make sure you’re back in an hour and that you bring Betty with you. Go on then,’ Aidy commanded them.
During this time Bertha had been staring at her fixedly. She wasn’t that befuddled she did not know that something was seriously wrong with her granddaughter.
Aidy then snapped at her, ‘Do you need anything before I make a start on the dinner?’
‘Yes, I do, love. I need to know what’s got your goat. Summat has. You’ve snapped at us all like a mad dog at a bone.’ She eyed her granddaughter shrewdly. ‘I guess yer boss wasn’t happy you were late back to work?’
Despite not wanting to tell Bertha what had transpired so as not to worry her, it wasn’t right to lie to her. ‘No, she wasn’t happy, Gran. Not happy at all.’ Giving a deep sigh, Aidy went over to the armchair and sank down into it, clasping her hands in her lap. Head bowed, she said tremulously, ‘I got the sack.’
Bertha froze. She had suspected that whatever it was that was bothering Aidy was serious. But … given the sack?
Aidy could see that her grandmother was feeling guilty for the part she had played in bringing this about. ‘This is not your fault, Gran. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. You were just trying to wake me. It’s me who should feel guilty. You’ve suffered the agony of breaking your leg again and are facing another seven weeks on the sofa.’
Bertha pursed her lips, her eyes hardening. ‘If anyone is to blame it’s Pat Nelson for attacking me in the first place,’ she snarled. She was well aware of the economic situation in the country and that jobs were getting scarcer by the day, but Aidy needed encouragement, not despondency. In an optimistic tone she said, ‘Well, you’ll get snapped up by another firm, with your skills.’
Aidy sighed. ‘Maybe I would have a while back, Gran, but not for the foreseeable future, the way things are. I did a quick tour round several of the local factories and none was offering any vacancies for machinists. The jobs in the shop windows are all for cleaners or shop assistants, not offering a wage we could mange on.’
Still determined to offer hope, not hopelessness, Bertha said, ‘There’s a job somewhere with your name on it, love.’
Aidy flashed her a wan smile. ‘I hope so, Gran. But what’s worrying me is how long it’s going to take me to find it.’ She gave another deep sigh. ‘Look, it’s bad enough for me knowing you know about this, but I don’t want the kids to get wind and them be worried too.’
Neither Aidy nor Bertha heard the back door open and someone come in to stand listening to them through the crack in the kitchen door. Or the sound of footsteps softly retreating.
‘Of course I won’t breathe a word to them,’ Bertha assured her.
A knock sounded on the back door then. Aidy’s shoulders sagged. She was in no mood for visitors tonight. ‘Are you expecting anyone?’ she asked Bertha. Her gran shook her head. ‘Unless it’s someone wanting one of me potions.’ Due to her incapacity, her supply of remedies was just about depleted, so it wasn’t likely she could satisfy the needs of whoever was calling.
The knock came again, more demanding this time.
Aidy sighed. ‘Whoever it is isn’t going to give up are they? I’ll peep round the kitchen curtain, see who it is before I answer it.’
In the kitchen she secreted herself to one side of the sink, tweaked the faded curtain aside and strained her neck in an effort to see who their caller was. Whoever it was they were standing too close to the door for her to make them out but it was a man, that much she could tell. Then he stepped back and she had a full view of him. It was Arch.
She let the curtain fall back into place in case he spotted her. Why was he here? Had he come to beg her to give their marriage another go? Had he heard she’d lost her job and come to gloat? But then, did it even matter to her what he had come for? She was not yet ready for another face to face with him, still smarting from their last encounter. But was it fair of her to ignore him, not afford him even the courtesy of listening to what he had to say? She heard the clunk of his boots on the cobbles