that even through the blackout curtains, with the darkness behind her, she could see Agnes’s face looming. Before she’d even got to the front door, her mother-in-law was standing out on her doorstep with her arms folded.
‘I thought something had happened to you,’ she said in an accusatory tone. ‘I’ve been worried for over an hour. I was just about to call the police, tell them you weren’t home.’
Julia swallowed down the hot anger at her lack of decorum, reminding herself Agnes was her husband’s mother. ‘I decided to go to the pictures,’ she responded in an unconvincingly cheery manner. ‘These are my new friends, Lizzie and Diana. They missed the last bus, so they’re going to be staying with me tonight.’
Agnes eyed them all warily. ‘Well, I won’t bother you any more then if you’ve got company,’ she said with a sniff, setting her face like stone. And Julia nodded. She wasn’t going to buy the guilt. And pushing the door open, the three of them strode inside.
Lizzie whispered to Julia, ‘I always thought it’d be really nice to have neighbours, but she’s not very friendly, is she? Does she always give you the third degree when you come home late at night?’
Julia shook her head, taking off her coat. ‘Well, she is my mother-in-law. She thinks she has more right than anyone else.’
‘Oh, God, I’m sorry,’ burbled Lizzie, her face blushing crimson. ‘I didn’t mean to insult your family.’
Julia grinned. ‘No, actually, you saved me. I would have had her over here for hours telling me how much she’d worried about me not being home. I think with John leaving, it sent her over the edge. She’s always been a little that way, but this war has made her so much worse. She seems to have become paranoid about everything.’
As Julia prepared a cup of tea for them all, Diana and Lizzie went into the front room. Lizzie noticed the photograph of John on the mantelpiece. Picking it up, she called to Julia in the kitchen.
‘Is this your husband?’
Julia poked her head in the room. ‘He’s handsome, isn’t he?’
The girls both smiled back, nodding.
‘He has a great sense of humour. He makes me laugh every day. He’s always so fun to be around. Every day is an adventure with John. Always thinking of things for us to do as a family. I miss him terribly,’ she said, making her way to the stove to take off the kettle. She didn’t want to cry.
‘Have you heard where he will be stationed yet?’ enquired Lizzie.
‘Not yet, it’s been two weeks, but you know, they said it might be a while before they find out. He could be anywhere in the world right now.’
Lizzie touched her arm. ‘I’m sure you’ll hear soon. If his life’s anything like our time at West Drayton, he barely has time to think, trust me. Sleeping and eating, it’s all you dream about from the minute you get up to the minute you go to bed.’
‘We just run about all day and then collapse in our beds,’ Diana added. ‘If Lizzie hadn’t dragged me out tonight, that’s where I’d be right now. I’d have been there from six o’clock. My body aches in places I didn’t even know I had muscles.’
Bringing the tea in, once it was made, they all settled down in the front room.
‘These are your children?’ enquired Lizzie, looking at another photograph next to the one of John. ‘They’re lovely. Where in the country are they?’
‘Up in the Cotswolds.’
‘You were right to send them there,’ mused Diana, sipping her tea. ‘If anything happened, it would be so traumatic for children, don’t you think? At least over there they have a chance of being safer if bombs start dropping.’
Lizzie sat back in her chair and surveyed the room. ‘God, it’s nice to be in a house, isn’t it, Diana? It’s not so terrible or anything at the barracks. But you don’t really get the same facilities, you know, of a home. All they’ve got to offer us is lukewarm showers we have to run through. Most of the time, we have to make do with a strip-down wash, with a flannel and a sink of water. And the water always seems to be freezing cold. I’m sure they treat prisoners of war better.’
All three of them laughed.
‘All I dream about is a nice hot bath when I’m standing there in that lukewarm shower.’
‘You can have a bath here tonight if you want,’ suggested Julia.