Post Office Girls 02.A Post Office Christmas by Poppy Cooper

Author:Poppy Cooper [Poppy Cooper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529310313
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2021-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

16

Throwing the first brick was frightening.

Really frightening.

Milly and Elsie carried out the ‘mission’ together. Elsie had said Hilda was needed at home and couldn’t be spared but, the way she was talking, Milly surmised there might also have been a touch of cold feet involved. No matter … it would, no doubt, be easier for two girls to slip away from the scene of the crime than three …

Oh goodness. Were they really going to go ahead with this?

Mr Wilmington lived at the end of a row of huge terraced houses in a grand London square. Even better, his house was situated right next to a quiet side street. And the side street led, conveniently, to busy, anonymous Knightsbridge. It was dark and cold and raining heavily. Virtually no one was out and about. With her heart in her mouth, Milly followed Elsie down the side street. Elsie pulled the half-brick – with Milly’s letter tied to it – from her bag, and lobbed it with all her might through the dark front window. Then, with the crash still reverberating in their ears, they slipped into the shadows and walked calmly back down the side street.

But what was that? Footsteps?

Was someone rounding the corner behind them? Was that someone closing in on them?

Any moment, there would be a heavy hand upon Milly’s shoulder, the police would be summoned and all would be lost.

Resisting the temptation to run, Milly risked a panicked look over her shoulder.

Nothing. Just darkness and shadows.

They’d got away with it.

Five minutes later, Milly and Elsie were on the Tube, hurtling back towards the East End. Fizzing with adrenaline and swinging from the ceiling straps, they found they couldn’t stop laughing.

They’d done it!

That had been for Nan.

Nan and Hilda and Elsie and Ma and Maggie and … all of them, really. Every East-End woman who had suffered because of decisions taken by men.

They’d done it and now it felt great.

And, to be honest, Milly couldn’t wait to do it again.

It was in all the papers.

Milly devoured them all. It transpired Mr Wilmington had not been at home at the time of the attack. He and his wife had been visiting their sons at boarding school in the north of England, and the damage had been made good before they’d returned. Milly couldn’t help being disappointed Mr Wilmington hadn’t been frightened out of his wits but, on balance, it was probably a good thing. Had Mr Wilmington been around, the whole affair might have been hushed up. As it was, one of his servants had clearly leaked the entire contents of the letter to the press.

Her letter was ‘out there’ for all the world to see!

The newspapers, of course, were scathing. They condemned the person or people who had carried out such pointless vandalism – and in the middle of a war to boot. Such an action, they said, would do nothing but delay women’s suffrage by years. It was entirely counter intuitive and counterproductive.

Milly didn’t care.

She didn’t care at all.

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