kid, after all.’
‘At least twice that amount. After all, you got this kid doing the work of a man, didn’t you, Mr Gibbons?’
Grunting and muttering profanities under his breath, he thrust his hand once again into his trouser pocket, pulling out another handful of change along with a couple of bank notes.
As he made to count out another seven shillings and sixpence, Aidy whipped the ten-shilling note out of his hand, saying to him, ‘Save you the bother of counting out change, I’ll settle for this. And I’ll make sure to let Pat know how good you were to her favourite grandson.’ She then quickly grabbed George by the shoulder. Before Alf could detain them they had both slipped back through the gate and were hurrying off down the street.
Safely secreted around a corner, Aidy stopped and began to laugh. ‘Well, dear brother, that’ll teach that crook to think twice before he tries to fleece a youngster in future!’ Then her face took on a serious expression. Opening her clenched hand, she held the money in it out towards George. ‘Make the most of it. You won’t be earning any more like that until you reach the proper age to leave school: fourteen. Now I really appreciate what you did, George, but truant again, for any reasons, and I’ll make it my business to make you wish you hadn’t. That clear?’
He nodded vigorously. Then said to her, ‘The money’s all for you, Aidy, to help keep us ’till you get another job.’
She smiled tenderly at him. ‘Thank you. It’ll come in very handy. But it’s only fair you should have some.’ She held out half a crown to him. She saw he was about to refuse it and ordered him, ‘Take it, George. You deserve every penny of it. Do what you like with it. Spend it on comics, sweets, whatever you want.’
His face lit up. Accepting the money, he gazed at it in delight. Half a crown was a fortune to him, the most money he’d ever had to call his own. Just to make sure it was definitely his to spend as he wished, he reaffirmed with her, ‘I can do what I like with it, really, our Aidy? Anything I want?’
Smiling, she nodded.
‘Then I’m gonna buy us all fish and chips for our tea tomorrow night. And a big pickled onion for you and a gherkin for Gran.’
Aidy was far too choked to respond.
Aidy was able to placate the Board man when he called to see her the next morning by insisting that George had been off school because he had been ill with a fever. In her worry for him, she had completely forgotten she needed to inform the school as to the reason for his absence. It was very remiss of her and she felt very guilty and sorry for her failure, but hoped the Board man would see fit not to take this matter further.
She didn’t think much to her chances of that, however. He looked the sort to her who took great delight in asserting his authority.
Her appraisal of Neville Hill was indeed correct. Normally he took his job very seriously and would have had her hauled before the Board for them to deal with her laxness as they saw fitting. But, luckily for Aidy, that morning, on his way to see her, he had found a ten-shilling note in the gutter as he was crossing the road. He’d beaten a woman who had also spotted it, snatching it up, to his glee and her fury. His mind was so busy deciding just how he was going to spend his windfall … he certainly wasn’t going to tell his penny-pinching wife … that he couldn’t wait to get this matter with the Greenwoods over with and get back to his day dreaming.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
For at least the tenth time in the last half an hour, a highly anxious Aidy asked Bertha, ‘Do I look smart enough, Gran? Do I look like a receptionist should?’
She was wearing a plain navy kick-pleat skirt and white high-necked blouse. On her feet were chunky, low-heeled court shoes, a thick coating of shoe polish having been applied to hide their scuffs. Her newly washed hair was brushed to a shine and framed her pretty face. Not wanting to get off to a bad start, she had decided to play it safe and not wear any make-up, just in case the doctor deemed it unfitting for his receptionist while on