The Shop Girls of Chapel Street by Jenny Holmes Page B

scattered pins from the rug. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to stay out of your way from now on, Uncle Donald.’
    â€˜Good job too,’ he said, taken aback by her sudden capitulation.
    â€˜It’ll be best for both of us.’ Her heart felt sore and her head was in a spin as one by one she put the pins back in their box and Donald slammed the door behind him.
    â€˜I thought you’d be pleased.’ Muriel studied Violet’s sad expression when the younger girl called in at Jubilee to collect some mending work during her dinner break next day. ‘According to Ida, this is what you’ve been hankering after – sewing more zips and hems, and such like.’
    â€˜It is.’ Violet tried to put on a cheerful front, though she’d slept badly and she still felt unhappy after the argument with her uncle. ‘I’ll do a good job, I promise.’
    â€˜Have you got time for a cuppa?’ the older woman asked, coming out from behind her counter.
    Just being in the shop raised Violet’s spirits – surrounded by cards of lace trim, rayon undergarments, racks of embroidery thread, calfskin gloves and packets of silk stockings, she felt in her element. ‘Yes, please. I’ve got fifteen minutes before Mr Hutchinson sends out the troops.’
    â€˜Tea and biscuits, it is.’ Fashionably neat in her straight grey skirt and a fitted lilac top, with grey leather shoes that had a small heel and a bar across the front, Muriel led the way into a small kitchen at the back of the shop. ‘Ida’s out getting her hair cut at the new hairdresser’s on Canal Road, but I can nip through to serve a customer if I hear the shop bell ring.’
    â€˜How’s she having it done?’
    â€˜Shorter, in an Eton crop. You know Ida – she’s daring in that respect.’
    â€˜It’ll suit her,’ Violet predicted. Sitting down to accept her cup of tea, she was startled to feel tears well up and trickle down her cheeks before she could stop them.
    â€˜Oh, love, what is it?’ Muriel asked.
    â€˜I’m sorry, I haven’t got a hankie.’
    â€˜Take mine.’ Muriel’s handkerchief was edged with lace, with a blue flower embroidered in one corner. She gave it to her then rested a hand on Violet’s shoulder. ‘What’s the trouble? Would you like to let me in on it?’
    â€˜It’s Uncle Donald,’ Violet sobbed. ‘I don’t know what’s got into him ever since Aunty Winnie died. He’s shut his barber’s shop and now we’re struggling to find the rent. He’s coming down on me like a ton of bricks, saying I belong in the gutter and I don’t know what else.’ Her troubles poured out until at last she blew her nose and pulled herself together. ‘I’m sorry, it’s just that I don’t have anyone to turn to.’
    Muriel nodded. ‘I know. It can be a lonely life without brothers and sisters. I look at the Briggs girls and what they’ve been through, especially Margie when she had her baby and there was no father in the picture. That was a bad time for the poor girl – she went to ground at her granddad’s house on Ada Street and for a time things looked bleak. But it all turned out perfectly well because she had Lily and Evie to help her. Now Margie is nicely set up in an office job and her little girl is happy playing all day with Lily and Annie’s bairns. That’s what having a big family does – it pulls you through the hard times.’
    Violet blew her nose a second time. ‘If I worked in a mill, it might be different. I’d make friends with the other girls, there’d be a big gang to pal up with and go dancing with at a weekend. I sometimes think that’s what I should do – get a job at Calvert’s or Kingsley’s.’
    â€˜No, don’t do that,’ Muriel advised. Like Sybil, she was all too