Jenny didn’t know what could be done.

Fred and Stan walked in just then, quickly followed by Ivy. They all sat round the table, and Glad put a thick slice of bread in front of each of them. It was spread with a thin scraping of butter, but it tasted good to Jenny. She was very hungry, and the tea was hot and strong.

‘Get some good stuff this morning?’ Glad asked the men.

‘Not bad, but prices is getting steep,’ Fred told her. ‘And we’ve just heard that Talbots Engineering has laid off fifty workers. Things is getting tough.’

‘I know, and I reckon it’s going to get worse.’ Glad’s usual cheery expression slipped for a moment, then brightened again. ‘At least you and Stan can’t get laid off because you work for yourselves.’

‘What about Ron?’ Stan asked Ivy. ‘Is he still all right at his factory?’

‘So far, but there’s talk about cutting the hours because of falling orders. He’s a good carpenter but sales of furniture have dropped off. And that means a cut in pay. I don’t know how we’re ever going to be able to afford a place of our own, Mum.’

‘Don’t you worry about that.’ Glad dismissed her daughter’s worries. ‘We’re a bit cramped, but we’ll manage.’

Fred gave Jenny a wry smile. ‘When you told us that your dad had lost everything in the stock market crash, I never thought something that had happened in New York would touch us. I was wrong, though. That disaster is starting to be felt everywhere.’

Jenny was puzzled. It was understandable that as her father had been a member of the New York Stock Exchange, he had lost his money when it collapsed. But how could something like that touch the lives of ordinary people? The Templeton School had been a lovely place, but Jenny was beginning to see how little it taught them about the outside world.

‘I hope it doesn’t get too bad,’ she said.

‘Nah, ’course it won’t,’ Stan laughed. ‘As long as we can keep the barrow going, we’ll be okay.’

‘Barrow?’ Jenny looked at Fred for an explanation.

‘We’re costers, luv,’ he told her, and then laughed at her bewildered expression. ‘Costermongers. We goes along to Covent Garden Market early in the morning, buy up fruit and veg, and sell it from a barrow at the market in The Cut.’

‘Oh, I see.’

‘Now,’ Glad said, ‘let’s see if we can sort you out, Jen. You got any ideas, Fred?’

He shook his head. ‘Bugger if I know.’

‘I can’t stay here,’ Jenny said quickly. ‘I’m so grateful you took me in last night, but there isn’t room. I’d be a burden to you, and that would make me very unhappy. You must let me pay for my bed and breakfast.’