The cottages belonged to my father and I’ve taken them over for a year or two. I’m fully booked for the season.’
She crossed one elegantly shod foot over the other. ‘Week’s notice on either side?’
‘I live here,’ said Emma, ‘and I need a job. I’d like to come if you are satisfied with my references.’
‘Please yourself, though I’d be glad to take you on. It isn’t a job that appeals to the girls around here.’
It didn’t appeal all that much to Emma, but sixty pounds a week did…
She gave her references once more, and was told she’d be told in two days’ time. ‘If I take you on you’ll need to be shown round. There’s another girl cleans the other two cottages across the road.’
Emma went home, got the lunch and listened to her mother’s account of her morning with Mrs Craig. ‘She has asked me to go to the hotel one afternoon for a rubber of bridge.’ She hesitated. ‘They play for money—quite small stakes…’
‘Well,’ said Emma, ‘you’re good at the game, aren’t you? I dare say you won’t be out of pocket. Nice to have found a friend, and I’m sure you’ll make more once the season starts.’
Two days later there was a note in the post. Her references for the cleaning job were satisfactory, she could begin work on the following Saturday and in the meantime call that morning to be shown her work. It was signed Dulcie Brooke-Tigh. Emma considered that the name suited the lady very well.
She went to the library that afternoon and Miss Johnson told her unsmilingly that her references were satisfactory and she could start work on Tuesday. ‘A week’s notice and you will be paid each Thursday evening.’
Emma, walking on air, laid out rather more money than she should have done at the butchers, and on Sunday went to church with her mother and said her prayers with childlike gratitude.
The cleaning job was going to be hard work. Mrs Brooke-Tigh, for all her languid appearance, was a hard-headed businesswoman, intent on making money. There was enough work for two people in the cottages, but as long as she could get a girl anxious for the job she wasn’t bothered. She had led Emma round the two cottages she would be responsible for, told her to start work punctually and then had gone back into her own cottage and shut the door. She didn’t like living at Salcombe, but the holiday cottages were money-spinners…
The library was surprisingly full when Emma, punctual to the minute, presented herself at the desk.
Miss Johnson wasted no time on friendly chat. ‘Phoebe will show you the shelves, then come back here and I will show you how to stamp the books. If I am busy take that trolley of returned books and put them back on the shelves. And do it carefully; I will not tolerate slovenly work.’
Which wasn’t very encouraging, but Phoebe’s cheerful wink was friendly. The work wasn’t difficult or tiring, and Emma, who loved books, found the three hours had passed almost too quickly. And Miss Johnson, despite her austere goodnight, had not complained.
Emma went back to the cottage to eat a late supper and then sit down to do her sums. Her mother had her pension, of course, and that plus the money from the two jobs would suffice to keep them in tolerable comfort. There wouldn’t be much over, but they had the kind of expensive, understated clothes which would last for several years…She explained it all to her mother, who told her rather impatiently to take over their finances. ‘I quite realise that I must give up some of my pension, dear, but I suppose I may have enough for the hairdresser and small expenses?’
Emma did some sums in her head and offered a generous slice of the pension—more than she could spare. But her mother’s happiness and peace of mind were her first concern; after years of living in comfort, and being used to having everything she wanted within reason, she could hardly be expected to adapt easily to their more frugal way of living.
On Saturday morning she went to the cottages. She had told her mother that she had two jobs, glossing over the cleaning and enlarging on the library, and, since Mrs Dawson was meeting Mrs Craig for coffee, Emma had said that she would do the shopping and that her mother wasn’t to wait lunch if she wasn’t home.
She had known it was going to be hard work and it was, for the previous week’s tenants had made no effort to leave the cottage tidy, let alone clean. Emma cleaned and scoured, then Hoovered and made beds and tidied cupboards, cleaned the cooker and the bath, and at the end of it was rewarded by Mrs Brooke-Tigh’s nod of approval and, even better than that, the tip she had found in the bedroom—a small sum, but it swelled the thirty pounds she was paid as she left.
‘Wednesday at ten o’clock,’ said Mrs Brooke-Tigh.
Emma walked down the lane with the girl who cleaned the other two cottages.
‘Mean old bag,’ said the girl. ‘Doesn’t even give us a cup of coffee. Think you’ll stay?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Emma.
The future, while not rosy, promised security just so long as people like Mrs Brooke-Tigh needed her services.
When she got home her mother told her that Mrs Craig had met a friend while they were having their coffee and they had gone to the little restaurant behind the boutique and had lunch. ‘I was a guest, dear, and I must say I enjoyed myself.’ She smiled. ‘I seem to be making friends. You must do the same, dear.’
Emma said, ‘Yes, Mother,’ and wondered if she would have time to look for friends. Young women of her own age? Men? The thought crossed her mind that the only person she would like to see again was the man in the baker’s shop.
CHAPTER TWO
EMMA welcomed the quiet of Sunday. It had been a busy week, with its doubts and worries and the uncertainty of coping with her jobs. But she had managed. There was money in the household purse and she would soon do even better. She went with her mother to church and was glad to see that one or two of the ladies in the congregation smiled their good mornings to her mother. If her mother could settle down and have the social life she had always enjoyed things would be a lot easier. I might even join some kind of evening classes during the winter, thought Emma, and meet people…
She spent Monday cleaning the cottage, shopping and hanging the wash in the little back yard, while her mother went to the library to choose a book. On the way back she had stopped to look at the shops and found a charming little scarf, just what she needed to cheer up her grey dress. ‘It was rather more than I wanted to spend, dear,’ she explained, ‘but exactly what I like, and I get my pension on Thursday…’
The library was half empty when Emma got there on Tuesday evening.
‘WI meeting,’ said Miss Johnson. ‘There will be a rush after seven o’clock.’
She nodded to a trolley loaded with books. ‘Get those back onto the shelves as quickly as you can. Phoebe is looking up something for a visitor.’
Sure enough after an hour the library filled up with ladies from the WI, intent on finding something pleasant to read, and Emma, intent on doing her best, was surprised when Miss Johnson sent Phoebe to the doors to put up the ‘Closed’ sign and usher the dawdlers out.
Emma was on her knees, collecting up some books someone had dropped on the floor, when there was a sudden
