Free Welcome Home by Margaret Dickinson Page A

reading from a piece of paper, ‘that meat is likely to be rationed next month but for the time being we don’t need coupons for brawn and
sausages.’
    ‘Mebbe so, but what sort of rubbish will they put into sausages and the like?’ Lil muttered morosely.
    ‘They’ll feel the sharp end of my tongue, if they do,’ Edie said and then carried on with her reading aloud. ‘We can also get poultry, game – and fish. Oh well,
that’s all right, then.’ She smiled. ‘We’ll be all right in Grimsby, won’t we?’
    ‘I read somewhere that even if you don’t need coupons, it’s going to be rationed on the basis of value.’
    ‘There’s got to be some sort of control, else people will start to hoard.’
    ‘It’s going to be an offence to do that, so I’ve heard.’
    ‘Quite right too,’ Edie said with asperity. ‘We’ve all got to pull together to get through this.’ Her face fell as she added, ‘I just hope my Laurence comes
back safe and sound. I can’t help being selfish about that.’
    ‘Of course you can’t. By the way, what’s Shirley going to do when she leaves school this summer? I hear you’ve persuaded her to stay on until then.’
    Edie laughed wryly. ‘Yes, we have – at least, Beth did – but it was a struggle. She’s a little madam, that one. I understand that it was Irene who tipped the balance,
though.’
    ‘Was it?’ Lil raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s the first I’ve heard.’
    ‘Shirley wanted to leave school as soon as she could and Irene asked at Oldroyd’s if there were any jobs going. She had an interview with someone in December and they advised Shirley
to stay on. But they offered for her to work Saturdays to see how she gets on. She starts this week.’ Edie gave a thoughtful sigh. ‘Funny, really, how life pans out, isn’t it? My
mam would have given her eye teeth for me to have stayed on and taken exams. She wanted both me and Jessie to work in an office. She thought it would be a “nice” job.’
    ‘You’ve done a much better job, duck, raising a wonderful family,’ Lil reassured her.
    ‘Aye, but they’re all going to be leaving me now, one way or another, aren’t they?’ Edie said sadly.

Seven
    Beth was still at home, but she was restless. The Forsters hadn’t asked her to go back to London yet, much to Edie’s relief but to Beth’s increasing
agitation.
    ‘I must do
something
,’ she said, her warm, brown eyes troubled. ‘They’ll start conscripting single young women soon – I’m sure of it – and if
I’m not careful, I’ll get drafted into something I don’t want to do.’
    ‘What
do
you want to do?’ Edie asked, though she feared the answer. She bent her head over her knitting as she sat beside the fire. Archie, on the opposite side of the hearth,
was pretending to read the newspaper but his attention was divided. He was listening to Edie and Beth.
    ‘I don’t really know,’ Beth sighed. ‘That’s the trouble. I only know I must get involved. I can’t bear sitting about doing nothing.’
    ‘You could come down the WVS with me an’ Lil. They’re always glad of another pair of hands.’
    Beth laughed. ‘No offence, Mam, but it’s hardly my scene, is it? A lot of old ladies knitting and gossiping.’
    Behind his paper, Archie chuckled softly, but he said nothing whilst Beth stared into the fire thinking hard. At last, her mind made up, she said, ‘I’ll write to Alan and find out if
there’s any work for me in London. The War Office, maybe. That’s where he is now. If not, I’ll look at one of the services and join up. I won’t wait for conscription –
I’ll volunteer.’
    Archie and Edie glanced at each other across the hearth, their hearts sinking.
    ‘I tell you what you could do, love,’ Archie said with seeming casualness, but the motive behind his suggestion was to try to keep his beloved Beth here at home for as long as
possible. ‘You could ask your Uncle Harry to teach you to drive.’
    Harry