She was looking at them both, stunned. So they did pay attention to her after all … and she hadn’t believed they listened to a word she said. ‘You did right. You did very right,’ she assured them.
‘What we gonna tell Dad, though? He ain’t gonna like it that we never did what he told us,’ said Betty tremulously. Her father had not as yet actually hit her like she knew some of her friends’ fathers did, but his nasty shouting whenever any of them had invoked his wrath was frightening enough for a little girl like her.
Aidy was thinking. No, he wasn’t going to like it at all, especially as she suspected the money the kids would have made he’d been banking on getting. She smiled at the children reassuringly. ‘I know, you tell Dad you knocked several times, very hard, but no one answered the door at the house. Tell him no mantles were lit inside so you didn’t think anyone was in. You waited around for ages for someone to come back but they didn’t, so you came home. He can’t tell you off for not doing his errand for him then, can he?’
‘No, he can’t,’ they both said together.
‘And do we do the same if he sends us on another errand like this one, Sis?’ asked George.
She eyed him proudly. ‘That’s exactly what you do.’
They spent a few minutes discussing their plan of action then set off home.
As soon as they rounded the bend in the jetty Bertha was on them, her relief to see them all safely back most apparent. Despite the bitter cold, she had not trusted herself to return inside the house and await their return, so afraid was she that she would not have been able to hold back from telling her despicable son-in-law exactly what she thought of him.
Aidy quickly outlined their plan to Bertha. They decided they would go in first, leaving the children waiting outside for a few minutes. They’d pretend they had just met up on their way home and knew nothing of where the children had been.
As soon as they walked in, Arnold appeared in the back-room doorway and looked mortally disappointed to see the new arrivals were not who he was expecting.
As she stripped off her coat, Aidy said to him, ‘You look like you’re expecting someone?’
He growled back at her, ‘I sent the bloody kids on an errand and they should’ve been back by now.’
She responded lightly as she took her apron off the hook on the back of the pantry door and tied it around her, ‘Well, this time of evening the shop will be busy or they could have bumped into friends and be having a quick natter. They’ll be back in a minute with your baccy, I expect. Best get the dinner started or I’ll be late back for work.’
An anxious Arnold returned to the back room.
Bertha was collecting potatoes out of a sack in the pantry and having a job controlling her glee. This was the first time since his return that the family had been given an opportunity to get one over on Arnold, and she was enjoying every moment.
The back door opened then. George and Betty barely had time to get a foot over the threshold before he was back in the doorway, his relief to see them very apparent. He demanded, ‘Give me what yer got then. Come on, I ain’t got all day.’ He was holding out his hand expectantly.
Aidy and Bertha were pretending to be taking no notice of what was going on around them but getting on with their tasks.
George and Betty stood pressed together by the back door.
It was George who nervously told him, ‘We ain’t got n’ote ter give yer. The bloke weren’t in.’
Arnold’s eyes narrowed darkly and he growled, ‘Wadda yer mean, he weren’t in? Why, yer lying little bleeders!’ Clenching one fist, he raised his arm, shouting, ‘He was in and you’re …’
Seeing things were turning ugly, Aidy jumped over to stand before him, blocking his way.
‘The kids don’t lie. If they say the man you sent them to see wasn’t in, then he wasn’t. It’s the bloke you made your arrangement with that’s let you down, not them.’
Arnold was so fuming, Aidy felt sure she could actually see steam coming out of the top of his head. Banging one fist furiously against the back-room door, the vibrations shaking the house, he stormed back inside uttering a