Rosie got to the toilets but not in time to catch up with Charlotte.
She waited outside, watching women go in and out.
After five minutes, Rosie went in.
‘You all right, Charlie?’
‘I’ll be out in a minute,’ Charlotte answered.
‘I’ll wait for you outside,’ Rosie said.
Lily and George had been right to look concerned.
‘Dear me.’ Rosie tried to sound jocular when Charlotte came out. ‘I know the Ladies here is nice – but not nice enough to take up residence here.’
Charlotte gave a wan smile.
‘Come to the bar with me,’ Rosie said. ‘I’ll get us both a glass of lemonade.’
Normally the offer of any kind of fizzy drink would have had Charlotte racing to the bar. Instead, she trooped behind.
‘Two lemonades, please,’ Rosie told the barmaid.
After paying, she handed one to Charlotte and took a sip from her own glass.
She started to feel a little unnerved by her sister’s sudden change of mood.
What on earth had happened in the past hour?
‘What’s wrong, Charlie?’ she asked tentatively.
‘Nothing.’ Charlotte was still unable to look her sister in the eye.
‘You were fine on the way to the parade. Happy as Larry, I’d say. Then you disappear for a little while – you say you saw someone from your class but weren’t able to speak to them – and then you come back miserable.’
Rosie looked at Charlotte, who was inspecting an invisible spot on the ground.
Seeing a free table by the side of the lounge bar, Rosie grabbed her drink.
‘Come on, let’s sit over there.’
Charlotte followed and the two sisters sat down.
Rosie noticed Charlotte had yet to take a drink of her lemonade.
She looked around; the room was just starting to fill up. The parade was now over and it was getting noisy.
‘Right, you’re beginning to worry me now, Charlie.’
Rosie looked at her sister. Something wasn’t right. Charlie was never this quiet.
‘What is it, Charlie? You know you can tell me anything, don’t you?’
Charlotte didn’t say a word. Nor did she nod or shake her head.
‘Did you see one of your schoolmates? Were they horrible to you?’
Was Charlie being bullied again?
Charlotte shook her head.
‘No, I’m not being bullied.’
Rosie thought she saw her sister’s lower lip tremble. She was on the verge of tears. So unlike Charlotte. The last time she’d cried was when she’d told Rosie what had been going on at Runcorn.
‘Everything’s a lie,’ Charlotte said finally. She still wouldn’t look at Rosie. ‘You’ve lied to me my whole life.’
Rosie had a sudden wave of nausea.
She didn’t know, did she?
She took Charlotte’s chin and tilted it so that her sister was forced to look at her.
‘What do you mean, everything’s a lie?’
Charlotte looked into her sister’s eyes.
‘I know,’ she said simply.
The two sisters stared at one other as though seeing each other for the first time.
Suddenly Rosie was back in time. It was a year and a half ago. She was with Peter by the police cabin on the south docks. He was saying the same thing to her.
And now she was saying the same thing she’d said to him, but to Charlotte.
‘What do you mean, “you know?”’
Her legs started to shake. Thank God she was sitting down. Again, the feeling of nausea. It had been dreadful when Peter had told her, but this was worse.
Much worse.
This was her sister.
Charlie was still a child. Charlie looked up to her.
‘I know,’ Charlotte said, her lower lip still trembling. ‘I know about Lily’s.’
Rosie felt breathless.
‘What about Lily’s?’ She was stalling for time. Trying desperately to put off the inevitable.
‘I know.’ Charlotte dropped her voice. ‘I saw the red light … Saw Maisie and Vivian take two soldiers back there. I saw one of the rooms,’ Charlotte whispered. ‘At Lily’s. That day I went for tea. Didn’t really understand.’ She looked off into the distance. ‘Until today.’
Neither spoke for a moment.
‘Everything makes sense now,’ she said. ‘The school fees. The flat. Money for everything …’ Her voice trailed off.
‘And you’ve worked there for years. Lied to me for years,’ Charlotte said.
Another moment’s silence.
Rosie didn’t know what to say. It was clear her sister knew. Her worst fears had come true.
Like she always knew they would.
She’d been kidding herself.
She was stupid for thinking Charlotte wouldn’t find out.
Of course she would.
And now she knew the truth, there was no point in lying.
‘Yes,’ Rosie said simply. ‘I did work at Lily’s.’
Charlotte looked at her sister and could read the mortification in Rosie’s face. She wanted to tell her that she understood. There was no real shame in just doing the books, was there? Yes, it was a brothel, but it wasn’t as if she had done what Maisie and Vivian did.
‘I—’ Charlotte was just about to speak but Rosie stopped her. Putting a finger on her sister’s lips, she took hold of her hand.
‘Charlie, I’m sorry. Sorry for lying.’
Charlotte tried to speak again, but Rosie continued.
‘I didn’t want you to know,’ she said. ‘Not until you were older, anyway.’ Rosie squeezed Charlotte’s hand.
‘Lily told me I should have been honest with you from the start,’ Rosie said. ‘Told you the truth. She said you were old enough.’
Charlotte nodded. Lily knew her so well.
‘But I guess I wanted to keep you innocent. Not a part of that world.’
Rosie looked at her sister.
‘I didn’t want you to know I’d worked there. What I did … I wish you hadn’t found out this way,’ Rosie said. ‘I wanted to tell you myself.’
Charlotte felt her heart start to beat faster.
Something wasn’t right.
‘And I want you to know that I don’t work there – as such – not now.’
She paused.
‘Now I only do the books. All the accounts. That sort of thing.’
Charlotte felt her head explode.
Rosie.
Her Rosie.
Her sister.
Her beautiful, strong sister had been a working girl.
She had slept with men for money.
Rosie saw the change in Charlotte’s face.
‘So, you worked there?’ Charlotte said incredulously. ‘As in, worked there – as one of the girls?’
And it was at that moment that Rosie realised she had just made the biggest mistake in her life.
Charlotte had thought she was simply a bookkeeper. Albeit for a brothel. But only a bookkeeper.
She looked at Charlotte and saw the hurt. Then disgust. All mixed up with disbelief.
It was then and there that Rosie’s heart broke.
Probably for the first time in her life.
For at that very moment she saw her little sister’s loss of innocence.
It destroyed her to know that it was she – her older sister – who had been the cause.
She had tried so hard to shield Charlie, to protect her, and yet it was she who had dragged her into the world she had so desperately wanted her little sister to remain ignorant of.
If only she could have taken her words back.
But it was too late.
She watched as tears filled Charlie’s pretty blue eyes. The eyes of their mother.
‘You slept with men for money,’ Charlotte said, tears running down her face.
Rosie watched as sorrow was replaced by anger.
‘I used to,’ she said, trying to lessen the blow. ‘But not any more.’ She tried to take Charlotte’s hand, but her sister wrenched it away.
‘Don’t touch me!’ Tears were now dribbling over her lips. ‘Why?’ Charlotte stood up. ‘Why would you do that?’
But she didn’t wait for an answer; instead she left, pushing her way through the throng now waiting to get served at the bar, needing to get out, to leave. To run away from this horrid reality.
Rosie jumped up and started to go after her. She needed to fix this, even though she knew that this could never truly be fixed. The clock could not be turned back, no matter how much she desperately wanted it to be.
She felt someone grab her arm and turned to see that it was Lily.
Rosie looked at her.
Lily flinched at the sight of the pain etched on Rosie’s face.
‘She knows.’ It was all Rosie could say. The words seemed to stick in her throat. ‘She knows.’
Lily looked around to see that Charlotte had just about made it to the exit.
‘Stay here!’ she told Rosie. ‘Leave the girl to me.’
Rosie didn’t argue.
All of a sudden, she felt exhausted.