Christmas With the Bobby Girls [Bobby Girls #3] by Johanna Bell

Author:Johanna Bell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: WW1, War Saga, Historical Saga
ISBN: 1529334225
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Published: 2020-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

20

During her visit to her parents, Annie managed to avoid the inevitable discussion about Christmas by asking her father about his work as soon as her mother broached the subject. She could see from her mother’s face that she knew exactly what she was up to. That was the problem with being so close to someone – they knew all your tricks and could tell just by looking at you exactly what you were feeling. Thankfully, Mrs Beckett didn’t push it. Annie knew her mother hadn’t given up entirely, but she was off the hook for now, at least.

The truth was, Annie would be quite happy to lock herself away in her room at the section house for the whole of the festive season and not speak to another soul. She didn’t see the point in celebrating now that Richard was gone.

On her way to meet her friends, Annie decided to tell Poppy she had bumped into PC Lewis on her morning travels. She figured that would enable her to reveal the discussion about the stew without raising any suspicions with her friends. It wasn’t too much of a fib, and there was no way she could keep the good news from her friend, who she knew would be delighted that her plan to get some of the officers on-side had worked a treat. In the end, she was so nervous about the lie that she blurted out a summary of the conversation as soon as the group sat down for tea that afternoon.

‘That’s wonderful!’ Poppy exclaimed, rubbing her hands together in glee. She was beaming from ear to ear. Then, suddenly, her eyes glazed over and became misty. Panicked, Annie wondered what on earth she could have said to illicit such an extreme reaction – she had thought she was passing on such good news.

Poppy wiped away a tear. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘Please don’t feel bad because these are good tears, honestly.’ Annie’s face was obviously still full of concern as Poppy reached out her hand and squeezed her arm in an act of reassurance. ‘Honestly,’ she repeated, then took a sip of her tea.

Annie and Maggie waited patiently while Poppy composed herself. When she was ready, she took a deep breath. ‘I only learned to cook properly when I met John,’ she explained.

Annie felt a sudden rush of sympathy for her friend. She always seemed to be keeping things together so well, and Annie assumed she was a lot stronger than herself because of that. But she clearly struggled too – it wasn’t just Annie who was getting constant cruel reminders of what she had lost because of this war. It was comforting, in a way, to know she wasn’t the only one going through this nightmare while trying to live her life with some kind of degree of normality.

‘How did you meet John?’ Maggie asked. Annie felt bad that even after all this time living together, she didn’t know the full story of Poppy and her dead husband.

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