Matt watched his father wince; he was obviously still feeling very uncomfortable about his part in dismissing the girl. ‘Edna said she was thin, so what kind of a life is she living?’

‘She is out very early every morning scrubbing floors, and the rest of the time she’s caring for an elderly woman, whom she seems to be fond of. Jenny told Edna that the people she is with are very poor; she has to earn money because they can’t afford to feed her. They took her in and showed kindness when she had nowhere else to go.’

‘Oh, God, what a mess!’ Gilbert bent and kissed his wife’s cheek. ‘I’m never going to dismiss a servant again. It’s your job anyway, my dear, and I should have left it to you. But I was so furious that someone under our roof had been stealing that I acted without thought.’

‘A failing of yours,’ his wife said, with a smile of affection on her face. ‘However, we cannot change what has happened, and at least we know she is living with kind, if poor, people. In the meantime I have told Edna she is to meet her whenever she can and keep an eye on her. We shall have to be satisfied with that for the time being, and hope that there will be some way to make amends in the future.’

Matt sincerely hoped there would be.

15

It was nearly a month before Jenny was able to meet Edna again: Ivy’s two children had gone down with the measles; Fred had been laid up with a nasty bout of influenza; and Ma was growing increasingly frail. And they weren’t the only people in the street suffering. Lack of nourishing food was taking its toll. Unemployment was now hitting hard, and each day becoming more of a struggle to survive. Jenny did everything she could: hurrying from one task to another, taking on extra cleaning jobs, spending nearly all her money on food and coal. It was the beginning of December, and with so much sickness around these were essential needs.

Over the last week things had improved: Ron, Ivy’s husband, had managed to get a job as a bus conductor; the children were fit once again; and Fred was back on his feet.

Jenny tipped the money out of her purse and counted it. She had been squirrelling away a few pennies each week until she had enough for the pictures and a pot of tea afterwards. She’d written to Edna and suggested that they meet outside the cinema in Hammersmith where they were showing a Laurel and Hardy film, Big Business. After the last few weeks a laugh would do her good.