up over her glasses. ‘Whatever for?’
    ‘Because they say there aren’t adequate air-raid shelters. If they do, we’ve to go to each other’s houses for a bit until they get something organized.’
    ‘And how long’s that going to last?’ Grace had visions of hordes of unruly schoolchildren crowding into her best front room.
    ‘I don’t know, but they won’t be able to teach us properly like that.’
    ‘Quite right, Myrtle,’ Grace readily agreed. ‘I don’t want a gaggle of your classmates here. If you need to see a teacher, you go to wherever they are.’
    ‘It won’t be ideal, but it’ll be better that you’re safe,’ Mary put in. ‘You can study at home until they get some shelters organized.’
    ‘But they said it might be a whole term .’
    ‘It’s not the end of the world.’
    Myrtle glared balefully at her mother. It seemed like it to her.
    Peggy completed her training and became a fully fledged clippie. She loved her new job, especially dealing with the awkward customers, whom she cajoled into good humour with a smile and a cheery word. Even the prospect of standing on a cold and draughty platform when winter came, punching tickets, giving change with frozen fingers and working the late shift: none of it fazed Peggy. And Laurence Bower had teamed her with Bob. He knew that the couple were walking out together, but as long as ‘love’s young dream’ didn’t get in the way of their work, then he was happy to play Cupid; a rather old and bullish one at times, Laurence realized, but even he had a softer side