Put Out the Fires by Maureen Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

expected,”
    Eileen said wryly. “I thought I’d better tell you - me husband’s home.”
    “Oh, dear!” Miss Thomas’s face fell. “What happened?”
    Eileen described the events of the past two days in detail, finishing, “He’s gone to a military hospital in Runcorn today to have the bandage removed.” On Sunday the house had been more like a station as word got round Francis Costello was back, with neighbours and old friends popping in by the minute to see him.
    Miss Thomas frowned. “I didn’t realise he was a fighting man. I thought he had a desk bound job.”
    “He did,” Eileen nodded, “but as he explained yesterday, he volunteered to take some important papers to one of the officers at the front and the car ran over a mine - the driver was killed. I suppose it was a brave thing to do. After all, he didn’t have to do it.”
    “What happens now? I take it moving to the cottage is out for the moment?”
    “Only for the moment,” Eileen said firmly. “Nick’ll be waiting for me at dinner time. We’ll decide what’s best to do then.” It seemed incredible now to think she’d actually decided to give him up. She couldn’t wait to see his face when she told him everything had changed.
    “I hope your husband doesn’t give you any problems in the meantime.”
    Eileen gave a sarcastic laugh. “He’s doing his best to get back in me good books. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth since he came home. He said me cooking had never tasted so good and he actually had the nerve to call me ‘princess’.”
    “What does it say in the Bible about the sinner that repenteth?” Miss Thomas mused.
    “I don’t know and I don’t particularly care,” said Eileen, “Anyroad, I’d better get down to some work. God! I’m dreading facing the girls. I deliberately sat downstairs on the bus, so’s to avoid Pauline on top. I’ll get the third degree when they realise I’m still in Bootie, and I’ve no intention of telling them the reason why.”
    “They know about Nick?”
    “Of course. It was difficult to keep him a secret when I met him outside every day, but I never talked about Francis if I could avoid it.” She laughed again. “I feel as if I’ve been leading a double life. It was the other way round at home.”
    “Just be quite firm with the girls,” Miss Thomas advised. “Fob them off-a little lie wouldn’t hurt.”
    Eileen was about to leave when Miss Thomas called her back. “I nearly forgot! I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Ivy Twyford has given in her notice. Her husband has got a job in Sheffield, which means the job of chargehand will be vacant shortly. It’s yours, if you want it, Eileen. It means an extra twopence an hour.”
    “Chargehand!” Eileen gasped. “But why me? There’s others been here much longer.”
    “We, the management that is, decided you had the most responsible attitude. The girls respect you and they’ll listen to you. They don’t take a blind bit of notice of the foreman.” Miss Thomas smiled. “Poor Alfie merely gets showered with abuse the minute he puts his nose inside the workshop.”
    The and Alfie get on fine,” Eileen said. “I must be the only one who doesn’t pull his leg all the time.”
    “?’hat’s another reason we chose you. You can act as a conduit between Alfie and the girls.”
    Eileen left, wondering what a conduit was, and resolving to look it up in Nick’s dictionary some time. She felt pleased and flattered at the promotion, though knew it might cause some ill feeling, at least initially, with the women who’d started at Runnings before she had.
    She entered the workshop, where the noise of nineteen lathes functioning at full pelt was almost deafening, to be greeted with a united yell of, “Morning, Eileen!” With a display of confident cheerfulness she didn’t feel, she yelled, “Morning,” back. If she gave the impression nothing untoward had happened, the girls would be less likely to probe.
    The lathe she