The old lady cackled. ‘From what you’ve told me about her, that’s probably what she’s hoping for.’

‘Yes,’ Jenny agreed, fully aware of her mother’s love of position and wealth. ‘I expect that would suit her very nicely.’

17

‘We’ll manage.’ Jenny slipped her arm around Ivy’s shoulder, alarmed by how white she had gone. Only a week ago things had seemed so much better, what with Ma recovering and everyone else back to health. Spring was here and the struggle to keep the sick and young warm was over. But Jenny was beginning to believe that the coin spinning in her life had two tails, as everything had crashed around them again. ‘Ron’s still got his job as a conductor.’

‘But he hasn’t.’ Ivy looked near to tears, and it took a lot to drag these resilient people down. ‘He was laid off yesterday. I can’t afford to be out of work, Jen. How am I going to feed my kids?’

Jenny hooked her hand through Ivy’s arm as they walked back home. They’d turned up for work this morning only to be told that they weren’t wanted any longer. It was something they’d been praying wouldn’t happen. She felt as if there were a heavy weight in her stomach, but Ivy must be worried sick. ‘What about the dole? Ron will get that, surely?’

‘Oh, yeah,’ Ivy snorted in disgust. ‘He’ll get around one pound, five shillings and threepence, and that won’t go far with two children. And there’s nothing for us women.’

‘Mrs Pritchard from No. 30 gets free milk for her children, doesn’t she?’

Ivy nodded miserably.

‘Can’t you try for that?’ Jenny was trying to sound positive, but it was hard. Without work, how were any of them going to manage?

‘I’ll talk to Mum about it, but it’s an unpleasant business applying for assistance. You get some busybody from the welfare poking their nose into everything you’ve got.’ Ivy was shaking with worry now.

‘What do you mean?’ Jenny didn’t know anything about things like this.

‘When you ask for help, you get caught up in what’s called the means test. Everyone hates it. We might be poor but we do have some pride, Jen. This person counts every penny you’ve got coming in and looks to see if you have anything of value you can pawn. If someone is kind enough to give you a gift of food or coal, the bastards take that off the money they pay you.’

Jenny was appalled.