The Girl on the Beach Read Online Free PDF Page B

Thornby.
    Julie was lonelier than ever and she missed seeing Harry. She wondered if he missed her. While her hands became red and rough from the soda in the scrubbing water, shemourned the days they had spent together and dreamt of meeting him again one day.
    It came about one Friday in January 1938. It was very early in the morning and she was on her knees stoning the front step when she became aware that someone had stopped behind her. Thinking he wanted to come up the steps, she got off her knees and stood aside to let him pass. And then she gasped. ‘Harry!’
    He stared. ‘Julie! I can’t believe it. I searched all over for you. Tell me what happened. How did you come to be here?’
    Julie looked fearfully towards the door of the boarding house. ‘I can’t talk now. I’ll get the sack.’
    ‘When do you finish work?’
    ‘When it’s all done and I go home to bed.’
    ‘Oh, come, you must have some time off.’
    ‘I have a half day a week and a Sunday once a month. It changes about according to what the other staff are doing. Now and again Saturday half day is followed by Sunday and that makes a lovely weekend.’
    ‘When is your next half day?’
    ‘Tomorrow.’
    ‘That’s marvellous. I’m off tomorrow too. I’ll wait at the end of the road for you. What time?’
    ‘Julie!’ someone shrieked from inside the house. ‘I don’t pay you to gossip.’
    ‘Go away, Harry, please.’
    ‘Very well. Just tell me a time.’
    ‘Half past two. But I’m not promising.’
    He grinned and strode away.
    She watched him go. He was so handsome, so smart and, wonder of wonders, he had been looking for her. Hehad not forgotten her. Somehow or other she must make it to the rendezvous.
    The next day was bitterly cold and threatening snow, but that in no way deterred her. She wore her brown tweed coat, the scarf and gloves Harry had given her, a beret she had knitted for herself and a pair of black button shoes. It was not the weather that filled her with nervous apprehension as she hurried down the street that Saturday afternoon, but wondering if Harry might feel too ashamed to be seen out with someone as shabby as she was. Perhaps he would not be there, perhaps he would decide it was too cold.
    To her delight he was waiting for her, well wrapped up in a warm wool coat with a fur collar, a trilby hat and leather gloves. He took her hand and tucked it under his elbow. ‘Shall we find somewhere warm? A hot cup of tea and a bun, don’t you think?’
    ‘Lovely.’
    He took her to Lyons Corner House and they sat over tea and cakes, talking, talking, talking. ‘I nearly went mad wondering what had happened to you,’ he told her. ‘That fellow, the one who assaulted you, took great delight in telling me you had been sacked.’
    ‘He snitched to Lady Chalfont that I’d been seeing you. I don’t know what’s so bad about that. Her Ladyship was really nasty to me over it. I didn’t tell her who you were, though.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘I didn’t want to get you into trouble too.’
    ‘Bless you. Is that why you didn’t meet me as we arranged?’
    ‘I couldn’t. I’d just started working for Mrs Thornbyand I daren’t ask for time off as soon as I got there. I didn’t want to lose another job.’
    ‘Scrubbing steps.’
    ‘Among other things.’
    ‘Do you live in?’
    ‘No, I live with Miss Paterson. She was one of the teachers at the Coram.’
    ‘The one I saw that day at Southend?’
    ‘Yes. She’s just retired and we live in a flat in Shoreditch.’
    ‘Poor you, having to live with that dragon.’
    ‘She’s not a dragon, she’s kind-hearted and generous and if it hadn’t been for her, I’d have ended up in the workhouse.’
    ‘How loyal you are. You shield me and defend her and in the process ruin your pretty hands scrubbing.’
    ‘We all have to work.’
    ‘Not all. People like Lady Chalfont don’t do a hand’s turn and many women do nothing but look after husband and house.’
    ‘That’s