looked non-plussed. ‘Who is Mr Lakeland?’
‘A very important customer of the company’s. He’s the owner of several shoe shops in and around London and the home counties. He’s here as he has become good friends with Mr Swinton over the time he’s been dealing with us and was passing through Leicester on his way to visit his daughter who lives in Sheffield. Mr Swinton told him that if he wanted to break his journey and drop in, he would show him an early preview of our spring range and offer him refreshments.’
Cait froze, a wave of terror rolling through her. She was in no position to entertain clients, let alone a very important one. She’d be asked questions she’d not be able to answer and make herself look stupid. Neither was she dressed for the part, something she felt was of paramount importance. She blurted out to Jane, ‘I have a really important appointment now that I cannot miss. You’ll have to deal with him yourself.’
Giving the other woman no opportunity to make any response, she grabbed her handbag and coat and rushed out of the room, leaving a dumb-struck Jane Trucker staring after her.
When Jan arrived back in the kitchen, Hilda was stirring a huge pot of gravy with a large metal spoon. She called over, ‘Oh, yer back, lovey. I was just about to send the huskies out for yer. Got lost, I gather. Well, it’s n’ote we’ve not all done when we first started here. The place is like a rabbit warren. You found the boss’s office eventually?’
Jan nodded. ‘Eventually. I had a funny experience when I did, though.’
Hilda frowned at her. ‘What d’yer mean?’
‘Well, there was this young thing in there, looked no more than seventeen, and I took it that she was a new employee like me who’d got herself lost. I told her where she was and that she’d better scarper quick before the boss came back in, because if she was as snooty as I’d heard she was then the girl would be for the high jump. Well . . . then she started spouting off about me committing treason, speaking about the boss like that, and told me to collect my cards. Luckily for me the boss’s secretary came in . . . the lady who fetched me when I came for the interview. She thanked me for bringing up the tray and told me to go. I didn’t need telling twice and left her to deal with . . . well, I suspect that young girl is an escapee from the loony bin, or if not she needs locking up. She’s obviously not right up top to be thinking she can go around accusing people of treason and believing she has the authority to sack them.’ Jan suddenly remembered where she’d first come across the girl. It had been when she and Glen had stopped in the church to rest on the night they’d first met. The girl had been throwing her weight around then too – she obviously made a habit of it.
Hilda was looking at her thoughtfully. If the gossip she had heard had an ounce of truth in it, then she feared her new recruit had just come face to face with the owner’s daughter, who was standing in for her mother while she was away. This probably did mean that the young woman was in a position to sack whoever she liked, whether it was justified or not. Judging by her performance up to now, though, Jan looked as if she would shape up to be an asset and Hilda didn’t want to lose her. As it was, no one had officially told her that a member of her staff had been dismissed for what was perceived as insubordination, although to Hilda all Jan was guilty of was passing on gossip to the wrong person – hardly a sacking offence, in her eyes. Until she was told officially, she wasn’t prepared to take action. She decided not to tell Jan who the young woman she had crossed swords with in the office actually was, in case her new recruit decided to leave anyway. In a very short time they would have a horde of hungry workers descending on them and Hilda needed every staff member she could find to help deal with them.
She told Jan, ‘Well, hopefully, as we speak she’s being carted off back there. Anyway, I’ll send Maggie out with the staff trolley for a