Chapter 3: Kitchen Cleaning & Bed Time

I suppose I was only working for an hour but by the end I was quite exhausted. As the evening drew in and the light outside faded, Mrs Danbury appeared and surveyed my work with a slightly disappointed air. “Oh well,” she said, “I suppose it can only be expected. I won’t apply any sanctions on this occasion but you should know this standard of work will certainly attract the attention of performance improvement measures once training is under way. Very well, follow me. I shall show you to your accommodation.”

Her remarks were worrying. I had thought that I had done a reasonable job but it obviously wasn’t good enough to satisfy Mrs Danbury.

I followed her out. Beside her office a doorway gave on to a narrow steep stairway. She went up it quickly, passing doors on each floor of the house until we reached the attic. Leaving the stairway we stepped out into a narrow corridor, lit only by a small skylight and a single naked electric bulb. There were four doors on either side of the corridor. Mrs Danbury opened the first and showed me in. Inside was a small space set in the eaves of the house. The slope of the roof made the ceiling very low towards the front of the building. Four single iron bedsteads with thin mattresses had been squeezed into the space. One small cabinet stood beside each bed and a single battered plain wood wardrobe stood by the door.