Read Online Polly's War by Freda Lightfoot - Free Book Online Page A

for fools like you to walk all over me.’
    ‘Bravo,’ cheered the girl softly from behind him, followed by a smattering of applause from the rest of his audience.
    Benny’s hand tightened on the collar, pulling the alarmed face closer to the window. His voice now was low, but uncompromising. ‘You’ll deal with this young lady first. She has been waiting fer two hours ! You’ll call her ma’am, and you’ll be polite. Then you’ll deal with me.’ Benny ignored the fact that there was a queue of men waiting before him. That was there problem. ‘And you’ll call me Sir . Have you got all of that? Is that simple enough for your small clerk’s brain to understand?’
    The clerk wagged his head, not without difficulty.
    ‘Good. Get on with it then.’
    ‘Right away.’
    ‘ Sir. ’
    ‘Right away, sir.’
    And to do the man justice, he did. In a surprisingly short time he had dealt with the girl behind the newspaper and produced a list of empty shops, albeit a short one, for Benny to investigate.
    Out on the pavement, Belinda thanked Benny for his help, though she had been less successful in her search for accommodation. The list the clerk had given her was for rooms only, and the rent would soon eat away at her savings. ‘Not that I’ve found a job yet,’ she complained. ‘Five years hard labour for my beloved country and what do I get at the end of it?’
    ‘Two hours in a rating office and the satisfaction of seeing authority crawl,’ Benny replied, making her laugh again, a ripe gurgling sound that he instantly warmed to.
    ‘I did enjoy that, I must say.’
    She was perfectly delightful. As well as being stunningly attractive, her voice was soft and well-modulated, surely indicating that she came from a better part of the city than himself. Happen up near Heaton Park, or them new houses off Cheetham Hill he decided. He wanted to know everything about her. Most of all if he could see her again. ‘What were you then? A wren?’
    She shook her head. ‘ATS. Corporal.’
    Benny saluted, giving her a cheeky grin and a wink. ‘Sergeant. Border Regiment. We must have quite a lot in common then.’ He was struggling to soften his Lancashire accent. It wouldn’t do to put her off.
    Clear blue eyes regarded him with undisguised interest. ‘Maybe we do.’
    A stillness fell upon them and both seemed momentarily lost for words, but as she half turned to go Benny felt a desperate urge for her not to walk out of his life as easily as she had walked into it. ‘How about a cuppa? Or a bite of dinner. I’m fair starving.’ He could have kicked himself. A girl like this would call it lunch, not dinner. He felt suddenly unsure of himself, the cockiness that he’d displayed in the rating office now rapidly evaporating. He even wished he wasn’t still in uniform, instead wearing a smart suit, maybe a double-breasted pinstripe, to show her he meant business.
    Belinda was remembering how breakfast at Cherry Crescent had been even more fraught than usual that morning, so much so that she’d left without eating a thing. But then tension since the notorious dinner party while she searched for work and alternative accommodation had mounted daily. Her father objected to everything she did, even to the clothes she chose to wear. Trousers, in his opinion, were unfeminine and gave the wrong impression, whatever that might be. He was furious that she’d declined to go shopping with her mother, or agreed to have her hair curled. Even the fact that she refused to go to bed when her parents did, only served to spark off a row every supper time. If, as a result, Belinda barely stayed in the house long enough to sleep, let alone eat, was it any wonder?
    She grinned up at Benny. ‘Me too. Haven’t eaten a thing all day. I wouldn’t mind a bit of dinner myself.’

    In no time at all the pair of them were laughing together over home-made pie and chips in a small cafe off Deansgate, swapping jokes and war stories, funny ones only