The Rainbow Years

by Bradshaw, Rita

  Amy stared at him, completely nonplussed. She should probably have expected such a basic question, she realised now, but her previous interview for the position of housemaid at Mrs Tollett’s guest house hadn’t prepared her for anything like this.The housekeeper there had directed all her conversation to Aunt May for a start, merely smiling at her now and again, and the woman had only been interested in when she was due to leave school and whether she could work without constant supervision, things like that.

  Amy cleared her throat. ‘I think it would be interesting meeting people all the time,’ she managed at last.

  The dark eyes stared at her for a moment. She wanted to look away but instinct told her not to.

  ‘I have your name and address here but no other details,’ Mr Callendar said after what seemed like a lifetime to her overwrought nerves. ‘Perhaps you’d like to tell me a little about yourself. Where you’re working now, for example.’

  Amy drew in a quick breath. He clearly thought she was older than she was so the new hairstyle had worked, but would he think her too young for the position once he knew the truth? But she couldn’t lie, he’d be bound to find out.

  ‘I’m not working,’ she said. ‘I mean not yet. I leave school at Easter.’

  ‘You leave school . . .’ His voice trailed away and his eyes widened. ‘How old are you, Miss Shawe?’

  ‘Fourteen.’

  ‘Fourteen?’ He leaned back in his chair and gave a chuck-ling laugh. Amy had the nasty feeling he was laughing at her. ‘Good grief, I thought you were at least sixteen or seventeen, ’ he said ruefully. ‘Girls these days ...’

  Amy found she didn’t like his tone, quite why she didn’t know. She straightened in the chair, her voice crisper as she said, ‘If I look older it’s probably because I put my hair up for the first time today. I thought it would be expected if I was to serve food.’ This wasn’t really true because it had only just occurred to her but in the circumstances she felt it was justified. ‘And I do have the offer of another job but I don’t want to take it unless I have to.’

  He moved his head backwards as though to see her better. After a moment or two he said, ‘Can I ask what this other job entails?’

  Her chin rose. ‘It’s working as a housemaid in a guest house.’

  His eyes moved over the gold-tinted brown curls and heart-shaped face. ‘Why did you apply for it if you didn’t really want it?’

  In for a penny, in for a pound. This wasn’t going at all as she’d hoped. ‘My aunt insisted,’ she said briefly. And then when the dark eyebrows rose in silent enquiry, she added, ‘I live with my aunt and uncle and they feel I should get a job rather than go to secondary school.The housemaid’s post was the only thing available, with jobs being so scarce at the moment, but I don’t want to go into service.’

  ‘Some would say waitressing is along the same lines.’ From the stories she’d heard from several girls she knew who were in service, this was plain ridiculous.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said firmly.

  He straightened in his chair, bringing his hands palm down on the desk. She waited for him to tell her she could leave now. Instead he said, ‘You live with your aunt and uncle, you say. Where are your parents?’

  She blinked. ‘They’re dead.’

  ‘I’m sorry. Was this recent?’

  She thought quickly. ‘My mother died when I was nearly two years old. My . . .’ she had to force herself to say the word, ‘father died before I was born, in the war.’ Which was true enough. ‘My uncle, my mother’s brother, took me into his home.’

  ‘No brothers or sisters?’

  She shook her head. ‘Just eight cousins,’ she said flatly.

  ‘I see.’What he saw, Amy wasn’t sure.Then he said,‘Perhaps that explains the air you have, an air that’s older than your years.’

  His tone now suggested he was trying to be nice and so she said, ‘Perhaps,’ and then waited.

  ‘You don’t smile much,’ he said suddenly.

  Again she blinked, remembering what the kind waitress downstairs in the café had said. But she wasn’t a clown who had to smile to order.The spirit of rebellion that had sprung up more than once lately - usually to her cost - flared. ‘I smile when there’s something to smile about,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Do you indeed.’

  A silence fell between them and he sat looking at her, a half smile bringing the corners of his mouth upwards as if he were amused. ‘Would my offering you the job be sufficient cause?’ he asked after long moments.

  Did he mean it? She stared at him uncertainly. ‘Is that what you’re doing?’ she asked hesitantly.

  He nodded. ‘If you can bring that elusive smile into play with my customers, that is.’

  She beamed at him. ‘Oh, I will, of course I will. Thank you, Mr Callendar.’

  ‘My manager, Mr Mallard, will tell you the conditions of employment and so on. Remuneration will be in accordance with age and experience, of course. Do you understand?’

  Amy nodded. ‘Thank you,’ she said again, although now she was thinking she should have asked what that would mean for her, considering she was on the very bottom rung of the ladder in every way.

  After turning and pressing a bell push set in the wall behind him, Mr Callendar stood and Amy rose too, taking the hand he proffered. His handshake was cool and firm and then, as though he had read her mind, he asked, ‘What wage do housemaids get these days?’

  ‘Eight shillings. At least that’s what I was going to be paid.’

  He smiled. ‘We can do better than that.’

  ‘Oh good!’ And then she blushed as he grinned. ‘I mean thank you,’ she added hastily. ‘My aunt wouldn’t have let me accept if it was below eight shillings.’

  ‘Is she waiting for you downstairs?’

  ‘My aunt? No, she doesn’t know I’m here. I’ve come with a friend, my mother’s friend,’ she qualified because it sounded better. ‘She’s doing some shopping and I’m meeting her later.’

  ‘Ah.’ There was a polite knock on the door to the office and Mr Callendar called, ‘Just a moment, Robin,’ before he said, ‘So do I take it I’ve been party to a spot of mutiny, albeit unintentionally?’

  He didn’t sound as if he minded and his eyes were lovely, all sort of twinkling. Amy gave her first totally natural smile since she had walked in the room.‘I’m afraid so, Mr Callendar.’

  ‘Good. I’ve always been something of a rebel myself.’ He moved from behind the desk and walked across the room with her. He opened the door and said to the manager,‘Come in a moment, Robin. I want a brief word,’ before turning to her to add, ‘If you’d like to wait downstairs, Miss Shawe, Mr Mallard will be down shortly.’

  ‘Oh aye, right, thank you.’ Flustered now, Amy almost forgot to add, ‘Mr Callendar,’ before she hurried past Mr Mallard and made her way back to the café. As she returned to her post between the rubber plants, the waitress who had spoken to her before passed, spinning on her heel when she noticed her.

  ‘How did you get on, lass?’

  ‘I’ve been offered a job.’ Amy knew she was grinning from ear to ear but she couldn’t help it.

  ‘I thought you would be with your looks. What do you think to our Mr Callendar then? Bit of all right, isn’t he?’

  A little taken aback, Amy nodded.

  ‘Word has it he came up north because his young wife died and he wanted to get right away from all the memories. ’ There followed a deep sigh. ‘Isn’t that romantic? Look, I’ve got to get on but I’ll see you when you start. When is that?’

  ‘What? Oh, I don’t know. At Easter, I suppose. I leave school then.’

  ‘You still at school?’ Wide brown eyes expressed their surprise. ‘I’d never have guessed.’ And then as the door at the rear opened and the manager walked through, the girl said, ‘I’m Verity, by the way. Bye for now,’ and she scurried away.

  By the time Amy met Kitty outside the Palace Theatre, she could hardly contain he
rself. ‘Ten shillings,’ she said jubilantly after she’d told Kitty she’d got the job. ‘Ten shillings plus any tips, although Mr Mallard says they aren’t much where I’ll be working in the café and tea room.’ She hadn’t cared for the manager. He was from the south the same as Mr Callendar, but unlike the owner he had seemed snooty and abrupt as he’d explained her duties. And if anyone should have been like that, surely it was Mr Callendar, him being rich and owning the place. She’d gained a distinct impression that Mr Mallard didn’t like the north or its people, especially when he had spoken of the meanness with the tips. It had been on the tip of her tongue to say that however bad things were down south, everyone knew the north was suffering more in the Depression.

  ‘Oh lass, that’s grand.’ Kitty smiled broadly at her. ‘I’ll say it now although I wouldn’t have done before, but your mam would have hated to see you go into service. She’ll be smiling down the day, sure enough. Pleased as punch, she’ll be. You know that, don’t you?’

  What Amy said was, ‘Oh, Aunt Kitty,’ and her voice was soft and full of deep affection. Whenever she was with her mother’s friend she felt as though her mam was nearer somehow.

  They gazed at each other for a moment and then Kitty cleared her throat and said fondly, ‘Pity you’ve got to get back, lass. I’d have loved to have treated you to a seat in here,’ she waved her hand at the cinema, ‘to celebrate. Remember when they brought in the talkies last year and we went to the first showing of Their Own Desire? Your Aunt May was pea green that one of me lasses at the laundry had a sister working as an usherette who helped with the tickets. Came down off her high horse enough to ask me for a favour then, didn’t she!’

  Amy nodded. Aunt Kitty was smiling about it but she could still recall the anger she’d felt when Aunt May had barely expressed her thanks once the tickets were in her hand. Her voice a little subdued now, she said, ‘I’d better get off home, Aunt Kitty, or I’ll be late for my dinner.’

  The interview and then the talk with Mr Mallard had taken longer than she had expected, and she was loath to give Mr O’Leary and her granda any excuse to go for her again. They’d taken the tack of ignoring her existence since the previous episode and she found she preferred it that way.

  ‘Aye, all right, lass, we’ll talk on the way and you can tell me everything that happened so’s I can tell your grandma. She likes to know all the ins and outs where you’re concerned. I’ll nip in quick before your granda gets home.’

  Amy nodded. ‘Thanks, Aunt Kitty, but tell Gran I haven’t told them at home yet so I don’t know if Aunt May will agree to me going.’

  ‘Oh, she will, hinny. The extra money will speak for itself and the place is perfectly respectable, after all. Mind, Father Fraser would find fault with it, no doubt. The last time he called on me mam he was going on about the waitresses’ hemlines at the Grand being too short. The Grand, of all places. But your Father Lee is all right, isn’t he?’

  The last carried a note of wistfulness. Amy knew Kitty had had several run-ins with her priest lately; he didn’t hold with women being employed in positions of authority when men were out of work. He had made Kitty feel so uncomfortable about her promotion at the laundry that she hadn’t been to Mass in weeks. Amy inclined her head again. ‘Father Lee is lovely,’ she agreed. ‘Uncle Ronald often says him and Father Fraser are like chalk and cheese.’

  ‘I can think of a better word than chalk to describe the old misery.’ Kitty grinned but Amy had to force a smile. She’d feel better once she’d faced them all at home.

  Chapter 6

  ‘You’ve done what?’ May’s voice was shrill.

  ‘Got another job,’ repeated Amy, adding hastily, ‘and it pays two shillings more at least than Mrs Tollett’s.’

  She had arrived home just in time to help her aunt dish up the evening meal and everyone was now tucking in. It had been Perce and not her granda this time who had turned to her a few moments before and said, ‘Cutting it a bit fine, weren’t you? What delayed you?’ And she had answered, matching her tone to his, ‘I’ve got another job, I had the interview this afternoon.’

  ‘What do you mean, at least two shillings more?’

  She might have known her aunt would pick up on that. Amy put down her knife and fork. ‘It isn’t a housemaid’s job,’ she said, aware everyone except the three youngest children and little Milly in her high chair had stopped eating to stare at her. ‘It’s at Callendars in High Street West and it’s waitressing. I get ten shillings but then sometimes there’s tips on top of that.’

  ‘Ten shillings?’ Perce chipped in and again his tone caught Amy on the raw. ‘They’re having you on. Who’d pay ten shillings plus extras to a bit lass still at school?’

  She had known Perce wouldn’t like her working at Callendars. It would suit him to think she was stuck away in Roker in that quiet guest house cleaning and making beds and the like, not seeing a soul. The realisation hit in the same moment that she acknowledged she’d also been aware Bruce would react as he was now doing when he said, ‘I’ve heard talk of this new place and it pays well although they’re particular who they take. Amy’s done all right for herself if she’s got in there.’

  ‘Aye, I’ve heard talk an’ all.’ Wilbur’s lip curled.‘Some bloke with more money than sense from the south thinking he can set up here with fancy ideas and not much else. There’s not many who can afford to waste money on a meal out, and if they can, they want good honest plain food, none of your highfalutin rubbish. He won’t last the year. She’s better at Tollett’s.’

  Amy didn’t move, and the expression on her face did not alter. Quietly she said, ‘The manager explained to me today that they are serving a variety of food for different pockets and tastes and keeping the prices down. The café is for fried fish and soups and that sort of thing, and the tea shop is for morning coffee and afternoon tea.’ She ignored her grandfather’s snort of contempt. ‘The main restaurant caters for business functions and wedding receptions and that sort of thing, as well as for respectable people who just want to have a square meal and a pleasant evening out. The nearest place that’s anywhere similar is in Newcastle, so Mr Mallard is convinced they’ve got lots of scope.’

  ‘Lots of scope my backside!’ Perce glanced round the table. ‘I’m with Granda on this. You know where you are with working as a housemaid. It’s steady money for a steady job.’

  Amy stared at her cousin. She hadn’t realised until this moment just how much she disliked him. ‘At Mrs Tollett’s I’d be working from seven in the morning until seven at night six days a week, and the housekeeper acted as though she was doing me a favour in allowing an hour off for my dinner.’

  ‘So?’ Mr O’Leary came in with his two pennyworth. ‘A bit of hard work never killed anyone.’

  ‘It didn’t do my mam much good.’ The minute the words were out she regretted rising to his provocation. She had promised herself she would keep calm whatever was said, and here she was biting back in the first minute or two. She looked away from the florid face with its big pockmarked nose as she said, ‘The whole point is it’s more money at Callendars right from the start and if everything goes well as they expect it to, it would be good to be in right from the start.’ Kitty had told her to mention that. ‘If it doesn’t,’ she shrugged her shoulders, ‘there’s always something like Mrs Tollett’s.’

  ‘You think you can just pick something like Mrs Tollett’s up whenever you want to?’ Wilbur asked scornfully.

  Amy faced him. ‘Aye, I do.’

  Her answer seemed to floor him for a moment but he managed a ‘Huh!’ in reply.

  May entered the fray again. ‘When would they want you to start?’

  ‘The day after I leave school.’

  May nodded and then turned to Ronald who had said nothing thus far. ‘What do you think?’

  Ronald didn’t answer his wife directly. Instead he looked at Amy and said, ‘Do I take it the two shillings would be extra board to your aunt?’

&
nbsp; He was throwing her a line and Amy took it. She nodded. ‘Of course,’ she said quickly. ‘If it’s all right with you, Aunt May,’ she glanced at her aunt, ‘I’d keep any tips and use them for my tram fare, along with the shilling we agreed I’d have when I was going to work for Mrs Tollett, but I would give you nine shillings for board.’

  ‘Then I’d say with the slump worsening she’d be as well to take the job,’ Ronald said mildly. ‘To my mind there’s no guarantee she would be kept on somewhere like Mrs Tollett’s any more than at Callendars the way things are going round here.’

  May didn’t look at her father or her father-in-law when she brought her eyes away from her husband’s face. She smoothed her apron and said, ‘That’s settled then but I don’t know what Mrs Tollett will say. I think I’ll write and tell her. She’s got a couple of weeks to get someone else so it’s not as if we’re leaving her in the lurch.’