A Woman’s Fortune. Josephine Cox

pretty,’ said Frederick, looking at Jeanie, who gazed straight back at him, smiling.

      ‘And she can make up a pair of curtains in no time.’

      ‘She sounds very special, your grandmother,’ Frederick said, handing round the china cups and saucers and taking up the mug of tea himself. ‘And are you both going to work with her?’ He looked at Jeanie when he asked this but it was Evie who answered.

      ‘Oh, yes. Grandma wouldn’t have it any other way,’ she prattled on. ‘She’s a great one for family sticking together.’

      ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about that,’ said Jeanie quietly but firmly. ‘It’s you and Grandma who have the eye and the patience for sewing. I never helped with the mending in Shenty Street. I reckon you could get on fine without me.’ She ignored Evie’s open mouth of astonishment. ‘What I was wondering, Frederick, was if you think Mrs Summers has left for good and whether you are in need of a cleaner? Or …’ she looked around and then back to him with her pretty smile, ‘… a housekeeper?’

      Frederick began laughing quietly.

      What on earth was funny? And what was Mum on about? Evie felt her heart thumping loudly. Starting the sewing business had been decided, hadn’t it? She looked from her mother to Frederick Bailey and suddenly felt something was happening here that she didn’t understand.

      Jeanie was standing waiting quite calmly for him to answer her.

      ‘A housekeeper … Do you know, Jeanie, I think you’d be quite perfect,’ he said eventually.

      ‘But, Mum, what about the sewing?’ Evie didn’t want to question her mother in front of Mr Bailey but she had to say something before it was too late. ‘It was going to be the three of us working together, same as in Shenty Street,’ she reminded her, her voice almost pleading. Where had this new idea come from? It wasn’t part of the plan at all. And what would Grandma Sue have to say?

      ‘Well, Evie, we’re not in Shenty Street any more. It’s different now,’ Jeanie said. Though she spoke quietly her tone was very sure. She smiled at their new landlord to show there was no criticism in her words and then looked around at the pile of unwashed dishes, the newspapers strewn across the kitchen table and the loaf of bread left out drying among a pile of crumbs.

      ‘You’ve grasped the situation precisely,’ Frederick replied, sounding delighted. ‘When were you thinking of starting?’

      ‘Tomorrow – would that suit you? Shall I do mornings and see how we get on?’

      Evie gasped. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Even Grandma Sue didn’t take the lead like that without discussing things first.

      ‘But, Mum—’ she started.

      ‘I don’t doubt we’ll get on brilliantly, Jeanie,’ said Frederick, extending his hand to shake hers.

      ‘So what happened then?’ asked Sue, pouring cups of tea to wash down their lunchtime sandwiches. Michael had returned to Clackett’s for the afternoon, pleased with the news of the low rent and his wife’s new job, and the boys had gone out to play somewhere.

      Jeanie and Evie were telling Sue more about their morning in Redmond. The way her mother recounted the events once she and Evie had entered Frederick Bailey’s house lacked some detail; so much so that Evie thought it was just one version of the meeting with their landlord and she might have told it in altogether another way. Nonetheless, it was a sort of truth.

      ‘He showed us round the house so that I could see exactly how much work it’s going to be. He’s an art and antiques dealer – buys and sells old things like paintings and ornaments, pretty but useless – and the house is full of the stuff. It’s everywhere and it all needs to be dusted. He says some of it is quite valuable and I’m to be careful.’