The Bobby Girls' Secrets

Book 0: The Bobby Girls

by Johanna Bell

Genres: Sagas; 20th Century Romance

Synopsis

In the midst of war, secrets are even harder to keep . . .

1915. Best friends Irene, Maggie and Annie are proud members of the newly renamed Women's Police Service. While Britain's men are away fighting in France, the girls are doing their bit by keeping the peace at home in London's East End.

But out of the blue, Irene is given the opportunity to be stationed near an army barracks in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Having recently experienced some heartbreak and keen for the adventure, she decides to go. What could possibly go wrong?

It turns out, plenty. One of the other WPS girls takes an immediate dislike to her and makes her life a misery. On top of that, the man she thinks could be the answer to all her problems isn't all he seems. And when she finds a psychologically disturbed deserter in hiding, she has a very difficult decision to make . . .

Can Irene overcome all these obstacles without Maggie and Annie by her side, and find true happiness at last?

(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Release date: May 14, 2020

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Print pages: 368

Sample

Dear reader,

If you’re sitting down to start The Bobby Girls’ Secrets because you read and enjoyed The Bobby Girls, then I’d like to start by saying ‘thank you’. I was overwhelmed by the response to my debut and so grateful to you all.

If you’re new to the Bobby Girls series, then I’d like to say ‘welcome’. I hope you enjoy getting to know the girls as much as I’ve enjoyed developing and writing about them.

During my research for The Bobby Girls I learned about an army camp that was set up at Belton Park in Grantham during the First World War. The town doubled in size overnight with the arrival of twenty thousand troops. Female police were dispatched to help deal with all their antics and to keep an eye on the influx of so-called ‘camp followers’ who were drawn to the area.

As I read about it all, I knew that I wanted to send one of the girls there for book two. So, I was delighted when my editor agreed to let me pack Irene off for a new adventure in The Bobby Girls’ Secrets.

I find it easier to write about a location if I’ve visited it, so I booked a trip to Grantham and reached out to the town’s Civic Society for any help they might be able to give me with my research. They did not disappoint; their chairman Courtney Finn got in touch and sent me a wonderful selection of photos and facts about the town’s ‘pioneer policewoman’ Edith Smith, who served there from 1915 to 1918 and who ended up being the inspiration behind Helen’s character.

Courtney came and met me at Grantham train station when I arrived and took me on a wonderful whistle-stop tour of all the relevant buildings and areas – many of which feature in the book. I loved being able to walk the same streets the recruits had walked during their patrols and take in the splendour of all the old buildings they frequented. It was a vital part of my research and I’m so grateful to Courtney for giving up his time and knowledge to help me.

Courtney also put me in touch with Edith Smith’s granddaughter, Margaret, who was an absolute pleasure to chat to. It was fascinating to learn more about one of the real-life ‘Bobby Girls’ from one of her relatives.

I very much enjoyed building a story around the wealth of knowledge I gained during my research into Grantham and the WPS, and I hope you enjoy The Bobby Girls’ Secrets. If when you’ve finished it you can’t wait to get back to the world of the Bobby Girls, the next instalment, Christmas with the Bobby Girls, is available to order now.

Bethnal Green, London, April 1915

The soldier swayed violently and reached out his free hand to steady himself. Finding the wall just in the nick of time, he groaned deeply before taking a swig from the bottle clutched firmly in his other hand. He must only have been in his twenties, yet he looked to Irene as though he was weighed down by the worries of a man three times his age. It was still daylight, and she wondered if he was intoxicated from the previous evening or if he’d started drinking as soon as the sun had risen on the day.

‘Come on now, I think it’s time we got you home,’ she said firmly. The man – taller than Irene by at least a foot and possibly twice the width of her slender frame – leaned into the wall and let out a long, loud belch. Wrinkling her nose, Irene looked over her shoulder at her colleagues Maggie and Annie.

After a rocky start, Irene Wilson, Maggie Smyth and Annie Beckett had become firm friends since joining the Women Police Service, or WPS, at the same time a few months previously. It had been an unexpected bond given their vastly different backgrounds – the only thing the three girls had in common when they met was the fact they were all in their twenties while the rest of the recruits were much older. Maggie had actually only been eighteen when she signed up, having lied about her date of birth to get past the fact that, officially, you had to be twenty-one years old to join. But now they operated like clockwork together, instinctively knowing what each other needed without the necessity of words. Irene was particularly grateful for that in this moment when, on catching her eye, Annie and Maggie stepped forward immediately to help her.

Irene took one of the soldier’s arms and placed it over her shoulder, and Maggie did the same with the other. As his body twisted round, he lost control of his legs and suddenly all his weight was on the two girls. Annie swooped in to remove the bottle from his grasp, placing it carefully on to the floor in the alley where they had found him shouting to himself about ‘the bloody Kaiser’. Then, she reached into his pocket and pulled out his identity card to find out where he lived as Irene and Maggie dragged him towards the main street.

The scenario was becoming a regular one during the girls’ patrols in Bethnal Green. More and more soldiers were coming home on leave and turning to drink to try and block out what they’d witnessed on the battlefields. When the men weren’t too drunk, they also liked to turn to the affections of the area’s prostitutes to help blow off steam – and the WPS girls’ number one priority was looking out for those women. They were also concerned with any ladies or young girls naive enough to get caught up in the excitement of being in the company of a man in uniform who was risking his life for the country. Some women were desperate to give something back to these heroes, but found they only had themselves to give. The WPS were constantly on the lookout for them, keen to swoop in and move them along before they did anything that could get them arrested and caught up in the legal system, which was set up in favour of the men. They were also tasked with protecting children and women in general in these trying times.

Having escorted the soldier home to a very concerned – and angry – wife, the three friends made their way to Bethnal Green Police Station to get changed out of their uniforms before the end of their shift at 6 p.m. The group had had a hard time settling into their roles at the station at the beginning of the year. They had found the male officers less than willing to accept them, convinced they were no more capable of carrying out their intended roles than a chocolate teapot.

But the men had been forced to take them more seriously after they had cracked the biggest burglary case any of the officers had seen for years. The girls had discovered who the culprit was purely by chance – not that they would ever admit that to anyone else, of course. As a result, the men at the station had reluctantly accepted them, although they still didn’t exactly go out of their way to support them.

The dowager whose jewels had been stolen was so grateful that she had given the girls a cash reward as well as donating money to the WPS. They had immediately decided to pool their money and move into a flat together. They had been tempted by a three-bed in an impressive block in Bethnal Green, to save the journey to the station every day. But although the building was far grander than the horrible little room in a tenement block nearby that Irene had been stuck in for so long, she felt like she needed to move out of the area entirely. And all three girls had agreed it would be preferable to live a good distance away from the area they were patrolling. It wouldn’t do well to bump into people they had previously reprimanded while out for a pleasant stroll.

After devoting all their free time to looking for the perfect place, they’d begun to despair. Then they had stumbled upon a flat in the Peabody Trust’s Camberwell Green Estate and it had been love at first sight for all of them. Within two weeks of their adventure with the dowager’s jewels, they were moving their belongings into their new flat.

When Irene had first come across the Boundary Estate – the area in Bethnal Green the friends spent most of their time patrolling – she had been struck by the big brick buildings and beautiful shared open spaces. She had never dreamed that she would one day end up living somewhere similar. Now she was, and every day she was grateful for the way that her luck had turned.

Before the move, Maggie had briefly stayed with Irene in her tiny room in Bethnal Green. Irene had stepped in to help when Maggie’s father had thrown her out of their big family home in Kensington. It had been a brave move for Irene, who up until that point had been hiding her poor means from her better-off friends in the name of pride. But Maggie and Annie hadn’t judged her as she’d feared. If anything, the revelation had made her feel closer to them both. And, to Irene’s surprise, neither she nor Maggie had struggled sharing a bed or such a small living space. In fact, they had both found it quite comforting. Since moving into the new flat, it had taken some time for her to get used to living somewhere with so much space – they even had their own sink and lavatory, a luxury Irene had never been lucky enough to experience before.

Even with the cash from the dowager, she and Maggie were working factory shifts around the WPS work to pay their way, but they both felt it was worth it. Annie’s middle-class family were covering her share of the rent. Her father had insisted she invest her money from the dowager so she had something of her own to put towards a new life with her fiancé Richard when he returned from the war. Seeing as she wasn’t doing extra work on top of their patrols like the other two, she was in charge of keeping the place clean and tidy and often went on a cleaning spree while her two friends were at the factory. She had confided to Irene that it helped her pass the time while she was in the flat on her own and stopped her worrying too much about Richard. The girls had been in their new home for just over a month now and the set-up felt perfect.

‘I’ll see you both later tonight,’ Irene said as she let her dark brown hair loose from its ponytail and tied up her shoes. It always felt good to swap her clunky WPS boots for her daintier footwear. She found the uniform as a whole cumbersome, but she had to admit that it did a good job in commanding the public’s respect.

‘That dress looks wonderful on you,’ Maggie sighed. ‘Frank’s parents will love you.’

Irene smiled gratefully and felt a wave of anticipation pass through her. She didn’t own any nice clothes. All her dresses were worn and tatty, so Annie had loaned her a pretty navy-blue number. It was a little on the large side for Irene, but she had to admit she felt good in it. She hadn’t thought it possible for clothes to change the way she felt until she had slipped on her WPS uniform. That smart, navy-blue tunic-style jacket and ankle-length skirt made her feel important, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable. And now this dress was helping boost her confidence ahead of this very important meeting.

Irene thought she’d hit the jackpot when PC Frank Bird kissed her following the arrest of the jewellery thief six weeks previously. She had taken a liking to the constable as soon as she’d laid eyes on him when he was charged with showing the girls around their new patch in Bethnal Green. He had been the only officer to show them any kindness when they’d first arrived, and he had made her laugh. But, convinced he wouldn’t be interested in someone with her background, she had refused to act on her feelings despite Maggie’s best attempts to make her. Then, Frank had literally swept Irene off her feet with the passionate embrace following the arrest, and they had immediately started courting.

So far, Frank had taken Irene to the picture house, various dances and even out for dinner. She didn’t have much spare time between patrolling and her factory shifts, but although she was exhausted, she felt like the luckiest girl alive with someone like him doting on her. Now, he wanted her to meet his parents and she was full of excited angst about it. It was a big step in the right direction – but what if they didn’t approve of their policeman son stepping out with someone who was working in a factory on the side to pay her rent?

Frank had had the day off, so rather than meeting at the police station they were due to meet at Covent Garden tube station to walk to the restaurant together. When Irene made it to the meeting point at the station entrance, she was surprised to find Frank wasn’t already waiting for her. He was normally so prompt because he hated the idea of her waiting for him anywhere alone. Looking up and down the street, she pulled her thin jacket tighter around her body. It wasn’t exactly cold, but there was a light breeze and she wasn’t much used to standing in the same spot for too long as patrolling meant almost constantly being on the go. There was a man selling newspapers at a stand next to her, so Irene decided to check the time – maybe she was ahead of schedule. But her heart dropped when he revealed she was right on time.

‘Not been stood up have you, love?’ the man joked lightly.

‘Not likely,’ Irene replied confidently, wandering a few steps away from him again to wait. Frank must have been held up, she reasoned.

‘Want a newspaper to pass the time?’ the man shouted over to her.

‘Oh, I won’t be waiting long,’ she smiled, but she felt unease stir inside her. Then she silently chided herself for doubting Frank. He had never given her any reason to expect so little of him. There was sure to be a reasonable explanation, and he was certain to turn up soon, she told herself.

An hour later, Irene was shivering and she was starting to give in to the doubt again. She was facing away from the newspaper seller now as she couldn’t bear the sympathetic looks he kept throwing in her direction. As another couple greeted each other before going happily on their way, Irene decided it was time to give up. But just as she was about to walk back into the station, she saw Frank’s head bobbing along in a crowd coming towards her. Relief rushed through her as she raised her hand to wave to him – swiftly followed by disappointment and embarrassment when she realised the man walking towards her was a stranger with the same floppy hair and slim frame as Frank. A group of girls nearby started laughing and Irene was certain they were cruelly mocking her.

That’s it, she told herself, enough is enough. And with that, she turned on her heel and started the long walk home – too close to tears to get back on the tube and risk breaking down in front of strangers.

Fighting back the tears that were threatening to pour down her cheeks, Irene wondered whether Frank had finally realised this thing between them couldn’t go any further. Was he too embarrassed to introduce her to his parents, after all? That had always been her fear. Furiously wiping tears from under her eyes, she scolded herself for being so silly as to believe someone like Frank could ever be serious about someone like her. What had she been thinking? She’d been swept up in it all, encouraged along by Maggie and Annie. She tutted to herself as she remembered how they’d worked together to boost her confidence before the first few dates she’d had with Frank – when she had been so nervous she’d almost called everything off.

Her friends had meant well, of course, but in the end they’d just added to her inevitable heartbreak. She couldn’t be cross at them, though – they came from different backgrounds and they had no experience of being treated like a second-class citizen. They didn’t realise how different it was for someone like her. She was angry with herself, more than anything, for failing to put a stop to the whole thing before her feelings had grown too strong. She had been so naive.

Pushing the front door open, all Irene wanted to do was get into bed and hide under the covers where she could let all her emotions out without anybody bearing witness to her weakness. But, of course, Maggie and Annie rushed to her side, confused as to why she was home so early.

‘What happened?’ Maggie exclaimed.

‘Are you all right?’ Annie asked, taking Irene’s arm and leading her into the sitting room.

As they guided her to the sofa, Irene broke down. She hated crying in front of anybody – even her closest two friends. But she was just too overcome with emotion when she saw the concern on their faces to hold it in any longer. Maggie rushed off to make Irene a cup of tea while Annie tried to comfort her. Irene managed to explain, through sobs, that Frank had stood her up.

‘He won’t get away with this,’ Maggie raged when she came in with the steaming drink for Irene. Her normally pale complexion had reddened, and her blue eyes were wide with rage.

Irene didn’t have the energy to sit and analyse what might have caused Frank to change his mind about her, and she decided to head to bed early. Part of her was hopeful she’d wake up tomorrow and find it had all been a bad dream. Or maybe she’d discover his bus had broken down, or his parents had been taken ill. Anything had to be better than the possibility that he was too ashamed of her to introduce her to his family.

She didn’t get much sleep that night, and her friends didn’t push her to make conversation on their bus ride into the station the following morning. When they walked into reception, Irene looked around anxiously and didn’t know whether to be happy or sad when she didn’t see any sign of Frank.

The three of them stopped in shock when they walked into the side-room the girls had been given as a place to rest and change and found Frank sat at the desk with his head in his hands. He didn’t seem to realise they had joined him, so Annie let out a cough and his head snapped up to reveal red, puffy eyes. A look of sorrow spread across his face as his gaze fell upon Irene. She suddenly felt sorry for him when she saw how distraught he looked, and she felt Maggie backing down and stepping back. It was clear to all of them that there was more to this than they had previously thought.

‘We’ll leave you to it,’ Annie whispered as she and Maggie shuffled out of the room together.

‘Well?’ Irene managed as she walked over to stand in front of Frank. She had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him explain after seeing the state he was in, but she still felt hurt.

‘It’s about … a girl I used to know,’ he muttered. He got to his feet and ran his hands through his hair as he paced up and down the room anxiously.

‘What about this girl?’ Irene almost spat.

‘We parted ways just before I met you and I honestly thought that was the end of it,’ Frank explained. ‘I was blown away when I laid my eyes on you and I didn’t think of her again – not even once. But, well …’ he stared at the floor, his eyes wide. Irene couldn’t figure out whatever could have happened – but whatever it was, he was clearly still in shock about it.

‘Is she all right?’ she asked him tentatively. He raised his head then, looking at her for the first time since Maggie and Annie had left the room. He smiled warmly, but there was a sadness behind his eyes.

‘Yes, she, erm … she’s fine,’ he replied quietly.

Irene was beginning to get agitated now – first he stood her up and now he was dragging out giving her the reason why. She couldn’t stand it any longer. Just as she was about to demand an answer, he blurted it out. ‘She’s with child,’ he spluttered, staring at the floor again and going beetroot red.

Irene placed her hand on the desk to steady herself.

‘My child,’ he continued. ‘She turned up at my place last night just as I was leaving to meet you. I didn’t have any way of getting word to you. I’m so sorry. I haven’t slept a wink,’ he added as he sat down and put his head in his hands again.

He didn’t need to say anything else. Irene knew exactly what was coming next. Frank was a decent man – it was one of the things she adored about him. He wasn’t the kind of person who would dismiss this kind of responsibility or abandon a child. He would make an honest woman out of his former lover and they would live happily ever after with their beautiful baby. The thought of it brought a tear to Irene’s eye.

‘Don’t worry, I understand,’ Irene whispered as she turned to leave.

‘Please, don’t go yet,’ Frank blurted, jumping up after her and grabbing hold of her arm just as she reached the door. Irene turned to face him. ‘Can’t we talk about this?’ he pleaded, staring longingly into her eyes. Her knees trembled as she felt the familiar pang of longing that she always got when she was this close to him. Then she pushed him away.

‘There’s nothing to discuss,’ she said firmly before leaving the room and walking straight out of the station. Annie and Maggie caught up with her further down the road. Once she managed to fill them in, they sent her home and promised to cover for her with Chief Constable Sadwell.

‘We’ll tell him you have “women’s problems”,’ Annie suggested. That one always got them ushered out of his office so quickly that their feet hardly touched the ground. Irene normally enjoyed picturing the chief’s face turning crimson and panicking at the mention, but today her thoughts were consumed with sorrow. Things hadn’t even really started with Frank, not properly, yet she had developed strong feelings for him. The fact that she had allowed herself to hope for a happy future together had been a big leap of faith for her – it wasn’t something she took lightly. She didn’t normally let anybody in. She had only just started to open up to Maggie and Annie, and that had taken a long time. Frank had made her feel safe enough to allow herself to be vulnerable with him, and now her heart was broken.

By the time she got home, she had switched from upset to angry – but not with Frank. She was furious with herself. She had spent all her adult life working hard to keep romantic feelings pushed deep down inside of her. She’d watched so-called love destroy her mother years ago, and she had resolved to never fall under its spell. Silly girl, thinking someone would come and sweep you off your feet when you know these things always end in heartache, she scolded herself.

A week later, Irene had slowly started to feel better about the situation. She hadn’t seen Frank since she’d walked out of the station following his revelation. He had immediately taken some last-minute leave to prepare to receive his new wife after the wedding which, according to some of the station’s biggest gossips, had been arranged to take place in a few weeks’ time. The haste was apparently due to his mother’s wish that her new daughter-in-law wasn’t ‘showing’ too much when she walked down the aisle.

Irene had found it easy to convince herself she wasn’t upset about losing Frank when she hadn’t had to see him every day. But now she was on the bus on her way to the station with Annie and Maggie in the knowledge he was due back on duty, and she was worried all her old feelings would come flooding back as soon as she laid eyes on him.

‘How are you feeling?’ Maggie asked tentatively. Until now, both her friends had respected Irene’s wishes and neither had spoken Frank’s name over the past week. They hadn’t even mentioned the break-up at all. Irene turned her head to stare out of the window as the bus pulled away from their stop. She knew that if she looked at her friend, the tears she was working her hardest to keep in would explode out of her.

As the bus made its way out of Camberwell Green, Maggie quickly changed the subject by suggesting they pick up some jellied eels for Sal on the Boundary Estate. Sal was the matron’s assistant at the estate’s central laundry. She knew everyone and always had the freshest take on a scandal. Her lips were even looser if she had been treated to her favourite snack. Irene nodded along, grateful for the distraction. That was one of the things she loved about Maggie – despite her naturally inquisitive nature, she knew she wouldn’t push her on it.

When they walked into their room at the station, Irene’s heart sunk when she saw Frank standing in the corner, waiting. All the old feelings she had worked hard to push aside over the last week came rushing back and hit her square in the gut.

‘We’ll get changed in the toilets,’ Annie whispered as she hurriedly collected up her uniform and made her way back out of the room, and Irene silently thanked her for her discretion and thoughtfulness. Maggie, on the other hand, hadn’t moved an inch. Irene stared at her pointedly, but she still wasn’t getting the message. Despite her sadness, Irene suppressed a laugh – Maggie was obviously dying to know what Frank had to say now he was back. Annie rushed back in, scooped up Maggie’s uniform and grabbed her arm on the way back out, pulling her out of the room with her this time. Irene closed the door behind them and sat down at the desk, motioning for Frank to take the chair opposite.

‘I’m so sorry about all of this,’ Frank said sadly.

‘You don’t need to apologise,’ she smiled. ‘You and I were never anything anyway,’ she shrugged.

‘How can you say that?’ he replied, looking hurt.

Irene felt a pang in her chest. Was that love? Was that what it felt like when you saw the person you loved in pain? She pushed the thoughts aside.

‘I know it hadn’t been that long,’ Frank continued, ‘but we had something special, Irene, and I know you felt it too.’

‘What does it matter now?’ she said louder than she had anticipated, trying to stay strong.

‘You have to know that I really liked – I like you,’ Frank said, leaning forward on the desk and gently placing his hands on top of her own.

‘Don’t talk nonsense. Nothing can ever happen. You have a family to think about now,’ Irene snapped, pulling her hands away sharply.

Frank flopped back in the chair, looking defeated. ‘I know,’ he sighed. ‘I just wanted you to know that I really saw us going somewhere and I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance.’

‘Me too,’ Irene said quietly. ‘But let’s just pretend that nothing ever happened – it will be easier that way,’ she added, serious now.

Frank looked hurt again and it took Irene everything she had not to take back what she’d said. The last thing she wanted to do was to forget her time with Frank, but she had to shut it all out to protect herself.

‘Right, well, I’ll leave you to get changed before the others come back,’ he said awkwardly, getting up and walking across the room to the door. Irene found herself wishing he had done something nasty to end their relationship. She had a feeling she was going to struggle being around him when he was such a decent chap. If only she had been right, and he had been too embarrassed by her to introduce her to his parents. It would have stung, of course, but it would have made it a lot easier for her to hate him and move on.

When Annie and Maggie joined Irene back in the room, she filled them in on her conversation with Frank. ‘And that’s the end of it,’ she said sternly, looking Maggie in the eyes. Her friend nodded her understanding and Irene breathed a sigh of relief that she understood it wasn’t to be spoken about again.

‘Right – jellied eels!’ Maggie declared in a determinedly cheerful voice, skipping out of the room. Irene had to laugh. If there was anything that was going to take her mind off her heartache at seeing Frank again it was a day with her best friends and watching Sal devour her favourite snack in her disgusting, fascinating way.

The girls ended up having a busy morning, which was good for Irene as it meant she didn’t have any time to think about Frank. They managed to get to the Boundary laundry just in time for Sal’s tea break, and she got her helper Mary to go back in and fetch them a cup each when she spotted them walking over. Sal had offered to take Mary in a few months back when the girls had asked for her help in getting her away from a life of prostitution. Mary had flourished under Sal’s care and seeing how well she was doing always made Irene feel warm inside, even on a tough day like today.

‘Awww, this’ll go perfect with me cuppa tea,’ Sal beamed, rubbing her hands in anticipation as Maggie produced the paper parcel they’d picked up from the fish shop on the way. The girls had got used to watching Sal gobble down the eels they brought along for her, but the sight still left each of them speechless. As she tucked some stray hairs behind her ear and shoved a handful into her mouth, Mary came back with the tea. It was a welcome interruption and Irene gladly moved her gaze away from Sal.

‘Thank you,’ she smiled gratefully, taking one of the drinks. Sal’s cups of tea had kept the girls going through the harsh weather earlier in the year. Although the temperature was warming up now, they were still always thankful for the refreshment.

‘How are you getting on?’ Annie asked Mary as Sal noisily made her way through a second mouthful of fish.

‘Tell ’em about Glenda Barlow,’ Sal interrupted, her voice muffled through the half-chewed eels.

‘Ah, she wants you to go and have a word with her youngest,’ Mary explained as Sal nodded encouragingly. ‘She’s worried about her falling into bad ways. She keeps staying out late and talking about men in uniform. I had a go, to try and scare her by telling her what happened to me. She seemed worried at the time, but her mother says it’s not done the trick – she’s still up to no good from what she can tel