As Holly removed the splinters with her hat pin, which was the only sharp thing she had to hand, Ivy gritted her teeth bravely. In truth, she hadn’t enjoyed the first day of her new job at all but she wouldn’t tell Holly that. She knew her friend wouldn’t want her to go back there if she knew how hard it really was. She had found herself working in a large room full of long tables and benches where she and the other women she worked with had to chop wood down with lethally sharp little knives into match sizes. They were then dipped into dishes of horrible-smelling red phosphorus that glowed even in the daylight, and left to dry before going to the packing area where they were counted and put into little boxes. It was very boring, although some of the women she worked with had cheered the place up no end by singing popular songs. They had started off with ‘I’m shy, Mary Ellen, I’m shy’, which had had Ivy giggling, before they began on ‘Down by the Old Mill Stream’. By the end of the day she had found herself singing along with them and they had finished the afternoon with their rendition of ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart’. Most of them were hopelessly out of tune and would never get jobs on stage but at least it had helped pass the time.

When Holly was finally happy with her efforts she allowed Ivy to hop into bed and within minutes the girl was fast asleep, her gentle snores echoing around the bleak little room. Holly wasn’t tired, although she had tried to keep herself busy during the day, and she lay awake for a long while listening to the wind howling outside and thinking about all the home comforts that she used to take for granted. The most pressing of these was the privy and she was grateful that they had bought a chamber pot for use late in the evening and during the night to prevent them having to go all the way downstairs to the rather disgusting toilet outside, which was shared by all the families in the house. They had agreed that they would take it in turns to empty and rinse it out each morning. It was a job that Holly wasn’t looking forward to. She had never had to do any menial work before and was only now realising how pampered she had been, although she was determined to learn.

Once again she fell asleep dreaming of home and fighting a wave of hopeless homesickness, but still she had no wish to return. Even living as she was now was preferable to living in luxury with a man she didn’t love.

At eight o’clock sharp the following Monday morning, Holly was outside Miss May’s Modes ready to begin her first day in her new job. She had used the wash house at her lodgings and washed all of her own and Ivy’s clothes while Ivy was at work, then dried them over the back of the chair by the fire in their room before ironing them with a flatiron she had bought second-hand at one of the markets that seemed to be dotted about the capital. Ivy had taught her how to iron as well as helping her make basic meals and already Holly was feeling a little more optimistic. The day before, she had written a long letter to her mother telling her all that had happened to her and Ivy since they had arrived in London, but she had put no return address on the letter. She would only do that when she and Ivy had managed to find somewhere a little more salubrious to live. She dared not tell her mother of the dwelling they were currently living in, or admit how homesick she really felt. Now she patted her hat and entered the shop to find Miss May already there putting some money into the till.