The Good Time Girls at War by Fiona Ford

Author:Fiona Ford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2022-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

Twelve

It was gone 11 by the time Renee got in from the Palais. Given it was a Monday the dance hall had been slow so she’d used her superiority to give herself an early night, refusing to stay and chat with the other dancers once the customers had gone. Mind you, she thought grimly as she stepped out of her dance shoes and into the comfortable slippers her sister had bought her for Christmas, she couldn’t have given a monkey’s whether she was senior or not. After the day she’d had, not to mention the humiliation, it had been a miracle she’d just left early rather than hand in her resignation.

Remembering the smugness on Edna’s face Renee felt a fresh stab of resentment. How dare they treat her like this? She was Renee Hammond, Queen of the Dance Floor. But now she very much felt like Cinderella.

She reached into her handbag for her Craven As, fingers trembling with anger as she thought about Nancy. She’d thought they were friends. And yet she’d allowed her husband and his mother to ride roughshod over her. Renee knew Nancy had tried to talk to her all day, but she’d avoided the front desk manager at every turn. The last thing she wanted was to have to listen to how hard it was for Nancy to deal with Bill and Edna or get excited on her behalf about the Jewish children.

Fingers finally clasping around the paper packet, Renee reached for a cigarette and lit it. As she did so she became aware of a figure sitting in the dark and screamed in shock.

‘It’s all right, it’s only me.’

‘Lizzie!’ Renee panted as she scrabbled for the light switch.

As the bulb overhead flooded the tiny kitchen with orange light she took in the shape of her sister hunched over the scrubbed pine table.

‘Why are you sitting in the dark?’

Renee took a long pull on her cigarette and leaned against the sink, trying to calm her racing pulse. She narrowed her eyes as she took in her sister’s appearance. She looked tired. Her long blonde hair was greasy and unkempt, her pale skin looked grey and the dark circles under her eyes didn’t go unnoticed.

‘I think better without the light,’ Lizzie replied.

Nodding, Renee took another pull on her cigarette. ‘Got a lot on your mind?’

‘A bit more than usual,’ Lizzie said. Then, her face brightening, she reached into a brown bag on the table and pulled out a fistful of coins. ‘I made ten shillings.’

‘Well done, love!’ Renee exclaimed. ‘Down the market?’

Lizzie nodded. ‘I helped out the ironmonger today. I’ll go back tomorrow to see if anyone else will let me help out.’

Renee said nothing. She knew her sister meant well but it wasn’t enough to help save her. The reality, Renee was beginning to realise, was that nothing would be.

Instead she peered around the kitchen. You could see Lizzie’s entire flat from the kitchen table it was that tiny. The small bedroom stood to the right of the kitchen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.