1944 [n.h]

chapter two

"They've been nothing but a nuisance. I tell you, they're nothing but trouble." My mother and her friends gossiped in our dining room as I sat in my bedroom window, looking out at the street below. We lived above the bakery so I had the exact same view as I had day after day standing at the counter.

The soldiers hadn't been back to the bakery since the day we met. I felt bad for thinking that I had actually been slightly disappointed when Niall didn't come in the following day; he seemed different from the rest and I wanted to get to know him.

I hadn't dared to tell my mother that I had befriended one of the soldiers, she'd have a fit and more than likely disown me. She only knew of the bad things that people said about them, Womanizers, drunks, sex addicts.

But could I even say I had befriended them!? I talked to one of them for no more than half an hour, and the other two had completely ignored my existence from the moment they walked in to the moment they left. If anything, I had encountered a soldier.

Nonetheless it was as if my mother and her entourage were completely oblivious to the fact that it was these men they were shaming constantly that were then leaving their families behind and going to war in order to fight for our freedom. It irritated me that my mother thought so little of these people, when technically, her own husband was one.

"Lil?" I looked up from my window to see Henry standing by the door. My little brother was my ray of sunshine, my goblet of hope, he reminded me so much of Archie. Archie was my oldest brother and was 16 when he enlisted to fight, he'd be 21 now. Both my brothers had the same brown hair and big brown eyes, I mean, so did I, but it looked more precious on them.

"What's wrong love?" I asked as his little feet padded over to me, allowing me to lift him up and perch him in my lap as he shuffled around to face me and grinned, a wide toothless grin as I smiled and used the bottom of my apron to wipe whatever he had been eating from around the corners of his mouth.

"I found a hole in my trousers" A deep frown set over his face as Henry explained to me his dilemma and I laughed softly and nodded, straightening his shirt for him and setting him back down on the ground.

"If you run and get them for me, I'll sew it up for you? How about that?" I asked, sounding enthusiastic about the whole ordeal as Henry grinned and nodded, holding his index finger up to me and running off.

I laughed to myself and went back to looking out my window, furrowing my eyebrows as Ruth came running up towards the bakery, her eyes locked with mine. She waved her arms about manically and signalled for me to come down. She had been all dressed up and today was supposedly her day for working on the buses so I knew it was something big. I took my apron off and draped it across my bed before taking the tied string out of my hair and running my fingers through the knots.

"What is it?" I said frustrated as I met Ruth outside of the bakery still trying to get my heel in to my shoe as she gave me a big toothy grin and shrugged.

"Robert asked me on a date to the movies." She gushed, her cheeks red, although it may have just been the pink blusher she had caked on. I widened my eyes at her news and took a step back.

"The army Robert?" I asked, disbelief laced in my voice. I hadn't seen any of the soldiers since they had been in the bakery that day, and I hadn't a clue that Ruth had been speaking to Robert and maybe even going places with him and his friends.

"Yes Lilly, don't be so put off, this is good!" She said wrapping her delicate hand around my upper arm as a mischievous smile spread across her face. "We're going now, you will come won't you?" She asked, using the old trick of batting her eyelashes as I laughed and shook my head.