Ivy was waiting for her and they went to the first job of the morning: a school about a mile away. Jenny met the boss and was officially taken on as part of the cleaning staff. For the next two hours she scrubbed endless corridors, dusted and polished. She’d thought the work hard as under housemaid, but it had been easy compared to this. She didn’t care. She had somewhere to stay and a job. Yesterday she had been on the brink of admitting defeat and returning home to accept her fate. Glad and her lovely family had quickly put that notion out of her head.

The end of the passage was finally reached, and Jenny sat back on her heels to look at the gleaming floor, tired but with a sense of satisfaction. Of course she knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Glad and her family lived tough lives, but she would be safe with them for a while. Her life was uncertain, and it would be best to take things a day at a time. What the future held would depend upon the spin of the coin, and one day it would fall as heads, she assured herself firmly. Although she had never been superstitious, she had to cling to some kind of hope or else she would sink into despair, and that would be fruitless. She was young with time on her side!

Jenny was back by eight to get Ma a hurried breakfast of bread and butter. She’d offered to make her toast, but the elderly woman had complained that her teeth wasn’t too good now and could she have something she could suck! Highly amused by Ma’s dry remarks, she just had time to put the plates in the sink before dashing off to her next job. This was at an engineering factory and even harder work. There were iron filings all over the floor that had to be swept up, then the offices to be polished. The washrooms were a disgrace, the smell making her heave. She followed Ivy’s lead, and between them they managed to make them presentable.

‘That’s it for today, Jen.’ Ivy grimaced and rubbed her back. ‘Thank goodness we only have to do this place once a week.’

Jenny heartily agreed and was grateful to have had Ivy’s bright company on her first morning in the job.

Once back home, Ivy waved goodbye as she hurried off to see to her baby son. ‘See you the same time tomorrow, Jen.’

A small sliver of sunlight broke through a cloud and made the dingy street look almost pleasant. Jenny lifted her face and felt the warmth on her tired eyes. She ached from head to toe after scrubbing those endless corridors, but at that moment she felt content. She had somewhere to stay, a job and was among friends. In her situation she couldn’t ask for more than that.