‘Yes, and I’m happy where I am, Edna.’ Jenny smiled at her friend, and while they drank their tea, she took a pencil and piece of paper out of her bag, wrote her address down and gave it to her friend. ‘I know you won’t tell anyone where I am.’

‘I won’t utter a word to a soul.’ Edna tucked the paper in her purse. ‘Thanks, Jen.’

Jenny then told Edna about her meeting with the footman in Oxford Street.

‘I’ll bet he looked a fool if he did try to claim the reward,’ Edna chuckled.

‘Probably, but nevertheless I’m quite proud of that deception.’

‘So you ought to be.’ Edna glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘Whoops, I’ve got to go.’

Jenny saw her friend on to the bus and caught her own to Lambeth. All the way back to Ma’s she pondered the news about her mother. It sounded as if she was making a new life for herself. She wondered who the man was. Perhaps she would write just to let her mother know she was all right, but not give her an address, of course. That idea was immediately dismissed. By allowing Aunt Gertrude to take charge and arrange for her to go to Greaves, her mother obviously hadn’t cared what happened to her, so she wouldn’t bother to contact her.

She still had tuppence left, and when she got off the bus she went to the baker’s and bought two buns for their tea. Ma would enjoy that. It had been a good afternoon, and she sang to herself as she walked home. Now she must think about Christmas, which was only three weeks away. A few coppers put away each week and she should be able to give Ma a special time.

The garage workshop was worryingly empty. There were only two cars in today, and Matt was fully aware of the economic situation; many businesses were struggling and unemployment, if not already a fact of life, was looming. None of them had missed Jake’s distracted air of late, and the lack of work told its own story. Matt saw Jake standing at the window of his shop-floor office, gazing at the empty spaces and men hanging around with nothing to do. Some firms in a similar situation were letting the workers in only when there was work, and then sending them home when it was finished. Although the men still officially had jobs, their weekly wage was greatly reduced. Harry was particularly concerned because his wife was expecting their first baby in February.

Matt made his decision, knocked on the office door, then stepped inside, closing it behind him.

‘Hello, Matt,’ Jake greeted him. ‘I was going to have a word with you. We’re suffering and I can’t afford to go on like this much longer.’

‘Are you going to have to lay people off?’ he asked.