Free Pure as the Lily by Catherine Cookson

comes.” In the kitchen she hurriedly gave her father the half—crown and Jimmy the sixpence, and Alee, walking with her to the top of the stairs, asked, “What is it, lass?” Turning to him, her face straight, she said under her breath, “She’s got a surprise coming to her, me ma.
    Mr. Tollett wants me to stay on, he doesn’t want her back.”
    “He doesn’t!”
    She was about to run down the stairs but was checked by the look of consternation on her father’s face.
    Slowly Alee said, more to himself than to her, That’ll put the kibosh on it, it’ll break her up. “ She had thought her da would have been pleased at the news, but apparently he wasn’t.
    “But you wouldn’t want to stay on in service, lass, if you could get something better, would you?” he said.
    “It isn’t like service. Da, it’s like a holiday there, I like it.” wa. absent-minded movement he pushed her gently Ads the stairs, saying, “Go on; we’ll talk about it A. “

    / In the shop she went straight behind the counter. Ben had just finished serving a customer, and as the woman left the shop he looked at Mary and said, “Now you’re sure you can manage?”
    “Yes, of course. I’ve done it afore, I mean serve.”
    “Yes, but Friday night’s different. Towards nine you’ll be getting some of those scroungers in at the last minute. But remember what I told you, no tick, not a pen north to the Mulhattans, the Fawcetts, the MacMullens and the Romneys. If they see me going out you’ll bet your life they’ll be in here like a swarm of ants. But particularly kept a lookout for Hannah, Hannah Mulhattan. Don’t let her talk you round, because she’s got a voice like best butter. She still owes me four pounds ten. It was six pounds, and I wouldn’t really have minded it being eight if she had continued to bring her custom, but when she owed me three weeks’ bills and she walked down to Shields with her pay packet on a Friday night and never showed her face, and had the nerve to come in the following week....” He laughed now and, thumbing the counter, went on, “She put thirty shillings down there and in her smooth Irish way said, “ Will you take thirty shillings, Ben? “ Of course I said, “ Yes, and pleased to, Mrs. Mulhattan. “ And I took the thirty shillings, and I got her bill out and I said, “ Now that’ll leave four pounds ten between us.
    “ I said it just the way she says it, you know?”
    “I know.” Mary laughed at him.
    “Well, then she said to me “ Can I have a few things in me basket? “ and I bent over, just like this’—he now demonstrated ‘and I said, “ Mrs.
    Mulhattan, you can have your basket full to the brim and running over as soon as you pay me the four pounds ten. “ Well, I can’t go on and tell you, Mary, what she said to me after that because you’d be so shocked you’d pick up your skirts and fly up the street.”
    “Oh, Mr. Tollett!” She laughed and tapped her hand
    against his arm, then said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be up to her, and the rest. That’s Mrs. Mulhattan, Mrs.
    Fawcett, Mrs. Mac Mullen and Mrs.
    Romney? “
    “Yes, that’s them. Anyway, I’ll go out the back way; the van’s in the lane, and I might escape their notice.”
    Half an hour later she was in the middle of serving a customer when she heard his call from the storeroom:
    “Mary, just a minute.” And she called back: “Be there in a tick, Mr.
    Tollett. “
    In the storeroom she stopped and stared at him and her mouth fell into a slight gape. He looked different. She hadn’t seen him dressed like this. He had gone out on a Wednesday dressed up, but then he had just had an ordinary suit on. Now he was wearing a dark grey suit that fitted him perfectly, a white shirt with a stiff collar and a grey tie. His shoes were black and shiny, and hanging loosely around his neck was a white silk scarf. And he tucked this in as he put on a black overcoat.

    She wanted to say “Eeh! you look grand.”