be in on it, I can’t pretend I’ve no clue what’s going on. I’ve asked enough already. It’s going to look too obvious.’
‘You’re stuck then.’
‘Not entirely.’
A cunning look, much more believable than his ‘knowing’ one, crossed Jim’s face.
‘Not if you’re right and Les and Beryl are—’
Lily could see where this was heading.
‘Hang on!’
‘No, listen – it’s brilliant. You know Beryl. All you have to do is get her at tea break, or go for a drink or something after work—’
‘A drink?!’
‘Only a lemonade!’
‘But, Jim, I don’t know her! And what I do, I don’t much like. And she positively hates me!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. How could anyone hate you?’ Jim smiled.
And instantly, still shaking her head in disbelief, Lily knew she’d do it. Quite how she was going to win Beryl’s confidence – and before Sir Douglas started wondering where his blessed ashtray was and caused a stink – was another matter.
‘I’d be so grateful. You see, Beryl, I haven’t really got a clue.’
Leaving a baffled Gladys to walk on her own, and gasping that she’d explain everything in time, Lily had managed to catch up with Beryl as they left the store. Now they were standing in the evening sun by the sandbagged Post Office on the High Street.
‘I’d be so grateful. Truly I would.’
Beryl took a step back and smiled. Though her smiles always seemed more like a sneer to Lily.
‘Well, I’m sorry, but where exactly do you expect me to start? Hair, clothes, shoes, socks – socks! – make-up – or lack of it – I mean, really!’
Lily looked meekly down at the offending shoes and socks. Her appeal had been one she calculated Beryl would not be able to resist – to offer the hapless Lily advice on clothes and make-up.
‘This is what I mean, Beryl. Anything you could do to help – not that I can afford much …’
She suddenly realised with alarm that Beryl might actually expect her to buy something to prove her new-found interest. Lily handed most of her wages over to her mum and did so gladly. The first thing she was going to spend her savings on, she’d decided, was a better birthday present for her mum than something from the market. And the second thing would be a tie for Sid. Only then was she planning on spending anything on herself.
‘Well, I hardly expect you to start off in Marlow’s! But I tell you what …’
Lily’s ruse had worked. Beryl was clearly flattered to be asked, though it would have killed her to have shown it.
‘Woolies’ll still be open. We’ll go there.’
Five minutes later, as the Woolworth’s sales assistants sighed and looked at their watches – they stayed open half an hour later than Marlow’s, but it was very nearly closing time – Beryl was demonstrating lipsticks.
‘If you’re serious, you ought to get in quick,’ she advised. ‘’Cos this is the next thing that’s going to disappear. So, I mean with your next wage packet.’
She twirled a lipstick up from its case and displayed it.
‘Tangee Uniform lipstick,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t touch it, but for a baby like you, it’s just a hint of colour, see? First step up from Vaseline. Good for starters. But still looks natural.’
Lily nodded, her eyes widening when she saw the price. The whole thing was impossible – but Beryl was so carried away with her own sense of importance and so enjoying imparting information that she didn’t notice.
‘Yes,’ she lamented. ‘They say Coty’s going over to making foot powder and anti-gas ointment, and the metal in lipstick cases and compacts has all got to go for shells. So much for keeping up morale, eh!’
Lily tried to look as shocked and disgusted as Beryl about it, though privately, and despite her desperation to look older, it seemed to her a much better use of resources. The important thing was that Beryl believed she was genuinely interested in all this and was a willing disciple.
‘That was so kind of you, Beryl,’ she said as sincerely as she could when they stood outside again. Behind them the staff were covering the counters and bolting the doors. ‘Thanks so much for explaining it all. I’d never have known all that any other way.’
Basking in the false flattery, Beryl preened, while Lily waited for a thunderbolt to strike her down.
‘So,’ she added oh-so-casually. ‘Which way do you walk home from here?’
‘I’m not going home,’ said Beryl. ‘I’m meeting Les. By the bandstand.’
‘Oh, I can cut through the park!’ said Lily, adding boldly, ‘Shall we …?’
This was where Beryl would surely say she wasn’t being seen with a frump like Lily, and the plan would fall to bits, but to Lily’s amazement, Beryl hooked her arm through hers and gave her a grin.
‘Come on then, kid. At least there’s no swings, so you can’t embarrass me by wanting a go.’
Like the park railings, they’d been taken away for armaments last summer.
‘It’ll be the blooming bandstand next,’ mourned Beryl. ‘I hate this war, don’t you?’
Lily shrugged. ‘Yes, of course, but what choice do we have?’
‘I’m sick of it, no this, no that, nothing decent to buy that we can afford, rotten food, and not much of it, nothing nice or fun—’
‘You have fun with Les, don’t you? Going to the pictures and stuff.’
Lily couldn’t believe how easy it had been to bring his name into the conversation.
‘Oh, Les!’
‘What about him?’
‘He’s all right, I suppose. I mean, he’ll do for now. Until someone better comes along.’
‘He’s got a good job at Marlow’s,’ started Lily, but Beryl looked at her with narrowed eyes.
‘A driver in Despatch? I hope I can do a bit better than that for myself. But at least he knows how to give a girl a good time. We don’t sit in the cheap seats at the cinema, I can tell you.’
‘The circle? How can he afford that?’
Beryl gave her a sidelong look and another smile-cum-smirk.
‘You don’t have to stick with what Cedric Marlow pays you. If you know how to play the system.’
