I did this for weeks, right through the worst of a bleak winter, wearing multiple layers so I didn’t freeze. Henry thought I’d lost my mind, until the day the housekeeping manager came to the door and greeted me by name. She didn’t offer me a job right away. Instead, she let me clean the staff room and work in the hotel laundry, places where I’d never see a guest or their belongings.

“I can’t pay you,” she said bluntly. “But I can promise if you’re reliable and prove you’re trustworthy, you’ll be at the front of the line when a position does come up.”

And six weeks later, when one of the maids quit to get married, my hard work paid off. We had one hundred and thirty guest rooms to service and I was the first to raise my hand to complete a task, even if it was onerous or particularly filthy. That ingratiated me to the rest of the team. I wouldn’t say I made friends at work, but I certainly earned the respect of Mrs. Thompson and the other maids—and more importantly, I learned to fit in.

The housekeeping job brought enough income for me and Henry to move back into the rooming house, but better accommodation wasn’t the magic fix for Henry’s mood I’d hoped it would be. His charm had always defined him, but it was impossible to charm his way to employment when he always seemed to find himself at the back of a line of desperate men.

My brother had never lied to me before, so I took him at his word when he said he’d been out looking for work during the day, but I wasn’t surprised his job search was going badly. Even now that he had access to laundry facilities and a washroom, Henry wasn’t cleaning himself up. It perplexed me as much as it frustrated me.

“Maybe if you…you know, got up a little earlier?” I suggested. Then I drew in a deep breath. “Maybe you could shave too. I could give you some money for new clothes—”

“Don’t judge me, Lizzie,” he snapped. Henry had never been one to speak harshly to anyone, especially me. Something was changing in him. There was a dullness to his eyes.

The rooming house was vastly more comfortable than the homeless camp, but I figured that if I had a deposit for rent in advance on an apartment, we’d be well-placed to move once Henry found work. Within a few months, I had a little bundle of bills in that envelope. I was devastated the day I came home from work to find it gone.

“You shouldn’t have left money in the room,” Henry said when I told him we’d been robbed. I recoiled, stunned by his sharp tone.