Most of the other girls who worked in the shop – either on the shop floor or in the various departments making items for sale – lived in. There was a dormitory on the top floor and they took all their meals in the canteen. A few still lived at home, but both groups envied May her relative independence. The girls who lived in had to observe strict rules, up at six and in bed by ten, with very little freedom. They were supervised by a housekeeper, Mrs Stevens, who had the reputation of being a dragon. Nan’s house had its drawbacks, but provided she did her work May was free to come and go as she pleased.

‘Coming tonight, May?’

It was Maud, one of the apprentice seamstresses, who asked the question.

‘Coming where?’

‘Ain’t nobody told you? Ma Stevens thinks we’re going to Jenny’s parents’ place for a party. But we’re really going to the pub.’

‘A pub?’

‘Yeah, the Eagle. It’s a great little place. You must come.’

May shook her head. ‘Oh no, I don’t think so.’

‘Come on! It’s New Year’s Eve. You can’t go back to Nan’s and sit there all by yourself.’

‘I’ve never been in a pub before. Are we allowed?’ ‘Some of the boys are coming. The landlady won’t mind as long as we’ve got men to escort us.’

‘The boys’ were the young men who worked in the menswear department, who were also accommodated in the building, though on a different floor and well separated from the girls. May had seen them in passing, but never spoken to any of them. Several other girls had gathered round and now added their encouragements, so in the end May yielded and agreed to meet them after work.

‘You’ll have to change your dress,’ Maud said. ‘You can’t go out on the razz in your uniform.’

‘I haven’t got anything else,’ May said. She had, of course, the simple print dress she had made in the workhouse, but she couldn’t wear that. None of the girls knew about her early life there, or that she had been in service with the Freemans. Knowing that they would look down on her if they found out the truth, she had been forced to make up a story. In this version, her father had been a sea captain, not a simple sailor, and she had lived at home with her mother until a few months ago, when her mother had been taken ill and died. Shortly after that there had been a disastrous fire, in which she had lost almost all her possessions, and the Freemans, who had been friends of her father’s, had taken her in and given her this job. ‘All my decent clothes were burnt in the fire,’ she explained.