Page 4 of Tides of Resistance
Lizzie greeted Violet with a grateful smile and did as she was told. Between her mother and the housekeeper, there was no point interfering with the order of things. The large house overlooking the park ran exactly as they liked it, and Lizzie was relieved her mother had Violet for company as well as to help with the housework and cooking.
Being uprooted from Jersey and leaving behind their family and friends was a harsh wrench for them all, and her mother had struggled to adjust, at home alone whilst they were all busy building new lives during the Blitz. Violet made things smoother in the Beaumont house, and it was a win-win because she had been in dire need of a new position at exactly the right moment.
Lizzie entered the dining room, and the familiar buzz of her sisters’ chatter met her ears. ‘Hello, you lot. What’s for dinner? I’m famished.’
‘There you are at long last. We were beginning to think you were going to miss the film.’ Evie peered up at Lizzie, as Juliet helped herself to a small piece of hard bread.
‘Not a chance,’ Lizzie said. ‘I’ve been looking forward to it all week.’
‘Suspicion, it is then,’ Evie declared. ‘Do you think it will be scary?’
‘Hitchcock likes to make you jump, but I haven’t spoken to anyone who’s seen it yet so I couldn’t say.’ Juliet, Lizzie’s older sister, talked between bites.
Lizzie dropped a kiss onto Pa’s cheek, and he folded up his newspaper and prepared to eat. ‘Where’s Ma?’
‘I’m afraid your mother’s under the weather with a bad cold. She’s tucked up in bed.’
‘Oh, what a shame. She was coming to see the film with us,’ Lizzie said, her face mirroring her disappointment. She’d not been home much lately and hadn’t seen her mother in a while.
‘I would say nip upstairs and see her before you go, but it’s probably more sensible not to get too close or you’ll catch it too.’
They ate a simple dinner comprised mostly of home-grown vegetable dishes. The ever-stricter rationing forced people to get creative and the Beaumont family had joined the millions of Britons in the Dig For Victory campaign, where the government rallied them to take up gardening and contribute to the war effort and the nation’s food supply.
Previously immaculate flowerbeds in the pristine back garden of the elegant townhouse had been transformed into vegetable patches by Violet and Rose, Lizzie’s mother, where they grew an impressive selection of produce.
Lizzie served herself a portion of small potatoes along with a salad of lettuce, spring onions and radishes. ‘These potatoes are decent. Not on the Jersey level of course, but not bad, especially considering Ma and Violet grew them!’
‘Very true. They’re doing a cracking job. You should taste these too. Here,’ Pa said, passing a dish of colourful carrots over to Lizzie.
They ate considerably smaller portions than early in the war, but that wasn’t a bad thing for Lizzie because she would need to adjust to living on a small quantity of food when she went back into occupied France.
‘Thank you for the delicious meal,’ she said to Violet when she helped clear the table, and the housekeeper promised them a special dessert would soon be served.
‘Wait until you taste Violet’s new apple dessert,’ Evie said.
‘Any news from Archie or Ollie?’ Lizzie asked as she stacked the plates.
Juliet shook her head, a gloomy expression on her pretty face. ‘Nothing from either of them for a while now.’
Lizzie regretted asking because the jolly mood at the dinner table was dampened instantly by the mention of her brotherArchie who was fighting in North Africa, and Oliver, Juliet’s fiancé, who flew with Fighter Command in the RAF.
Lizzie reached to pat Juliet’s hand. ‘You’ll hear something soon.’
Pa cleared his throat. ‘Now the Americans have joined, we expect things should move faster.’
Lizzie didn’t bother asking for details because as an employee of the War Office, her father, like herself, was bound by the Official Secrets Act so he wouldn’t say more than one could hear on the radio.
‘Let’s hope so,’ she said, dipping her spoon into the apple desert. ‘What’s this, then?’
Evie said, ‘They call it Apple Crumble and it’s my new absolute favourite. Miles better than War Cake!’
‘Yum,’ Lizzie said, screwing up her face as the sweet and sour flavours collided on her tongue. ‘Stewed apples and some kind of floury sweet topping?’
‘I helped Violet make it. It’s an adapted recipe that’s become popular as a war substitute for apple pie because it only needs a sprinkle of flour and a bit of fat and sugar. Isn’t it clever?’ Evie said, her eyes shining and her copper curls bouncing as she ate a spoonful of crumble.
‘How innovative,’ Lizzie said. ‘It’s amazing what people come up with isn’t it?’
They all agreed the spirit of the nation and the war effort was something to be proud of.
