A Scent of Lavender. Elizabeth Elgin

it’ll fall into soft little curls – fronds, like. You’ll like it, honest. Now lean over the sink, and you’re not to look at it till it’s dry.’

      ‘I won’t.’ She wouldn’t! She had no wish to see herself all bare and shorn. And as for stuffing a cushion – more to the point was what would William say!

      Not long after, when Ness had rinsed and patted and dabbed, then gently massaged Lorna’s scalp with her fingertips, she said,

      ‘There! You can have a look. And if I say so myself it’s –’

      ‘Ness! Oh, I don’t believe it! It’s marvellous! And so soft, too.’

      ‘Well, then – from now on there’ll be no more tearing at it. Just wash it in rainwater two or three times a week, then leave it to dry on its own. You ladies with naturally curly hair don’t know how lucky you are. It takes years off you!’

      ‘I know. I look like a little girl!’

      ‘But you like it?’

      ‘Like it? I love it!’ Lorna sighed. She did. After all the worrying, she really did!

      ‘Then tomorrow night I’ll have to go at your eyebrows. They’re a lovely shape, but they’re like your hair was. Too much of a good thing. They need tidying up underneath and they shouldn’t meet at the top of your nose, either.’

      ‘Ness – how come you know so much about things?’

      ‘Because there was a cosmetic department in our salon and the lady in charge taught me a lot. Mind, I did her hair for her for nothing – on the quiet, like. Anyway, a word to the wise, Lorna. She told me that the traveller she orders Dale’s beauty products from said there was going to be a shortage of cosmetics before so very much longer. “A quiet word in your ear,” he said to her. “You’ll not be able to get cosmetics for love nor money before long.” So me and her stocked up. I reckon you should go round the shops in York as soon as you can. Keep it under your hat, mind. Get yourself some mascara and –’

      ‘But I don’t use mascara!’

      ‘From now on you do – with eyelashes that fair. Get some grey mascara. Black is too stark for your colouring. And you’ll need a rose-tinted lipstick and a pot of cold cream and a tin of Nivea. And whilst you’re at it, get a box of face powder, too. Rose Rachel shade. Why don’t you take a trip into town to celebrate your new hair? I’m tellin’ you, queen, there’s going to be a shortage on the cosmetics front. And get yourself some eyebrow tweezers, an’ all.’

      ‘Whatever is William going to say when he sees me – plucked eyebrows, too.’ Lorna took a long look at her hair, flicking curls onto her face, her forehead, loving the freedom of it, and the softness.

      ‘If he’s got any sense at all he’ll say “Wow!” and let go a wolf whistle.’ Yet for all that, Ness knew he wouldn’t, especially when he discovered the land girl had had a hand in it! She and William were on a collision course, even before they had met! ‘So what say we have a cup of tea to celebrate?’

      ‘Tea? There’s sherry in the sideboard. Let’s drink to my escape from the frizzies with a real drink!’

      ‘Well! Aren’t you going to say something, Nance?’ They had cycled the length of Priory Lane and waited at the roadside for a break in the traffic. ‘You’ve been giving me looks ever since we left Ainsty!’

      ‘Sorry. Thought it rude to pass comment.’

      ‘So you think I’ve gone too far?’ The haircut no one could quarrel with, Lorna thought apprehensively, but maybe plucked eyebrows and lipstick – even in so delicate a shade as English Rose – was a bit much.

      ‘Too far? It was a bit of a shock at first – you looked so much younger. But since you ask, Lorna, I do like it – the hair, I mean, though I never thought to see you wearing lipstick. You never have before. Whatever made you do it?’

      ‘It was my idea entirely,’ she hedged, determined to keep Ness out of it. ‘I decided long hair isn’t on in wartime; for women who work in factories it can be downright dangerous. That’s why they’ve got to wear snoods. And short hair is more hygienic. They say you can get nits on trains these days. And women in the Armed Forces aren’t allowed to wear their hair long, either, so what’s so special about me?’ she finished breathlessly, making a dash for the other side of the road. ‘And why not lipstick?’

      ‘Well, it’s all right, I suppose, for special occasions.’ Nance remounted her cycle. ‘But as regards your hair, you aren’t going to join the Armed Forces are you, nor work in a factory? William would never allow you to.’

      ‘If the government said I had to, he couldn’t do a lot about it.’ Lorna stared stubbornly ahead. ‘Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Who’s to say a married woman won’t be asked to work for the war effort – ordered to work?’

      ‘Because married women don’t work!’

      ‘They didn’t, but there’s a war on now. And there might be an invasion! What would women do then? Just let it happen? Well, I wouldn’t, Nance. I’d fight at the barricades to stop them getting Ainsty!’

      ‘Wouldn’t we all? But Hitler won’t be interested in Nun Ainsty. He’d have to find it first! And if his lot came – what would there be for them here? A few houses, a pub, a farm and an empty manor house. The aerodromes, maybe. Probably he’d drop parachutists on the aerodromes around – Gilbert said so, only yesterday. By the way, how are you and the land girl getting on?’

      ‘Oh – Ness!’ Lorna was glad the invasion and her new hairdo were not to be discussed further. ‘She’s a dear. Makes me laugh and she loves it at Ainsty.’

      ‘I thought you’d get on well. Better than being forced to take evacuees, and company for you in these uncertain times. William should be grateful to me. And had you thought that once our Local Defence Volunteers get themselves organized, they’ll have to be prepared to turn out at any hour of the day or night if there’s an emergency. You’ll be lucky. You’ll have company, but I shall be alone, Lorna, if Gilbert gets the call!’

      ‘Y-yes, you will. But you’ll manage, I’m sure you will. You’re a very capable person,’ Lorna soothed. One concentrated glare from Nance Ellery could stop a paratrooper at ten paces!

      ‘I must agree with you there. Between you and me, I’ve always had to be the capable one. Gilbert doesn’t know how lucky he is!’

      They had arrived at Meltonby church hall for the monthly meeting of the Women’s Institute and a talk entitled Making Your Rations Go Further – And Then Some! by a lady sponsored by the Ministry of Food, and Lorna was saved a reply. At least, she thought as they pushed their cycles out of sight behind the outside lavatories, it would seem that Nance would be on her side if ever it came to a showdown with William about her haircut and the wearing of lipstick. All things considered, it might not be a bad thing to have a capable lady on your side.

      She wondered, all at once apprehensive, if William would ring tonight, because if he did, Ness would be obliged to answer and it wouldn’t help matters at all, especially since William had made no further mention of the land girl, and his last letter had been quite affectionate.

      She sent her thoughts winging. Don’t ring tonight – please …?

      ‘Had a good time?’ Ness smiled a welcome.

      ‘Interesting. Got some food leaflets. Learned how to make a shelter cake and before you ask, if the alert sounded and you had to go to the shelter, you could leave it simmering merrily away on the stove.’

      ‘And if there’s anything left of your ’ouse when the all clear goes and you creep out of the shelter,’ Ness grinned, ‘then you’ll have a cake in the pan.’

      ‘After you’ve let it cool – otherwise it seemed to me you might as well eat pudding. But I think there’ll