Wartime Sweethearts Read Online Free PDF Page B

that Miriam accompany her to church three times during the week and twice on Sundays. They made a meagre living in their shop, Miriam’s father having died owing money that they were still trying to repay. There wasn’t any extra money for clothes and they were known to live mostly on the vegetables left on the dusty shelves at the end of the week.
    Despite the church-going Miriam was beginning to enjoy herself. She’d also discovered she very much liked the opposite sex, especially Charlie Sweet.
    Judging by the way she looked into Charlie’s eyes while buying a split tin and a cottage loaf, she was his for the taking – except that Charlie did not reciprocate her affection. He had tried telling her this, pushing her away when she came at him with her lips pursed and her big coat undone. Even at the village dance, where she was only allowed to stay until eight o’clock, she still wore her big coat.
    Undaunted, or perhaps unaware of Charlie’s rejection, she came in three days a week, her order always the same: one large split tin loaf and a cottage loaf.
    ‘I think she must be feeding every sparrow in Oldland Common,’ Mary had commented.
    Ruby grinned. Her sister could be funny as well as deadly serious. She also knew how to dress, the shades she chose always suiting her colouring. Today she was wearing a bright blue dress under her apron, the colours accentuating her eyes.
    ‘Perhaps it’s all her and her mother live on.’
    Mary made a disbelieving sound. ‘Sandwiches every day? I don’t believe it. You can’t tell me that just her and her mother are eating all that bread. I don’t believe it.’
    Miriam came dashing in just moments after their brother, bringing a breeze and the first of the autumn leaves with her. She was wearing her usual checked coat that despite the breeze looked far too warm for the weather they were currently having. It was the one she always wore, winter, summer, spring or autumn.
    Her face was pink, not because she was hot, but because it was the normal colour of her complexion. The sprinkling of freckles helped tone down the colour, but all in all it could be said that Miriam had a ‘busy’ face.
    ‘Is Charlie not working in the shop today?’ Her expression was one of enduring hopefulness, her voice lilting up and down in a sing-song way. Not surprisingly, she was a member of several church choirs and was known to sing a very good solo rendering of ‘Abide with Me’.
    Mary took on an apologetic look and primed her voice to match. ‘I’m afraid not, Miss Powell. Our father had to visit the yeast merchant which means that Charlie has to tend the oven. Then get the dough ready for the morning.’
    Miriam’s face sagged. ‘My word, but it’s hard work running a bakery. You and your family are on the go all the time. I don’t think I could do it. I never was very good at getting up in the morning. You should be up with the lark, my father used to tell me. I was always up by seven, but never with the lark.’
    Mary smiled sweetly. ‘It wouldn’t do for you to marry a baker then, would it, Miss Powell.’
    Miriam’s face fell even further. ‘Oh. I’ve never thought of that.’ Her look of dejection was short-lived. ‘I suppose marrying a baker would be the opportunity I need to change my ways,’ she said, her face alight with hope. ‘And of course if one has a family. Families all help each other, don’t they.’
    Mary agreed with her and although she smiled, she stopped it from spreading too wide or she might burst out laughing. She had no wish to hurt Miriam, but she just couldn’t see her brother Charlie and Miriam together, not to mention the redheaded children the two of them might produce.
    Mary wrapped up Miriam’s order in brown paper and took the money. Once she’d gone, she locked the door, turned over the sign saying open to closed, and pulled down the biscuit-coloured blinds.
    Charlie came through the door between the shop and the place where the bread