by Anna Jacobs
Todd whistled softly. He wasn’t sure Jo understood how much trouble she could get into by mixing with people like this Moira. Respectable people might suspect Jo’s morals, too, as Rathley already had. He didn’t think she had an immoral bone in her body, she had such a frank, open face, but some folk seemed to look for faults in others.
‘We’d better help you find out about her, then, Jo. There are only a few streets in Backshaw Moss but there are a lot of families crammed into one room each and some rough types, as well as people down on their luck.’
Nick chimed in. ‘I drove through it when I was checking out the valley, looking for places for beginners to practise their driving in safety. I drove straight out again. Apart from anything else, there’s a strong smell of sewage at the far end of it. I was surprised the council hadn’t done something about that.’
‘Well, if it isn’t a big place, it won’t take us long to look round it for my family, will it, and we won’t have to put up with the smell for long?’
‘We also need to discuss what’s needed in our two offices, see if you fancy working here for a while. Are you sure you’re up to discussing that after your upset today?’ Todd studied her, but apart from the bruise her face was rosy and her eyes bright.
‘Oh, yes. I’m feeling myself again now that I’ve tidied myself up and had a cuppa. I’d enjoy sorting out your offices.’
‘Do you always decide to do things so quickly?’ Nick asked.
‘If it feels right, yes. Why not?’
‘How do you know you’ll be safe working for us?’
‘Well, Nick, for a start, you rescued me and then—’ She broke off and shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I just feel Todd’s a decent chap. Most people’s character shows in their faces, don’t you think? I met a lot of people when I worked in Perth, and got used to making judgements … about men particularly. They were usually polite enough, but some of them weren’t used to seeing a woman dealing with accounts and didn’t think I could be capable, so they treated me as if I was stupid, talking slowly and more loudly than usual. There were only a few men who looked at me in that horrible way and I soon set them straight, I can tell you. I won’t put up with that sort of treatment.’
Todd would have loved to be a fly on the wall when she was setting a man straight! He opened his mouth to speak but just then someone tapped on the front door, so as he was nearest, he got up to see who it was. He found a shabbily dressed man of roughly his own age standing there. ‘Can I help you?’
‘I was told there’s a driving school starting up here.’
‘Mr Howarth is the one setting it up. You’ll need to talk to him.’ He turned and called out, ‘Nick. It’s for you, about the driving school.’
‘Coming.’
But he saw Nick hesitate in the doorway, turning back to Jo. ‘Will you be all right if I deal with this before I take you back?’
Her voice rang out clearly. ‘No worries. I’ll be quite safe in the kitchen.’
Someone yelled ‘Shop!’ from the front yard, so Todd looked out of the front door and yelled back to his friends, ‘Looks like I’ve got someone wanting to look at cars.’ Then he bellowed out to the customer. ‘Just a minute, sir.’
Glancing at his modern wristwatch, he strode down the corridor to say to Jo, ‘I can chat to you about helping out in the office after I’ve seen this client, if you don’t mind waiting.’
‘I’ll be all right.’ She grinned. ‘Go and sell him a car.’
Jo watched Todd go and muttered, ‘I wish I had a car here. I’d be able to do so much more, and I’d be safer, too.’
‘You can drive, then?’ Nick asked.
‘Yes, of course. Aussie kids who live in the country often learn to drive as soon as they can reach the pedals. The younger ones stay on their own land, of course. They’re not allowed on the road.’ She grinned at him. ‘Well, mostly they stay on their own land. When I came home to look after Dad, I drove his car all over the place, so I had a lot of practice. My stepmother thought it was scandalous driving around on my own. She wanted to hire a chauffeur.’
‘Is there no end to the things you can do?’
She shrugged, then looked towards the front door. ‘Go and find out what that poor man wants. He’s waiting so patiently. I’ll see if I can squeeze another cup of tea out of the pot. You and I can talk afterwards. There’s even a newspaper I can read while I wait. After all, I’ve nowhere else to go.’
That sad little remark made him want to hug her, but she made a shooing motion with one hand, so he went to see what the man wanted, taking him into his office. ‘Sorry to keep you waiting. Please take a seat. Did you want to book a driving lesson?’ The man didn’t look affluent enough to be able to afford that, not in his experience anyway, but you could never be certain.
His visitor took a deep breath, as if nervous. ‘No, Mr Howarth. I wanted to ask whether there’s any chance of a job. I used to teach men to drive in the army, you see, everything from cars to big lorries. I enjoyed doing it, too. There wouldn’t be as many accidents if people knew how to obey the rules of the road.’
‘I agree. Unfortunately I’m only just starting up, so I don’t even have enough clients to fill my own days yet. There may be a job later on, though. You could ask again in a few weeks.’
‘I can tell you about myself now and write down where I live. For future reference. Just in case. Um, if you don’t mind.’
Nick saw even the faint trace of hope fading from his companion’s face and felt sorry for him. He knew how desperate men could be about even the slightest chance of a job, so he said, ‘All right. Good idea. We’ll do that.’ He wrote down the man’s name and address on an office card and repeated the name. ‘Silas Johnson. Right. I won’t forget you if anything crops up, lad.’
He weighed down the card with the inkwell. ‘We have a clerk starting soon, so she can file this.’
Then something occurred to him and he studied Silas once again. As Jo had said, you could tell a lot from someone’s face and this man met his eyes with a direct gaze and held himself upright, every inch an old soldier. ‘You look as if you know how to handle yourself if it comes to a fight.’
‘Well, yes. Those of us who’ve been through the trenches don’t forget how to fight.’
‘I have another job you might be interested in, though it’s only temporary.’
Silas leaned forward eagerly. ‘Oh yes?’
‘The young lady you saw in the kitchen has been attacked. She’s a visitor, isn’t staying in the valley for long, but I wouldn’t mind finding someone to keep an eye on her for the next two weeks. I can’t do it myself because I’ll be out and about giving driving lessons. And also Todd may have the odd job for you in his workshop as well if you know anything about cars.’
‘I do know a fair bit about motors!’ The desperate gulp the man gave made Nick forget his vow not to spend a penny he didn’t need to. He intended to make sure Jo stayed safe and it’d help this poor chap as well. Well worth it.
And anyway, two weeks’ wages as a bodyguard wouldn’t break his own bank. He’d lived with his brother and family and been very careful with his money over the past few years.
14
J o didn’t intend to eavesdrop but the sounds from the front office echoed down the hall to the kitchen and whoever Nick was talking to had a rather loud voice.
She quickly realised that he was trying to protect her by providing a bodyguard at his own expense. How kind of him!
It wouldn’t cost a lot, because you could hire help cheaply in bad times and she wasn’t staying here long, but Nick didn’t look as if he had much money to spare, given the clothes he was wearing, and she had plenty. And of course, he’d have a lot of expenses starting up his business, however careful he was.
Should she intervene?
Yes, of course she should. She wasn’t going to let him spend his money on her. But he was right. It would be a good idea to hire a bodyguard until she left. She’d hated feeling
helpless when the two men attacked her. She didn’t intend to give in to threats and run away like a frightened animal, but as a stranger she didn’t know the valley and could quickly run into trouble, as she’d already proved.
She gave a nod, drained the last mouthful of tea and marched along the hall to the front of the building to confront the two men.
They turned to look at her as she stopped in the office doorway. ‘Excuse me, but I couldn’t help hearing what you were saying because words echo down the hall. You’re talking about paying this man to protect me, Nick. Shouldn’t you have discussed that with me first?’
‘Sorry. I only just got the idea. But we do need to make sure you’re not on your own when you go out and about, and I can’t see an energetic woman like you sitting indoors for hours on end waiting for me or Todd to escort you around when we have a little time to spare.’
She couldn’t help smiling at the very idea. ‘You’re right. I’d go mad. But I’d rather pay for the necessary protection myself. Silas, isn’t it? I’m Jo, short for Josephine.’ She held her hand out to the stranger and he hesitated briefly before shaking it.
‘Pleased to meet you, miss.’
‘Call me Jo. Us Aussies prefer to be on first-name terms.’
‘You’re Australian?’
‘Yes.’
‘One of my mates went out there after the war on something called a group settlement scheme. They gave former soldiers land. Eh, I’d have liked to go too, but my mam was getting old and there was no one else but me to look after her.’
‘Well, she’d naturally come first, wouldn’t she? Good on you for doing it. But Australia’s a great country and it’s not going anywhere. Maybe you’ll still get there one day. Now, back to the present.’ She turned to Nick and repeated, ‘It is a good idea but I’ll pay Silas’s wages myself.’
He opened his mouth to protest but she folded her arms and gave him a determined look and he spread his hands out in a gesture of surrender.
‘As you please. But you will do this, won’t you?’
‘Yes. I can afford it, if that’s what you were worrying about. And what better to spend my money on than my own safety in a strange town?’ She turned back to Silas. ‘Is that all right with you, working for a woman, I mean, not to mention spending all day trailing round with me?’
‘I don’t care who I work for or what I do, as long as it’s honest.’
‘Good. You look like someone I can trust, so you’re hired. Mind you, it’ll only be for two weeks, possibly three.’
His whole bearing suddenly seemed more upright, his eyes brighter. ‘Yes, miss, I mean Jo. Mr Howarth told me that. Um, I ought to know your surname as well, don’t you think?’
‘It’s Melling. Now let’s go over what I’ll need you to do. I’m going to be doing some office work for Mr Howarth and Mr Selby, so I’ll want you to walk here with me from my lodgings in the mornings and escort me back there in the evenings, then I’m afraid you’ll have to hang around for most of the day. When I need to go out, you’ll go with me – unless I’m with other people I trust, like Nick here, in which case there may be something you can do to help Todd in the workshop.’
‘That seems clear enough. Do you know who wants to hurt you?’
‘I think it’s a man called Rathley. I can’t prove it, but I don’t see how it can be anyone else.’
His expression changed immediately to a dark scowl. ‘Then I wish I could afford to do this job without charge, miss, because that man has caused a lot of trouble for a good friend of mine.’
‘If I can help your friend in any way, let me know.’
‘There’s a group of us keeping an eye on him, don’t worry. We all go to the job club in Ellindale when we’ve no work. And that’s another thing: Rathley’s told everyone the job club is a waste of the town’s money and he’s tried to get it closed down, only Mr Carlisle owns the old house we use and the council doesn’t have any power to close it down unless they can prove it’s in a dangerous condition. Well, it isn’t. Us lads have seen to that.’
‘Good for you.’
‘It’s been a life-saver for us, that job club. It cheers people up to have somewhere to go, and we can learn new skills there as well.’
‘Sounds like an excellent idea. You must tell me more about it when we’re working together.’
Nick heard Todd’s customer calling goodbye outside, so moved forward. ‘Why don’t you wait in the kitchen, Silas, while Todd and I have a chat with Jo about how she can help us in the office? Was there any tea left in the pot, Jo? Not for me, but for our friend here.’
‘If you don’t mind it being lukewarm.’
‘I don’t mind it stone cold,’ Silas said frankly. ‘It still bucks you up, tea does.’
‘Well, it’s only going to get thrown away, so drink as much as you want. There’s milk and sugar on the table. There’s plenty of that.’
They watched him walk down the hall.
‘I like him,’ she said. ‘Good idea of yours.’
‘I like the fact that he’s a strong chap, an ex-soldier who knows how to fight.’
There was no arguing with that.
When the three of them were seated in Todd’s office, he took charge. ‘Tell us about the work you did in Australia, Jo, so that we can figure out the best way for you to help us.’
She explained what sort of tasks she’d done and it soon became clear how familiar she was with office work, not only with keeping accounts but with the many other tasks involved. In fact, she knew far more than they did about it.
‘Did you enjoy that sort of work?’ Nick asked. ‘I’m not at all fond of doing accounts, myself.’
‘Yes, I did – well, mostly. I’m good with figures. Is there any job on earth that doesn’t have some boring parts to it, though?’
‘Like tidying your desk.’ Todd shot a rueful glance at his desk and the rickety old table next to it, both covered with untidy piles of papers, as well as odd pencils, a big bottle of ink, something lumpy wrapped in brown paper and a spanner he’d been using when he ran to answer the phone earlier.
‘Aha!’ He picked the spanner up and put it more prominently on the main desk so that he wouldn’t forget it. ‘I’ve been looking for that all over the workshop. I reckon the first thing you’d need to do for me here is tidy up and organise places to put things.’
‘I can do that easily enough, though you’ll need to buy a tall cupboard and a filing cabinet because I can’t very well stack things on the floor, can I?’ She turned to Nick. ‘What sort of help would you need?’
‘I’m not as untidy as Todd, I promise you, but I haven’t even started to buy equipment for my office yet. Well, you’ve seen it. Practically nothing in there. I’ll need account books and stationery, and I think I’ll need a cupboard as well, but maybe we can buy a second-hand one, eh? The old table can continue to serve as a desk, if you don’t need it back, Todd?’
‘Good heavens, no. Though you may want to do something to even up the legs so that it doesn’t wobble.’
‘I can easily do that.’ He turned back to Jo. ‘I had someone wanting driving lessons before I’d really got going, you see, or I’d have at least made a start on the office before now.’
The two men looked at her so hopefully, she was reminded of two little birds waiting to be fed and couldn’t help laughing. ‘Leave it to me. I can do all that for you. I know what’s usually needed and it can’t be all that different here in England. Silas can come with me. He’ll probably know where I should go to buy what’s necessary.’
The men exchanged glances as if a question had been asked and nodded.
‘You’re hired, then,’ Todd said.
‘Thank you.’
‘Er – just one thing, Jo: how much should we pay you?’
‘You’re asking me ? How do I know what’s the going wage here? The only thing is, I’d want the same as you’d pay a male clerk. I don’t see why women get paid so much less for doing the same work.�
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Nick looked at her in surprise. ‘I’ve never heard a woman say that before.’
‘Well, you have now. Single women have just as many living expenses as single men yet people pay them about half the wages. That’s not fair. It took me a while to find a job where someone would pay me the same as a man doing that work, but my boss in Australia had just had a man mess up his accounts and orders, and he said if I could do it better, he’d pay me the same. He didn’t think I would, just said it to shut me up, but when I proved myself he kept his word.’
Todd smiled. ‘Fair enough. How about four pounds a week? No, if you’re paying Silas to go about with you, we should contribute to that as well, because half the time you’ll be on our business.’
‘All right. It’s only for two weeks, so we won’t argue. I’ll make sure you get good value for your money and I’m sure Silas will help out with anything he can here, rather than just sitting around watching me.’
‘We’ll need to make sure you have enough cash on hand to buy office supplies,’ Nick put in.
‘Petty cash, yes, for small items like post. But if there’s a shop selling office stationery, maybe we’d better set up accounts for both of your businesses to buy there. Have you got all your bookwork started, Todd? You’ve been going a while, haven’t you?’
‘Um, yes. I have an account set up at Dyson’s already – that’s the name of the stationer’s in town. I haven’t kept up with the bookwork very well, I’m afraid. I have kept all my receipts, at least. Leah’s been nagging me about sorting it out.’
‘Good. I can do that for you. When do you want me to start work? I’d still like to go looking for my relatives tomorrow morning, if you don’t mind.’
‘You can start officially tomorrow afternoon, then. Now, let’s get you home again. I’m ready for my tea, even if you aren’t.’ Todd turned to Nick. ‘Can you drive Jo back to her lodgings?’
‘Of course.’
‘And you’d better take Silas with you, too, so that he knows where to go and they know who he is. I’ll lock up here.’