21

Rose walked along the line of Nippies, checking that their uniforms were worn correctly, without missing buttons or holes in their black stockings. ‘Turn around,’ she commanded then, inspecting the gas masks ingeniously attached to their belts at the back. ‘You would all have heard about the gas exercise in Ramsgate recently – imagine if that had been real, and you’d forgotten to wear your mask? Be vigilant, ladies. And remember not to use the case for anything other than carrying your mask.’

The Nippies voiced their agreement. Once Rose had dismissed them, they all hurried to their workstations.

‘I’ll be in my office for the next hour,’ Rose said, stifling a yawn.

Lily bustled into the office a few minutes later, carrying a tea tray. ‘I thought you might need this to keep you awake. Did you have a bad night?’

‘You could say that. I sat up with Mum; we were chewing over everything that has happened since Alexsy was snatched by Tom White. Nothing makes sense at all, even though we now have the blanket that was taken at the same time.’

‘We need to put our heads together,’ Lily said, pinching a biscuit from the tea tray.

Rose sighed. ‘It’s good of you, but I’ve been over and over everything with Mum so many times and we’ve got nowhere.’

‘You need fresh eyes, and who could be better than me and Katie to help? You know I feel responsible for Alexsy going missing. Besides, Katie has been so down in the dumps since Jack went back to his ship, she needs to be distracted.’

‘I know how Katie feels, as we never seem to see our husbands for long. But tell me, why do you feel responsible?’

‘Well, Tom White only came back because of me and Mary, and look what’s happened.’

‘You can’t blame yourself for this. He was on a mission as soon as he walked into the Ramsgate teashop. You weren’t there, so he chatted to Jennie, and bingo: he found a link to you. He is a wily so-and-so.’

‘You can say that again. So will you come to Captain’s Cottage this evening? I can cook,’ she grinned.

‘Oh please, anything but your cooking,’ Rose smiled. ‘Why don’t I bring fish and chips with me, and we will have longer to chat if no one has to stop and cook?’

‘That sounds good to me. I’ll let Katie know, in case she starts to cook her Spam fritters. Don’t forget there are four of us, as Jennie will be home this evening.’

‘Five if we count Mary; she does love to pinch my chips.’

‘My daughter does like her food,’ Lily chuckled before her smile dropped. ‘Just to think it could have been my baby girl Tom White ran off with; I can’t bear to imagine it.’

‘Then don’t. There are customers to serve and we have a new area manager visiting today, so we’d best look sharp.’

Lily picked up the tray. ‘You certainly know how to cheer me up. I hope he’s a decent sort.’

‘Me too, as I’ve not been able to glean any information about the man – not even a name. Usually someone at head office will tip me off, but I’ve not heard a thing. Katie promised to let me know if he turns up there first.’

‘Oh well, we’d better be on our best behaviour,’ Lily grimaced. ‘I hope this doesn’t mean the day is going downhill.’

Rose gave her a wry smile. ‘We will find Alexsy. And as far as the new area manager is concerned, we will have to wait and see . . .’

Rose didn’t have to wait long. Only ten minutes later there was a loud knock on the door of her office before it burst open. She looked up from where she was working on next week’s staff rota, ready to reprimand whatever Nippy was making such a racket. Her jaw dropped as she recognized the woman standing in front of her.

Miss Butterworth was as frightening a spectacle as she had been when Rose first joined the company as a very young Nippy. The woman had terrified her then and, going by the way she was now shaking, that feeling had never fully gone away.

She rose from her seat. ‘Why, Miss Butterworth, how lovely to see you – my goodness, it must be two years since you left the company. Thank you so much for popping by. Please take a seat and I’ll order refreshments; I take it you have time for a cup of tea and one of our delicious cakes? Excuse me a moment,’ she added as the telephone started to ring. ‘Lyons teashop, Margate, how may I help you?’

‘Rose, it’s Katie. I wanted to warn you our new area manager is on her way to see you. You’ll never guess who it is?’

Rose’s heart plummeted to her boots as the penny dropped. ‘Thank you so much. I’ll get back to you later with the information,’ she replied.

‘Oh my goodness, is she sitting with you now?’ Katie asked.

‘That’s correct,’ Rose said, trying hard not to smile as Katie started to laugh. Rose replaced the telephone receiver.

‘I’m sorry about that; now let me organize refreshments,’ she said, going to the door and calling out to Lily, who was clearing a table nearby. ‘Miss Douglas, would you bring tea to the office when you have finished preparing that table, please?’

Lily frowned and looked past Rose to see who her guest was. Her eyes opened in shock as she spotted Miss Butterworth. ‘I’ll do that at once, Mrs Hargreaves,’ she said, giving a small bob before hurrying away.

Rose pinned a smile to her face and returned to her desk. ‘I must say how surprised I am to see you back in Thanet. May I ask how your sister is?’

‘My sister passed away at the end of last year,’ Miss Butterworth replied, ‘and since then I have returned to work for Lyons, at the same time being offered promotion. I understand the previous area manager has retired.’

‘Mr Grant is a sad loss to the company and the area. He gave me away when I married,’ Rose said, looking at her wedding ring and thinking of that happy day.

‘I heard you had married into the aristocracy; I must say, you have done very well for yourself. It is usually the London Nippies who tend to meet the better class of male customer.’

Rose held back the words she really wanted to say to the woman and smiled sweetly. ‘Ben’s family aren’t exactly aristocracy. I look forward to working with you. Do you plan to make many changes?’ she asked, praying Miss Butterworth would leave her to run the Margate teashop without too much interference. Mr Grant had been very happy with her work as manageress.

‘I do intend to make some changes, but for today I wish only to inspect the teashop and the staff in order to plan what will happen next.’

Rose groaned inwardly, wondering what lay ahead for her and her staff.

‘Hello, Miss Butterworth; I thought I spotted you earlier. Are you paying us a visit?’ Lily chirped as she placed an overloaded tray on Rose’s desk.

‘Miss Butterworth is our new area manager – or is that manageress?’ Rose asked the stony-faced woman.

‘I prefer manager, as it is more professional. Manageress sounds like someone who works in a wool shop.’

Lily sniggered before mouthing ‘sorry’ to Rose. ‘I’ll leave you to it,’ she said, backing out of the room.

‘Miss Douglas, before I hold my staff inspection, would you either change your stockings or darn the rather ugly run below your left knee? I’m surprised you didn’t notice it when you had your staff check this morning. That’s if there was one,’ she added with a glare at Rose, who felt her cheeks start to burn.

Lily stepped back into the room. ‘It happened just now, when a customer caught my leg with her shopping basket. I was about to change them when Mrs Hargreaves asked me to fetch tea for you,’ she replied, before turning and leaving.

‘If you are going to be sick, use the bucket,’ Mildred instructed Anya, who was starting to look a little green about the gills. ‘There’s a rope tied to the handle so you can swing it over the side and rinse it out. Sorry, it does smell a little fishy,’ she apologized as Anya heaved, holding it in front of her face.

‘How long before we arrive in France? I think I will die from seasickness if I don’t put my feet on dry land before long.’

‘A little under half an hour should see us meeting the French boats; that’s if this weather doesn’t get any rougher.’

‘Do you mean you are going to have someone row us to the beach, as we did in England?’

‘If only we could, but the patrol boats would pick us up before we even reached the shore. We plan to transfer to one of the French fishing boats, and two of their crew will take the Saucy Milly back to Ramsgate.’

Anya looked aghast. ‘You mean I am to climb onto another boat out here in the sea?’

‘Don’t worry, I have done it many times. You will have a rope tied around your waist; if you fall in, we will pull you out. It is a bit choppy out there at the moment, so I hope the transfer can take place.’

‘This is madness, pure madness,’ Anya shouted, forgetting that only moments before she had been feeling seasick. She marched up and down the deck, ranting, until she came face to face with Mildred. ‘Take me back. I refuse to go on with this mission. I have a son who needs me; what good am I to him if I drown?’

‘Oh, don’t be so melodramatic,’ Mildred snapped. She pulled Anya over to a pile of rope close to where she had been steering the boat, then pushed her firmly until the sobbing woman was sitting down on the pile. Returning to the wheel, she shouted towards Anya, some of her words being whipped away as the threatening storm sent sheets of rain towards them. ‘I would like to be able to put my arms around you and soothe your tears. But not only am I not like that, you know you have to go through with this mission. Many people depend on you.’

‘There are others who could do this,’ Anya sniffed.

‘From what I understand, you are the only person capable of carrying this out. It is a straightforward job; no one is asking you to blow up trains or execute the enemy. They simply want you to be able to say, “Yes, this is the woman,” and then I can return you back to your home and your son. However, if you insist, I will turn the boat around and we will return to Ramsgate harbour. I’m more than happy to wash my hands of this and go back to my bed and sleep the sleep of the dead. You, meanwhile, will have to explain to Ruth and the other people who run the SOE that you’ve let everybody down. The choice is yours, just make up your mind and say the word and I’ll signal the French fishing boat that is approaching us now. Men on that boat are risking their lives to help you . . .’

‘Cheer up, Katie, it might not happen,’ Lily joshed her friend as they helped Rose open the newspaper-wrapped parcels containing their fish suppers. ‘Let’s eat out of the paper to save on washing up,’ she added, going to a drawer to collect cutlery.

‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ Jennie asked as she joined them in the kitchen. ‘Mary is tucked up in her bed, fast asleep; I tired her out running around the garden playing hide and seek.’

‘Thank you so much. She does enjoy playing with you; you are like a big sister to her,’ Lily smiled, wondering if Mary would ever have siblings. ‘I’d best put a few chips on a plate for my darling daughter, or she will complain in the morning. Get the salt and vinegar, Jennie, and we can sit and eat them on our laps in the living room.’

‘And pretend we’re at the seaside?’ Rose grinned. They could hear the sea from where they lived at Captain’s Cottage.

‘That’s something I do miss: walking on the beach and not being confronted by an angry soldier or seeing the sea defences,’ Katie said wistfully. ‘Shall I butter some bread to have with the meal? I brought home half a loaf from the teashop.’

‘That’s a good idea,’ Rose said as she started to hand out the food to the girls.

Once they were seated, Jennie listened to them all chatting about Thanet and its beaches. ‘I’ve never seen the coast without the defences,’ she said, ‘as the war had started by the time I came here. It must have been wonderful in the olden times.’

Lily gave her arm a playful slap. ‘Hey, not so much of the “olden times”, we aren’t that much older than you! It’s just that we grew up here and know each other from our school days.’

‘I grew up in the children’s home alongside my Jack. If it hadn’t been for Rose’s mum, I’d not have known what proper families were like,’ Katie said.

‘They aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. That’s why I ran away and came here; but I’m happy now,’ Jennie grinned.

‘And when the war is over, we will be able to show you more of our part of Kent. There’s nowhere else like it,’ Katie said.

‘I love what I’ve seen so far. I feel as though I’ve fallen on my feet knowing you all, as well as having such a nice job,’ Jennie said, forking chips into her mouth.

‘You may change your opinion when you meet our new area manager,’ Katie sighed. ‘She’s going to be hard work. All I could think was, come back Mr Grant.’

‘You talk as if you know her, is she a local person?’ Jennie asked.

Rose laid down her fork. ‘She was our Ramsgate teashop manageress when the three of us started working there as Nippies. She was a domineering person. We girls feared her, and it was a relief when she left to care for her sick sister. I am surprised to see her back working for the company, but I suppose with so many men away fighting in the war they are bound to take on more female managers. A woman I know from school told me it is the same where she works, at the Ramsgate Woolworths: women are moving into management but will have to relinquish their positions when the men return to the workplace. She was offered promotion, but refused as she is expecting her first child.’

A pained look crossed Katie’s face, but she kept quiet.

Lily sighed. ‘I was the first person she picked on, just because I’d caught my stocking and hadn’t rushed to change them. It was awful.’

‘It can’t be helped.’ Rose shook her head. ‘We are just going to have to be careful when we know she is due to visit us. I’ve already heard from two other teashops, and we are going to tip each other off when she is on the warpath. What was she like at the Ramsgate branch, Katie?’

‘The first thing she did was ask me why I wasn’t expecting yet, as I’d been married a while. I didn’t know where to look. The customers heard her as well as the staff.’

Lily was shocked. ‘I’d have told her to mind her own business, whatever did you say?’

Katie’s bottom lip trembled as she spoke. ‘I told her we hope to have a large family in time,’ she said, as several large tears plopped onto the fish and chips in her lap.

‘Oh, sweetie,’ Lily said as she hurried to Katie’s side and flung her arms around her, causing her tears to flow even faster. ‘That was a downright awful thing for her to say to you. I feel you should write to head office and lodge a complaint.’

‘I don’t want to cause any trouble,’ Katie sniffed. ‘I’ll be more aware of her next time she comes to Ramsgate.’

Lily was still fuming. ‘She’s lucky Anya wasn’t at the Margate teashop, as she’d have shown the woman the sharp side of her tongue.’

The girls all laughed, apart from Rose, who was wondering where Anya was and whether Ruth had any news she could share with her. ‘Perhaps we should give Miss Butterworth the benefit of the doubt. From what I can remember there was only her and her sister, and she may still be grieving; it can’t have been long since she passed away. Everyone acts differently when they lose someone they love.’

Lily agreed. ‘I’ll try to remember that, as I know it took me a long time to get over the loss of my mum. If it hadn’t been for you and Flora taking care of me, goodness knows how I’d have turned out.’

Jennie, who had been listening intently, nodded her head. ‘Flora is such a kind lady; she deserves a medal.’

Rose smiled at the young girl. ‘My mum is one in a million, but I doubt she would agree she deserves a medal; she is far too modest. However, speaking of Anya, we must remember we were getting together to see what we could come up with to find little Alexsy. I wonder who the woman was with Tom, later on the day Alexsy was taken? When the yellow blanket was dropped by the chemist’s shop?’

Katie chewed her bottom lip as she thought. ‘Is it worth returning to ask the chemist what he saw?’

Rose shook her head. ‘John Bentley has already tried that. He even gave the impression he was a detective and pressed the man as much as possible, but it was no good. He couldn’t give any more information.’

They fell silent as they finished their meal. Afterwards, Lily collected the newspaper pages and the cutlery.

‘I may know something,’ Jennie said, looking frightened. ‘I know I’m to blame for all this, but I want to help you all find the little lad; and as soon as possible, before Anya comes home.’

‘Oh, Jennie, you’re not to blame for any of it,’ Rose consoled her.

Katie joined in. ‘Anything you can tell us, however trivial, just might lead to Alexsy being found.’

Jennie looked nervous. ‘Then I think I know who the woman is.’