Ivy shrugged as she lifted her old coat. Unfortunately she hadn’t come across a decent second-hand one yet so this would have to do for now, although she hated having to cover her lovely new dress up with it.

‘Far as I’m concerned, even that ain’t reason enough for lockin’ her up,’ she grumbled as she did the buttons on her coat up. Then she headed purposefully for the door. ‘Ta-ra for now,’ she chirped and with a cheery wave she was gone, leaving Holly to wonder again at the change in her. Ivy was like a different person from the nervous little thing who used to jump at her own shadow when she first went to work for her grandfather. And she supposed that was no bad thing. Ivy had gained so much confidence since they’d moved to London, although she hoped that she wouldn’t get overly involved with the suffragettes and end up in Holloway Prison.

The next day as they were tidying the shop during a lull in customers, Holly told Miss May about the courses she had signed up to, watching for the woman’s reaction.

‘Why, what a grand thing to do,’ Miss May said approvingly and that gave Holly the opportunity she had been hoping for.

‘Actually,’ she began tentatively while she had the courage. ‘The best course is one that’s run at the University College Hospital all day every Wednesday so I was wondering if …’ She licked her dry lips, suddenly nervous and hurried on, ‘I was wondering if we might juggle my hours about so that I could attend that one too? I thought I could work all day on Saturdays instead of finishing at dinner time and make the rest of the hours up during the week by opening the shop an hour earlier? Even if it was too early for customers I could make sure that everywhere was thoroughly clean and tidy before they came in instead of us trying to do the cleaning in between clients. What do you think? I’ll quite understand if you’re not happy with the idea.’

Miss May was staring at her thoughtfully through narrowed eyes and Holly’s heart sank. But then the woman surprised her when she said, ‘I think it’s an excellent idea. I was never fortunate enough to have a daughter of my own but if I had I would have encouraged her to do something like that. You can certainly sign up for the course and start as soon as you like. I might just decide to close on Wednesdays. I’ve been thinking of having a closing day for some time. It would give me a little more time to spend with my husband and the shop is doing so well I can certainly afford to.’

‘Oh, thank you.’ Holly was so delighted that she rushed forward and pecked the woman on the cheek then flushed and hastily stepped back. However, rather than be annoyed Miss May seemed to like the gesture and smiled at her.