ten hours a day, and sometimes even longer, for this strict task master.
‘Your last employee unexpectedly died and that’s why you’re looking for a replacement, is it?’ Aidy asked her matter-of-factly.
The woman looked shocked, it being apparent she felt the question was impertinent. Sharply she answered, ‘Not that it’s any of your business why I’m interviewing for a new domestic, but Mrs Adkins retired. Why would you think she’d died?’
‘I’m surprised she didn’t, with all the work you expect your domestic to get through, and all for the measly wage you’re offering to cover it.’ Aidy got up from her chair. Quashing a strong desire to laugh at the expression of outrage on Marjorie Kilner’s face, she added, ‘I can see myself out.’
She’d had high hopes of that job, but, determined not to let disappointment get her down, continued with her search, revisiting places she had been to previously just in case a vacancy had cropped up meantime. She had no joy. Many places she didn’t even bother enquiring when she saw the queue of people lining up to apply for the few positions being offered. There were several shops in need of staff that would have taken an experienced woman on, but the owners weren’t prepared to take on someone like Aidy when there were so many trained shop assistants looking for work.
By twelve-thirty she was finding it very difficult to keep her spirits up and remain optimistic. She had been banking on landing some sort of job this week, allowing for the fact she’d have to work a week in hand. She could just about eke out her last pay for another week, provided no costly emergencies happened, but certainly no longer. The kids were getting sick of vegetable soup for their dinner, and for that matter so was she, but it was better than nothing – and nothing was what they’d be getting soon if her luck on the job front didn’t take a turn for the better.
If she didn’t get a job by the end of the week, though, she did have a back-up plan she would put into operation. When her father had left her mother, having no other way open to her at the time by which to provide for her family, Jessie had resorted to taking in washing and ironing and had rented out her own bedroom to a lodger. Aidy proposed to follow in her footsteps. The sleeping arrangements for the family would have to be reorganised. She and Bertha would have to move out of their room and into the girls’, the girls would go into George’s, and then somewhere must be found for him, though where yet she hadn’t a clue. And where she was going to get the money from to buy a Put-you-up for George to sleep on, and the extra bedding, she hadn’t a clue either. As matters stood, the only person she could turn to for help was her estranged husband, which would only serve to prove him right that she couldn’t manage without his help. Aidy wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
Then suddenly an idea of how she could raise some further money came to her. When she had gone to collect the rest of her belongings back at the house she had shared with Arch, in her haste to get in and out, she had completely forgotten to pick up the little pot on the tallboy in her bedroom.
It contained a few pieces of silver-plated jewellery. These included a very pretty butterfly-shaped brooch with two tiny pieces of emerald depicting its eyes that Arch had bought her on their first wedding anniversary; a hat pin with a ruby inserted in the end that she’d bought herself before she’d married Arch; a charm bracelet that her mother had bought on her twenty-first birthday, one charm on it in the shape of a tiny wishbone. The intention had been to add more in time, but to date money hadn’t allowed for that. Not forgetting the watch she wore on her wrist, a present from Arch last Christmas. There were besides two china ornaments, not expensive and from she second-hand shop, but nevertheless bought with love by her mother for Christmas presents, and a copper jug her grandmother had given her. If she pawned all of these, surely she’d raise enough for them from the pawnbroker to tide her over before her back-up plan started paying out.
She looked at her watch. It was gone twelve-thirty. Pat would be