Secrets to Keep

CHAPTER ELEVEN





For at least the tenth time in the last half an hour, a highly anxious Aidy asked Bertha, ‘Do I look smart enough, Gran? Do I look like a receptionist should?’

She was wearing a plain navy kick-pleat skirt and white high-necked blouse. On her feet were chunky, low-heeled court shoes, a thick coating of shoe polish having been applied to hide their scuffs. Her newly washed hair was brushed to a shine and framed her pretty face. Not wanting to get off to a bad start, she had decided to play it safe and not wear any make-up, just in case the doctor deemed it unfitting for his receptionist while on duty.

Bertha very much hoped Aidy got this job because otherwise domestic service for tyrants like Majorie Kilner was all that remained, God forbid.

For the umpteenth time she responded, ‘You look lovely to me, gel. Really efficient-looking. The doctor would be out of his mind not to take you on.’

‘Me teacher wears a skirt and blouse like you have on, only you look prettier than she does, our Aidy,’ piped up Marion, nestled beside her grandmother on the sofa.

Perched sideways on a dining chair by the table, Betty was looking over at her in awe. She thought her big sister beautiful and clever, and aspired to be just like her when she grew up. ‘No one else’ll stand a chance against you,’ she said.

Lounging in the easy chair, one of his badly bruised and battered legs hanging over one arm, George was too engrossed in a Dan Dare comic he’d borrowed off a friend to be aware of anything else going on in the room.

The time showing on the old tin clock on the mantle was twenty-five minutes to seven. Aidy took one last look in the mirror that was hanging on the wall opposite the range. She gave her hair a pat, her cheeks a pinch, then smoothed her hands down her skirt. She would just have to do because she hadn’t time to change now anyway.

Full of purpose, determined to prove to the doctor she was the best applicant for his job, and waved off by her family amid shouts of ‘Good luck!’ she set off, arriving outside the surgery at a quarter to seven. She was far too early but that was better than being late. She made to enter the waiting room but stopped short as a bout of nerves hit her. She suddenly wondered what awaited her inside. How many other applicants was she up against? Were they all far better qualified for the job than she was? What she hoped was that the doctor had failed to notice she had stolen his advertisement and hadn’t replaced it with another so she’d be the only applicant. The waiting room had a small window set in the door. She would take a peek through it …

To her dismay, through the small glass pane she could make out at least ten women and there were possibly others sitting on the bench in an area of the room that wasn’t visible to her. The women were of varying ages, from late-teens to middle aged, and looked neat and tidy. All had a look on their face showing they were as determined to make this job theirs as she was. Most of them were holding brown envelopes. For a moment she wondered what those envelopes could possibly be holding. Then it struck her. Of course, glowing references from previous employers. She hadn’t got one from her last employer. It hadn’t seemed worth while asking after being sacked.

A sense of deep despondency washed over Aidy. She wasn’t the sort to admit defeat easily but she was also no fool. She knew that pitched against the women in that waiting room, she had no chance of landing the job. She might as well go home.

Her shoulders slumped dejectedly, she turned and began to retrace her steps. She’d hardly gone any distance when she stopped abruptly as a sudden thought struck her like, a thunderbolt.

What if she didn’t have any competition? If she was the only applicant, then the doctor would have no choice but to give her the job, wouldn’t he?

Her mind raced as she pondered her idea. With a lot of nerve and luck on her side, it could very well work … She had nothing to lose by having a go, everything to gain if she did succeed. What she was about to do wasn’t honest, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She felt positive most of the women in the waiting room would attempt what she was about to, had they thought of her idea and were in need of this job as badly as she was.

She spun on her heel and retraced her steps, only this time she did not head for the surgery door but for one in the wall that enclosed the yard at the back of the house.

She cringed as the gate squeaked open then quickly relatched it behind her and scooted across the yard towards the back door, all the time praying she hadn’t alerted the doctor to her presence. Should he look out of the window, she would be clearly visible as twilight was only just beginning to fall on this warm late-September evening.

Reaching the back door without mishap, she breathed a great sigh of relief. So far, so good. She took a tentative peek through the kitchen window. The doctor was in the house somewhere, but thankfully not in there. Deftly opening the back door, Aidy slipped inside, quickly shutting it behind her.

Now she was actually inside the house illegally, what she was in fact doing hit home and fear of discovery had her quaking. Should the doctor find her prowling uninvited around his house, she had no plausible reason to excuse her presence. With a vision of him marching her off to the police station, she shot across the black-and-white-tiled kitchen floor to the door opposite. She opened it up just far enough to steal a glance through. A long empty corridor faced her, the front door at the end along with the staircase. There were four doors leading off the corridor. Two to the left of her, two to her right. The rooms to the left were smaller than those to the right, judging by the space between the doors. She judged the first one on the left to be Doc’s actual surgery, the next one to it the waiting room. The staircase rose beyond. The room to the immediate right must be his sitting room, and the room beyond the dining room. Which room was the doctor in now? Was it too much to hope he was in his bedroom, readying himself for the interviews? Anyway, hopefully she had located the waiting room, which was the one she was after. She would waste no time in getting herself inside.

She made to step out into the corridor then froze as the sound of cutlery scraping on china became audible. The sound had come from the room to the right of her she had judged to be the dining room. The doctor was in there eating his evening meal! In order to get to the waiting room she had to pass that room and he could come out of it at any second … Plus the door was open and her getting past it unseen by him depended on whether he was sitting facing it or with his back to it. Hardly daring to breathe, her heart pounding, painfully Aidy tiptoed over and peeped through the crack between the door and the frame. She could have yelped for joy. The doctor was sitting with his back to the door! Luck was certainly on her side tonight. Dare she hope it stayed on her side a little longer …

Creeping past the dining room and on to the waiting-room door, she paused before it just long enough to take a deep breath to calm her jangling nerves. Then, planting a smile on her face, she grabbed hold of the door knob, turned it and quickly entered, shutting the door behind her.

At her entry the fifteen occupants of the room all looked over at her expectantly.

Feeling no guilt whatsoever for the lies she was about to tell, she addressed them all breezily with, ‘Doc’s asked me to tell you that the job’s gone.’

Before she could say anything more a disgruntled voice piped up, ‘What d’yer mean, the job’s gone? None of us has had an interview for it yet.’

Aidy looked over to the person who’d protested. She hadn’t noticed her when she had taken a sneaky look through the surgery window earlier. Bella Graves! A nineteen-year-old bleached blonde, her voluptuous figure encased in a shabby red tight-fitting dress, ample bosom spilling out over the low-cut top. She lived with her blowsy mother who was rumoured to be on the game … as quite possibly Bella herself was too … in a crumbling, one-roomed dwelling in a part of the area even the hardest of men thought twice about visiting. The next street to the one Aidy’s in-laws had lived, in fact. Bella was a Pat Nelson in the making. It was glaringly apparent to Aidy that it wasn’t the job Bella was after but the doctor himself, planning to ensnare him with her charms with a view to becoming his wife. Why any woman would want to spend any more time with that sourpuss was beyond Aidy, but was Bella mad to think a man of his obvious breeding would look twice at the likes of her, let alone contemplate marriage?

Scathingly she said, ‘It’s a receptionist the Doc’s after, not a hostess in a cheap night club.’

Bella’s painted face darkened thunderously. Clenching her fists, she jumped up, preparing to launch herself at the other girl, but stopped when Aidy commented: ‘Do you really want to make yourself look a fool in front of all these respectable women?’

Bella stared murderously at Aidy for a moment, before hissing, ‘You bitch,’ and stomping across the room and out of the door, slamming it shut behind her.

Aidy hid a smile. One down, now for the rest, she thought.

‘You said the job’s gone,’ said a prim-looking woman facing her. ‘Are you saying that Doctor Strathmore isn’t after a receptionist after all then?’

Extremely conscious that time was ticking away, Aidy hurriedly answered her, ‘By “gone” I meant taken. By me. Now …’

‘By you?’ another voice cut in. ‘But you haven’t got what it takes to be a receptionist, Aidy Nelson. All you’ve ever done is factory work.’

Aidy looked across at the woman who’d spoken and recognised her as a local who lived in the next street and whose daughter she had been at school with. ‘Seems the Doc thinks I have, Mrs Hatter. And I’m more qualified than you are, washing milk bottles for a dairy. Now …’

‘Not more qualified than I am. None of you will be,’ a smart-looking, very attractive woman in her thirties spoke up. ‘I’m actually already a doctor’s receptionist and have basic nursing qualifications too. I demand to see Doctor Strathmore and …’

Oh, why couldn’t these women just accept the job was gone and leave? Aidy inwardly fumed. She blurted, ‘You can’t see Doc ’cos … well, he’s out on an emergency … delivering a baby … won’t be back for hours. Now, look, I arrived early and he decided to see me. When he saw I’d everything he was looking for, he didn’t see any point in wasting his time. He asked me to lock up behind you all.’ She strode across to the outer door, opening it wide and saying, ‘So if you don’t mind …’

All looking annoyed at having their time wasted and mouthing their displeasure, they trooped out. Heaving a huge sigh of relief as she shut the door after the last departee, Aidy hurriedly took a seat on the bench just as Ty appeared through the door opposite.

He looked totally confused to find only one person waiting to be interviewed. ‘Where have all the other candidates disappeared to?’ he asked.

She gave a shrug. ‘There’s only me.’

His puzzlement mounted. ‘But I heard voices.’

She gave a short laugh. ‘Well, I haven’t resorted to talking to myself yet so you couldn’t have.’ She stood up then and said eagerly, ‘Would you like me to come through for my interview then?’

He was thinking, I could have sworn I heard the sound of the surgery door opening and shutting on numerous occasions after I saw out the last patient. Surely I heard it slam only moments ago? I know I heard female voices coming from in here. I know I wasn’t hearing things. But all the evidence is telling me I was. Then he fixed his attention on Aidy and his heart sank. This was the last woman he would have wished his notice to attract. Judging from his previous dealings with her, they’d never be able to work together. Oh, she was dressed presentably enough, and he was gratified to note she wasn’t wearing any make-up which he deemed unsuitable for a job in a medical environment. Whether she was intelligent or possessed the capacity to do the job to his exacting standards remained to be seen.

‘Come through,’ he sighed.

As she took a seat in the chair by the desk that Ty had indicated, Aidy stole a proper look around his surgery. On the three occasions she had visited it recently she hadn’t had a chance to do so. It was very cramped in here. A fat patient, someone of Pat Nelson’s build, would have to turn sideways to squeeze themself between the examination couch and a table holding medical instruments in order to reach the seat beside the doctor’s desk.

Ty had by now sat down in his chair on the other side of the desk and Aidy realised he was talking to her. ‘Oh, sorry, were you saying something? Only I was just having a good look around to familiarise myself with your surgery. It’s a bit tight for space in here. Couldn’t swing a cat, could you, not without knocking the bottles of medicine off the shelves? Wouldn’t you be better off moving the surgery into a bigger room, to give yourself more space?’

His face tightened at what he saw as criticism of the way he operated his surgery, and her audacity in actually pointing it out to him. The sooner he got this interview started, the sooner he could be rid of her.

Aidy was desperate to impart the working background she had fabricated for herself, rather than answer the doctor’s questions and quite possibly trip herself up. Without waiting for him to lead the interview, she launched into: ‘You’ll be wanting to know all about me? Since leaving school I’ve worked at one place, a factory, started at the bottom and worked my way up …’ She was hoping he’d assume this to mean in the office rather than on the factory floor, which was the case. What she’d said up to now was the truth, but what she was about to say was the opposite.

Without batting an eyelid she hurried on, ‘My bosses must have been happy with my work or they’d have got rid of me, wouldn’t they? Unfortunately the place burned down a few weeks ago … they don’t know what caused it but the shock killed the owner … heart attack … he was such a nice man too. Anyway, all us workers were out of a job so that’s why I’m looking for one. I could get you a reference from someone who worked with me, if you need one, but of course, in the circumstances, it wouldn’t be on the company paper.’

Colleen would do it for her, for old times’ sake, pretending she had been Aidy’s superior and professing that in her opinion Aidy had proved a faultless employee in all the years they had worked together.

She went on, ‘Your notice said you were looking for someone smart. Well, as you can see, I am. I’m also conscientious and reliable. I’ve got all the qualifications you stated on your notice. I’ll make you a very good receptionist.’

So please, please, give me the job, she inwardly begged.

She might well satisfy another doctor, but not Ty. He stared at her blankly, his mind racing. She did indeed seem to have all the qualifications he had stated he required in his receptionist, so how was he going to justify turning her down? There was, though, one remaining qualification she hadn’t mentioned.

‘I do also want someone with nursing experience.’ He began to rise to see her out. ‘Thank you for coming …’

‘Just a minute,’ she cut in. ‘I have got nursing experience.’

He sank back down on his seat, hiding his inward dismay. ‘But if you’ve only worked for that one employee, how have you gained that?’

‘Through dealing with my family. My younger brother and sisters are always needing some wound tending to. You know what kids are like, forever getting into scrapes or falling over. They all had mumps and chickenpox when they were younger and I helped my mam look after them then. My husband, too, has suffered the usual cuts, scalds, you name it, and I haven’t had one go septic on me yet. I’m nursing my gran through her accident and she’s coming along nicely, although she did re-break her leg as you know, but that was only because she decided to try it out before it was properly healed.’ Aidy flashed him a grin and jocularly concluded, ‘Any more experience than that and I’d be able to do your job, wouldn’t I?’

Ty stiffened. Was she really comparing his years of hard study at medical school and his term spent as a junior doctor in a hospital with her cleaning and dressing a few cuts and abrasions for her family? This woman really was infuriating. He stared at her fixedly, fighting to find some excuse to deny her the job. All he could come up with was, ‘You’re not really what I’m looking for.’

Aidy stared back at him, stunned. As far as she was concerned she fulfilled all the criteria he’d stipulated, so why wasn’t she what he was looking for? She didn’t like the cold way he was looking at her either. Then it struck her why she wasn’t the sort he was looking for. The simple fact was, he didn’t like her as a person. Well, that didn’t bother her. She didn’t like him. She’d be surprised if anyone actually did, with that abrupt, superior manner of his. But she needed the job he was offering and was determined not to leave without having secured it.

‘I might not be what you’re looking for, but it looks like you’ll have to settle for me because no one else has applied for the job but me, have they?’ she challenged him.

That was true. And he just couldn’t understand why. He supposed he could advertise again, but if no one else applied and meantime this woman had got herself another job elsewhere, he’d have no one. He was desperate for someone to help him run his surgery, so as matters stood it appeared he had no choice but to suffer this applicant. She was better than nothing.

Reluctantly he told her, ‘I suppose we could see how it goes.’

Aidy’s face lit up.

‘I can start tomorrow.’ Then a thought struck her and, to show her commitment, she added, ‘Unless you’d like me to do anything for you tonight?’

Perish the thought. He needed the next few hours to get used to the idea that, due to circumstances beyond his control, he would be working closely with this irritating young woman. ‘No, no, tomorrow will be soon enough.’

Tomorrow would be soon enough for her too. Working with such a morose, self-important man was going to be challenging indeed, but she was up for that challenge in return for the wage it would bring her. Then it struck her she didn’t know yet what wage he was offering. ‘What is the pay for the job?’ she bluntly asked. She prayed it was sufficient for her to keep the family on, unlike the amount Marjorie Kilner was offering.

Ty wasn’t a mean man and had been fully prepared to reward the most suitable applicant with what he felt to be the fair amount. In light of the fact he didn’t really want this woman working for him, he was tempted to mention an amount so low it wouldn’t be worth her while, but then he reminded himself that she had been his only applicant and it would be both unethical and remiss of him not to pay her the same as anyone else. And, of course, the hours weren’t the regular office ones and that had to be taken into account. He told her, ‘One pound, three shillings and sixpence a week.’

Aidy wanted to clap her hands with joy. A couple of shillings short of what she’d have earned in the factory when meeting her expected targets, but with careful handling just about enough to scrape by on, helped along by the few coppers her grandmother insisted she contribute from the takings for her potions.

‘If that’s acceptable, I suppose I really ought to have your personal details,’ Ty said to her. ‘Shall we start with your name?’

Aidy was put out that she hadn’t made enough of an impression on him for him to have remembered it from her visits to him recently. But she supposed that, through the course of his work, he met so many people it wasn’t humanly possible for him to remember the names of all of them.

She looked at him a bit uncomfortably then. Everyone knew her as Aidy but that was not the name she had been given at birth. She was in fact called by a name she absolutely detested and had refused to use since she’d been old enough to realise she had been named at her father’s insistence after his own grandmother. She’d been a mean, spiteful woman but one who, it was rumoured by the family, had had a few pounds stashed under her bed, which her father had been hoping to inherit. He’d thought the deal would be sealed by his honouring her by naming his first-born after her. The rumour had turned out to be unfounded as she died owing tradesmen and neighbours far more than the few coppers she’d had in her purse at the time.

Irritated by this delay, Ty persisted, ‘You have got a name?’

‘Of course I have,’ she snapped back. ‘I’m known as Aidy Nelson.’

He frowned at her. ‘Known as? What is that supposed to mean?’

‘Just what I said. I’m known as Aidy Nelson.’ She noticed the suspicious look he was giving her, could see it going through his mind that she was possibly a fugitive from the law or something like that, hence the reason for her alias. She told him, ‘There’s nothing sinister behind it. I just don’t like my name. Hate it, in fact.’

So, against the odds, he and this woman did have something in common after all. He couldn’t abide the name his own father had bestowed on him and had been ridiculed mercilessly at school for it by his fellows and several teachers alike. In an attempt to disassociate himself from that detested name he had shortened it to Ty, refusing to answer to anything else but that, the exception being in dealings with his formidable father who would not hear of his son being addressed by anything other than the name on his birth certificate.

Ty was very curious to know what name it was that Aidy so abhorred, just to know whether it was as bad as the one he’d been given, but he knew better than to ask outright.

The last time Aidy had had what to her was the awful embarrassment of divulging her detested name had been to the vicar when she and Arch had gone to see him to book their wedding. Thankfully the kindly man had understood her plight and, when announcing it during the vows, had given a discreet cough at the appropriate time so that it wasn’t audible to the congregation. She had no such saviour here with her now and, dreading the embarrassment of what she was about to suffer when the doctor insisted, was totally taken aback when insted he said to her, ‘Parents can be utterly irresponsible when it comes to naming their children, not at all considering the life-long purgatory they are condemning them to. How do you spell Aidy?’

Such understanding stunned her. Was it possible that beneath that cold, humourless exterior lay a spark of humanity? Then another reason for his understanding struck her. Was it possible the doctor too had been given a Christian name he couldn’t abide? Her curiosity was roused. How she would dearly have loved to have asked him, but in all honesty didn’t care about him enough to be bothered.

She spelled her name out for him, then gave him the rest of the personal details he requested.

When he had finished, so eager was Aidy to get home and break the good news to her family, she jumped up, saying, ‘Well, if that’s it …’

‘No, actually, it’s not. There is just one other matter we need to settle.’

She sank back down on her chair, her face wreathed in enquiry, wondering what that matter could possibly be.

He soon enlightened her. ‘You have an outstanding account with me. Not really the done thing to commence employment while in debt to your employer.’

And she had been secretly hoping he would waive that now she was working for him! She supposed it was remiss of her to have expected it. He was only trying to earn his living. Thankfully she had the money with her. She delved into her handbag and retrieved it, putting four shillings on the blotting pad before him.

Meanwhile Ty had taken a book out of his desk drawer, opened it and was tracing one finger down the list of names. He stopped on finding hers. He glanced at the amount she had given him, then lifted his eyes to hers and said, ‘It’s actually six shillings and eightpence owed, for my three visits, plus medication and issuing a death certificate.’

Aidy hadn’t known the exact amount but had suspected it was nearer six shillings than the four she had handed him, but she had been hoping he’d just accept what she’d given him as she could sorely have done with having the residue at her disposal.

Having settled the amount, she got up again, and announced, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow then at eight-fifteen sharp, Doc.’

She quickly hurried out, desperate to get home and impart her thrilling news to her family.

His hackles rose. As the employer it should have been himself who should have ended the proceedings not her. And she’d again disrespectfully addressed him as Doc. He heavily sighed as he leaned back in his chair and scraped a hand through his thick thatch of corn-coloured hair. Desperate for a help or not, he was already wondering if he’d just made a big mistake in employing Aidy Nelson.