the first impression you make, but also the last.'
Maisie was standing outside Tilly's Tea Shop at six o'clock the following morning, and didn't budge for the next two hours. At five minutes to eight a plump, middle-aged, smartly dressed woman, with her hair arranged in a neat bun and a pair of half-moon spectacles propped on the end of her nose, turned the 'closed' sign on the door to 'open', to allow a frozen Maisie to step inside.
'You've got the job, Mrs Clifton,' were her new boss's first words.
Harry was left in the care of his grandmother whenever Maisie went to work. Although she was only paid nine pence an hour, she was allowed to keep half her tips, so that at the end of a good week she could take home as much as three pounds. There was also an unexpected bonus. Once the 'open' sign had been turned back to 'closed' at six o'clock in the evening, Miss Tilly would allow Maisie to take home any food that was left over. The word 'stale' was never allowed to cross a customer's lips.
After six months, Miss Tilly was so pleased with Maisie's progress that she put her in charge of her own station of eight tables, and after another six months, several regulars would insist that Maisie served them. Miss Tilly solved the problem by increasing Maisie's allocation of tables to twelve, and raising her pay to a shilling an hour. With two pay packets coming in each week, Maisie was once again able to wear both her engagement ring and her wedding ring, and the silver-plated tea strainer was back in its place.
If Maisie was honest about it, Stan being released from prison for good behaviour after only eighteen months turned out to be a bit of a mixed blessing.
Harry, now aged three and a half, had to move back into his mother's room, and Maisie tried not to think about just how peaceful it had been while Stan was away.
Maisie was surprised when Stan got his old job back at the docks as if nothing had happened. This only convinced her that he knew far more about Arthur's disappearance than he let on, however much she pressed him. On one occasion when she became a little too persistent, he belted her one. Although, the following morning, Miss Tilly pretended not to notice the black eye, one or two of the customers did, so Maisie never raised the subject with her brother again. But whenever Harry asked him about his father, Stan stuck to the family line and said, 'Your old man was killed in the war. I was standin' by his side when the bullet hit him.'
Maisie spent as much of her spare time with Harry as she could. She assumed that once he was old enough to attend Merrywood Elementary School, her life would become a lot easier. But taking Harry to school in the morning meant the added expense of a tram ride to make sure she was not late for work. She would then take a break in the afternoon so she could pick him up from school. Once Maisie had given him his tea, she would leave him in the care of his grandma and return to work.
Harry had only been at school for a few days when Maisie noticed some cane marks on his backside while she was giving him his weekly bath.
'Who did that?' she demanded.
'The headmaster.'
'Why?'
'Can't tell you, Mum.'
When Maisie saw six new red stripes even before the previous ones had faded, she questioned Harry again, but still he didn't let on. The third time the marks appeared, she put on her coat and set off for Merrywood Elementary with the intention of giving his teacher a piece of her mind.
Mr Holcombe wasn't at all what Maisie had expected. To start with, he couldn't have been much older than she was, and he stood up when she entered the room - not at all like the teachers she remembered from her days at Merrywood.
'Why is my son being caned by the headmaster?' she demanded, even before Mr Holcombe had a chance to offer her a seat.
'Because he keeps playing truant, Mrs Clifton. He disappears soon after morning assembly, and gets back in time for football in the afternoon.'
'So where is he spending the day?'
'At the docks would be my guess,' said Mr Holcombe. 'Perhaps you might be able to tell me why.'
'Because his uncle works there, and he's always telling