The Shipyard Girls on the Home Front by Nancy Revell

Author:Nancy Revell [Revell, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473572836
Publisher: Random House

Chapter Twenty-Four

Saturday 8 April

Rosie looked around the small registry office as people started to make their way in from the main foyer to take their seats. The room was small and felt smaller still due to the dark wooden panelling on the walls, but the windows were open, which was allowing in a fresh breeze. The last time she’d been here was for Bel’s wedding to Joe. She smiled to herself. She would never have guessed back then that the next time she’d be here would be for Pearl’s wedding – Bel’s ma was the last person she’d have believed would be getting married. It was another example, Rosie thought, of how unpredictable life could be.

Charlotte shuffled as she straightened her new summer dress, fighting the urge to rub her eyes. She managed to stop herself. Rosie had allowed her to put on some mascara and a smudge of blue eyeshadow and she did not want to end up looking like a panda. She was sitting in between the two people she loved and adored more than anyone else in the world – Rosie and Lily. Looking at them both, she saw that Rosie had on the minimum of make-up, just enough to hide the smattering of facial scars their uncle had left her with, whereas Lily had, as usual, plastered enough on for all three of them.

‘Is Miss Crawford not coming with Mr Dishy?’ Charlotte asked.

Rosie looked at her. It hadn’t escaped her notice that her not-so-little sister had started to show an interest in the opposite sex. She’d learnt from Lily that a group of boys from a school nearby were walking Charlotte and some of her friends part of the way home. Rosie had felt a little put out that Charlie had confided in Lily about the boys and not her. Sitting back, she sighed. If Pearl’s wedding was a turn-up for the books, then it was trumped by the fact that Lily – the madam of a bordello – had become a surrogate mother to her little sister. The world really had become topsy-turvy.

‘Bill looks nervous,’ Charlotte said.

Bill, it had to be said, was indeed looking tense, as well as uncomfortable, in a hired black suit that was a fraction too small for him, causing him to tug at the cuffs every now and again. He was standing by the registrar’s large, polished cherry-wood desk and was chatting to Joe, his best man.

‘He has good reason to be,’ Lily chuckled, causing Rosie to give her a ‘be-on-your-best-behaviour-or-else’ scowl.

George, who was sitting next to Lily, was also wearing a black suit, only his had been tailor-made to fit and did not feel uncomfortable. Leaning forward in his seat with both hands on top of his ornately carved walking stick, he was mulling over a conversation he’d had the previous evening with the Brigadier about the state of play on the other side of the Channel. Tactics of military deception were presently being employed with the aim of misleading the Germans about the date and location of the Allied landings.

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