Read Online Amy's Children by Olga Masters - Free Book Online Page B

She was in an apricot silk suit patterned with green swirls and spots and her nails were polished on her strong freckled hands. I might be surprised though, Amy thought, her eyes on the hands lightly holding silk elbows.
    When everyone had gone back to their desks Lance told Amy she would be moving into the main office, and part of her new job would be to oversee the work of the other half-dozen girls.
    â€œOh, Mr Yates!” Amy cried out, her hands flying to her cheeks, causing Lance to frown and cock his head towards the doorway, for he wanted Jean Sheldon out of the way before this announcement was made.
    His young nephew Victor, exempt from service in the armed forces because of acute bronchial trouble, was to take over from Miss Sheldon. Amy was to be next in charge, the chief invoice clerk (no more typing labels) with a desk outside Victor’s office facing the others. A junior would be employed to operate the switchboard and do Amy’s former duties.
    â€œAn eighteen-year-old,” Lance said with a smile, “like you were when you came.”
    Amy blushed and began to think wildly and fearfully. Perhaps Miss Sheldon would go on the land down south where Amy came from, taking the place of boys enlisted from there, and discover Amy had been married and had three children. She would pass the word back to Lance Yates and it would mean the end of Amy’s job, and who else would give her one? She felt sure she would be dismissed without a reference for being such a cheat.
    She was in such miserable contemplation of this that she almost missed hearing Lance when he said she would get a rise in pay. Oh that was wonderful! Forgetting her former fears she plunged into a dream of moving into a better place with a real kitchen, equipped with a sink and a proper stove. There was another dream she could also pursue now. She would like to rent a whole house and let a couple of the rooms. In some cases this involved an outlay of only a few shillings a week, the remainder of the rent being covered by the tenants’ contributions. She realized she could not ask much, perhaps eight shillings a room, since people would have to have their own furniture. All she had for herself was the little cane chest of drawers. She thought of it sitting in an otherwise empty house and had to stop herself from smiling. But when Lance Yates had left for the back stairs which led to the factory she put her head back and laughed, then popped the little headpiece on, for the board had flashed a warning light.
    Lance was not hurrying down the stairs. Listening to Amy’s laugh, he felt jealous that he was not sharing it, so was close enough to hear her scream, and come running back.
    The headpiece was flung down and she was standing holding her face with both hands.
    â€œOnly a cousin though,” said one of the girls, pulling her mouth down at the corners and inclining her head towards Miss Sheldon as if it was she who was in need of the greater sympathy. Poor old Sheldon, thought the girl, she held the floor there for a while and then little Miss Fowler took it. The girl felt moved to bring a glass of water and place it beside Miss Sheldon’s bookkeeping.
    â€œPoor boy,” said Miss Sheldon between sips. “His poor, poor parents.” Miss Fowler, who had been allowed to go home, was pointedly excluded. Lance sat at the switchboard himself for the last half hour of the working day, opening his mail there. He looked down with a rare feeling of tenderness on some things Amy kept on a shelf under the counter, near the stacked unused labels—a little mirror in a pink celluloid stand and a tumbler with a comb and some hair slides. She had hemmed a piece of towelling and sewn a loop of tape to the corner to hang it from a nail. There was a piece of soap on what looked like a saucer from a child’s teaset. He thought they were like a child’s playthings, all of them, and Amy was like a little girl playing at