pay a locum or nurse was out of the question, but he could afford to pay a receptionist to take all the clerical work off his hands, and still have a little left each week to add to his savings. Better they should grow slowly than not at all. Ty felt there must be plenty of women needing a job during these desperate times and expected he would be able to have his pick. A thought struck him then. Would he be lucky enough to find a woman who wanted a receptionist’s job but could also tackle some of the lighter cleaning and dressing of wounds? He sincerely hoped so.
He hurriedly glanced at his pocket watch. He hadn’t time to address this now, really should be setting off on his afternoon round, but then the way time was for him, when would he have a better opportunity? He immediately started drafting a notice of his requirements to put on the surgery door.
Aidy spotted the notice as she approached the surgery a short while after Ty had put it up.
She stared at it, her mind whirling. She liked the idea of being a doctor’s receptionist. It sounded so posh! Trouble was, though, she’d no experience of office work whatsoever. Oh, but wait a minute, wasn’t filling in her time sheets and logging off her completed work classed as office work? Well, by a short stretch of the imagination it could be. She’d never had cause to use a telephone, but how difficult was it to pick up a receiver and speak into it? And anyway, she doubted she’d have much cause to use one since it was unlikely any of the doctor’s patients had a telephone and it cost precious money to make a call from the public box. She was reliable and trustworthy, and apart from the incident that had cost her her job, she was punctual. She might not have the best of clothes but she was at least clean and tidy. The starting time of eight-fifteen would certainly suit her better than the factory hour of seven-thirty, and that break in the afternoon from two until four-forty-five meant she could do the shopping at a more leisurely pace than the race she’d had during her one-hour dinner break from her sewing machine. On a Saturday morning the factory hours had been seven-thirty until one, whereas the doctor only needed his receptionist to work from eight-fifteen until twelve-thirty.
This job was appealing more and more to Aidy.
Then her excitement plummeted as a problem presented itself. She didn’t actually like the man she’d hopefully be working for. Could she work for someone so cold and aloof? She didn’t ponder too long on that problem, though. If it meant her securing a job, and especially a job that offered her all that this did, then, yes, she could put up with the man who was offering it.
Her excitement rose to fever pitch. This job certainly seemed to have her name on it. Then her high spirits sank as she read the last line of the notice. Someone with nursing experience would be preferred. She hadn’t got any nursing experience. It didn’t look like this job had her name on it after all. Then her spirits rose yet again. She certainly did have nursing experience. Over the years she had bathed and dressed numerous wounds suffered by her brother and sisters and Arch when they’d accidentally cut, bumped or burned themselves. None of the wounds had turned septic. And wasn’t what she was doing now in respect of her grandmother nursing? It certainly felt like it to Aidy’s mind.
This job did have her name on it. She was determined to land it.
Interviews for the position were to take place on the following Monday evening after surgery finished at seven o’clock. She’d be there prompt. She just had to hope not too many applied for it who were better qualified than herself. She was about to walk away when an idea came to her of how she could lower the odds against that happening. Flashing a hurried glance around to ascertain no one would witness what she was about to do, she snatched the notice off the door and thrust it into her pocket.
She was so excited at the prospect of getting a job she completely forgot why she had called at the doctor’s surgery in the first place.
Aidy wasn’t complacent enough to believe that just because she was hell-bent on getting the job