too much secrecy in this world. Always tell the truth is what I say, no matter whom it is you are talking to. Did Hooch collect you from the station?”
May nodded. “Poor man,” she said. “Poor face, I mean.”
“Yes, I know,” the young man agreed, his earlier expression of curiosity suddenly replaced by one of deep seriousness. “We all think it’s amazing that Hooch still wants to get behind a wheel. He got those injuries when a fragment of shell hit him as he was driving a tank somewhere in the Somme. That’s twenty years ago now but he’ll have the scars for the rest of his life. He’s an inspiration, really.”
At that moment the door opened again.
“Ah, Julian, I see you have already met Miss Thomas.” An older man holding a box of matches was standing at the door. “I’m afraid you will have to continue your conversation another time. Miss Thomas is coming with me.”
And before May could say goodbye she was beckoned into the adjoining study. Just before the door closed behind her, a stage whisper floated through the open gap.
“I really hope you get the job.”
The older man turned round and smiled. He had heard the whisper too.
“How do you do,” he said to May, addressing her directly for the first time. “I’m Philip Blunt. Have you been offered some coffee? Good. Well, come in. And do take that hat off, you must be so hot under there!”
Sir Philip shook the box of matches in his hand but it was empty. Picking up a cigar that was lying half-smoked but extinguished in an ashtray on the desk, he tried unsuccessfully to blow it into life, pulled the Anglepoise lamp closer and ran a hand through surprisingly dense and unfashionably long hair that was the colour of a well-worn penny.
“Well, shall I kick off then?”
“Yes please,” May replied, trying not to squash Aunt Gladys’s hat as it lay in her lap.
Sir Philip outlined the responsibilities involved in the job with efficient economy. He explained that he was one of a handful of deputy chief whips in Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative government. He had formerly been a lawyer and still occasionally gave advice in that capacity.
“It certainly makes for varied and interesting work, but I need to keep my wits about me, and that is why I could do with a first-class secretary and chauffeur.”
He needed someone to drive him from appointment to appointment during the weekdays in London and to take him up and down from town to the country. When he was tied up in daylong parliamentary sessions, he liked the car to be available for his wife, Lady Joan, and occasionally for their two adult children. The job advertised came with free board and lodging with Mrs. Cage in the housekeeper’s house in the village. For the occasional overnight stay, especially during late-night sittings in the House, a small room next to the butler’s pantry in St. John’s Wood was on offer.
“And now it’s your turn,” Sir Philip said, puffing ineffectively at his lifeless cigar.
May described how she had come to live in England with her cousins after leaving behind her working life in Barbados. She explained how she was not only the daughter of the plantation owner but also had been his employee. At the age of seventeen, her father had taught her to drive the plantation car and she had discovered an unrivalled pleasure when the driver’s door was closed, the engine was cranked and the motor responded to her touch. She had spent long hours alone in the car, collecting the weekly account books from the office before driving to Speightstown to post letters at the post office, cash the workers’ wages cheque at the bank as well as being responsible for the maintenance of the old Rolls-Royce.
From the authority as well as the passion with which she spoke, Sir Philip could tell she knew more about automobiles than a male mechanic twice her age. He needed no more convincing that the right person for the job was sitting in front of him, twiddling her hair unselfconsciously as she told him how she had heard that the older models of the Rolls were so much more reliable than the later versions. He had heard of a special two-day practical course for advanced drivers that perhaps she might be interested in joining “if things work out.” May nodded enthusiastically at the prospect.
The second part of the position involved some secretarial work within the house.