‘Cor, it looks quite posh now, don’t it?’ Ivy commented proudly. ‘An’ now we’ve got it all just about how we want it we can start to do a bit o’ sightseein’ on our days off.’ She was longing to see some of the sights Holly had shown her in books. There was Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament, to name but a few, but up until now there had been no time.

‘We’ll start this very Sunday,’ Holly agreed. Thankfully, although it was cold the snow had held off. ‘We can use the trams to see most of the places.’

The following day, Miss May followed them upstairs to see what they had done with the place and she was clearly impressed with their efforts.

‘Why, you’ve made it into a real little home,’ she said approvingly as she looked around admiringly.

Holly hurried away to put the kettle on for tea and Miss May eyed Ivy with interest. She and Holly seemed poles apart in every way. Ivy was nowhere near as well spoken as Holly but it was clear that they were close and she wondered how they had met.

‘Did you know each other back in your home town?’ she asked tentatively as she took a seat on the sofa beside the fire.

‘Yer could say that … I was Holly’s maid.’ Ivy chortled with laughter at the astonished look on Miss May’s face. ‘An’ when I knew she were comin’ here there was no way I could let her come on her own.’

‘I see. How very unusual for two such young ladies to choose to come and live in the capital all alone,’ Miss May commented.

When Holly appeared with a tray of tea, Miss May told her, ‘Ivy here was just telling me that she was your maid when you lived at home. Whatever made you both come all this way to live?’

‘Oh, well, as you know I needed to get away, and we just got on the first train out, so we could have ended up anywhere, I suppose,’ Holly said as she poured the tea into some dainty china cups she had found on a stall in the market. ‘How is your husband?’ she asked, and the woman’s face clouded.

‘Not well at all to be honest. He has a degenerative muscle-wasting disease and struggles to get about now. That was something I was going to talk to you about actually.’ She eyed Holly thoughtfully for a moment before asking, ‘Do you feel confident enough to open the shop each morning for me yet? Just so that I can have a little extra time with him before I have to come into work each day.’

‘Of course,’ Holly agreed eagerly. She had grown very fond of her employer and would have done anything to please her.

‘In that case I’ll give you the key to the shop door.’ Miss May fumbled in her bag for it. ‘I’ll aim to be in for ten each morning. That will give me time to help Ernest get dressed and get him settled.’