The Girls of Mulberry Lane (The Mulberry Lane Series) by Rosie Clarke

Author:Rosie Clarke [Clarke, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786692573
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2017-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

*

‘You’re new here, aren’t you?’ The young soldier caught hold of Maureen’s wrist for a moment as she cleared his table. ‘You remind me of someone, but I can’t think who it is.’

Maureen smiled and removed herself from his grasp. ‘I don’t think we’ve ever met, Sergeant.’

‘I’ve seen your face, at least I think it was you – but you looked younger. One of the men had your picture up on his locker.’

‘Surely not,’ Maureen said but her heart jumped. Rory did have a picture of her taken four years previously. He’d taken it on a summer’s day in the park. ‘What was his name?’

‘I’ve forgotten, but it will come to me,’ the sergeant said. ‘So you haven’t got a sweetheart then?’

‘No, I haven’t,’ Maureen said, because Rory wasn’t hers. ‘I don’t have time for courting. When I’m not here I’m looking after my father and the shop.’

‘I’m Jim Cotton,’ the sergeant said and offered his hand. ‘My father had a small haberdasher’s shop in a country town, but he died last year; my mother died when I was a kid and I was an only child – so we were close until he went. What sort of shop does your father run?’

‘I’m sorry about your loss.’ Maureen paused, then, ‘Dad’s shop is a grocery business. We sell a bit of everything. People come for their food, tins and sugar and tea mostly, and at night the men come in to buy cigarettes and sweets for the kids or a box of chocolates for a treat for their wives.’

‘Whereabouts are you?’ he asked.

Maureen hesitated, and then gave him the location. ‘It’s made things difficult for passing trade now, because several things can’t be replaced. We’ve got plenty of sweets, because we stocked up on them, but it won’t be long before we have to ask for coupons for sugar.’

‘I’m only surprised they haven’t done it already.’

‘They are letting us have a decent Christmas this year, because it will get much worse as time goes on. Dad hasn’t had to bother with rationing yet at the wholesaler, but they say it can’t be far off.’

‘My father said it was difficult last time – it wasn’t just the coupons; the shops were running out of everything but the basics.’

‘I’ve had a leaflet to say they’ll issue margarine coupons and they will be used for all sorts of things, but if there’s nothing to buy the coupons will be useless.’

‘It’s a funny old world,’ Jim Cotton said. ‘Well, I’ll see you around then, miss – someone said your name was Maureen?’

‘Yes, it is,’ she agreed as he put on his cap, got up and left. Maureen stared after him. He seemed nice, but he wasn’t Rory and there was no point in getting to know him, because her father would just cause trouble and she couldn’t be bothered to go through all that for nothing.

However, she was serving in the shop the next morning when Jim entered. He bought a newspaper, some cigarettes and a packet of black and white mints.

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