Chapter 3

David and Harry left the Training Centre to walk home. After they’d been walking perhaps a quarter of an hour, David turned to his son. “What have we done, Harry?”

“Well, Dad, I’m pretty sure we’ve got ourselves a green but very enthusiastic apprentice and a housekeeper who will need help coping with that old Aga and keeping a coal fire going...” then, after a thoughtful pause, “and reason to not visit Madame Anastasiya’s.” He grinned, then turned serious. “Dad, I really think we may have dropped lucky. Those are two lovely women, who I think will bend over backwards to ensure that they keep us happy.”

“Sounds like something from Mills and Boon?”

“Nah! Two things wrong with that – no drama, and no fantasy. Dad, I’m not saying it’ll be easy. We’ll have our work cut out, probably with both of them. At first, we’re going to have to hold their hands in almost every little thing. I’ll bet neither of them have had to deal with a coal fire. Not personally, anyway.”

“Hmmm.”

They went a little out of their direct path to the workshop in order to call at their usual safety equipment supplier. To raised eyebrows, they bought three small boiler-suits in blue and three medium in orange; two pairs each of size five and six in safety shoes.

“We’re taking on a couple of apprentices,” David explained.

“Where’d you find them?” the proprietor asked, surprised.

“Training Centre.”

“No! Not that place where they put the upper-class bints who need taking down a peg or two? You’re going to put two of those to work?”

“Yes, and yes.”

“In that case, you might be interested in these,” the man said, and produced a couple of boxes of nitrile gloves, size small.

It was David and Harry’s turn to be surprised. “Someone got their act together to produce enough gloves to go round?”

“Small and medium only, sorry.”

“No problem, Bert. I think we’re used to black hands now anyway. But you’re right. They might well be pleased to have these.”

“What’re they like? I mean, women willing to get their hands dirty?”

“One’s thirty-one, fit, attractive. Gonna be our housekeeper. The other’s not quite twenty. Wants to be a motor mechanic. Slim. Pretty.”

“Wow!”

“The director was telling us, they sent one woman to University to be an engineer. Another two have gone to sea. One’s Mate of a sailing barge, trading with the continent, the other is crew. Another girl is a qualified pilot. Most of the women go back to their families, or their husband, but some need a job.”

“You think it might be worth my while visiting? I need an assistant.”

“Call them. Can’t lose anything. If they want a reference, mention my name.”

“Thanks!”

Re-entering the building, it was cold, except the kitchen. Eight hours from leaving, the carefully banked Aga had burned low. Harry tended the fire carefully, and they went to change into overalls. “What do you think, Dad?”

“I think we can get three or four hours work in. We might get a couple of those vehicles out of the way so they can be collected, then it’s pizza time again.”

David:

Okay. We got to Friday, and received a call from the Training Centre. It was that Sergeant Major, Reg, whom we hadn’t actually met.

“Mister Beatson? This is Reg Smith at the Centre.”

“Yes? And please, call me David.”

“Thank you, David. We have your two recruits all organised and ready for delivery. We can bring them late afternoon ... say, sixteen hundred ... four o’clock ... unless you want to collect them earlier or later.”

“That sounds perfectly wonderful ... Reg. Are they both still keen to come?”

Laughter. “You could say that, if you’re given to understatement. Penny’s positively bouncing. I’ll warn you that there’ll be quite a lot of...” significant pause, “coming, once they’re with you.”

“Oh ... kay ... We’ll make sure we’re ready for them.” At the click, David hung up too. “Harry, our ‘apprentices’ are arriving at four. One of us needs to do some shopping for fresh food, I think.”

“I’m up to my elbows in this Volvo. If I keep at it, I can be done by four.”

“Good enough. I’ll go.”

At four on the dot, a familiar figure climbed down from the driver’s seat of the Training Centre minibus and opened the sliding side-door, then walked over to where David and Harry were waiting. Ginny, wearing an orange shift, and Penny in jeans and a sweater, jumped out of the van and followed, carrying holdalls.

Dusty smiled. “Good afternoon, sirs. Your assistants are delivered.”

“Thank you, Dusty. We could have collected them, but this is a help.”

“No worries.” He stepped back as the girls passed him. “I won’t delay you, though. Any problems, call the Centre, but I’m sure you’ll be fine.” He turned, walked to the bus, and drove off.

Meanwhile Ginny had knelt in front of David and Penny in front of Harry.

“Stand for us,” Harry said gently. “We don’t expect you to kneel like that, especially outside on the cold, hard, dirty ground. Come inside and we’ll show you round.”

The main garage doors were shut, and David led the way to a side door of more normal dimensions. He opened it and waved them into a small lobby. “This is our private entrance, with the stairs up to our apartment.” He opened a door in front of them and stepped through; followed by the girls and Harry. He waved around the workshop. “We’re thinking that Penny will usually be working in here with us, while you, Ginny, will look after all our comfort, food, laundry and so on, upstairs. We may want you to fetch and carry, but we’ll deal with that another time. Over there...” he pointed, “is a small forge. While we do a little blacksmithing from time to time, that’s there as much to heat the shop as anything else.” He pointed again to a door in one corner. “Changing room, with a shower and a sink with degreasing stuff, clean clothes. Let’s go upstairs.” He led the way out, locked the door and set an alarm, before heading upstairs. He showed the women a small room with a pair of bunk beds, tallboy and wardrobe. “This’ll be your room, ladies,” he said, watching their faces. When those faces fell, he laughed. “Seriously, ladies, this is your space. If you want to share our beds, well, you’re welcome, but it’s not a condition of your stay. Dump your bags, and come see the rest.” Opposite, another door. “My room, with a shower. Rank hath its privileges,” he laughed. The room next door, “bathroom, toilet and shower.” then, “Harry’s room.” Finally, entering the last, largest room. “Kitchen and living room. You’ll see there’s an Aga stove. That’s coal-fired, which takes some art to use. It cooks, heats water for showers and baths, and powers a central heating system. That works with a pump, but when there’s a power failure we still have heat and hot water in the kitchen. That stove will be your responsibility, Ginny, but we don’t expect you to be able to run it straight away, and it’ll take time for you to learn how to cook with it.”

“That big kettle’s boiling.”

“Yes, Ginny. You have to leave the kettle on, because it takes ages to boil. We’ll start using that and put another on to begin to heat.”

“Okay. Is it too early to think about food?”

David looked at his son, who shrugged. “It’s earlier than we’d eat normally, but often we’d order pizza from a place nearby.”

“I haven’t had pizza in two years!” Penny was almost bouncing. Then sobered down, “but I guess you’d have it pretty often, huh?”

David smiled. “I think we can live with it once more ... Meat? Chicken? Mushroom?”