The Windsor Girl Read Free Page B

anyway’.
    ‘Well, I had to be sure today Thomas, cause it’s important’.
    ‘Anyway Mam, I hope our lass gets the job.  I’m off now.  I’ll see you for breakfast, well before school time’.  With this, he put up the collar of his jacket and went out of the door, leaving Maggie washing her face at the stone sink.
    By eight o’clock, Maggie had washed the clothes that Ellie had worn yesterday, dried them in front of the fire and was now heating the flat iron, on the hob, ready for pressing the long black skirt. 
    The boys had eaten their customary slice of toast, with the remaining marmalade, and were just about ready for school.
    Ellie was busy brushing her hair and in the morning light it shone like silk.
    ‘I feel nervous Mam.  I’m scared of going out to work’, she said, knowing in her heart that it would make no difference.
    ‘Don’t be soft Ellie; no-one’s going to bite you’.
    ‘But Mam, I won’t know what to do’,
    ‘Course you will lass, it’s only like the work you do here.  It’s nothing to worry about’.
    Ellie was sure she would be sent home in disgrace.
    The boys went off to school and left Maggie and Ellie to get on with their preparations.
    ‘ Eh! Ellie, you look a picture’, said Maggie as she inspected her daughter.
    Ellie looked at her black skirt.  Every fold of the skirt had been, meticulously, ironed and the blouse had been scrubbed thoroughly, and pressed with the same care.  She would be wearing her mother’s shawl, which was in better condition than her own.
    ‘I think I’ll do’, she said, with a hint of a smile.
    She was surprised when her mother handed her a small box.
    ‘What’s this Mam?’
    ‘Open it and see’.
    ‘But it’s not my birthday or anything?’
    ‘Go on, you silly devil, when did you ever get a birthday present in a box?’
    It was true.  Neither Ellie, nor the boys, had ever had a birthday present, as such, just a couple of sweets or a rare piece of fruit.  She opened the box and peered inside.  Lying there, resting in a mat of cotton wool, was a silver chain, which had something attached to it.  On taking it out of the box, Ellie was surprised to see that it was a pendent, and turning it around, she saw that it spelled out ‘Ellen’.
    ‘Oh Mam.  My proper name too.  Where did you get it?  Oh it’s lovely, thank you’. 
    She threw her arms around Maggie’s neck, which brought forth, ‘now Ellie, it only cost me four pence and I’ve had it a long time.  I was waiting for you to grow up so that you’d look after it.  An anyway, it was only second hand’.
    ‘Well I think its lovely Mother’, she said, softly, as she held the chain round her neck and fastened the clasp.
    ‘Enough of that now.  What was it Aunt Dora said we should do?’
    Ellie managed quiet laugh, as she replied , ‘we must go to the back door of the house, not the front, because we are working class’.
    ‘Aye, that’s right, servants didn't ought to go to the front door, but to the back, with the rest of the ‘rag-a-muffins’‘, laughed Maggie, ‘but they’ll not think of you as a rag-a-muffin Ellie.  They could mistake you for one of the family, eh! love?’
     
    They left the house at nine o’clock and walked down the street together, Maggie, head held high and wearing Ellie’s ‘tatty’ shawl.
    It took them twenty-five minutes to walk to Thornton Avenue, then another five minutes to get up to the top of the hill.  As they approached their destination, they stared, in awe, at the large mansion-like house before them.
    ‘Oh Mam.  It’s big’, Ellie whispered, as if afraid of being overheard.
    ‘Aye, it’s that all right’.
    ‘Let's go back home.  Please Mam.  I’ll get a job somewhere else, I promise.  I will really’.
    ‘Don’t be daft Ellie, we’ve come this far, and we’re going in’.
    Maggie opened the large gate a fraction, just enough to allow them through onto the paved driveway, from which they had view of the