a fast learner, good with the customers, good with money, and not a bad cook either, now that he’d taught her some of the basics. She was beginning to blossom and he was delighted to see it.
‘I’m going to have a full-length frock,’ Alison went on, ‘and Hazel’s on about ordering special bouquets of flowers for us all. Ta-da! You wouldn’t recognise me.’ She twirled on the spot with her arms outspread.
Fred smiled again, and wondered what had brought on all this. She didn’t seem the sort of girl to get so excited about a new dress. Usually she seemed so sensible.
‘Sounds like it’ll be a real day to remember. Now, sorry to bring you back down to earth, but we’re due a delivery of chicken this morning,’ he told her. ‘You don’t have to do anything with them, they’ll all be nicely dead and plucked already, but if I’m out the back and Mr Reynolds arrives in his van, that’s what it’ll be about so give me a shout.’
‘All right,’ said Alison. She was happy enough to check the order as long as she didn’t have to look into the birds’ eyes. That gave her the creeps, and she’d almost thought about giving up eating chicken, but she liked it too much. ‘What does Mr Reynolds do with all the eggs he must have?’
‘No idea,’ said Fred, pausing as he emptied change into the till. ‘Why, do you fancy some for lunch? You can always ask him.’
‘Not particularly,’ said Alison. ‘But I was just wondering. You know, people come in here and buy their ham or their bacon or sausage, and all those things go well with eggs. So wouldn’t it make sense to sell eggs as well?’
‘Suppose so,’ said Fred dubiously, ‘but where would we put them?’
‘There’s plenty of room,’ she insisted. ‘You don’t see it because you’re used to how everything is laid out, but you could put the slicer closer to the till. There’d be plenty of room on the counter if we did that.’
Fred thought for a moment. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. She was right, there was lots of space, and perhaps he’d become blind to how much of it was wasted. Now he had his big fridges, things that had once been kept on the old cool tiled shelves had been moved into them, and he’d simply allowed everything else to spread out. It wasn’t efficient, and that bothered him. He liked to be as efficient as possible – that was what made a business a success.
‘I do believe you’ve got a point,’ he said. ‘So if we are to sell eggs, what do we do next?’
‘Find out how much Mr Reynolds would sell them to us for,’ said Alison at once. ‘Find out how often he could bring them.’
‘And?’ Fred was enjoying this.
‘And work out how much we would sell them at,’ she went on. ‘Like we do with the meat. Work out a percentage to make sure we sell at a profit.’
‘And?’
That stopped her. ‘Isn’t that everything?’
‘We need to know that we can sell them for the same price, or less than, the grocer’s. I can’t remember what I paid for eggs the last time I did a bit of shopping.’
‘When we have a quiet spell I could pop along and check.’
‘Yes, good idea. When Mr Reynolds turns up we’ll ask him about his prices and availability. After that you can run along to the grocer’s.’
Alison was happy to agree and, as she was longing to see Paul again, she began to plan an excuse to go into the ironmonger’s too.
Later that day, in Kent, Linda was cutting bread for sandwiches, thinking there was nothing like the smell of a freshly baked loaf – even if that made it harder to slice. June was playing with her teddy bear in the corner of the kitchen. They both looked up when they heard the door open.
‘Terry! I didn’t expect you home for lunch.’ Linda wiped her hands on her apron. ‘Shall I make you a sandwich too? We were just about to have ours, weren’t we, June?’
Terry stepped around the table and kissed his wife. She had hardly changed since he’d first met her – still smart and pretty enough to turn all the men’s heads, and you wouldn’t think she’d had a kid to look at her figure. She kept herself well and he liked that in a woman. He was the envy of his mates and that was no bad thing either.
‘Can’t stop for long,’ he said. ‘I just needed to pick something up. But it gives me a chance to see my little princess.’ He bent down to June’s level and gave her a quick hug. June giggled in delight.
‘Not like you to forget anything,’ Linda commented, stacking the slices and reaching for the butter. ‘There’s nothing wrong, is there?’ She tried not to imagine what it could be. She prided herself on being sensible but she knew if anything happened to Terry’s job driving the lorries, the whole respectable life they’d built for themselves away from Battersea would crumble. She didn’t intend to allow that.
Terry ran his hand through his dark blond wavy hair. There was no doubt where June got her looks from – they had the same colouring, down to the bright blue eyes. Terry was well aware of his physical appearance but he only had eyes for Linda. He’d seen the mess some of his mates had got into over women – that wasn’t for him. The two of them made a strong team and he was about to be in a position where he could make it even stronger.
‘Nothing’s wrong at all,’ he said easily. ‘They still think I’m the bee’s knees at the depot. But I might be able to do a bit extra. How do you like the sound of that?’
‘Will it mean you being away more?’ Linda hated it when Terry had to travel long distances. ‘You know June likes you here at her bedtime. You have to think of things like that.’
‘No, it’s all local,’ Terry assured her. ‘One of the benefits of living in Kent is so much is on your doorstep. Some extra goods might come up that need looking after and transporting.’
‘Looking after?’
‘They might not be suitable for the usual warehouse,’ Terry tried to explain without actually giving away too much. He scanned the shelves for the packet he’d forgotten to take into work that morning and reached over to pick it up, but there was no escaping Linda’s questions.
‘So where would they go? What are we talking about?’
Terry knew he had to proceed carefully. One of the things he loved about Linda was she was so quick on the uptake, but at moments like this it made everything more difficult. He didn’t want to lie – she always knew when he was lying and it made things worse. But what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
‘We’re talking about a few boxes,’ he said. ‘I reckon they could go in our shed. They wouldn’t be there long and they wouldn’t be in your way. You wouldn’t even know they were there.’
‘Except if I needed to go into the shed.’
‘But you hardly ever do. You leave this to me. It’s all work, nothing to do with you.’
‘Boxes of what? June, why don’t you take Teddy and make him wash his hands before lunch?’ Linda was proud of the fact they had an upstairs bathroom but now she was extra thankful as she didn’t want the little girl
