Free Anne Douglas by The Wardens Daughters

quite a few were interviewed this morning, but there were several women with me this afternoon.’ Monnie sighed. ‘They’ll be feeling disappointed, eh? There’s so little going in the job line. I reckon I’ve been lucky.’
    ‘Not lucky,’ Lynette said firmly. ‘You were the best. Come on, let’s order tea and cakes before the bus goes. Dad’ll be dying to hear how you got on.’
    ‘Your turn next, Lynette. You were right about me, you’ll be right about yourself.’
    Lynette, selecting a pastry from the cake stand the waitress brought, dabbed sugar from her fingers. ‘Hope so. I want to earn some money and as quickly as possible. The last thing I want is to be a drain on Dad.’
    ‘My feelings, too. He’s so happy here, eh?’
    ‘Early days, though.’
    ‘But we can be happy, too, can’t we? I feel better about it, now that I know what it’s like.’
    ‘And now, of course, you’ve got your job.’
    ‘As I said, your turn next.’
    Lynette poured more tea and raised her cup. ‘And I’ll drink to that.’
    ‘Here’s to us,’ Monnie said happily and as the girls chinked teacups, they collapsed into laughter, before paying the bill and once again running for the bus.

Thirteen
    Friday was a lovely day.
    There was Frank bustling around, like a dog with two tails, as he put it, because Monnie had been successful and would be working with him. There was Lynette, deciding what to wear with her red suit for her interview – the cream shirt, or the black? The black one was very striking and would go with her bag and shoes, but then might not hit the right note with the manager, he, of course, being an unknown quantity. So, why not just wear her plain white blouse and look smart, but demure?
    And then there was Monnie, booking in new arrivals, making it clear what they could and couldn’t do, handing out bus timetables and leaflets about the local area, while appearing every inch the assistant warden, though she wasn’t due to start work for a fortnight. All the time simmering inside, of course, with that strange excitement which no one knew about, but would be with her, she knew, until the evening. When the fisherman called.
    Early in the afternoon, Jeannie Duthie, the cleaning lady, arrived for another battle with all that needed doing at the hostel, and, oh, yes, Monnie could see what Lynette had meant about her. ‘Not the size of a sixpence, but fizzing with energy like a bottle of pop.’ Yes, that was Mrs Duthie, flying round the house with her mop and dusters, clicking her tongue over the way the young hostellers had left their dormitories, flinging open windows, pushing furniture around, and sweeping down the staircase like a minor hurricane. Until Monnie called up that there was a cup of tea ready in the warden’s kitchen.
    ‘Well I will not be saying no,’ Mrs Duthie remarked, washing her hands at the sink and drying them as though her life depended on it. ‘Tis nice to take a break, then.’
    Sitting at the table, her raw little hands grasping her cup, she was only partly at rest for her dark brown eyes were busy, moving from Lynette who was now pressing the skirt of her red suit, to Monnie, who was taking shortbread from a tin.
    ‘Sisters, eh?’ she said, after her scrutiny. ‘One fair, one dark, but still alike. And come up to the Highlands to be with your dad? Very nice, that is, but what are you young ladies going to be doing, then?’
    ‘I’ve just been made assistant warden,’ Monnie told her, offering the biscuits. ‘I’ll be helping my father.’
    ‘Is that right?’ Mrs Duthie bit hard on her shortbread. ‘That is a very fine thing to be doing, then.’ Her eyes moved back to Lynette. ‘And are you looking for a job too, my dear? There’s little enough round here.’
    Monnie, watching, knew that Lynette was not taking kindly to the interrogation, but she replied politely enough that she was trying for a post as receptionist at the Talisman Hotel.
    ‘At the Talisman?