Read Online The Mill Girls of Albion Lane by Jenny Holmes - Free Book Online

Valentine’s small office or the to-ing and froing of Jennie, the matronly looking taker-in whose job it was to lift newly delivered pieces on to her perch, which was a roller fixed to steel rods. The taker-in would pre-check a length of cloth for major flaws and mark them before carrying it to the burlers and menders for further, more detailed checking.
    â€˜Take care not to miss the least little thing,’ Jennie warned Lily when she brought a fresh bolt to her station. She was a small, round, confident woman with wrinkled, rosy cheeks and an old-fashioned style. ‘Miss Valentine has eyes in the back of her head.’
    â€˜I’ll do my best,’ Lily promised, already more at ease. A glance at the clock told her it was just before ten and she paused to wonder how Evie was getting along in the weaving shed below.
    â€˜You know what to do with the cloth when you’re finished with it?’ Jennie enquired. ‘You have to call me back and I take it away to the flipping machine to be folded – that’s the routine.’
    â€˜Ah, but not yet,’ Vera reminded them. ‘Not before Miss Valentine has come back to teach Lily mending.’
    â€˜Quite right,’ Jennie confirmed. Then she leaned in towards Lily for a further chat. ‘Call me a nosy parker and tell me to mind my own business, but you wouldn’t be a Briggs from Albion Lane, by any chance?’
    â€˜Yes.’ Lily wasn’t sure if talking was permitted in the mending room but it seemed rude to ignore Jennie so she continued. ‘Rhoda Briggs is my mother. Do you know her?’
    â€˜Know her? I should say so. I only went to school in Overcliffe with her, though I haven’t seen her in years and her name was Preston back then. We both married and fell out of touch. How is she these days?’
    Lily noticed Vera shake her head in warning and looked up in time to see Miss Valentine leave her office. She heard the click of the manageress’s heels on the wooden floor and wondered at Jennie, who didn’t seem in the least bit afraid of the ticking-off she was about to receive.
    â€˜Tell Rhoda I said hello,’ she told Lily, casually moving off.
    â€˜We don’t pay you to gossip, Jennie Shaw.’ Miss Valentine blocked her way and Jennie had to stop short. ‘I’d thank you if you left our new girl to get on with her work.’
    The stout woman met the beady gaze of the manageress. Lily noticed they were of a similar age but total opposites in every other respect. Where Jennie was easy and relaxed, Miss Valentine was prim and self-contained. Jennie was large and solid, Miss Valentine a little wisp of a thing. In other words, they were chalk and cheese, but if Lily had to bet on who was the stronger personality she would back the manageress every time.
    â€˜I was only being friendly and making Lily feel at home,’ Jennie protested mildly.
    Miss Valentine’s eyes narrowed behind her round glasses as she sought a way to put down this minor insurrection. ‘Please confine your friendliness to your dinner break,’ she reminded Jennie. ‘Vera and Ethel both have finished pieces waiting to be taken away for flipping so I’d be grateful if you would carry out your duties. Lily, please move aside while I show you our mending method.’
    The reprimand was enough to send Jennie scuttling off to the far side of the room and to make Lily feel very hot under the collar. Still, she paid full attention to Miss Valentine’s new instructions.
    â€˜Let’s start with these two broken ends,’ she began. ‘You see how I pick up two stitches with a number-five needle, go over the next two then pick up two more?’
    Lily concentrated and nodded. ‘Yes, Miss Valentine.’
    â€˜And so on, for twenty-six stitches. Then thread your needle with the broken end and pull it through. You see – now the end is invisible and you have mended approximately