East End Angel by Carol Rivers Read Free Book Online Page B

conditions,’ nodded Moira, pouncing on Pearl’s unguarded comment. She hit the roller of her typewriter and snapped out the sheet of paper. ‘Don’t know what it must be like for your poor husband, crawling over some of these bomb sites in all the dust and dirt and now this heat as well.’ She tapped the paper she was holding. ‘This sounds like a deathtrap. The roof’s caved in where the incendiary went down the chimney in May. Last month the whole lot collapsed. By a miracle the terrace next door is still standing and people live in it, despite the six-inch crack in the wall from top to bottom. The poor sods mustn’t be able to sleep at night for fear they’ll crumble away too.’ Moira paused for breath. ‘And look at this, they’ve sent your Jim to assess the risks. That’s a laugh. It’s the risk to his life they should be assessing.’ After listening to Moira for the last four years, Pearl merely shrugged. ‘He can take care of himself.’
    But Moira ploughed on. ‘All these places still on fire and falling into the wharfs. Not that our engineers take unnecessary risks, of course.’
    Pearl looked back at her typewriter.
    ‘I suppose the worst things are unexploded bombs,’ Moira tried slyly.
    Pearl drew the damp hanky across her forehead. The eau-de-Cologne was refreshing. ‘I don’t think about that. I know he’ll come home at the end of the day.’
    ‘Course you do,’ Moira nodded. ‘Working for the council is better than fighting Jerry.’
    Pearl began typing again. Moira would be a nice person if she wasn’t full of woes. And it didn’t help that Pearl was thinking about Jim. Although they were speaking again and, more importantly, cuddling, there was a stony silence on the subject of Ruby and Ricky.
    ‘A bloke don’t know when he’s well off,’ Moira continued relentlessly, ‘but your Jim does, I’m sure.’
    ‘We’d better get finished.’
    Moira lifted her hand in an arc around the room. ‘Makes you dizzy, don’t it, seeing all this paperwork? Years and years of it. London is falling to bits and the LCC have to stick it back together. We’ve got our own work well and truly cut out, as well as the engineers. Let’s hope the war will be over soon.’
    ‘If only,’ nodded Pearl, quickly reminding herself she was lucky to have a husband at home and, no matter what the dangers of Jim’s job, they could never be as threatening as those overseas.
    ‘You all right, Pearl?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You seem a bit down. Get your husband to take you to the pub. The beer’s not dried up yet. Be thankful for that.’
    Pearl smiled; it was a long time since they’d enjoyed a night out. Their fire-watching duties kept them busy, as did calling in to see Jim’s mum.
    ‘I’m glad I’m young, free and single,’ said Moira, banging on her typewriter once more. ‘I can enjoy meself.’
    But Pearl wasn’t listening. She was wondering if perhaps one evening they might go to the cinema, or treat themselves to a nice tea at Lyons. Perhaps she’d suggest it to Jim after they’d paid a visit to Villa Road tonight.
    Pearl walked unhurriedly along Villa Road and felt the curtains twitching on either side. It was considered a respectable area, and, amazingly, most of the houses were undamaged. One or two chimneys had fallen away, and several windows blown out, but on the whole, the Luftwaffe had failed to make much impression. Pearl was smiling as she walked up to the front door, amused at the irony of Jim’s mother’s insistence throughout the Blitz that the German air force were deliberately targeting elderly spinsters and respectable people. If Germany was waging war on Villa Road, it had failed miserably, Pearl decided as she reached up to lift the polished brass knocker.
    ‘Oh, it’s you.’
    Pearl’s smile remained in place. She entered the dark hall, which was never lit, even in the depths of winter. To her left a flight of brown carpeted stairs were lost in the gloom. The parlour