After the War is Over by Maureen Lee

Nell.
    ‘I would love to see Nell again,’ he assured her, with the utmost sincerity.

Chapter 3
     
    ‘I think she’s going to marry him,’ Nell said.
    Iris gasped. ‘Really! Has she said anything to that effect?’ Sometimes she felt as if she and Nell were like leeches, using Maggie’s fascinating life to provide excitement to their own dull ones. Unlike them, Maggie had put army life behind her and become absorbed in the world as it was now.
    ‘Her actual words were,’ Nell continued breathlessly, ‘ “We’re going to get married one day soon .” They’re waiting until Chris gets a better job and they’ve got somewhere to live.’
    ‘Well, both the job and the house could take a while.’ Male unemployment was increasing as more and more men were demobbed and returned to civilian life. Not only that, due to the air raids having destroyed so much property, there was a desperate shortage of houses. ‘Once we have the National Health Service, Chris isn’t likely to sell any more of that dubious medicine,’ Iris went on.
    Iris hadn’t met Chris, but she had a picture of him in her mind; rather bohemian, with laughing eyes and a daring expression. Sometimes she imagined him wearing a short black cape and a wavy hat, not exactly the uniform of a door-to-door salesman.
    ‘Anyway,’ Nell continued, ‘they’re considering getting engaged at Easter.’
    ‘That’s only a few weeks off,’ Iris mused. ‘What sort of ring does she fancy?’
    ‘A diamond solitaire. Apparently, Chris’s mother said she can have hers.’
    Iris examined her own diamond solitaire engagement ring. The day Tom had bought it had been tremendously exciting. She recalled going to lunch at Frederick & Hughes afterwards and waving her hands all over the place in the hope that people would notice the way it sparkled. These days, she often forgot to put it on. ‘Oh, Nell, there’s something I must tell you: Tom has agreed to make Thursday the day he has his afternoon off, so you and I can go into town to the pictures or the theatre and afterwards have afternoon tea.’
    Instead of looking pleased, Nell’s pleasant, good-natured face fell. ‘That’s nice,’ she mumbled, though it was obvious she didn’t mean it.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ Iris asked gently.
    ‘Well, I haven’t got any money, have I? I mean, not enough for cinemas or theatres or meals in restaurants. Me dad only gives us half a crown a week.’
    ‘Half a crown! But that’s disgraceful. It’d cost him at least fifteen shillings to get a woman in to do what you do.’ Iris had conjured up a picture of Nell’s father in her head too. He looked very much like Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame . In other words, as ugly as sin. She remembered at Christmas having vowed to do something about Nell. Now seemed to be the time.
    She discussed her idea with Tom that night. He was the most easy-going of men. As long as it didn’t interfere with his duties as a doctor, he was inclined to agree to anything Iris suggested, leaving her to wonder why she didn’t love him considerably more.
    ‘It sounds as if it’s something that will be of benefit to both you and Nell,’ he said when she told him what she had in mind. He had met Nell and liked her very much. ‘Go ahead, by all means,’ he finished with an approving nod.
    ‘I’ll have a word with her when she comes next week.’
    ‘What we would like,’ she said to Nell the following Thursday, when they were both seated at the table in the kitchen over a pot of tea, ‘is for you to come and make our evening meal for us five afternoons a week, and sometimes on Sundays when we have Tom’s relatives to lunch or dinner. You’d only have to be here at the most two hours a day. The pay would be ten shillings, and extra if you came at the weekend.’ Ten shillings meant little to her and Tom, but was a small fortune to someone like Nell.
    To her dismay, Nell frowned. ‘You’re asking because last week I said me